Wasting money on food

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My daughter is at college and works one day at the weekend.

She has a lovely friend who has started to stay over a lot.

However, when she's here her friend keeps ordering food deliveries, which they share the cost of. They don't need to do this as I will happily feed them both.

That's all fair enough but she orders so much and a LOT doesn't get eaten.

Yesterday alone they ordered two big takeaways coming to over £80. Lots was put in the fridge as it wasn't eaten and ends up getting thrown away. They've got up this morning and ordered a different takeaway for lunch and ignored what's in the fridge.

I'm not sure what I'm asking really, but I hate wasting food and I'm finding it frustrating as £80 is more than my daughter earns in a week, so they shouldn't be spending this every day on food.

My daughter doesn't do this if her friend isn't here.

No doubt she'll come to me asking to borrow money for other things as she's spent all her money and savings on food. I'm going to say no!

I'd leave them to it I'd probably make a sniffy comment about them being made of money to be able to waste food but ultimately its up to them, I'd also ask about them eating left overs.

I wouldn't be giving her money either.

Where is your daughter getting the money from to pay her half of the takeaway

£80!!!! That's insane. Tell them they can only get food delivered to the house one night a week.

I would tell your daughter you have noticed this is happening - and you are worried as she will be out of cash, and no you won’t be topping it up, because she’s wasting it.

Other than that, leave them to it - they have to learn

Don't give her any money. It'll teach her to prioritise what she spends it on. And if they're not eating the left overs, I would be!

Yesterday lunchtime they ordered a huge bag of things from Subway which came to over £40. My daughter has a small appetite and literally just ate half of the footlong that she ordered! She left everything else. She could have walked up to Subway and bought what she wanted for £5.

I'm getting frustrated as it's a complete waste.

She's dipping into her savings. I haven't given her money for Christmas and birthdays to buy food that's thrown away!

I'll have a chat with her when her friends gone!

How I'd it costing her £40 to order from Subway?

Savings should be for an emergency, not as a backup because you're careless with money.

I'd stop lending her money. She needs to learn how to plan and budget.

Exactly!!!!!

You should have seen the pile of food ordered!

I'm not going to lend her money until she stops this.

I think her friend must do this so my daughter is now doing it too.

I think you need to speak to your daughter. She’s clearly struggling to stand up to her friend and make choices for herself rather than what her friend is wanting. Peer pressure is difficult to navigate, and it’s not like take away food is something she’d be warned about like drinking or something!

She is trying to fit in, make her friend happy and you need to step in and parent here. She is grown up, but you still need to parent when you see her making poor choices and wasting her savings.

Also, it’s your house. Speak to the damn friend about the total waste of food. Even just say “Order whatever you want but X is getting her lunch cooked here so doesn’t need to waste her money on a take away.”

Is the friend putting pressure on her? But your DD needs to speak up and say she doesn't want the food and can't contribute towards it. Can she say she's run out of money?

I can't understand how two of them are repeatedly ordering so much food they have no intention of eating. Who does that?

So much for how we're always told that 'young people' care about the environment and accuse their 40 and 50 something parents of killing the planet. People our age would probably never do something like this.

Well if she is struggling to say anything put a ban on stuff coming to the house that is a lot of food to order and she's too shy to say anything.