Larger families.... shopping limits

[ThisMustBeMyDream]

Anyone else having issues in getting enough food to make a meal for their family? I can't afford (nor have time) to make seperate meals for everyone. But I can't get enough of the foods we eat as a family in some lines.

We use 4 packs of mushrooms and 5 packs of peppers per week. We are only allowed 3. Same for yogurts etc.

I am working, not from home. I don't have time for daily shopping as I finish at, rush back before after school club finishes and get the kids home for dinner which is already later than I'd like.

I have a delivery pass, but that appears to be totally useless at the minute. We are potentially to be isolating from today as one of the kids may possibly have a cough. Even if I could get a slot, I'd need several slots in the week and you can't even get half the stuff you need anyway.

We don't have anyone to bring us food either. 🤷

Is it worth approaching the supermarket manager to discuss individual requirements?

I saw a woman have 1 of her 4 muller bloody lights removed from her today. I mean I understand restrictions in some areas. But most people would not consider 4 yogurts excessive/panic buying.

Help!

Went to edit my Tesco order due in a few weeks time and was embarrassed that I had more than 3 bottles of wine in there and a note on the website said I now could only order a maximum of 3.

We’ve got this conundrum, buying for 6 which includes an oap parent who can’t get out. By the time I finish work the shelves are bare. Have been doing little and often or visiting several supermarkets( didn’t get home until 8 pm Fri) but surely that increases contact which seems really silly.

Lots of people pn other thread admitted buying 3 months of food.

They were people who are preppers, and whilst I'm not a prepper it's fairly obvious that people buying a little extra whilst normal supply and demand can keep up isn't causing the shortages in the shops now.

Shops adjust their stock based on what's selling. The stores haven't been empty since January, or November, or whenever preppers started prepping.

At a time when shops are being cleared then everyone needs to make adjustments. If that means having fewer packs of biscuits a week, or using 1 pepper instead of 2, using half a pack of mushrooms Inna dish rather than a full one, having to top up midweek and so on, then so be it. It's not a huge ask to ensure that everyone can get what they need.

Yes we are finding it difficult and we are both key workers so by the time we finish work shelves are empty.

We also can’t go in early as we aren’t in one of the keyworker groups the supermarkets deem worthy ( no attack on nhs staff there but it is very dismissive of the rest of us struggling to keep it together too)

We all have to make sacrifices.

If you eat 4 packs of mushrooms a week you need to use slightly less and use 3 packs.

Most people are having to watch what they use, wether is a larger or smaller family.

I still cant get in the shops, between working all the hours god sends, to get hundreds of people set up for home working and the shops being emptied, we are having to cut back. I have 2 kids and dp. Dp is vulnerable so cant shop and certainly cant take the kids, which he would need to. While I work.

So not a large family, but still having to cut back.

The we all have to make sacrifices crap is just as bad.

We’re meant to be distancing and isolating as much as possible to slow the spread but once our last shop runs out (we shop monthly with small top ups) and dp’s back at work I’ll need to shop daily with two under two and I’m in the stay in for 12weeks category.

And that’s simply because our ASDA is crap, ds1 has multiple allergies, ds2 is fortunately mostly bf but he still craps and they don’t do the wipes ds1 can use in multipacks, nor do they do multi packs of dairy free anything besides two flavours of fruit packs that he’s allergic to.

Rips my head with all the packaging but usually I’d be able to go a few towns over to a large store that does multipacks etc.

Surprisingly using more than 3 yogurts a week isn’t uncommon.. considering there’s 3 of us with different dietary needs, the 4th is well behaved so far lol.

OP you've had a rough ride on this thread - lack of empathy seems to be on the rise. Every member of your family has a right to eat as much food as they need - it is not your fault that people have been buying stocks for months ahead. Hopefully people will revert to normal shopping habits soon. This crisis has brought the best and the worst out in people as is evident from this thread.

