We never have any food left!

[Fedupfoodie]

Please help lol

I feel like no matter how much I spend on a food shop it gets demolished within a few days. It’s costing so much (2 adults 2 DC household). It’s just so inefficient certain things go mouldy before eaten (like fruit and veg) but then others get eaten within in a day (yoghurts cheese crisps ) I could buy 6 yoghurts or 12 yogurts and they’d get eaten in the same time.

I can’t afford nor have time to go shopping so frequently. Any tips?

Hide foods like crisps and get out gradually. Stop a fridge free for all.

Can you buy ingredients rather than things that can be snacked on? Eg tinned fruit can be used in a crumble, it’s quick to make the topping in a blender, or eaten with porridge or plain yogurt.
I manage to shop once a week but towards the end, meals are based more on tins, frozen, root vegetables, cupboard staples.
Start of the week it’s salads and batch cooking with fresh ingredients.

How much do you spend a week? We have recently decided to have two shopping deliveries a week, a Tuesday and Saturday. We do two smaller shops of around £70 twice a week. It helps having the fresh food in the house and every 3-4 days new food arrives. We use the Asda £6 a month unlimited deliveries. I just meal plan for 3 days and have enough snacks. X

When I was a kid, we had one weekly shop and if we ate the crisps or biscuits within a few days, we had to wait until the next week for more! There was always bread so we could have toast for after school snack. Do you meal plan for the week and buy fruit and veg accordingly? Having a rough meal plan helps stop waste and you can always have a couple of recipes to use up random veg (roasted vegetable traybake with chicken thighs, vegetable and lentil soup, veggie stir fry with noodles or rice) I often make a big fruit salad with any fruit that's looking like it's getting past it's best - the kids generally eat more fruit if it's all cut up in a bowl ready to eat! Can add a scoop of ice cream too.

Don't worry about it.

If they binge eat the weekly yoghurts, cheese and crisps they'll have to wait until next week for more 🤷‍♀️

Meanwhile, they can eat the fruit if they really want to.

Frozen fruit and veg is great. We have frozen berries etc with our overnight oats. Frozen onions - so handy and no waste.

Freeze bananas if they are ripe and not getting eaten, then use in smoothies.

Hide the crisps / label. Eg for a pack of 8, that's 2 bags each. Same with yoghurt.

Don't hide food though unless you need it for packed lunches.

Running out of their favourite snacks early is what teaches them to self regulate.

Giving them an endless supply every time they run out, really won't help with that.

I think it depends who is eating them and when. One thing if teenagers are eating ypugirt after school and the other if your partner eat 3 yogurts for breakfast.
Can you move to a plain yogurt and buy less crisps ( or better - hide them) ?

Fruit gets checked regularly and if it’s looking like it’s going south it gets chopped up and put in a bag in the freezer, I bag it based on stuff that goes well together so berries in one bag, stone fruits in another and so on. Great for making smoothies, jellies, mixed into porridge or pancake, or baked in a crumble/pie/cobbler.

I pretty much always have flour in the cupboard and eggs and milk available so can whip up omelette, scrambled eggs, drop scones, pancakes, waffles etc if all the grab and go snacks have been grabbed and gone. DD is 11 now and can also make these things and is expected to if she’s eaten all the instant foods.

What does it matter if they eat all the yogurt in 3 days instead of 7?

We just buy big tubs of plain yoghurt and DC chop up fruit to put on it. Also lots of eggs to make omelettes etc for snacks - more filling than crisps etc.

If fruit/veg definitely won't be eaten, don't buy it, or maybe stop buying crisps and make it clear that's their snacks, fillers or dessert.

With regards to other foods, as adults restrict what everyone has each day to spread it out, or tell them they each have say four yogurts/two packs crisps/two portions of cheese a week and once its gone, its gone and it'll be toast, something like canned fish whi h keeps for protein.

Buy more yougurt! I buy around 40 pots of yougurt each week. Buy dried fruit as well that has long conservation.

How many people?

I'd be buying big tubs of plain yoghurt if I was buying 40 small pots.

How nice for you that you can afford unlimited yogurts. Have you not considered that not everyone can afford endless food for greedy bottomless pits who raid the fridge like locusts on shopping day?

It's almost certainly a case of greedy and lazy people just grabbing the food that doesn't need any prep, leaving the food that needs cooking to go off because they can't be arsed cooking it.

How old are the kids? My 12 and 10 year olds ask before they take something for a snack, so I’d just be saying no to more yoghurts and telling them to have a piece of fruit instead.

Meal planning so you use the veg that goes off quicker or has shorter dates at the start of the week then use the hardier stuff / frozen veg later in the week.

I wouldn't hide the crisps etc. If they eat them all then they learn that they don't get any more until the next food shop and they have to wait.

We focus a lot on ingredients rather than instant snack food. So always things like flour, eggs and oats in the cupboard, tins of soup, crackers, a loaf of bread in the freezer, bags of frozen vegetables and fruit.

We buy a lot of fruit that lasts ages when kept in the fridge e.g. apples and pears.

If DDs eat all of the crisps then they can have a slice of toast or some crackers and butter with a piece of fruit for a snack. I'm not buying them more just because they've been greedy and eaten it all in a few days. I think it's a lesson they need to learn about regulation and portioning rather than there being an endless supply.

If they eat all the cereal then I can still make porridge or an omelette for breakfast.

Maybe swap to big pots of plain yoghurt rather than small tubs of flavoured ones.

We do one shop a week. It does mean by the end of the week we are eating more out of the freezer and cupboard but that's fine. A lot of frozen veg is excellent, we always have pasta in the cupboard, I buy meat on reduced stickers and put it straight in the freezer. So nobody is going to go hungry.