how do you organise/manage food/meals/shopping with teenagers in the house?

[MentholLoad]

sorry this is pretty boring. and probably not complicated at all...but I'm overwhelmed and can't think through it clearly

my eldest daughter likes to cook the family meals. she better at it than me and it's one less job, so this is a lot good.

but, sometimes, she will use food/ingredients that I was expecting to be a family evening meal to make her lunch or breakfast for example. I can't buy double of everything but I am obviously buying for everyone to have all their meals/snacks/whatever

I just can't work out how to manage this/what to buy/how to approach grocery shopping

We menu plan as a family so everyone knows/can check what’s for supper. We also have a shelf in the fridge for those ingredients as, like you, people were using them without realising.
We store some packed lunch stuff in the utility for the same reason.

Fortunately, we have a local Co-op for emergencies.

how do you organise/manage food/meals/shopping with teenagers in the house?

badly

We have a whiteboard in the kitchen. I write down days of the week, what that days dinner is and everyone has to mark whether or not they are in that day so I know how many I'm feeding. You could put a list of ingredients beside it so your daughter knows what is needed for dinners.

Lots of good advice on meal planning. Will try some of these.

We keep ingredients for planned meals in one of the freezer drawers.

If my DC were cooking meals then I wouldn't put anything like planning in the way! If she uses something you wanted just get more. If it happens with a particular item regularly then just stock up.

Just tell her what she can and can’t use??

and whilst you’re at it, tell her a simple lunch of a sarnie or whatever every so oft won’t kill her!

@InSpainTheRain

you do realise that not everyone can afford to “just buy more” don’t you?

As DD is cooking the evening meals I would just make it clear that the weekly shop needs to last the week. She'll soon realise that using the ingredients for a main meal at lunch is going to cause problems later on.

I have a blackboard on the side of one of the tall kitchen units and write down the meals for the week. I'd be planning those meals with her and making it clear that you will be buying the ingredients only once, no replacements.

She really does need to stop with the 'no simple lunches' thing. It's just not reasonable. Maybe get her to make a short list of things she will eat for a lunch, eg things on toast or noodle packs etc and make it clear that they are her only options to choose from. I'd be showing her how much the sandwiches are for the rest of the family, working out that cost per person and telling her that's her lunch budget.

If she's old enough to cook for the family she's old enough to understand that food is very expensive at the moment and that you have to stick to a plan (even if you actually don't).

It might seem harsh but you'll be doing her a big favour and teaching her a valuable lesson for the future, OP.

Can you get a board and put evening meals for week on it. If need be put all ingredients on one shelf. When I did hello fresh I had tubs and put everything for one meal in one tub you could do that with normal shopping too.
It’s all well and good saying just buy more bit it’s expensive and inconvenient.
If I’ve bought mince for bolognese I wouldn’t expect it to have been used because dd wanted to do Big Mac taco wraps for lunch she’d seen on tik tok.

I plan the meals and write down on a list what we are having each day. I also put things that are up for grabs on a certain shelf of fridge. If they want to use anything else they ask.

I’m not great at meal planning either. But it might be worthwhile pushing her a little to develop those skills. Ask her to commit to cooking on particular days and to plan ahead for those.

So she could put her ingredients on the shopping list, and you just buy for the remaining days.

Have a meal food planner for the week so she knows what ingredients are for what day. Maybe have a list somewhere for people to write what they want/need for lunches that week before you do the shopping and tell them they need to stick to it or it will run out before you go shopping again.

Definitely meal plan and involve your DD so everything is accounted for.

We have two magnetic whiteboards from Flying Tiger stuck to the fridge door. One is a weekly planner where people write their planned activities for the week and where all the evening meals for the week are listed, along with who is cooking.

The one below that is a shopping list where people write down what they want, what they've used up etc.

Those doing the cooking need to be involved in the shopping.

Anyone who does not want to be involved in the shopping needs to stick to the agreed 'help yourself' shelves in cupboard/fridge and NOT go making complicated meals using all the ingredients...

Can't you say don't use x, y, z for lunch because I want to use that for tea this week?

We have a WhatsApp food group for feeding purposes. I publish the weeks menu plan on Sunday, take bookings for who is going to be in on what night (they do sports/boyfriend/girlfriend so not in every night) then I shop accordingly. If they aren't in for the meal then they have to sort their own out including buying it and cooking it.

Ask her what she needs to cook with that week then she'll know what she can and can't use for lunches etc. My husband does the same when he cooks, he'll use something I've bought to make a meal with then when I go to make that meal something is missing so I get how frustrating it is!

Put her in charge of ordering the food, but with an overall budget.

I'm all about the easy! I pay for an asda delivery pass yearly. Works out cheaper. You can order as many shops as you want over £40. I save my cleaning,laundry, toiletries to order when I need food, but don't meet the minimum order. You can even get same day slots.
I have an alexa in the kitchen, so if anyone wants ANYTHING they ask her to add it to the shopping list. This also cuts down on moaning, as if they didn't ask, they can't complain it didn't magically appear in the fridge.
People soon get used to realising they are on the last yoghurt, and add it on. It does mean I end up with a couple of shops a week arriving, but it's so easy! No more big shop, lots of little shops, so you don't need to think more than a couple of days ahead. 😉

It could be she using the sausages meant for the evening meal of sausage/mash etc instead of just rustling up some cheese on toast.

We have 2 shops delivered each week so I can always add something to it and I’m never more than a few days away from a delivery. It works much better than when we only had one each week. And having 2 fridges and 2 freezers helps us a lot (obviously no good if you don’t have space).

My son cooks a couple of times a week and likes to choose on the day so I sympathise. And then the kids friends turning up too as surprise dinner guests. Even planning wouldn’t help us when that happens. 🤷🏻‍♀️

My post is no help at all. 😂

I have a young adult step son who likes to cook for us. We meal plan, picking what days each of us are cooking and what meals. He sends me a list of ingredients he'll need and I pull together the rest of the shopping list based on only getting what we need for each meal including lunches. I then do a click and collect online so I don't get tempted by other offers. The meal plan gets written up on a family planner so everyone can see and on nights where time is short due to clubs or other activities we pick quick easy meals. It means no-one gets to raid the fridge and use ingredients for other meals, we save a fortune on shopping because we're only buying what we need ans we've reduced our food waste.