AIBU to think some weekly shops contain far too many snacks?and this is not grocery shopping!?

[Upsetbetty]

AIBU to think that the amount of processed snacks people buy in their grocery shopping is getting ridiculous? Watching people share their grocery shop on instagram etc and I can’t see what meals they can even make as it’s all snacks?? And then they say oh grocery shopping is so expensive!Do people really do this? I don’t buy any biscuits, fizzy drinks (18-20 pack slabs) or crisps as a part of me weekly family shop. I buy the meat, veg and pantry items. That is my weekly shopping. I buy one packet of oat bars for my DCs lunches. If my dc want a snack they have fruit, yogurt, homemade flapjacks etc.

The OP definitely touched a nerve with you 😅

I think it’s ridiculous to fill your trolley with non nutritional food and then moan about the cost. We buy non branded foods predominantly, and it’s a mixture of meat, vegetable, fruit, dairy and cereals. We get freezer stuff and stuff for lunch boxes. Occasional booze, basic toiletries, no fizzy drinks. Shopping is still bloody expensive but nothing like it might be if we were buying branded goods.

Why do you need to make comments about us and what is normal grocery hauls. You people in the UK know nothing about about the US.

YABU for judging other people, whilst wasting your life watching shopping being unpacked on Instagram 😂

People share their grocery shops on Instagram? Jesus wept.

We know your president is a lunatic and you have far too many guns.

My kids love snacks and so do I.

You sound boring and miserable in equal measures.

I buy loads of snacks, I'm old and retired and haunt the M&S and Waitrose fridge sections mainly. I like Pringles and lot of chocolate and am not keen on cooking from scratch. I also like Cherry Pepsi max so buy the 24 packs from Amazon.

But have you ever tried a parsnip? Bloody lovely.

Totally irrelevant to the thread, but I made a parsnip risotto in a bid to use all the parsnips we ended up with when the supermarket was giving them away after Christmas one year. Thoroughly recommend - even my parsnip-avoiding child devoured it.

@2026letsgo ,thanks. I do have the occasional Pot Noodle. Last one was a Pot Noel one reduced to 35p after a Christmas, not 2025.
I don't eat bread, crisps or frozen pizzas other than occasionally.

@Sartre , @BambinaCucina , I didn't buy any cheap parsnips at Christmas because I don't really like them, but they taste far better roasted than boiled, as do swedes.

My preference is definitely roasted over boiled. Preferably with a good dose of butter, honey and garlic!

But they just melted into the risotto and you couldn't really taste them as an individual flavour.

My preference is definitely roasted over boiled. Preferably with a good dose of butter, honey and garlic! But they're sweet already.

But they just melted into the risotto and you couldn't really taste them as an individual flavour. Maybe you could share the recipe?

I do agree that it can be cheaper - poor quality cheap pizzas, pot noodles, lots of beige breaded stuff ( believe me I do eat this stuff too but try to stick to M&S southern fried or hot honey chicken strips etc- coz it does actually seem to have better chicken in it) We eat really well but all that salmon, prawns, Aberdeen Angus beef mince etc plus a good amount of good veg and fruit and Greek yoghurt doesn’t come cheap!! As it’s only 2 of us too these days its easier - it just isn’t true that making great quality meals from scratch is cheaper - definitely easier I feel if you are veggie or have kids and partners prepared to eat veggie a good few days a week and are of the mindset to make interesting tasty meals without meat or fish - some people just don’t enjoy that kind of food -

I sometimes buy those little pots of sausages that M&S sell on the deli counter and those other little snacky things that are 3 for £8

Hello fatty liver and diabetes.

I cannot get myself worked up about what other people buy at Tesco. I don’t even notice.

If someone’s entire weekly shop is 14 pot noodles and a 30 pack of walkers, it makes not one jot of difference to my life.

Life is so much better and less stressful when you just concentrate on yourself.

I don’t see how anyone can judge either, it’s just one shop, a snapshot.
14 pot noodles and a box of crisps could be for the teen boys football team snack.
I run Guides and sometimes can have a shop of just ice cream etc.

Exactly.

And I have been openly judged once when I was shopping for my elderly father. I had a basket filled to the brim with packets of cheap own brand biscuits.

He had dementia and he would open packet after packet, and crush them in the night, eating only a few. But a stash of biscuits was the only thing that made him happy and some days, they were the only thing he would eat, so I filled up a basket each week.

If some sad sod felt the need to be horrified without thinking there could be some reason that was frankly, none of their business in the first place that says more about them.

And so what if they were for me to eat in one sitting? Literally nothing to do with anyone else.

But the Ops post has nothing to do with judging individual baskets.

The point was people are posting about their weekly shopping and complaining about the cost.
Op was noting the amount of UPF snacks adding to the cost.

I buy lots of high calorie snacks from the supermarket. Donuts, crisps, biscuits, cakes etc

it’s on the advice of the dietitian who is trying to help us get DDs BMI up from 16

Homes made baked beans are one of my favourite suppers actually, with a tin of cannellini beans. They do take a while but it is very, very simple to bung in a pot in the oven. Homemade vegetable soup with a classic soup mix starter of lentils and barley is another favourite of mine.

So yes, I do agree healthy food can be made cheaply, but it is generally easier when you are tired to make expensive healthy meals.

Not to nitpick, but I'd check those own brand cereals and breads: supermarket bread and cereal can be some of the most deceptive foods out there. There is a brand called Ruse Health who do genuinely healthy cereals which are just the wholegrain minimally processed (not reduced to a pulp then reshaped) , no salt, no sugar (even then you have to pick carefully which one as a few have been tarted up), but most boxed cereals have additives, even the austere-sounding bran ones.

It's delicious. I roast the parsnips in little cubes then add once the risotto is nearing correct consistency. You can do exactly the same with celeriac, which is equally delicious.

But although wholesome and reasonably economical, risotto should start with the rice being heated in a decent slice of butter, a tasty stock is often quite salty, arborio or carnaroli are not the best profiles of rice, and risotto tastes best with plenty (plenty!) of cheese grated in, so while wholesome, I think your health would pick up on it all if you lived on it!

So it's an examle of another meal that is cheap but not necessarily super healthy.

The most health conscious supermarkets I have been to were in the US actually.

Aren't Wholefoods (the big supermarket on High Street Ken ) and also Planet Organic American chains?

It's between roast potatoes, parsnip and yorkshires as the best bit of Christmas dinner for me. Probably roast potatoes, but a parsnip roasted in honey or maple syrup is a thing of delight.

The bloody turkey can go jump.