To not really buy any "snack foods" as part of my weekly shop?

[JonesyAndTheSalad]

DD is complaining that we don't have any "nice snacks" like her mates do.

I like a bit of a biscuit or some crisps as much as anyone but A we're on a tight budget and B I don't think it's a good idea to include processed snacks in with your weekly shopping.

We DO have loads of fruit/salad/unsalted mixed nuts/eggs/bread/beans/cheese/jam/peanut butter/honey/plain yogurt

So. In addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner, my DC have a choice of all the above if they get extra hungry.

I'm not mean but I can't add cheese strings and whatnot to my list as it mounts up too much then and that's crappy food.

About once a week I buy a couple of those grab bags of crisps and a big bar of chocolate and the DC will share them over a movie. So they're not devoid of snacks...AIBU though?

YANBU snack foods are soooo expensive! You're providing healthy snacking food so not like you're starving them.
How old are they? Could they buy their own treats with pocket money or possibly you buy a big multi pack of something which works out cheaper but not put it out so they don't binge, but put a few things out per week or to reward good behaviour?

YANBU.

Snacks are an expensive habit (particularly if have multiple children and they're going through growth spurts or teen years) and the foods you name are horrendously high in salt, sugar, fat, chemicals etc. So quite right to not get DC in the habit of thinking that's a "normal" part of day to day food.

Things like chopped fruit, veg and nuts are good options, they're just not quite as tasty as other things. Perhaps you could bake some fairly healthy little things, breakfast bran muffins, granola bars, protein balls etc? Depending on your DCs age that's a fun activity for them, is cheap on a cost-per-snack basis and teaches them about nutrition.

My OH orders a snack box each month for DD, he pays £20 per month for 20 healthy snacks (kale chips, dried apple wedges, coconut flakes and the like). Ridiculous expense IMO.

You are definitely making the right decision health-wise! It's worth buying very small things though so they don't feel so 'deprived' of treats that they go mad for them once they're independent enough to go to a shop on their own. Perhaps a lolly for them each, or reduced-price snacks here and there throughout the week to keep them satisfied.

Seattle yes, I do bake muffins and sometimes a cake or crumble. Forgot but I also buy icecream now and then.

They're 12 and 9 so hungry a lot. They're both on the skinny side...one's tall and the other's teeny but they seem to eat a lot.

What you buy sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Thanks everyone. I feel less mean now. I just can't afford the extra shite on a regular basis!

These are the snack drawers at my dads house. I was a porky teenager and it's becoming clearer why!
I don't have a snack drawer in my home and I'm a much healthier weight than in my school days whilst living at my dads.

We don't either! I make them a generous "snack platter" for when they get home from school and, after that, it's fruit, veggies and stuff until and after dinner. I don't buy crisps because tbh if I did, I would eat them and gain half a billion lbs!

I'd make a point of having two "snack days" a week, say a Friday night and a Sunday night - Let them have a few little treats each (they don't have to be expensive).

Supermarkets always have deals on snacks (always) and places like the poundshop sell multipacks of individual mini Butterkist popcorn bags.

A snack doesn't have to be an all day affair of excessive calories, just a selection of "goodies" once or twice a week; There's no harm in relaxing with food options on occasion, it's fun to pig out in comfy clothes just for the sake of it.

Moderation not deprivation is my motto!

Not at all U.

I have never understood the need for "snacks" that a processed crap, and I am not OTT about food at all. We have McDonalds every couple of months or so, chippy dinner every so often, freezer crap when the thought of standing at the cooker for an hour is just too much... but I dont buy crap like cheese strings etc.

It not the food that they want but the gimmick. Advertising tells them that this food is fun so they want the fun and probably arent that bothered about the food. I have noticed too that my lot tend to announce they are hungry outside meal times when in fact they are bored. So I give them something to do. Its amazing how they suddenly are not that desperate for food when asked to peel the spuds so dinner will be quicker!

I think there are 2 problems with snacks in the current generation. Firstly, its easy to buy portion sized snacks that appeal to a parent as they are pushed as being healthy, even when they are not. And secondly, I think its become the norm to hand out a snack when the kid says "I;m bored..." Its something I see a lot of within my friendship group, and often these are the same parents who kicked off when the school health thing said their kids were overweight.

