Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

to think that they can't possibly have teenagers?

136 replies

RuddyDuck · 28/02/2014 21:02

Since Christmas I seem to have read lots of blogs and newspaper articles about how to cook frugally. You know the sort of thing - buy a 3lb chicken and it will feed you family for a week, including a delicious casserole for 6 made out of the leftover leftovers. Plus how to turn a pot of yoghurt into dessert for 8.

My 15 year old is currently cooking the pizza meant for tomorrow's lunch because he " fancies a snack", having demolished a full dinner 2 hours earlier. There are NEVER any leftovers in this house. AIBU to assume that none of these frugal food authors live with teenagers?

OP posts:

Ledkr · 01/03/2014 08:16

I have to agree with the minority that are surprised kids would just be allowed to eat what they like.
I brought up 3 huge sporty lads on my own so money was tight. I cooked massive filling meals and if they were hungry after they'd fill up on toast or cereal, not tomorrows meals!

It's not great for when they live alone and don't have an endless supply of luxury food.

ShadowOfTheDay · 01/03/2014 08:18

Some MNers seem to have a bottomless pit of money to provide food.... out here in my personal hell of a real world, we just have normal meals and a snack after school ..

and a large chicken lasts 2 meals (roast dinner and chicken-pasta-bake) and 1 day's sandwiches... with one teenager and a preteen - we are the frugal "they" - subject of the OP's incredulity.....

musicposy · 01/03/2014 08:18

At the risk of huge generalisation, I think boys cost more to feed than girls. I have two dance mad girls, 14 and 18, and they are dirt cheap to feed. They would never dream of eating a whole pizza as a snack - maybe an apple . My nephew is 14 and chatting to DSis, I reckon it costs her more to feed him than my two put together. One of DD2's best friends is a boy and I'm always alarmed by how much I have to feed him when he is round!

Ledkr · 01/03/2014 08:28

But you don't have to let them eat all the expensive stuff/meat etc. it is possible not to be hungry without scoffing an entire chicken!

FrigginRexManningDay · 01/03/2014 08:34

No free reign on the fridge here either and I'm certainly not feeding their friends when they visit for a couple of hours. I dont have the money. Lots of filling meals and a well stocked fruit bowl is all thats on offer here I would be well pissed off if one of them took it upon themselves to eat tomorrows dinner.
They get a sandwich, two pieces of fruit and a yoghurt going to school.

Silvercatowner · 01/03/2014 08:41

If my kids had eaten tomorrows dinner then they wouldn't've got a dinner the next day. They would have been presented with bread and butter.

LucyLasticBand · 01/03/2014 08:42

and no, no free reign on the pizzas here,

TheBigBumTheory · 01/03/2014 08:44

To all those with cupboard/fridge-raiding teens

Were you allowed to raid the fridge when you were teens?

I wasn't, and my teens don't, but I haven't told them not to, they just don't. I'd be really cross if they were raiding food at other people's houses too. They do eat loads at meals, and have fruit, toast or oatcakes if they were still hungry after a meal, which is rare.

Being hungry before or between meals is normal, in my opinion. It's fine to wait an hour or two for the next meal.

Again, how do people afford to do this?

thegreylady · 01/03/2014 08:50

I remember one Christmas. My mum was staying with us and all our 5 dc/sdc. After a huge 3 course dinner which included turkey, ham, all the trimmings and pud/cheese, my 16 year old dss offered to clear the table. We realised what he meant when he walked in with A huge sandwich in each hand consisting of turkey, ham and stuffing! Mum said,"Oh that poor boy he must be starving!" Dss was slim and not tall. Little did mum know that he ate like a ruddy horse all the time. Our mantra was, "There's bread, there's cheese." He is now 42 and has a moderate appetite and does regular triathlons. I don't think mum ever recovered from seeing those sandwiches, she was convinced I didn't feed the dc properly and they were 'poor bairns'.

TheresAHedgehogInMyPocket · 01/03/2014 08:54

My kids eat loads, but they aren't even teens yet.

But...if you let them eat pizza, don't buy the expensive ones, use an afternoon to make some bases up, cover in homemade BBQ sauce and freeze. Same result but costs loads less. Make breads, make snacks, make crumpets. Buy loads of pasta (you can get massive bags in tesco now quite cheaply) and they can have that as snacks. Carby and filling. Endless rounds of toast. Endless portions of bulked out bolognaise in the freezer ready to defrost. (500g of mince bulked with oats and lentils can do three meals -spag Bol, cottage pie and lasagne)

The thing is fruit doesn't fill you up much though. Nor does take out food such as mcdonalds. If they ate filling meals rather than calorific empty air type snacks it would be better.

