To want to hide food?

[Bellebill]

I’m sure this happens in other households but it’s starting to really get on my nerves now...
my husband who is quite a tall big fella and naturally eats more than me (and so he should what with daily calorie intake) seems to eat all the food! I’m talking cereal, multipacks of crisps etc. I’ll eat a uite a normal size bowl of cereal but his will be a mountain of special K etc so that a box will have gone in maybe 3 days (!) and he eats a packet of crisps (maybe more than one) every day if they’re there! Don’t even get me started on biscuits! I won’t necessarily eat crisps every day but maybe every couple of days I might fancy a pack, but he will never stop to think maybe he should leave a pack for me since he’s already cleared 5 out of a 6 x multipack! It’s driving me mad and I’ve started to think I might hide food for myself so that when I fancy something it’s actually there rather than racing to eat something as soon as it’s bought! He challenged me when I moaned this evening “well what am I supposed to do?” Baffles me how selfish men are!

Please tell me I’m not alone and you too live with greedy pigs?!

ours are shoe boxes that we decorated with wrapping paper and such like

I could have written this exact post!!!!!

It annoys me extra because he earns less than me so I do all the food shopping but it costs a fortune because he just eats and eats. Like yours he'll eat a whole multipack of crisps, 3 bowls of cereal for breakfast, all the chocolates. We have 2 boys and I'm pregnant so naturally we all have our own favourite foods but he even eats the stuff I get to put in the boys pack ups! I got given a box of chocolates as a thank you gift and asked him to please leave my favourite one as I save it til last. I showed him which it was. He ate all 4 even when there was plenty of others. He thinks it's funny as it's just food but I found it really selfish. I hide things in my drawer at work!

I also have coeliac disease so my range of food is already limited. I made a gluten free bolognese with some left over for tea today. Instead of it serving the 4 of us for tea tonight he had a big portion and he gave the youngest a big portion (both home all day whilst I was at work and eldest at nursery), the youngest barely touched it so it was wasted and I had nothing to eat.

I also can't batch cook and freeze because I can guatentee he'll just keep eating it.

I don't know how to say something because I don't want him to think I'm digging at his weight (he is very overweight) because I love and fancy him how he is. But I know I need to say something!!

God that was long I'm so sorry

Definitely not unreasonable. My husband, who is usually a kind and generous man, does this type of thing. He's much better now with things like biscuits and snacks but we both take packed lunches for work and I buy us separate ingredients because he has no concept of making stuff last a week and would easily eat several packets of ham over three days and have nothing left for his Friday butties.

This is my DP!

Doesn't eat breakfast, rarely eats lunch. Gets into a feeding frenzy in the evenings! Last night I made Pork Schnitzels, roast pots and veg. He ate 4 schnitzels!! (so 4 pork loin steaks) with the potatoes and veg. Washed it down with cereal, 2x packs of crisps and satsumas.

Drives me nuts when he also snacks on the ham and I go to make lunchboxes in the morning. Who eats an entire pack of ham for a snack? To be fair, he hasn't done that in a while after I went nuclear and packed him off to the shop and made him buy pre-made sandwiches for everyone at stupid o'clock in the morning.

I honestly don’t think a large bowl of cereal or one to two bags of crisps is a huge amount extra for a big man who uses a lot of calories. I have seen it deemed very extreme and potential eating disorder which seems peak MN to me.

If he was regularly eating an entire multi pack or box of cereal in one sitting then fair enough, but what you describe is within the limits of normal.

DH can eat a huge amount and DSS even more. I hate the eating of all of one thing at a time grossly inconsiderate but daily consumption of smaller amounts isn’t a problem. Just make sure you buy plenty and if you want some left a week after buying it, yes, hiding it is the only option. It’s sad but true.

rainbowWaffles

it not about the amount they're eating, it;s about how fucking thoughtless and selfish they are.

OPs DH is just being a greedy selfish twat. if he;s hungry he shouldbe eating "proper" food. and should generally have the decency to think about others when stufiing his face

I have to hide good or my 2 teenagers will literally eat everything at once. I starting hiding good in the garage but it attracted mice who started enjoying all the treats at night! I now keep stuff in the boot of my car!

I meant food!

*it not about the amount they're eating, it;s about how fucking thoughtless and selfish they are.

OPs DH is just being a greedy selfish twat. if he;s hungry he shouldbe eating "proper" food. and should generally have the decency to think about others when stufiing his face*

Like i said, I can’t consider a single packet or even two (they have got pretty small these days) for a grown man to be ‘greedy’. I would be pretty irritated if someone told me I can’t have a daily packet of crisps for goodness sake. Just buy more crisps so there is enough. If he starts eating five packets a day then fair enough he is being greedy and selfish. What ‘proper’ food is allowed instead? Then wouldn’t it be ‘DH eats all the bread?’. Just buy more crisps. I couldn’t imagine DH telling me what to eat unless I ate all of something in one sitting.

