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.

I also spend £130 pw on 2 adults one teen and two animals so I think your budget is unrealistic to include that many snacks for that many people, even with lunches being provided (for all 5 of you?)
You need to change the food you buy. If your kids are hungry leading to snacking then buy more filling cheaper things like bread, pasta, big pots of yoghurt etc. that they can have between meals if they are hungry. If they are just snacking because it's there then they can cope with running out once they have eaten it all!

ETA that's barely any fruit for a week.

I agree that's not a huge amount of "snacks" for a week. We have 2-3 pieces of fruit per person per day (although there might be some included within your lunches?).

For snacks on a fairly strict budget I'd suggest "basic" fruit, with perhaps grapes or strawberries as a once a week treat. Buy plain packets of biscuits; they are fairly inexpensive (custard creams, bourbon etc). How old are the DC? If bottomless teenagers you might need to suggest they fill up on pasta, toast etc.

£600 per month isn’t a lot for 5 people. We spend about £800 on a family of 5, not including dog food and eating out. I cook from scratch the majority of the time, shop at lidl when possible and we don’t buy crisps and biscuits. The kids snack on fruit, smoothies, toast and cereal, and I make a cake every now and again. Still, our food budget far exceeds our mortgage!😭

The other thing to buy if you aren’t at the mo is popping corn - healthier than crisps, cheaper and lives forever in the cupboard.

Just ban snacking. Buy only food that needs to be cooked.

It's not a lot of food at all. There's only DH and I & dog, and I'd buy about twice as much fruit as you just for us. How old are the children?

If the good shit gets eaten within a day, tough shit when there's nothing to snack on rest of the week.

I think you need to sit down and work out what is genuinely needed for the week, your list doesn’t seem much for a family for a week. If you are spending all you can afford then you need to look at alternative purchases and speak with your family.

Slim teen DD goes through 2 punnets of strawberries, a punnet of grapes, 4 apples, 1/4 of a melon, 2 peppers and 1/2 a cucumber each week alone. She has lunch at school, breakfast is usually cereal/yogurt/toast/bagel etc and adult size family evening meal plus after school pre sport snack of either toast and pb, sandwich, weetabix etc. Between school snacks, general snacking and mates over that’s about 21 items a week.

All the folk saying 'spend more' must not realise that some folk simply cannot 'spend more'. It's such a privileged comment to make.

I’m not saying spend more. I’m saying be more strategic.

Really? I would say two punnets of strawberries between 5 people is pretty miserly, really. That's about five strawberries each!

Well, my comment wasn't directed at you then. ✌️

We’re not saying spend more, we’re saying spend different.

She doesn't need to spend more - she needs to stop buying strawberries and branded cookies and buy apples and own-brand custard creams instead.

Strawberries are luxury fruit for many folk. Substitute for grapes/apples/bananas/whatever is on offer.

I agree with more cheap fruit rather than expensive berries, plus crackers, things for toast and sandwiches are good for cheap snacks.

What are the specific toddler snacks? Ours have always just generally had what the rest of the family are having and generally the snacks in the baby and toddler aisle are a an expensive rip off imo

Yep, but again, my comment wasn't directed at you.

Yes, that was kind of my point, lol.

Don't waste your money on tiny amounts of expensive strawberries that will last 20 minutes when you can buy 5 bunches of bananas or whatever for the same price.

Some are saying that she isn't spending enough.

I would also revise where you shop, I have always found Morrisons to be very expensive, can't comment on Sainsbury's but traditionally that isn't cheap either!

Agree. Honestly

What here’s today’s five grapes, a quarter of a rice cake, and and your quarter of a Milky Way type thing?

someone called them locusts, someone else commented in gobbling, such disordered language when for five people this is simply a very small amount of food. The op is looking at it all together, but when you break it down, for five people, it’s very small.

Buying more does not necessarily mean spending more, just buying more of different things.

Not everyone can afford to do that and I do get that, but in that case you have to accept that snacks are going to disappear because you’re not buying enough. You can’t really snack-box your way through simply not buying enough food.

Encourage eating toast with beans / jam and cottage cheese / peanut butter / cheese / eggs as snacks. Buy apples and bananas and cheaper fruit. Own brand biscuits. Then if you choose more expensive snacks (in our house, crisps, chocolate and nuts) it gets divided up in boxes. If budget is limited try to encourage more eating of filling healthier food.

She’s buying expensive stuff. Fruit needs to be the cheap stuff. Biscuits the same. Snacks from the toddler aisle are a rip off.

She's also choosing expensive places to shop based on cashback - I will guarantee Aldi or Lidl would be cheaper than sainsbos even with a cash back.