Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you have medical concerns, please seek medical attention; if you think your problem could be acute, do so immediately. Even qualified doctors can't diagnose over the internet, so do bear that in mind when seeking or giving advice. If you need to talk to someone in confidence, please contact Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity.
Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you have medical concerns, please seek medical attention; if you think your problem could be acute, do so immediately. Even qualified doctors can't diagnose over the internet, so do bear that in mind when seeking or giving advice. If you need to talk to someone in confidence, please contact Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity.
Eating disorders
I can’t stop buying food!
Hopefullynottheorangecreme · 09/07/2019 11:33
All of my adult life my weight and eating has been a struggle. I’ve been overweight, I’ve been underweight. I’ve struggled with bulimia both vomiting and laxative abuse. And I’ve restricted and starved to the point of being underweight.
I am now for the first time in my adult life pretty content to just be. I got myself some professional help as I was so alone with it all and it has always been something I kept very well hidden and felt very uncomfortable about and it really has helped.
There are times when I want to binge and times when I want to restrict but I am now using other distractions.
My only issue now is that I spend money on food that we don’t need SO OFTEN.
I’m hugely against food waste so it all gets eaten eventually especially as I have 2 hungry growing boys and have people over regularly to eat.
But for example this week I said I would only buy lunchbox bits in (so around a £15 spend) as we have a freezer full of food, food cupboards about to burst plus other boxes of crisps/treats in cupboards tucked away for weekends. I’ve ended up spending
Around £120 on food between different shops to the point I’ve struggled fitting it into the cupboards, fridge-freezer.
I’m so embarrassed by this as it’s so greedy to buy unnecessarily when many people struggle for food but I just can’t stop!
I used to hide high calorie foods in a big bag and always have it full when I was struggling and depending what was my issue at the time it was for different reasons.
If I was binging/purging it would be to binge on and if restricting it was a test to myself to know I could have my favourite foods to hand but never eat them (again I’m very embarrassed about this).
I think part of the excessive shopping is because I fear a disaster happening, having no money and not being able to feed my children and also I just fear food running out in general I think but this is ridiculous now.
I have enough food in the house to not need shop most of summer so I intend to try but I just was hoping for some advice or thoughts from anyone who has ever been the same or similar to this I suppose?
HennyPennyHorror · 09/07/2019 12:25
You say you fear disaster or not being able to afford to feed your children....so why don't you open a saving's account and put the money in there instead of in the pockets of the supermarkets?
Hopefullynottheorangecreme · 10/07/2019 09:54
That’s a great idea thank you!
I do actually having savings accounts for both of my children and my own savings account so maybe when I walk past a shop and feel like I “need” to go in and buy some food I’ll put £5 into each of the 3 accounts instead 😊 I love that!
MaverickSnoopy · 10/07/2019 10:00
I think what I would do is go through everything and make a list and stick it inside each cupboard so you KNOW what's it in there. A sort of tally chart that you can cross off as you use things. Then you've got more control over knowing what you have. I would see it as a bit of a hobby, "how little can I spend this week" and beating the last weeks spend, thus utilising what you already have in the cupboards.
I'm wondering if you need some counselling or behavioural therapy. I often buy food as treats. We're a bit skint atm so if we stay in and don't have a big day trip then we're saving money and instead I think we deserve deserve a treat. I need to stop this because I need to loose weight and buying random food treats for the weekend does not help. I probably have a bad relationship with food. Sounds like you do too.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.