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.

No. Farm shops, yes. Supermarkets - at least near me - nope. You can buy loose peppers, avocados, squashes, lemons... I think that's it tbh.

They do in farm shops or greengrocers', but they don't always do it in the major supermarkets. I remember buying almost everything by weight when I was a child, but now the majority of things are bagged up. Bad for the planet as well as for the purse!

That’s a shame. The supermarkets where I shop it is usually cheaper by a fair amount to buy loose carrots, onions, potatoes, apples etc than the pre-bagged versions.

it’s all savings that add up for a family.

Lots of people don’t have access to a full size supermarket - especially in rural areas. Our local Tesco sells a handful of things loose, everything else you have to buy pre-packed and so much of it goes bad before you get the chance to eat it.

Same, although vanilla ice cream sometimes. I’m often shocked by people’s shopping.

Yes because leg in plaster, is the same as a chronic illness or long-term disability, in terms of cooking and eating just have a seat they will be grand ! are you this naive about everything or just being obtuse ?

Unless you can’t sit up for very long
Unless you have so little energy you can’t lift pans or spend 20 mins preparing something
Unless your fingers are hurting so much you struggle to use a knife, hold tge spoon etc…
Unless you’re so forgetful you forget the cooker is on

Do you want me to carry in?

Abled really have no f* idea of how restrictive bring chronically ill or disabled is.
And no a leg in a plaster doesn’t count as a disability nor as a chronic illness

Yet you still haven't posted the recipe? Even though several posters have asked for it.

Go on share your recipe and do your bit to help the fatties!!

You can eat real food - salad, veg, meat, fish just by putting them in a microwave oven or air fryer ( as you would UPF)
No one needs to be cooking multi ingredient dishes.

The idea that because you are chronically ill or disabled means you need UPF snacks or food isn’t great.

I am just replying to the comment that it isn't always easy to just "cook" because the pp said that they struggled with cooking was dismissed and a seat was suggested!

As someone who has a physical disability it isn't always about "having a seat"

I buy more than 1 box of museli bars as after 2 lunches theyre gone.
I buy a meal kit box and only buy snacks, fruit, biscuits, ice cream, bread at supermarket...makes me laugh cos it looks like i only eat crap. As well as tge crap.
Instagram i dont use.
I only follow real meal creations online.

I'm currently off work for the summer and there are barely any snacks on the shop. Every meal is cooked from scratch and the kids are eating fruit as snacks and the odd homemade treat.

In term time both my husband and I work and I'm incredibly busy. Everyone still gets fed reasonably balanced meals but the shop probably has more processed food in it. My children are really active and doing all sorts of activities etc.

Judging others is joyless and watching what other people buy in their shopping on Instagram is mental.

When I have teens I will also obviously be buying snacks as well as cooking them healthy meals and providing as much fruit etc as I can afford. My mum was the sort where there was nothing in the house other than ingredients and it gave me a weird attitude to food/sometimes you just want a packet of crisps.

@MidnightMeltdown, The biggest supermarket where I am is Tesco and you can buy some veg and fruit loose but not all of them. The smaller supermarket stores don't sell them singly.

@takealettermsjones , @timtamsarebetterthanpenguins , I don't have the time to go around multiple different shops to get what I need I don't but there are greengrocer very near to the supermarket where I am.
You could always take the item you want out of the pack and scan it as a carrot or something (a bit naughty but so's only giving someone the option of buying 750g of something when they only need one of the contents).

I've never tried TimTams.

You're lucky, almost all the individual shops are gone from my high street.

It's not an issue for me as I'm shopping for a family of five so I need the big packs! My point was just that rather than trying to make the bad food less accessible, why not try to make the "good" food more accessible? I know, I know, less tax revenue, but let's face it - the current strategies are not working, are they.

The shops aren't in the high street, they're near the supermarket.

My point was just that rather than trying to make the bad food less accessible, why not try to make the "good" food more accessible?
Because people wont pay much for "good" food but they will for UPF.
Milk, for example, is dirt cheap if you consider the production costs but 'energy drinks' have a bigger profit margin.

If people educated themselves on nutrition the demand for 'unhealthy' food should go down, but instead you hear things like 'it's minging', 'the kids won't eat it', 'I haven't got the time/money...'.

🏅Here you go.

Sharing their grocery shopping on Instagram? Is that a thing? I share holiday snaps, selfies and pictures of my cat on Instagram, not my weekly shop? Tbh we have recently started going to a local farm shop rather than the supermarket in an effort to reduce waste and our snacks tend to be fruit, occasionally biscuits. We have a weekly treat of a slice of cake at the cafe connected to the farm shop but i don't think we buy a lot of snacks. I was surprised once when I saw a lady in a supermarket with two trolleys one of which was piled with multipack crisps, chocolate and sweets and while she probably had a family I wondered where she found the time/space to eat all that on top of the normal food in her other trolley.

It’s personal choice isn’t it. Personally my children used to complain that we rarely had chocolate or crisps. My children used to be absolutely hyper when they came back from certain places because they had being filled with sugar filled crap.

My husband and I choose not to eat crap, for our age we are in good shape, but not everybody wants to eat the way we eat either, when the children and grandchildren come for tea, I may bake a cake, but other than that I’m mean - soup for starters, generally a vegetarian dish with a couple of side dishes, possibly a crumble or stewed fruit with custard or ice cream, is a typical tea in my home. I have an allotment and I do like going to the over 50s excercise sessions at the leisure centre - it’s personal preference

It’s personal choice isn’t it. I don't think it is.

There seems to be a mentality of 'healthy food is too expensive'/'takes too long to prepare' etc.

Your meal sounds fine to me, but I think that many would go for a menu of basically UPF costing a lot more. The home cooking would take time but something like a crumble or stewed fruit would be quick.
I suspect the grandchildren think the food is amazing.

My mother's grandchildren make any excuse to get fed her home cooking.

This is not new. 30 years ago when DC were little I worked evenings in a huge supermarket. I was constantly amazed and shocked at at how little actual food some people bought. A lot of customers would buy what I considered a 'normal' shop of meat, veg, fruit, eggs, dairy and a few treat/snack items. However an awful lot more would have more crisps/biscuits/frozen pizzas/fizzy drinks than 'normal' food.

Still , I'm not one to judge. We are empty nesters now and my grocery deliveries are probably 50% normal food and 50% wine and gin.

Lifes very demanding so its a case of quick and easy to satify hunger.
Gives us all an excuse to diet too

@Namechangefordaughterevasion , when I go to the big supermarket near me, the baskets are quite surprising.

I only really notice if I'm stood behind someone but many shoppers seem to buy very heathy looking shopping (usually single men or young couples often with a very young child) and the family trolley shopper seems to have a trolley load of UPF (a child in it too).
The trolleys are usually accompanied by what looks like the whole family.

I think it's because there are a lot of newish flats in the area and it's a commuter town, and the supermarket is convenient by foot. The families probably come by car.

But a lot of it doesn't satisfy hunger. It just makes it go away for a little bit and make you ravenous not long later.
As for crisps and biscuits, they make me want more not satisfy my hunger.

Dieting doesn't work unless you make lifestyle changes.

What other people choose to do with their money is no business of mine. I find it odd that other people pay such close attention.

We're a snacky house, so sue us!

No need to sue you. You'll know about it when you're older. If you won't, your children might.