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 feel pretty judged. I’d love to be able to afford more but I can’t. I already buy own brand cereals, butter, biscuits, ketchup, squash, in fact anything if it has an own brand variant then yes. Milky ways and marylands were a treat which I can’t afford regularly.

The advice of swapping big packs of apples and bananas for berries is helpful. As are some other suggestions. So thank you.

I have a nectar card, Clubcard, any card for anywhere I’ve got it. Plus I use cash back through my banking app.

I’m doing my best.

I'd go the other way and stop buying 'snacks' completely. The fruit can be part of a planned meal (banana and yoghurt, or a plate of strawberries and grapes). It's better to eat sugar at the end of a meal, it doesn't spike insulin as much. Add protein to meals so people feel full for longer. If they are hungry inbetween then toast and peanut butter, or cheese on toast, or a cup-a-soup, or a boiled egg. All of these require a bit of effort/time. Are they really so hungry that they can be bothered to boil an egg? Or arethey just bored.

The problem is that your easy to access snacks require no thinking, no effort, just grab it and eat. Plus they all contain sugar, which doesn't do much to satisfy hunger in the longer term.

In general I don't get the constant need for snacks. There is no harm in feeling at little bit hingry at times, as long as your blood sugar isn't crashing.

Don’t buy snacks! It makes it too easy to just grab and eat. If they have decent meals, nobody needs to snack.

That’s insane! We spend £100 pw for 3 adults. Shop at Lidl. We don’t snack Cook from basic ingredients. Make lunches to take to work/ use leftovers etc.

Sorry for all the judgemental folk. Some of us were trying to fend them off on your behalf.
Definitely buy the cheaper fruit/offer fruit/in season fruit if you can, as that will help. Also toast/crackers/oatcakes/cheaper biccies. Maybe one treat thing - everyone gets fair share, but when it's gone then it's gone. 😁

You're doing fine OP, your children arent actually hungry I would wager, its behavioural, we snack out of habit, we are animals and people forget this. Put food in front of a dog, it will eat, Ive never known a dog turn down food. Most people are like this to a lesser or greater degree

Dont forget tinned and packet things as fruit and veg, or frozen fruit. Much cheaper

Or chop up a load of raw celery, carrots, cucumbers every couple of days. They can have those and dip them into plain yoghurt or a cheese dip.

Hold stuff back...have a hiding place for non perishable snacks..! Then replace at intervals.

I am amazed you are feeding everyone for just £100-130 a week. We are a family of four, no pets, no alcohol and we spend double that

Apologies if I'm repeating others as I'm about halfway through, but frozen fruit is a great economical way to get more variety of fruit in budget. My dc love it on it's own, with their cereal or with plain yoghurt, which is also cheap and wouldn't otherwise be eaten. Lidl, Aldi, Farm Foods and Sainsburys all have it at a similar price.

Biscuits and chocolates are a waste of money - they're not filling and just lead to wanting more and more, and obviously they're unhealthy. Get more protein-based snacks in - mine like the Quorn cocktail sausages and 'chicken' nuggets and real chicken sausages and skewer things, and scotch eggs. These aren't that cheap but go a lot further than fruit and biscuits for snacks.

Try frozen fruit but have it after meals or part of them. Lentils and tins of different beans are cheap, filling and protein rich. Loads of great bean meals on mob .

My mother used to buy (family of four) 4 apples, 4 oranges, 4 pears and 4 bananas and that was all we got for the week. So it's an expectation thing too. Get them to snack on carrots and celery sticks?

I think you and the other poster who is getting irate about this is maybe misunderstanding; people are posting what they themselves need to spend for smaller or similar sized families, this is for context as the op said she thought it was “loads”.

And she stated originally she spent 400- 520 a month, for 5 people Inc a dog. Then she immediately bumped it up to 600 a month, and she said she thinks it’s loads, people are correctly pointing out, that it is far from loads, it’s a very frugal budget, showing their spend in comparison so she sees that, and then explaining to her how to shop smarter if she’s no money.

buying some mini Maryland cookies, 8 milky ways, a few rice cakes, and a couple of punnets of grapes and strawberries doesn’t go far for a family of five as she is seeing, but she can get a lot more for the same price, going to cheap supermarkets, buying unbranded, and buying Lower cost items where she can get more, apples bananas etc.

I have three DS, the eldest of which has zero self control with snacks. I ended up providing snack boxes (lockable!!) for each of them. I buy three weeks worth of snacks (crisps/biscuits/bread sticks/rice cakes etc etc) and divy them up between them. When they are gone, they are gone and i dont buy more until at least 2.5 weeks later. It is much better! However, we still go through cereal and yogurts at an unbelievable rate.

I'm not irate. HTH

I just don’t think that you’re buying enough OP. It’s just DD and I (plus dog) at home - we spend the same as you, if not a bit more on groceries per week! Neither of us are major snackers so this is really just the essentials.

Exactly what my mum used to say!

Why are people so obsessed with fruit?

Food is insanely expensive. I tend to spend around £200 for 4 of us (one has severe allergies and free from food is v costly).

Try not to feel judged, everyone’s just doing their best. Stuff on toast is a good snack- even if it’s jam or peanut butter it’ll be healthier than biscuits and more filling. A fair bit cheaper too than lots of snacks.

Own brand rice cakes or crackers with hummus go down well with my kids too. Or a bowl of cereal- own brand special k or granola is a nice snack. Greek yogurt, banana and honey comes in not too expensive too.

Good luck- it’s not easy.

Different people like different things I suppose. DD and I are lucky if we finish a bunch of bananas and packet of apples per week - we certainly make up for it in terms of veg intake. I imagine for some people it would be the opposite

Its a really good question, its like some people are green grocers or smething the amount of punnets of this and that they have hanging round the house

Whats going on, I dont remember this from when I was younger. No wonder people think OP isnt spending a lot, becuase they're spending huge amounts of this stuff, its not necessary at all

Op, i can grauntee you your children arent starving - theyre just eating because its there. Youre doing a wonderful job, if you can afford a few staples like flour, eggs, sugar etc you can make some really nice snacks for basically pennies its just paying out for the ingredients to begin with. X

I don’t think anyone is obsessed, but for a healthy diet we should all aim for 2 portions of fruit a day, 80 grams is a portion. So 160 g a day,

the op buys 1000 g of grapes and 500 of strawberries a week, and provides an average of 40g a day per person. A quarter of the healthy diet recommendation,

Have you considered your opinion might be wrong when the food is clearly not lasting

Because its mumsnet.

Most plain and self raising flour is 70p for 1.5kg. Literally pennies.