Is my live-out nanny eating too much of my food?

[confusedperson]

I just hired a live-out nanny for my two DC. Before hiring, she asked if she is allowed to eat our food. To be honest, I hadn't thought about it, so I said yes thinking that she will eat what is served for children (normal quality food which I would eat myself). I have a meal plan and I always half-prepare lunch and tea myself, she only needs to cook/serve.
To my surprise, I noticed that a lot more food is consumed than the provided lunch, tea and snacks. Like the almost the whole loaf of bread per day, third of packet of spreadable butter per day (surely 1 adult and 2 under 4 wouldn't eat that much?), 8 yogurts that I bought for one of my DC are gone in 3 days (usually he has 1 per day with us), a big yogurt that I bought for her is also gone, some days 3 eggs are gone (not on the menu), or half of jar of peanut butter in 2 days. I don't think she gives all that to children (cos it's not on the menu), so must be eating her self. She is a young slim girl but still... I like her otherwise, children like her too, but I feel like she is going to make me go bankrupt. It is only been 3 weeks with her, and I am still watching, but I feel it's too much. I don't want to start counting what she eats, and I don't want to demotivate her, but I think is abnormous. I just did shopping last Sunday.. .for days on, the fridge is completely empty, and still weekdays to go.
What would you do?

Is it not possible that these people are having friends over to help them eat?

I agree that the obvious answer is that she is having people over for lunch or snack - as I often do. I nanny for 1 child but if our nanny friend comes over lunch needs to stretch to 2 adults and 3 children.

How old is your nanny? I ask because the thing that leapt to my mind was, could she be bulimic? I was when I was a teenager (fortunately 20+ years ago!) and yoghurts, creme fraiche, scoops of peanut butter etc just scream that to me.

Obviously I could be completely off track and she's just a gannet, but might be worth thinking about.

Where is the op? Have we had an update

i think shes taking your food home with her and stuffing herself during the day!!
the comment of 'am i allowed to eat your food?' is a bit strange I think.

why are you feeding her anyway? as IGGLY says why would an employer feed an employee, sure a cuppa and a biscit or soup, roll or sandwich with the kids i suppose but why more, isnt it normal to bring own food to work.

she doesnt live with you so cant understand why you would feed her?

It is usual to feed a nanny for reasons explained earlier on thread . But usually it's only snacks (bread ,ham/cheese, fruit ,yoghurt , biscuits ) so doesn't break the bank as its no more than parents would eat If at home. Neither of my nannies have eaten breakfast at work but I wouldnt have an issue with them having toast/ cereal.

OP I remember this thread when you started it and I always think about it when I baulk at how much my nanny eats at our house. She starts work at 9am (she lives an 8 min walk away) and she always has 2 boiled eggs with toast and her dd has cereal while I take ds to school ....

I would never begrudge her food at lunchtime of course, I'm a little about the breakfasts to be honest though. And her snacking is amazing.. before Christmas I bought a 400g bar of white chocolate to make some christmas presents. My own fault really I should have told her I needed it, but I was more stunned that she managed to eat the whole lot in 2 days. I asked ds and he said they had a couple of pieces (I know she's very good about restricting the amount of sugary stuff the kids have) each day. She has eaten a whole litre tub of cubes of fudge I made before Christmas - she's been back at work 3 days since the break We get through five or six packets of biscuits a week and she only works 3 days.

Actually reading that back, what I'm more stunned about is how she's managed to stay a size 8. She's tiny

The crowd is demanding an update, and here I am!
I have not confronted my nanny yet. Tried to work out in different ways, but no success so far. I told her many times ?please tell me what you like eating and I will get for you? (so it would be defined amount of snacks for her for, let?s say, for a week). She always says ?I am fine I don?t need anything?. I still count her in when I buy yogurts or things.
Admittedly I started buying less snacks, since our food bill was going out of the roof. She remains funny in her eating, though. The ?top? food nowadays is fruit. I usually get a load off high street, fill up the bowl on Saturday, and for our family it used to last for a week. With her, it is almost empty after one day, and always gone by the end of a second day. Is she having 15 pieces of fruit a day?? In this case, the problem is not even fruit cost (£5-6 per load) but no sense of moderation or respect to an employer. Even if allowed to eat I would not pig out in my employer?s house.
She does not have playdates or visitors. My older DS would have told me. She is new in the area and does not know anyone.
The children seem happy and the addition to food bill, if it?s up to £100/month, is manageable, so I am avoiding any unnecessary confrontation or embarrassment (for her), but I grit my teeth at disappointment at someone seemingly taking advantage on me.
It?s only 8 months to go until my older DS starts school, hoping to use afterschool club and nursery, and hoping to never use a nanny again.

headfairy that?s a lot!
My nanny is also size 8! Is yours young nanny? People here seem to notice that young people eat more!

I think you need to mention it. She must be taking it home. She must.

OP: By asking her regularly if there is anythng you can buy for her, I think it must appear to her that you are fine with everything she is eating.

It's impossible to say whether she is taking it home or just a very faddish eater who doesn't put on the pounds.

If it really is 15 pieces of fruit, I would say something to her about it. In my preferred passive aggressive way, I would probably go: "I was packing my lunch and I noticed that there wasn't any fruit left at all, the bowl was full yesterday. THat seems like a lot of fruit for the children to eat, can you please make sure that they limit it to a couple of pieces a day."

Same goes for the other stuff.

She will get the message.

I know 8 months isn't that long but if you aren't exaggerating at all, I think it is nonetheless a long time to feel cross about something too.

When our au pair was doing things like saying: Can I eat this yoghurt? Which I disvoered meant THE ENTIRE PINT POT in one sitting rather than a portion, I started just saying: "Great news, there's some berries and yoghurt in the fridge. Please make sure to help yourself to HALF" that worked fine. Seriously, I was worried about it before hand but it has been okay in the end.

confused she's youngish - week compared to me , she's 30.

I do sometimes do something similar to LadyHarriet, and casually comment on how quickly such and such has gone. For us for a while it was apple juice, we used to get through 6 litres a week. I've always asked her not to give too much juice to the kids because of the teeth thing, and to be honest I think she'd kind of forgotten and was giving them pints of the stuff every day rather than drinking it herself, but I guess it amounts to the same thing though.

We have started hiding things we want to save for a specific thing, or I do sometimes specifically say "please could you leave the xyz for something I'm making at the weekend" but the chocolate thing caught me out. I didn't expect her to tuck in to it quite so enthusiastically!