[Palooka]

And I'm not happy about it, but I had to be.

Rules to kids....

No more than 3 boxes of cereal a week and no more filling the bowl 2 to 3 times at one sitting. Run out....too bad. Eat oatmeal, toast, or my 19 year old can buy her food if she is not happy.

Cheese, it's becoming a delicacy here.

Bread is coming from Aldi now.

Peanut butter....stop the insanity of 2 jars a week.

I had to go there and be a meanie mommy.

Our grocery spending is way out of control.

 

[Libby]

You do what you have to do to get you through the tough times. No need to feel bad for stopping the over eating - you're doing everyone a favour

 

[NikoSan999]

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...even if it makes you feel like crap

 

[Lori63]

And I'm not happy about it, but I had to be.

Rules to kids....

No more than 3 boxes of cereal a week and no more filling the bowl 2 to 3 times at one sitting. Run out....too bad. Eat oatmeal, toast, or my 19 year old can buy her food if she is not happy.

Cheese, it's becoming a delicacy here.

Bread is coming from Aldi now.

Peanut butter....stop the insanity of 2 jars a week.

I had to go there and be a meanie mommy.

Our grocery spending is way out of control.

You sound like me! I've always had to hide food-mind you, there is PLENTY but any extra gets eaten so I randomly put things elsewhere for awhile.
I am down from 3 boys to 2 (19 and 15), and they seem to think drinking wateris abuse.
You don't like something, too bad.

 

[ladytoysdream]

When our kids were growing up, I had to be the meanie.
We have 7, 4 from my first marriage, and 3 from his.
6 boys and 1 girl. Teen age boys have appetites non stop.

Cereal had a rule. So many boxes a week, and then it was pancakes, eggs, toast, etc. Big pots of spaghetti, chili, goulash, stew, etc. If you did not like what I made for a meal, you made yourself a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Hunting season meant venison. I used to bake from scratch almost every day so they had a afternoon treat after school. Sometimes something had to be used for another meal, and I had to mark that bowl in the frig, NO SNACKING.

We had a good size garden. When it was berry season, they would go out and pick wild berries with me.
I did canning and always had to put up lots of pints of jam each year. I remember one year finding a sale on peanut butter. I don't remember the price but it was near expiration so it was a very good deal. I do remember I bought 60 jars of it.
I remember using a lot of coupons and getting refunds. We had low income. And all our kids learned if they wanted something, they had to figure it out. They had summer jobs, etc.

 

[Nishu]

I dunno what it is about cereal but it seems most people can sit and refill their bowl several times. My kids can do it and I tell them the same thing, after one bowl you can go get some fruit or something.

 

[ubumartin]

I have to hide snack food. I have 4 girls so snacks never last in my house. There is always someone who says " I didn't even have one cookie and they are gone!" I think the fear is that they won't get something so they have to eat it as soon as I come home from shopping. They always say "why do you buy food if you don't want us to eat it!" I don't mind but I would like things to last more than a day or two.

 

[Dancing Lotus]

I had to be the food meanie here too. Sad thing is it's not so much with mine as it with all the neighborhood kids. We had to tell the kids one snack per visit unless I offer you more! They ate two boxes of Popsicles in a week.

I think it's normal for kids to snack more in the summer because I'm hearing a lot of mommies complain.

 

[Debbie-cat]

Good for you! Being the food police not only helps with the budget but it saves them from overeating. I find kids overeat more in the summer when they are home .... Probably because they are bored.

 

[l8eebugg]

Funny, hear that comment lots of time. I agree, "Can it just last a couple of days?" Not with teenagers around, I hide stuff or do the stickie note thing. The sticky note lead to "Why not?" so I usually just hide stuff. Pepperoni is the big thing here in the summer. A bag will go inti making two big pasta salads...half the time when I go to make the salad it is gone. Rrrrr! LOL think they search for it.

 

[wanderlusting]

my mom used to put all the snacks into a cabinet with a lock. She saved those snacks for our school lunches. If she left them out, me and my brother would eat them all in a few days!

