Aibu to be annoyed the food shop disappears so quickly

[toadstool32]

It drives me insane. Food shop arrives and within a day most cupboard snacks / fruit has been eaten. I’ve spoken to everyone on numerous occasions about making things last. Family of 5 plus a dog, spending anywhere between £100-£130 a week. How do you make things last?! (Obviously not fresh stuff with dates but the constant snacking).

edited to add: school lunches and snacks are all provided by school. I get lunch at work too. So this is just home food.

Soz wrong person quoted!

Two of us easily spend a similar amount without buying anything particularly exorbitant. I think your budget is still in 2021, our shop has increased by roughly 35% since then 🤔

I roughly spend £120 per week 4 adults. I do not buy any ubhealthy snacks as thay added £20 extra a week , I do bake cake each week and buy fruit and vegetables. I get meat from the butcher but I do meal plan and try to make everything from scratch including mayonnaise, hummus, sauces and flatbread. I make my own jam and chutneys and have a well stocked pantry that I top up. I try to avoid buying any UPFs where ever possible.

We have a bill of £140 per week for 5 of us, OP.

It's probably not really enough - see my recent thread on the relationships board re: my DH and yogurt...

You need more filling snack. Get some nuts in there along with something substantially carby like crackers and cheap cheese etc.

I also recommend making oatcake for instance -

you need soft margarine
brown sugar
oats
flour
fillings of choice eg sultanas, chocolate chips or fruit

for a 13x9” pan you need 150g margarine and 150g sugar creamed together mix in 150g oats, then 250g flour and then any fillings, spread across a greased pan and bake for 15 minutes at 200degrees.

if you have access to blackberries try doubling the mixture cooking them with a little water and sugar (add apples if you have a community orchard or free apples). Spread half the mixture in pan, add fruit, add rest of mixture and bake for 20 minutes. Will store in container all week. Cost of ingredients yesterday- 80p flour for 1.5kg, £1 oats for 1kg, 90p margarine 500g and £1.20 for 1kg of brown sugar. So lots of batches, blackberries and apples were free as so many places to pick here (you can free the part cooked mixture for later in year too)

That is a very, very small amount for a family of 5. How long would you expect that to last? It would last a week here and we are 4 so with 5 I think much less. My kids can eat 2 yoghurts each a day.

No problem! 🤣

How old are the children? Sorry if I've missed it xx

2 punnets of grapes, 2 x strawberries, 6 bananas, 2 x four milky ways, triple pack of biscuits, 2 x packs of rice cakes, 2 x packs of mini marylands, yoghurts, specific snacks for the toddler.

A punnet would last one child one evening here. Again strawberries are a one sitting kind of snack. Yoghurts can be 2 per sitting if you’re talking kiddie little ones.

If you have the space for next year though I’d definitely recommend growing some of your own. We have strawberries, blueberry’s, raspberries, kiwis and grapes to just name a few. Sure we don’t grow enough to feed the whole family and it’s only seasonal but for things you plant just once and will keep coming back year after year it helps. Also the children enjoy going and picking their own fresh. Less likely to scoff a whole
punnet when they know you can’t grow that many in a day either.

I feel your pain, both of my kids got a telling off this morning for getting under my feet while I was unpacking the food shop, they were basically trying to work out what there was they they could eat immediately. Ds opened a brand new pack of crackers immediately after eating his breakfast ( I mean he literally put the spoon down from his cereal and grabbed the crackers) just to have a snack. Dd under the guise of "helping" seemed very fixated on what biscuit bars I'd purchased. I will be interested to see how long they last. 35 biscuit bars - 2 teenagers.

That doesn’t sound enough

We are a family of 5. We spend way more than that a week, also mostly eat at school/work, so not many lunches.
Is somebody being greedy and eating it all in one go? From what you've wrote, that is a very small amount of snacks for 5 people. Is that to last everyone the whole week?
Food is super expensive.