But again, I may be eating my words in ten years!

Pumpkinpositive · 01/03/2014 09:00

I don't really understand. Presumably people are letting their kids gorge themselves on the weekly shopping? I wasn't allowed free reign over the weekly shopping as a kid/teenager - my mother meal planned. If I was hungry in between meals, I was told to take a piece of fruit/toast/soup/cereal.

Why on earth would you let your kid devour an entire pizza planned for the next evening's meal?

Original poster

RuddyDuck · 01/03/2014 09:53

pumpkin it wasn't a pizza for dinner, but a small one meant for lunch, so ds wont be having it for lunch today, he'll be having a sandwich.

My dc aren't allowed to cook/eat the food meant for main meals (we do meal plan and have a list in the kitchen so they know what not to touch) but it's the snacking after main meals - cheese toasties, eggs, ham, all the food that isnt "main meal" stuff disappears fairly rapidly. Tgey are incredibly active though, and neither are overweight - in fsct ds1 is positively underweight.

To be fair, and to answer those who question why they don't fill up with cereal, they did used to until I told them to find an alternative because (a) I didn't think bowl after bowl of sweetened cereal was that healthy and (b) I was fed up with coming downstairs in the morning to find that we had run out of milk again.

I appreciate that we are in the fortunate position of being able to food shop without having to stick to a very tight budget, and I know that if money was tighter we would have to be much stricter. I am reassured to hear that I'm not the only one whose teenage ds eat them out of house and home. Most of my friends have dd and they don't seem to eat in the same way.

OP posts:

memememum · 01/03/2014 10:29

Dread to think what my 2 year old ds will eat when he's a teenager, he regularly starts the day with 3 weetabix having had a full breast feed as an appetiser!

MummytoMog · 01/03/2014 10:41

I can make a chicken last two meals and that's just with me and DH eating it. Sometimes it doesn't even make two meals because he eats all the leftovers for lunch the next day. Which is why I don't buy chickens any more, and we just have big pots of food like chilli (padded out with wraps and lettuce and lots of beans and mushrooms) and chicken risotto (he never notices it only has one breast in it). I dread to think what DS is going to be like as a teenager, he's already tall at nearly three.

MummytoMog · 01/03/2014 10:43

Reign is what a king or queen does. Free rein is something you give a horse. Free reign makes no sense. Free rein is overused, but at least makes sense in this context.

LucyLasticBand · 01/03/2014 10:44

i reign over my fridge

WorraLiberty · 01/03/2014 10:48

Dread to think what my 2 year old ds will eat when he's a teenager, he regularly starts the day with 3 weetabix having had a full breast feed as an appetiser!

Why??

Many adults including myself couldn't manage 3 Weetabix

If you're giving a 2yr old adult portions now, surely you'll have to continue overfeeding him as he grows?

Creamycoolerwithcream · 01/03/2014 10:50

Leftovers? What's that?

LucyLasticBand · 01/03/2014 10:50

i know, i miss bubble and squeak,

Creamycoolerwithcream · 01/03/2014 10:56

I used to be rather partial to a slice of cold pizza...

Bogeyface · 01/03/2014 10:57

3 Weetabix for a 2 year old is ridiculous. He is eating it because you allow him to, one and half is more than enough for a child at that age.

WorraLiberty · 01/03/2014 10:58

Even the makers of Weetabix themselves recommend an adult should have no more than 4 Weetabix in a day.

Bakingnovice · 01/03/2014 11:11

Size 20 feet??!!!!!!!!

Fusedog your ds has size 20 feet?! How?

VeggySausage · 01/03/2014 11:16

We've trebled our food bill since having babies. (3 years ago!) I have two huge toddlers who eat adult sized portions. And god forbid I eat a snack or anything else while they aren't firmly started in to high chairs or they are at my plate like vultures.

Dh is 6'3 and I'm 5'10. I fucking dread the teen years as they and (next baby soon to be here) will be GIANT.

I've heard tales of dh's 8 dinner days as a teenager starting with a full fry up every day and seen the pictures of him and his brother.. who both looked painfully thin

VeggySausage · 01/03/2014 11:18

worraliberty if a toddler eats those portions and is still a healthy height proportionate weight then they need the food! My dc are both totally healthy weight proportionate.. they just never stop running. It's exhausting to watch. But I'm not going to feed them less if they are hungry

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Swipe left for the next trending thread