 

[MissSeetonFan]

I have a friend that had to lock her pantry. Not only lock it but get those special keys that are dual cut on the top and another cut half-way on the side (keys are mostly used for businesses) so the boys couldn't pick the lock because they would.

I'm having to start limiting my kids. They aren't very old yet (oldest is 6). But they will pick at their meals then run in the kitchen and snack on cereal when I'm not paying attention.

 

[Palooka]

Yeah, I agree it's gotta be because it's summer.

The other day my step-daughter had waffles and eggs for breakfast. About 15 minutes later she ate pancakes from the freezer. About an hour later she ate chicken nuggets and about an hour later she wanted cereal. Argh!

 

[Ashley01]

I take in kids and I normally only have to feed the older ones one snack but now the older ones are here all day and WOW do they eat!!! Durning lunch they each get a piece of bread/butter or peanut butter with there lunch. If they are still hungry after there snack (snack is usually fruit, crackers, yogurt, apple sause, veggies etc) they can have toast, or crackers with peanut butter. I have to do it or else they'd eat everything!! They'd each try and eat am entire big tub of yogurt!! It's crazy how much these kids eat!!

 

[pollypurebred39]

I swear the best thing I do for crazy snacking is muffins. I use a homemade muffin mix that I posted in the food forum. Depending on which flavor you chose it's cheap, cheap, cheap! I just buy flour and sugar in bulk and price goes way down. I also make corn muffins, and batches of easy no-knead breads. Spread with bit of butter or jam and their happy. Yeast can be expensive so I buy in bulk and the price is so inexpensive that way it's shocking. Stored in the freezer it never goes bad. Air popped popcorn is a regular here, I also buy popcorn kernels in bulk. Spray with oil you've put in a sprayer and salt and spice if you wish. I'm not sure there is a cheaper crunchy snack than that. Other then that I swear by homemade popsicles, also dirt cheap. They satisfy the need to have a snack and take awhile to eat. Eat them too fast and you get brain freeze.

Anything pre-made is going to rock your bank account. Produce prices are crazy so that's available for limited snacking only in this house. I also stay away from milk products and meats for snacking. I'll say this, but I'm positive you already do this Palooka, dried beans made into dips and for spreading on bread is inexpensive and filling. I've become the bean queen and it does stretch those food dollars like nothing else.

 

[Shelli_wnj]

yup, I'm the food meanie here, too. If you start snacking too much, no snacks for you for a few days until you start eating more at meals. Then you can have snacks back. (That doesn't include the 3:00 snack - holds you over between lunch and dinner. To me that's a 4th meal ) Anyway, it keeps them from relying so hard on the snacks. And cereal is a snack here!

 

[Syn D]

I've been the Food Police for like 25 yrs.. All food had to be budgeted and still does..

At one point for some years, I only had $150 a month total for food and that was feeding a family of 6.. I got all excited when we moved out of Cali. and was able to go up to $350 a month (added to food budget what we were saving in gas from hubbys drive to work going from 100 miles a day to 25 miles a day)..

 

[lottaLove]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has to do this. It's not just DS who is bad for this, but DH too! He will clean out an entire large box of cereal in 2 days from midnight snacking. It's not just the cereal that is expensive, it's the milk he douses it in too. I had to stop buying certain things because they were disappearing in a single sitting (like cereal bars).

 

[oheoh's momma]

you are not mean if they want more than 1 bowl of cereal they should have had something more substanual . Toast, fruit, scrambled eggs. I second the big pots of gouloush, pasta salad, ect try muffins for breakfast with cereal, freezing pancakes, homemade french toast sticks, homemade sausage biscuits. Good luck.

 

[frugalfranny]

Good for you! Being the food police not only helps with the budget but it saves them from overeating. I find kids overeat more in the summer when they are home .... Probably because they are bored.

YEP..I agree. 'Free anytime eating' is making us FAT!

I only allowed snacks after certain things........after school, after swimming (summer), after sports, in other words.........when you had burned off the first calories.

If you were hungry before lunch...........then eat a bigger breakfast....more substantial. If you didn't eat well at dinner........then nothing later.....and if it wasn't ask for even if she ate well, I didn't offer. If asked...it was fruit or popcorn.......