I think you definitely need to explore Aldi and Lidl, even with cash back I’d have thought they would be cheaper if you are buying own brand.

are your children on free school meals? If not I’d recommend going over to packed lunches as they will be more filling and cheaper.

understand working full time, but you should have some time at weekends to knock up some fairy cakes or flapjacks as an activity with the kids? They can be bulked out with all sorts as mentioned.

Also toddler snacks are far cheaper in Aldi and Lidl if you need to buy these, same with cleaning products.

Also explore farm foods, they are very good for snacks and freezer stuff.

Ok, so I might be in the minority but I don't think your budget is tiny/unrealistic. I spend around £140 on our weekly shop for 4 people, but that's without really budgeting at all. Admittedly my kids are picky eaters so probably not attacking the snacks in the same way yours are, and our meals are rather limited. That includes lunches for me, and for the toddler 2 days a week.

I've never held myself out as a beacon of frugality (😂), but I'd definitely buy things like strawberries sparingly on the assumption they won't last more than a day (besides everything else, we've had a lot of "mushy" strawberries this summer which my kids won't eat). So I'd make strawberries/grapes a once a week treat and stock up on apples, bananas and oranges instead.
Stop buying the mini bags of cookies, they're very poor value. Give one or two cookies instead. Tesco do own brand milky ways which are bigger and cheaper.
Likewise buy own brand cereal.
I give my DC popcorn in a snack box for a snack at school, rather than buying individual packets. That, and a banana.

I'd stop buying the rice cakes and yoghurts entirely - not very filling and, unless the yoghurt is plain, doubtful nutritional value. My kids don't get specific snack food, except treats like chocolate. I don't buy crisps and they eat cereal with whole milk or toast with jam and peanut butter as a snack. Little one likes cheese and crackers. Sometimes we buy fancy cereal as a treat (like Oreo Os), but that's treated like pudding in our house.

Plain tortilla chips (usually in the essentials range) are cheap, own brand biscuits (oat type ones are more filling), popcorn

Just buy good food, not snacks.

Please don't feel judged. You are buying what you can afford.

No judgement, it’s difficult to keep costs down right now and I don’t think people really appreciate how much more difficult lack of time can make budgeting too.

Another suggestion I find works for us is scheduled snack times rather than letting them graze whenever they want. And it’s a take what you’re offered or go without policy too (although they do usually get some choice i.e we’re having toast, what do you want on it or do you want cheese or pb or your sandwich)

Do you have a recipe for the oatie squares please?

because it's something sweet that is healthier than sweets. Have you never read the ubiquitous exhortations to swap just one small thing?

And yes, we had sweets 50 years ago.

(In The Magician's Nephew, CS Lewis addresses the children of the 50s: "...but meals were nicer; and as for sweets, I can't tell you how cheap and good they were")

I was born in 1969, and I have NEVER had a period of my life that didn't include a regular afternoon snack. Possibly two. And supper. (That's "evening snack with cocoa, having had a 6pm tea" supper, not "the main meal of the day" supper)

There was one year where I would take 5 apples to school, after eating 2 on my paper-round and before having another 3 in the evening. But that was an exceptional harvest.

You really don’t need a recipe. And if you want one, there are a million online.

All you need are oats, some butter, some sort of syrup (golden, maple etc) and anything you want; peanut butter, Nutella, fruit, chocolate chips, nuts… it’s sort of a “chuck it all in and bind with wet ingredients” then bake.

I think things like biscuits, chocolate bars and grapes are hard to resist. I've stopped getting them.

I'd get more filling snacks - crumpets or a piece of toast with jam, toasted pancakes or scones. Satsumas or more apples rather than grapes. A big natural greek yogurt- they can add a chopped banana or a spoon of honey.

Only two of us and I don't snack at all and often only eat in the evening but I think we spend more than that though we do have a wine habit...

Why does everyone suggest replacing fruit with UPF white flour products?

Replace expensive fruit with cheaper veggie sticks. Or with a protein snack like some nuts, or cheaper fruit. Or something more substantial like bean burritos which you can bulk make and freeze for pennies each.