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.

Honestly for 5 people that’s not much.

actually looking at your list, I agree with others, it doesn't seem like much.
The only chocolate bars are the milky ways which work out to about one and a half per person for a week, that's not much if you like chocolate.

Similarly 1 banana each - You can see why someone eating their second banana on a monday on the way to school, when they might have already eaten one on saturday wouldn't think of themselves as depriving their family or being greedy!

School lunches are truly not that much and often not eaten.

When mine were in primary I had a set "after school snack" when they came in that was a bit more substantial. Like hummous and breadsticks, crackers and cheese.

They often are genuinely hungry and fruit isn't enough so then they seek the higher upf stuff like crisps/crackers.

I think they may just need feeding more....

That’s not enough snacks for five people really.

I’d put aside a fifth of the snacks for yourself that nobody else touches and then just employ a ‘when it’s gone it’s gone’ mentality for everybody else. If they want to eat everything on the first two days of doing the food shop and have nothing the rest of the week that’s on them.

My Mum used to hide things and they would magically appear throughout the week.

E.g only one packet of biscuits in the cupboard, the rest hidden (cupboard under the stairs as we eventually discovered 😉).

But, 2 packs of grapes for 5? I could trough my way through a whole punnet as an evening snack all by myself.

Also to add, I’m not surprised the fruit is running out quickly, we usually buy around

12 bananas
3 punnets of strawberries
1 punnet of blueberries
1 punnet of grapes
2 punnets of raspberry
a pack of kiwis
1 watermelon

Even then we sometimes have to top up with more fruit

That's about 2 days of fruit for my kids (3 and 6), with the 3 year old eating the majority... Fortunately the 6yo and dp are cheap orange, apple, banana, grape eaters. The 3yo though is expensive for berries!

I don't think that's enough snacks tbh. Mine graze instead of big meals though so maybe different lifestyles. I'd add some raisins, snack a Jack's, breadsticks, mini pizzas, etc for cheap variety if need be. We also buy the own brand 18/24 pack fromage frais (only the kids eat them). There are economies to be made but I'm guessing if you're already doing cash back for weekly shops, you're frugal as is and will need to spend more :/

You are simply not buying enough food.

You can’t be buying enough food. Thats fairly decent for a family of 5 (i spend double that some weeks but i buy all stuff for packed lunches as well as plenty of snacks)

You aren’t buying enough food to do snack boxes to fix this really.

I’d buy two - three times more bananas and apples, they last quite well. Dump the chocolate and biscuits, they are too attractive. Rice cakes, dried fruit, graze and cereal bars seem to be liked well enough but last around here. If hungry then peanut butter and sliced apple, toast or fruit get eaten. Also always have lots of Greek yoghurt to have as a snack with some granola and frozen fruit.

I think others are right, it’s not necessarily enough and they need to ask instead of having free rein.

Don't buy berries, I never had them as a child when we had a very limited budget, apples and bananas

A month's worth of meals for 5 people is 450 meals (assuming 30 days in a month and 3 meals a day).
of that you eat 5 meals a week at work/school = 100 meals a month (5 meals x 5 people, x 4 weeks)

450-100 still equals 350 meals a month in the house, plus all snacks (which seem to be most of the issue disappearing). £400 a month equals barely a pound per meal.

I’d buy more oranges, bananas and apples and cheap fruit and less of the expensive grapes and berries.

similarly more cheap biscuits - the multipacks with bourbons and custard creams for eg

My kids used to come home from school ravenous after a school lunch. The portions are small and they serve the same sizes to reception and year 6.

I think that you’ve bought too little to last a whole week. Are any of them hiding snacks from the rest of the family? My kids preferred snacking to actual meals and could get through loads.

£130 a week for 5? I can’t get mine under £250 (3 teenagers). I’m not sure £130 is a week’s worth of food even for toddlers to be honest so I’m not surprised it disappears quickly.

Lock / hide the ambient goods and space them out. Is it just the kids eating them all or your partner too? He needs to be spacing them out too.

Things like fruit, especially. strawberries disappear quickly. I buy them on the home way from work to space it out.

This drives me bonker too. One thing I do do is make massive flapjacks over the weekend. Lots of peanut butter and banana, kilo of oats! Slice wrap and freeze. Then they get one plus fruit for school snack. I find the freezing puts off theft as you’d lose a tooth. I take out of freezer before bed.

Plan for fruit bowl top ups I have to buy 50 bananas, 5 packs of apples, 5 packs of oranges for a week. Which sounds like loads but it’s two - three bits per person per day.

Also hsve snacks available thst are boring so toast, crumpets, oatcakes so they can fill up but not individually wrapped deliciousness which is terribly moreish.

There's only me and one other I buy 2 punnet of grapes 2 strawberries bananas, cherries blueberries and melon and still buy more, as for the biscuits etc ration them, so have a couple of empty cereal boxes in the back of the cupboards, put out enough snacks for one day, and then replenish from the secret stash, get cheaper fruit than the good stuff, so apples and pears when the strawberries etc. are gone.

We are a family of 5 (secondary school
aged DC) and we are spending double what you are on food (deliveries twice a week has helped). They buy lunch at school.

Divide into snack boxes for each family member and remind them it won't be replenished until next week's shop. If they gobble up their share in 2 days then no more snacks.

If you have older kids maybe give them a snack allowance in cash so they can choose and buy their own but not touch the other boxes.

I don't think fruit should be rationed though.

As other posters have suggested, consider if you're actually buying enough. But also how many snacks you think is healthy. One of my kids would live on snacks if she could so we do have a fairly limited amount, otherwise she'd be constantly digging in the cupboard and not touching her balanced meals.

It depends how old the kids are, I have 3 including 2 teenage boys and those snacks would be polished off in a day or two. I spend about £800 a month (3 kids, 2 cats). If your kids are a lot younger then that is different.

I’ve had the same conversation with DH this morning when we were popping into a supermarket for the bloody 5th time this week.

DS is back here after finishing uni, no complaints generally as he’s very domesticated and pulls his weight but crikey the lad can eat. A block of cheese that used to be in the fridge all week or more now lasts 3 days. Boxes of eggs evaporate into thin air. I cook chicken for sandwiches because it’s cheaper than buying slices, a tub of that goes overnight 🤷🏼‍♀️ Every pop in supermarket visit costs £20 now, not a fiver.

I spend more than that a week for myself, a teen and a tween. They sometimes take a packed lunch to school, sometimes they buy lunch at school so add an extra £10 a week each for their school lunches as well.

And I also cook from scratch and batch cook. We have much cheaper weeks if everything is vegetarian.