Really cheap really filling snacks

[Waoop]

If you had to provide snacks in a rented home for 4 days for 30 people and wanted them to be really inexpensive what would you choose?

Context: family rental for 4 days in October the cost covered by the invitees.

We have been allocated snacks for 4 days as our contribution and we are trying to disguise that we have a very very small budget. Financially we are really struggling. The exact brief was a 'snack basket for each room'

There are three main meals a day, but from seeing what people are planning for these some are really light. Yogurt and fruits for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. We are in charge of the snacks so expect people maybe hungry.

Looking for really cheap and filling snacks. We have more time than money so we can shop from multiple stores.

What sort of budget should we set aside and what would you recommend?

https://www.walkersshortbread.com/giant-shortbread-fingers-display-box-40-packets/

packet of shortbread each

These are your closest family members and presumably mostly grown adults. Nobody will be traumatised if they don't get enough snacks in their room. Just go with the obvious crowd pleasers of apples, bananas, something salty and something sweet. For the love of god don't do the fancy carrot sticks/hummus/cottage cheese platter that the MN ED brigade are convinced everyone loves. Not a single person on holiday will be eating sweaty hummus and wilted veg in their room.

I would do crudités and homous, bread sticks etc

fruit platters

Surely these wouldn't stay fresh for 3 days in their bedrooms without refrigeration though?

Lidl do cheap tear and share choc chip brioche- £2, will last at least a couple of days.
Farmfoods do posh looking chocolate biscuits for £1, and have Pringles 3 for £5. You can get a sharing bag of sweets for under £1 too
apples, bananas and satsumas- 1 per person if they might not be wanted.
Asda cheese straws are nice and inexpensive.
maybe some pouches of olives from Tesco?£1
And the Ploughman’s lunches by openshaw are good too (but at £1.50 each, more expensive per person than the rest of my list)
maybe split a multipack of galaxy ripples (4 for £1.70 in Asda)

Id be looking at 'approved food' 'I wonder what's next' and 'low priced foods'. You can get offers on snacks with reasonable best before dates, but obviously far cheaper.

What about checking
https://approvedfood.co.uk/ and similar sites for past the BB date snacks in bulk?

Combine that with some catering size boxes of crisps or v cheap bags of tortilla chips and homemade flapjacks (cook ahead and store / freeze) (if you can be bothered with the cooking) then some boxes/ bags to divvy them all up and you're all set.

the main question I have is if people are bothered about supermarket own brands or if they are picky and would prefer Walkers, Cadbury, etc. If the latter then definitely head to Costco. Otherwise I would do Lidl and get the biggest multipacks you can of things like chocolate, crisps, breakfast bars, sweets, popcorn etc. Don’t worry about filling, your job is snacks not meals. It’s more important it’s what people fancy.

Unhealthy snacks tend to be cheaper. I’m thinking tortillia chips, biscuits eg custard creams, pretzel.

This. Might be worth buying online if you don't know anyone with a membership that can get you into a warehouse

Yeah crisps and chocolate really.

Biscuits are a super cheap option, you can buy tons of biscuits for really little cost, and cookie packets are an awesome snack because they tie up with a cup of coffee/tea.

I think like a packet of chocolate bourbons, custard creams, cookies all own brand, they come in clear packets inside so no one needs to know they are cheap! Like 70p and you can split one packet of each per room as they come in strips of 2.

Jammy dodgers & jaffa cakes too.

Pringles are a shout if you go to b&m, if you didn't want to do crisps but they are my favourite snacks.

Could buy a bulk load of pot noodles if you find them on offer. Think that would be about £20 for 30 people.

Flapjacks. b&m do pretty large individual ones for 39p each, and I really like them so do my kids

Could boil a ton of eggs, eggs are great and filling but idk if you'd want the effort of telling people they need eating by xyz

Are families sharing? If so you could actually do the apple/peanut butter jar/loaf of bread. Won't work if it's 30 individual baskets but if it's more 'per room' than per person its a not a bad idea.

Brioche bun packets, I think there is 8 for £1.50

If theres space to cook you could even stick a tin of soup/beans/tuna in each one, they can make sandwiches or beans on toast for snacks too.

Lidl do nice mock mars bars/snickers bars.

DIY m&s munch mix? Get big bags of popcorn, pretzels, choc etc and mix into individual containers per room.

A few packs of digestive or rich tea biscuits to go with tea and coffee

Bags of apples

I've actually posted that assuming it's a per person / per room deal.

But now I've just realised it might be down to you to just dump a bunch of shopping somewhere, in which case this gets waaay easier.

Go to the supermarket and just buy the cheap mini mars bars smarties etc the multipacks. Also cheap wrapped biscuits. Some fruit and some bags of popcorn.

The too good to go app has a delivery tab and there are often bulk snack things hugely reduced. They might be close to the best before date, but they taste fine. Currently have mini cheddars in bulk.

pop corn
box of fruit from green grocer.
oatmeal based baked slice cut into small fingers
crackers and cheese
cheese slices and bread - for toasties.
cans of baked beans
large packets of corn chips
ANZAC biscuits
Gingernut biscuits
Large low price fruit cake.
Honey Joys and Chocolate Crackles

Decide a reasonable list then shop when cheap deals are available.

Home Bargain. B& M, Iceland. and Farmfoods.

Buy wrapped flapjacks,chocolate,crisps, cakes,popcorn,cereal bars and biscuits.

If this were me I think I’d go with:

Bagels / bread to toast with butter/ Nutella/ jam / pate - I’d assume maybe 15-20 bagels and a couple of loaves of bread
Spanish tortillas - I’d make 2-3 frying pan sized ones
Cheese (just cheddar and Brie or something) and crackers - maybe a couple of boxes of Jacob’s cracker assortment
60 bags crisps - various flavors

1 large tray brownies - enough for 20 small brownies
1 large tray flapjacks - enough for 20 small flapjacks
10 supermarket cakes (assume 6 slices per cake, so 2 slices per person over the 4 days)- maybe 3 carrot, 4 Victoria sponge, 3 chocolate

Oh and fruit

First day, jam donuts. Personally loathe them but they are the cheapest thing if that ilk.

Oh just seen it’s for snack baskets… that’s annoying

Crisps, popcorn, pretzels, fruit

5 x pack 6 apples x 75p- £4.50
4 x pack of 8 satsuma x £1- £4
20 cheap packets of biscuits x 40p- £8
20 boiled eggs x 15p- £3
5 x pack 6 crumpets x 50p- £3
4 pots of cheap hummus x 50p- £2
2 x 1kg carrots cut into sticks x 70p- £1.40
5 x pack 6 pitta bread x 50p- £2.50
4 x pack cheap crackers x 50p- £2
2 x block of cheap cheddar x £3- £6

£35.40

hope that gives you some ideas! X

I wouldn’t go overboard to compensate for others not providing enough. Assume that the three meals will be adequate and it’s others fault if they aren’t. For each room snack box I’d provide a couple of packs of biscuits, a share bag of crisps, few chocolate bars (buy multipacks), and a couple of bananas (1 per person in room).

Make popcorn and decant into little bags/paper bags.

Make your own lemon biscuits or cookies.

Oat bars, granola bars and flapjacks - you can also make these.

Have to say the holiday sounds miserable though with everyone trying to spend as little money as possible.

Make up a few lemon or banana or carrot loafs and slice them up.