"Like i said, I can’t consider a single packet or even two (they have got pretty small these days) for a grown man to be ‘greedy’."

Yes, you could just buy more of the food, but it's NOT THE POINT!

For example, would it be OK if two of you all sat down to dinner to sausage and mash, and your "grown man" DH took ALL of the sausages leaving you with none? (whether there are 2 sausages or 8) Would that be acceptable?

I'm guessing not.

So why is it OK for DH to take all 6 packs of crisps, or the whole pack of bsicuits, or all the pepsi?

it isn't about having a pack of crisps a day.... its about having pack of crisps a day and not leaving nay for others. it's selfish.

Most multipacks are at least 6 bags of crisps. Ergo, one a day takes 6 days to eat. Plenty of time for others to eat some if they want to. If they choose not to in that time, how long are other meant to not eat them, just so that everyone gets some?

It is not the same as eating all the food put on the table at one time for one meal

This happens in our house!

( DH is not the culprit though).

I hide food

Note to self: teach sons the value of sharing and altruism.
I couldn't live with someone who selfishly eats all the treat food (crisps are a treat). Or eats my gift of chocolates. We share, ask others and replace food in this house.
@WaterOffaDucksCrack your dh isn't very kind is he? Pose the overweight problem as concerns for his health?

I had this. I would make a vat of spag bol (16 ish portions), go to work the next day and my ex would have eaten the lot. Them I had a male housemate, I would buy the food, he would avoid paying me his 'half' then eat 90% of it anyway and refuse to buy more. Never again! Any food that comes in the house is split equally (no kids). If you want more, go out and buy it with your own money. I'm not subsidising your greed.

@WaterOffaDucksCrack your DH sounds very cruel actually, not just mindlessly greedy.

My DP does this. Just last night he came in from a long day at work, told me he wasn’t hungry but still somehow managed to demolish a full share bag of crisps, a packet of biscuits, a 500g tub of yoghurt, and a share bag of minstrels. Fair enough if he was hungry and there was no food in but I prepare plenty of easy meals for the week on a Sunday and he just had to bung one in the micro! Plus there was plenty in for sandwiches etc. ARGH!

bananas "It is not the same as eating all the food put on the table at one time for one meal"

How is it different? He's eating all of one type of food without a thought for other people...

People shouldn't have to hide food because they are married to a selfish, greedy bastard who refuses to consider the needs of anyone else in the house!
OP is not unreasonable to expect to be left one bag of crisps out of a multi pack or a can of coke if he has drunk 11 out of the 12!

Is this a new relationship or is there serious financial constraints? If the answer to both is no, just buy extra cereal and crisps as you can judge the quantities he wishes.

If it is a financial problem then yes hiding some for you may be the answer.

It’s a selfishness issue. I (semi) meal plan so if someone eats something and lets me know, then it is no problem. If they finish things and don’t let me know, then I can’t cook a proper meal. And as for eating the whole of a multipack or box of chocolates, definitely greedy pig territory.

He also rarely replaces, and when he does it’s definitely not like for like.

Eg I’ll buy a snack haul, including one packet of something I really like and the rest for him. Will point out ‘my’ packet which inevitably he will eat. I’ll ask him to replace said packet, which is met with a “no problem”. Off he pops to the shop, and when he arrives back he, without fail, will smugly show me what he’s picked up while telling me that he’s got me something “so much better”, which just so happens to be something he likes and I don’t!!

The last time I asked why he did it he said “Because X is gross”, which would be fine if he hadn’t demolished the whole blooming packet.

00100001 if you eat all the food for a specific meal, then the other person goes hungry and misses a meal (or an entire food group, if you stick to the sausage analogy). If you eat one pack of crisps per day for 6 days, the other person does not generally end up hungry, and has had plenty of opportunities over that time period to eat some themselves. Or even speak up and ask for some to be left for them. Of course it is different.

That’s a huge amount of food 999

So you'd be perfectly happy if your DH ate, say, all of your birthday cake, and you hadn't had a slice? or if you had a bought some nice ice-creams for the family, and you went to have yours and they were all gone, because DH had seen it and eaten it?

As for the crisps, if you went and bought 12 packs of crisps instead of 6 packs, and DH ate them all in one week, and left you none, you'd just smile happily and buy 18 packs of crisps the next week and so on?

And in reverse, your DH would never grumble if you did the same thing to him?

Would you eat an entire packet of biscuits, knowing that no-one else in the house had had any? You wouldn't think "Oh, I'll save this last penguin for Mr Banana, he hasn't had any yet"? or go "Oh, my there's only 1 pack of crisps left... whoops... How many have I eaten... 5? Oh I better see if Mr Banana wanted the last pack before I eat them" or
would you just go "fuck it, you snooze, you lose" and eat them..

To me that is selfish behaviour. It's not about how many packets of crisps anyone is "allowed" or what is a reasonable time frame. It's the not thinking of others whilst satisfying yourself that is the issue for me.