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Is your family full of big eaters?

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nutgoneflake | 13:49 Sat 06th Oct 2007 | Family & Relationships
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Just got back from the supermarket, where I love looking in other people's trollies to see what they eat, and this has made me curious about how much people spend on food, and what they eat. You see such odd things being bought!

How much do you spend per week? I feed my two boys well, and healthily, but I'd love to know how many children you have to feed, and what kinds of food they'd eat every day, what do you give them as treats, if any - that sort of thing.

It's not a shopping survey - I know it sounds like it!! I'm just intrigued. Sometimes it feels like I spend a fortune, but without anyone else to compare with, it's impossible to tell!
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hi we spend a fortune too. i have two boys age 1 and 2. they are both big aeters. they like cereal or jam on toast for breakfast. they have either a jam or cheese spread sandwich for lunch or something on toast and for dinner they have either mash or pasta or rice. they like meatballs with pasta. chicken and rice, mash with sausage. i dont buy many sweets my boys eat a lot of bananas and love the small packs of raisins
Our shopping is for 2 Adults and a 12 year old

Shopping is between �70 and �90 a week

Lots of fresh fruit and veg, fresh meat and fish, no throw in the oven processed foods.
Question Author
I forgot to put ours - I spend about �80 a week on 2 adults, two boys 4 and 6, and that's with a lot of hesitation over things - shall I buy two and get another free? Would I have got that if it hadn't been on offer? Do we REALLY need this? Have I spent too much already? Shall I get the bigger one or leave it 'til next week? You know the sort of thing!!

I'd love one week just to go round and get the things I'd like to get without thinking of the cost at the end. Just once!!
I spend around �120 per week on the "big shop" that lasts from Sunday to Friday - I spend about another �15 during the week on milk, bread and stuff that I have run out of or that I have forgotten. I probably spend about another �40-�50 on food at the weekend if we don't go out. That's for two adults and two boys of 7 and 6. We go through about 4 pints of milk and a loaf of bread every day.

I guess we do eat a lot and I buy a lot of organic things and I have a taste for the good things in life! My kids are now the same I am ashamed to say. We don't really buy sweets and stuff and although I will buy some ready meals to stretch out the week, I do make things like bolognaise or roast chicken during the week.

That would also include our packed lunches etc.

A typical food day for the kids would be:

Porridge or cereal for breakfast with fruit juice and a piece of fruit and usually a croissant or brioch to take to breakfast club - they don't like the food at breakfast club - they will have milk there.

they have a banana for morning break.

Sandwiches, drink, raisins, orange, grapes, fruit winder and a biscuit for lunch,

Cheese straws (or sometimes crisps) for afternoon snack at school - then a probiotic and a piece of toast or a scone with jam when they come home from school.

A main meal e.g. bolognaise, macaroni cheese etc, - they eat as much as an adult, followed by pudding of yoghurt or pancakes or fruit salad and custard with a glass of milk then time for bed.

My husband and I eat considerably less!!

Now I know where all our money goes.

I spend over �40 a month on apples!
Annie0000 - you can start saving money straight away by cutting out the probiotics,

Healthy children with a good diet simply do not need them.

There is no proof whatsoever that they do any good - except make millions for the companies that advertise them so much.
Hi Ethel, my older son has always had a delicate tummy - i have found that since he has been drinking these, he has been a lot better. Then again, it may be co-incidence! :0)
annie- your boys eat loads! Mine does too, hes only 4 and eats almost as much as me. I bought those probiotic drinks once because they were on offer but they are just too expensive. Instead i buy a big tub of plain natural live yoghurt, my boy loves this with a bit of honey and sometimes with fruit like strawberries in.
I have a limit of �50 to spend on food each week for me and my 4 yr old boy. But i sometimes go over this as its not always enough. I only buy loose fruit and veg, meat from our local butcher, where i get more and better for my money. Fish, eggs and cheese and pasta, rice, potatoes, cereals, bread from bakery. tins of beans like kidney etc. snacks i get are usually rice cakes, bread sticks, nuts and seeds and dried fruit. I do occasionally buy biscuits or cakes. I get my milk from the milkman. I never buy anything organic. I'll give my boy a treat of ice cream, sweets or chocolate very occasionally as a reward. I dont buy squash or fizzy drinks, just pure fruit juice but we mainly drink water and tea for me.
For breakfast my boy eats cereal like weetabix, ready brek.
I cook a meal from scratch every evening and include loads of veg in everything i make. I even make my own fish fingers and own baked beans! Then its fruit and usually natural yoghurt and honey for pudding. For lunch if at home he has something like boiled egg and toast or soup. he also has snacks in between meals; milk, nuts, fruit, dry cereal, rice cakes etc.
I spend about �50 per week on staple foods, divided into 2 big shops, fortnightly, then about �20 per week on milk, bread, fresh meat etc
I have recently cut right back, because we had so much waste. I go to aldi, lidl, tesco, farmfoods and somerfield to try and get the best buys. I have also bought a big chest freezer (�40) from ebay to take advantage of the reduced meat at the supermaket and bread offers.The freezer is currently stocked with the summers blackberries that we have had great fun collecting. I grow vey in the garden and have done my own pickled gherkins, red cabbage and beetroot.
We have all our meals made from scratch apart from an occassional pizza. I bake the cake and cookies, once in a while
Food is so expensive, the client group I work with have to do everything on �52 per week, I have no idea how they have a healthy diet on that, well I know, they don't.