Oh and thirdly (beware the Spanish Inquisition), snacking is so normalised now. When I was kid snacks just didnt happen. There were three meals a day for anyone over the age of 2 or so, and that was that. An ice cream or a biscuit or a packet of sweets was a rare treat, not a snack to be expected regularly.

I've stopped buying myself biscuits/cakes/chocolate snacks apart for small things for a Saturday treat. Of course, I don't always stick to that, but I have saved a bit of money as £1 for this and 50p for that adds up fast when you have a limited income.

I don't think you're unreasonable at all, when I was a teen and got money to spend I went crazy buying myself huge packets of sweets and bottles of cola and as a consequence am now overweight. I wish I had got a taste for fruit/veg back then as I wasn't keen on it instead of rotting my teeth.

Emerald I'm in Oz, No pound shops here. I do buy popping corn and dry pop it myself. They like it with salt.

Billy WOW! If I lived there, I'd just eat it all.

I find that poundshops are often a rip off. Sure there are some things worth picking up but most stuff you can get elsewhere a lot cheaper. I am sure thats why our local poundshop moved from being next door to B&M to in the middle of a load of clothes shops, so no one could price compare!

Yanbu - we don't buy processed snacks either.

My dd (2.5) snacks on pre made (by me) fruit pots, cheese and pepper pots, chopped salad pots and yoghurts

She has on occasion mini cheddars after swimming or dance but it's once a week.

YANBU. I don't buy snacks either save for a packet of biscuits for school lunches. I buy crisps once a month as I don't think kids need that stuff everyday so they are more like a treat. I do get in plenty of fruit and I do make goodies like flapjacks or cakes.

All mine have a good relationship with food and only occasionally moan that there's no goodies like their friends have.

If we watch a film I will buy them popcorn, I'm not a total tightarse!

Oh snacks are so expensive in Australia!

We don't buy the regularly. I might grab a multi pack of something for school holidays or if it's a crazy week.

Yanb at all U.

My kids get some snacks but it's mostly a convenience thing tbh especially if we're out and about.

We had some french friends over recently and their dc don't have snacks at all. Apparently normal in France. Perhaps fruit occasionally. They eat better meals though. A great approach to adopt if you can.

Yanbu. I don't but crap as part of a regular shop. But if we have a movie night or something, we will go to b&m and buy some snacks.

Yanbu it's crap and crazy expensive. When I was helping at lunch time at my son's school I couldn't believe the lunchboxes made up entirely of cheese strings, dunkers, packets of yogurt/chocolate covered fruit, packets of crisps, packets of biscuits. Literally nothing that wasn't in a packet. It must be so costly.

YANBU. Packaged food is so expensive in Australia. I was a kid in the 90's and eating many snacks weren't common then in Australia, maybe there was a bit of convenience food for little lunch at school (apple and a muesli bar, dippity bix or similar).

My parents encouraged us to make toasties, English muffins (so a bit of effort required) or fruit like bananas if we were hungry outside of meal times. My mum is a dentist so we never had orange juice or sugary stuff routinely in the cupboards.

A treat was a shared block of chocolate on Friday night or bread scrolls from the bakery on a Saturday morning.

We get snacks when other children are coming. We don't even have puddings. The children who come to our house and find biscuits, chocolate or crisps would think we bought them all the time. That's not the case.

YANBU

I don't particularly buy any either. We have some value biscuits for snacks sometimes, but when they've run out then I don't replace until next shop. Mine usually snack on fruit, toast or cereal. They have a sweet day, and we have pudding about twice a week so they're not deprived.

I have 4dc and buying snack foods would cost me just as much as weekly 'meal' shop.

I'd thought recently about making my own flapjacks.

I guess in my mind there's a difference between snacks, like I might cut off a chunk of cheese, some fruit, make a little salad or make a little sandwich, and things like crisps, biscuits and chocolates. The house I grew up in had snacks but not the latter and we mostly ate just food, very rarely had the latter, and only bought them when out so I never associated them with things a person would have at home. My OH has biscuits and chocolates everyday. When we first got together I came across these things being things one might keep in the house, his parents do as well and he grew up this and they are all healthy weight, but being new to me I over indulged and gained a lot of weight. It took me a while to learn a new sort of will power but I can now go back to my usual habit of not having these things at home while he does.

I think your making a brilliant example of healthy snacking. I was N over weight child in 90s and the things my mum let me snack on were crisps biscuits ect had to learn how to snack on better choices such as Yogurt nuts ect. Tour doing them a favour in the long run