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.

You are right. Why are you all constant snackers though? You must have gone along with that at some point and now it's out of hand.
Just stop stocking up on snacks. If someone moans tell them to go get their own.

There are all really expensive and easy to eat quickly.

Just buy lots of apples, pears and bananas. They are healthy and filling.

Why are you buying all the crap like biscuits and rice cakes.

That’s a lot of snacks.

Buy ingredients instead and invite someone to bake biscuits or cakes. That slows mine down and means a constant supply!

Isn’t it strange how people food shops vary so much . We are a family of 5 and I spend £70 per week on food and it last all week apart from the odd loaf of bread . So I guess it just depends on what you buy / how much you eat .

People nowadays are obsessed with snacks. Don’t buy them 🙂

Sounds like maybe not buying enough, we are two adults and a 2 year old and spend the same … so for 5 would need more. I also buy fruit every few days

We are a family of 5 and budget about the same for groceries. I’ve just read the first page of posts but what you have bought for snacks I would think should last the week and would in my house.
we do eat big meals, and a pudding to limit the snacking.

No, I agree. It's one banana a week, basically. DP and I eat more like a banana a day each.

Don't buy snacks. Buy the staples and then give each kid an allowance and all snacks have to come from that.

Apart from takeaways, which we dont have, havent ordered anything for nearly 3 years now, its all just 'shopping' comes under the category of 'shopping'.

Household and food shopping, thats what the budget has to cover. This week for example it was literally just food and one container of hand wash

Some weeks however I might need sandwich bags, toilet roll, kitchen roll, bleach and laundry products all in one go. That is a very hefty week on the purse.

I'm aware that a peace sign isn't a full stop, not sure why you're linking the two. ✌️

No such thing in our area, but might help some folk.

DS1's preferences are complicated by autism affecting his preferences and inclination to get and eat food. He snacks on own brand "oatie" hobnob style biscuits which are fairly cheap and have a relatively decent amount of substance to them.

DS2 is more proactive and will do things like scrambled egg on toast or banana pancakes. Cheap, easy, nutritious and substantial.

Bananas are fine, but fruit isn't a cost effective way to fill a hole. It's better after dinner.

£100-£130 for a family of 5 is fantastic, not sure you’ll get it below that. We spend about £200 a week for 4 of us. Not helped by autistic son’s food phases

Buy a waffle maker. I whip up batches of waffles and then freeze them. 2 for breakfast and then 10 or so in the freezer. SO easy to make and cheap as chips. Couple of eggs, flour, milk. I don't add sugar. The sweetness comes from whatever topping you use. Own brand golden syrup, jam etc.

Can you give examples of what you buy / meals you make each week for £70 for 5 people?

I don't really buy 'snacks', we have a snack after school which is something like pitta and hummus or yoghurt and fruit. I buy apples, satsumas, bananas, kiwis, cucumber and carrots as snacks. My teen often makes himself a sandwich or bowl of cereal after school.

I spend a lot more than that each week. Ds2 eats a lot of protein for sports. I never run out of food, I just buy it again as soon as it's eaten.

You need to change to cheaper snacks.

Buy the packets of biscuits like custard creams, ginger biscuits and bourbon. They are free to eat, limitless. As are apples and oranges.

I used to buy one 'nice' snack per day for after school. That was usually something like a box of mini brownies, or a packet of jaffa cakes. Shared out. So you'd need 5 of those per week, at least. Those snacks were kept in a separate cupboard, and were off limits expect for 3:30 after school.
I encouraged them to eat things like apples and peanut butter, drink milk or make a sandwich, when hungry rather than berries and nice cakes which are pricey.

Some people have to budget

Must be nice!

What ages are the people in your family and what kind of meals does this budget cater for

If they're all being fed at school, and you're buying food for evening meals and weekends too, then honestly don't feel bad. People don't need endless snacks.

Surely the qn tho is WHO is eating them? You mention a toddler, so assume they're not helping themselves. You're not. So how old are the other two kids and how much does DH take for work?

Between 5 people that’s probably only enough snacks for 2 days - sorry! My daughter eats a punnet of grapes and strawberries in 2 days and when you look at it in a bowl it’s only like 2-3 of your 5 a day. I would be stocking up on the cheaper stuff they’ll eat - bananas are really cheap so triple the amount you get. Biscuits in a triple pack is only maybe 45 biscuits so 4 biscuits a day per person is only going to last you 4 days etc and most of us can eat more than that. I’m sorry because it’s so depressing that food costs this much, get some cheaper snacks if you can and hide some of the stuff you like?

I would like these two but I suspect it’s not massively nutritious (and I don’t mean that judgementally I promise) it’s almost impossible to buy food to feed 5 people 7 main meals and 7 breakfasts for £70 - I’ve tried! I made myself stick to a budget of £80 recently and we had to eat a lot of frozen / tinned veg, barely any fruit, bread with lots of additives etc. Tonight we ate a chicken dish and it really wasn’t fancy but I found myself eating a really small portion so the OH didn’t moan that he hadn’t had enough protein - it was almost £6 just for 4 chicken thighs. £6 x 7 =£42.00. A pack of mince is at least a fiver £5 x 7 =£35.00. How are people eating fresh, nutritious meals for £70 a week? 😭