Dh ordered some seeds and we are going to grow our own veg in the garden. We do that anyway as have a veg patch.

Is that an option? Obviously doesn't help in the short run though.

I would keep looking online too. I have been keeping an eye on click and collect slots and a random one came up for two weeks time so grabbed it. Guess someone must have just cancelled.

Dh ordered some seeds and we are going to grow our own veg in the garden. We do that anyway as have a veg patch. Sorry but 🤣🤣🤣

Having tried to grow my own veg in the past - the produce wouldn't feed a family of four for more than a couple of meals! I gave way to the efficiency and knowledge of people who know better - the farmers!

Whilst it’s clear that some people have stockpiled a lot of people are simply suddenly faced with needing a lot more food at home.

Until the schools closed I had two teens and two primary DC who were eating school lunch every day, plus the teens would buy their own snacks to/from school.

DH and I bought lunch every day and 3 breakfast a week between us.

We ate out for one weekend lunch a week and two evening dinners a week.

That’s a total of 48 extra individual meals I’m now making at home. It amounts to a significant amount of extra food.

I had to go shopping 3 times this week to get everything I needed. And still had to send my son to a different shop to try and find toilet roll.

Mine get free school meals, so I'm having to find the extra money to feed them at lunch times now. Luckily I'd bought some extra bits just in case and have told them they're only allowed 3 things for lunch (sandwich, then a choice out of fruit, yoghurt, cereal bar, crisps) so it all lasts longer.

I had been kind of prepping before this (just buying a few extra tins or a couple of extra packets of pasta etc before anyone thinks I was buying the whole supermarket) so have enough stuff in for dinners for about 3 weeks. Some of it may not be the healthiest dinner ever, but at least we have food.

@PegasusReturns Whilst it’s clear that some people have stockpiled a lot of people are simply suddenly faced with needing a lot more food at home
Absolutely - My kids and dh used to eat breakfast and lunch outside the home 5 days a week and we ate out at least once...2 meals a day for 5 days, for 3 people - that's 30 extra meals I have to buy for (we've decided to swap the restaurant meal for a takeaway) but also i used to undershop every week and top up at the end - now I don't want to go anywhere near a supermarket - so I am ordering a full week's stuff.

I'm most definitely buying more because we need more!

@OhMsBeliever Can you not get help with the free school meals thing - I thought the Gov were supposed to be providing extra?

You need to change how you cook, and use other items to bulk out your meals. We are a small family but I have changed how I cook and am avoiding food waste and left overs. The adults have reduced their portion sizes. My DC have a food intolerance and I am now limited in how much we can buy of the special products - I am just having to be creative ... and substitute items

I went to My local towns market yesterday and loads of fruit and veg, stop thinking of supermarkets as your only option.

I've just seen a local cafe selling off fresh food, veg etc that they can't obviously make into meals now. It might be worth getting in touch with some local places to you. Either that or your local fruit and veg shops or markets. Good luck!

I'm in California and restaurants who were ordered closed were doing the same thing Woofwoof, selling off or giving away fresh ingredients.

But a lot of them stopped once it was announced they were allowed to remain open in 'takeaway only' mode.

This thread is illogical, it's perfectly reasonable that 'fair share' is a relative not a universal concept.
Fair share for my family isn't the same as fair share for your family, it just means adequate and not excessive quantities for individual needs.

I agree with Hazelnutlatteplease This is what rationing is for.

I have a friend with eleven children all living at home, what's she going to do with 3 cans of tomatoes? 'shop every day'? Expose extra family members to unnecessary risk? Endanger the disabled ones further?

No. It's mad.
Over buying isn't fair and neither is deliberately making it even more difficult to cater for a families needs.

PS
Can people stop buying the gluten free foods because the regular ones have run out please?

Op, sorry I haven't read the full thread as I need to put the kids to bed, but I wondered if you could buy it and take to to the car then return and boy the repeat bits you couldn't get the first time round? Not ideal I know, but it might be your only option.