O h yeah we are mum, dad and one large 5 year old boy who eats like a horse, as does his dad who is 6ft 5in, perhaps I should have married a smaller guy lol.
I think the reason we spend so much on food is that I don't really have that much time to plan and economise especially as we both work - and also as we don't live an extravangant lifestyle otherwise, I feel that we both work hard and deserve to treat ourselves! I would rather go out for dinner, or have something really nice for dinner than buy clothes or get my nails done or something.

The kids do have a big appetite but then they are both very tall for their age - and not overweight at all as they do a lot of exercise. They are always on the go even if it only football in the back garden or a bike trip. A trip to the park or woods costs nothing especially if you take a snack or picnic with you.

Amonty - I make great homemade pizzas - much better than dominos/pizza hut!
I honestly couldn't tell you what i spend on food per week. We go through a hell of a lot in our house i have 3 teenage daughters a 4 year old and a 4 month old and of course my husband so that 7 of us. I lose count of how much it costs by the middle of the week.
I do a Tesco delivery shop about once a week which costs me about �45, but I do buy stuff from the corner shop all the time.. pretty much every time I go past. Bah. I basically spend all my wages on food...
Most of my disposable income seems to go on food too. I spend about �50-�60 per week at Tesco for 2 adults, 2 cats and 1 guinea pig but that doesn't include milk.
I like to think that I don't buy rubbish - I occasionally buy ready made stuff but I prefer to cook from fresh if I have time and I do buy lots of fruit.
i also shop online at tesco, there are seven of us and I spend approx �90 per week (�10-15 topup shopping)

I often buy organic or 'natural' products and make a lot of meals from scratch (yes I love cooking mad I know!!)

many other people I know buy ready meals and spend a hell of a lot more than me for fewer people but they simply don't have the time ....
Question Author
Thanks for all those answers!

I cook from scratch and also make a point on Sundays of doing a roast, or making a big chicken pie, with loads of veg (and yorkie puds - every week!)

A typical day for the boys would be:

Cereal or porridge for breakfast. and maybe toast.

They have free fruit at school mid morning, and their lunchboxes have cheese, ham or pate sandwiches, more fruit, either whole, or cut up with yogurt or custard. Sometimes I make mini jellies in little pots too. They also have mini scotch eggs, or cheese and biscuits, and raisins or a fruit bar.

After school, I bring them a cake or flapjack that I've made.

Their tea could be casserole, or pasta and cheese. They LOVE fresh fish, home-made pizza, fishfingers or chicken. Rice with chicken, tuna or home-made curry. Poppadums too! Sometimes I do a mini roast, or a small pie that I make at the same time as the big one. Other big favourites are chicken kiev which is the only thing I buy ready-made, and gammon. They have a lot of baked potatoes, or new potatoes, and once a week they have oven chips.

Afterwards they have fruit and custard, or ice cream, or yogurt, or their top favourite - cherry bakewells! (I have been known to make those too!)

We also have a box of small sweets, eg cola bottles and jelly beans etc, and they're allowed 4 a day. Some of them count as 1, some 2, and some as 4. Little sugar letters count as half - good for maths! They don't have them every day as they often forget, which is great!! I strongly believe that having a few is a good way to help them understand the good and bad of food.

The oldest understands completely about eating a healthy diet, and he'll often tot up his day's food to work out if he's "earned" his sweet ration!

We eat a lot of the same, but with more grown-up stuff like chilli or curry, and we also have salad,
Question Author
oops - fell off the bottom! That should have said:

"...salad, which the boys won't touch!!"
Two years ago, I worked on the tills at Asda, and was amazed at what people brought. One christmas a man came through the till with three trolly's, overflowing. It took 20 mins to go through.
there are 5 of us in our house plus various animals
we spend about �120 a month on a big food shop and then maybe �20-�30 top up on the fresh stuff during the weeks.
typical meals are
cereal and fruit for brekkie
fruit or cereal bar for snack at school
usual pack up (sandwiches, fruit, cake, yogurt)
fruit or crisps or cake after school
proper from scratch dinner( although chip shop sometimes as a treat)
we keep chickens so never buy eggs and grow a small amount of fruit and veg ourselves. also make my own bread and cakes too for the most.
sweet stuff is a treat as is fizzy drinks, kept for the weekends.
I get inventive with things in the freezer a lot ( fish finger pie is a good standby the week before payday lol)
Question Author
We're hoping to move soon, and my priority is a garden big enough to have some fruit trees and grow some veg. Now I'm thinking about chickens too....!
Oh you HAVE to get some chickens, they make the best pets ever! I currently have 3 'big' chickens (hens) and 6 'baby' chicks, of which we don't know which are hens and which are roosters!
It will get better eventually when the children grow up and move out. On more than one occasion I have come home from work to find that my teenage son had eaten the meal prepared for four people!

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