kids home from college - grocery lists and bills, oh my

[Anonymous]

My kids are both home from college and the amount of time and money I'm spending at the grocery store has shot up beyond my expectations (I seem to have amnesia about this every time they return). As the weeks go on, I'll be asking them to do some of this shopping on their own (I'll still pay), but right now I'm so happy they are here that every time I hear a, "mom, we have no food!" I run back to the store that evening .

Just for fun, if your kids have also returned from college, what are you now stocking up on? When my kids are at college, it's just my husband and me at home so the amount of food is *very* different, some types of food I haven't bought in ages, not to mention how expensive it all is (although their college meal plans even more so). I'm purchasing lots of the following, and have done my first Costco shops in months:

milk and choco milk
chips of all sorts
big tubs or hummus and guacamole
frozen chicken tenders and taquitos
apples and bananas
frozen waffles
individual microwavable mac and cheese, ramen, etc
granola bars
yogurts, yogurts, yogurts
protein powder
giant bags of almonds
oreos (I think my son eats a sleeve of these in one sitting every time he spies them)
ice cream and yasso bars

They also seem to want a lot of specific condiments that I don't recall being as important to them in the past

[Anonymous]

Bagels and cream cheese
Frozen lasagna from gemelis - lunch on their days off
Lunch meat
Chips
Bread


They eat lunch at work

Whatever I make for dinner… I cook 4x a week… they aren’t home for dinner every night.

The other 3 nights are takeout and they do pick up.

[Anonymous]

Ice cream
Creamy AND crunchy peanut butter. My DH likes crunchy but DS wants creamy so we now have both in the pantry.
Cereal

The first few weeks when my kids leave for college and return home, it takes me about a week to figure out how much food I need to buy/cook for dinner. I thought I had bought enough meat for the five of us - I always like to have at least one serving left for leftovers for DH to take to work. But I didn't have enough for all of us to eat dinner! My middle DS was raiding the refrigerator in the middle of dinner.

[Anonymous]

My children are all home but we don't buy or consume things that you all do, so there hasn't been a truly noticeable increase in food bills. No choc milk, microwave single serving foods (wasteful and unhealthy), or oreos/junk foods. We don't snack.

The only increase I've noticed is an increase in orders of fresh organic fruit and veg, making 2 quarts of yoghurt weekly, and my oldest is having fun trying recipes from NYT/GBBO once a week, so there are the additional ingredients he needs.

Lunches are prepped every few days and put into bento style boxes in the fridge, and the children can take them to the pool/beach or eat them at home. Mostly things like pasta salads, quiche, cheese/bread/fruit, tea sandwiches, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children are all home but we don't buy or consume things that you all do, so there hasn't been a truly noticeable increase in food bills. No choc milk, microwave single serving foods (wasteful and unhealthy), or oreos/junk foods. We don't snack.

The only increase I've noticed is an increase in orders of fresh organic fruit and veg, making 2 quarts of yoghurt weekly, and my oldest is having fun trying recipes from NYT/GBBO once a week, so there are the additional ingredients he needs.

Lunches are prepped every few days and put into bento style boxes in the fridge, and the children can take them to the pool/beach or eat them at home. Mostly things like pasta salads, quiche, cheese/bread/fruit, tea sandwiches, etc.

GTFO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children are all home but we don't buy or consume things that you all do, so there hasn't been a truly noticeable increase in food bills. No choc milk, microwave single serving foods (wasteful and unhealthy), or oreos/junk foods. We don't snack.

The only increase I've noticed is an increase in orders of fresh organic fruit and veg, making 2 quarts of yoghurt weekly, and my oldest is having fun trying recipes from NYT/GBBO once a week, so there are the additional ingredients he needs.

Lunches are prepped every few days and put into bento style boxes in the fridge, and the children can take them to the pool/beach or eat them at home. Mostly things like pasta salads, quiche, cheese/bread/fruit, tea sandwiches, etc.

Hahahahaha!

Thanks for the laugh. I'm sure OP really needed this judgemental garbage.

[Anonymous]

Above reply had me spitting out my coffee.

Thank you for your service.

[Anonymous]

There’s hardly any actual food in your Costco list of processed crap. Probably why they’re always hungry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children are all home but we don't buy or consume things that you all do, so there hasn't been a truly noticeable increase in food bills. No choc milk, microwave single serving foods (wasteful and unhealthy), or oreos/junk foods. We don't snack.

The only increase I've noticed is an increase in orders of fresh organic fruit and veg, making 2 quarts of yoghurt weekly, and my oldest is having fun trying recipes from NYT/GBBO once a week, so there are the additional ingredients he needs.

Lunches are prepped every few days and put into bento style boxes in the fridge, and the children can take them to the pool/beach or eat them at home. Mostly things like pasta salads, quiche, cheese/bread/fruit, tea sandwiches, etc.

8.7 👏

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children are all home but we don't buy or consume things that you all do, so there hasn't been a truly noticeable increase in food bills. No choc milk, microwave single serving foods (wasteful and unhealthy), or oreos/junk foods. We don't snack.

The only increase I've noticed is an increase in orders of fresh organic fruit and veg, making 2 quarts of yoghurt weekly, and my oldest is having fun trying recipes from NYT/GBBO once a week, so there are the additional ingredients he needs.

Lunches are prepped every few days and put into bento style boxes in the fridge, and the children can take them to the pool/beach or eat them at home. Mostly things like pasta salads, quiche, cheese/bread/fruit, tea sandwiches, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My children are all home but we don't buy or consume things that you all do, so there hasn't been a truly noticeable increase in food bills. No choc milk, microwave single serving foods (wasteful and unhealthy), or oreos/junk foods. We don't snack.

The only increase I've noticed is an increase in orders of fresh organic fruit and veg, making 2 quarts of yoghurt weekly, and my oldest is having fun trying recipes from NYT/GBBO once a week, so there are the additional ingredients he needs.

Lunches are prepped every few days and put into bento style boxes in the fridge, and the children can take them to the pool/beach or eat them at home. Mostly things like pasta salads, quiche, cheese/bread/fruit, tea sandwiches, etc.

GTFO

I don't care what your kids are eating but if you add two young adults to the home your food bill will go up. OK they do not eat oreos or mac and cheese but surely you are buying more organic grass fed chicken or lentils and broccoli.

[Anonymous]

My kids added to the kitchen chaos by both bringing home all the shelf-stable food they had in their dorm rooms, so now on top of the extra dishes and the endless shopping I'm also tripping over a bunch of egg crates filled with ramen cups and easy mac. I suggested the other day they eat those things but they told me the whole point of being home is NOT eating stuff like that. I have unapologetically taken a few of them to work for lunch and relived my own college days. It doesn't taste as good as I remember.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids added to the kitchen chaos by both bringing home all the shelf-stable food they had in their dorm rooms, so now on top of the extra dishes and the endless shopping I'm also tripping over a bunch of egg crates filled with ramen cups and easy mac. I suggested the other day they eat those things but they told me the whole point of being home is NOT eating stuff like that. I have unapologetically taken a few of them to work for lunch and relived my own college days. It doesn't taste as good as I remember.

Those are very donatable or can go right back to school in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children are all home but we don't buy or consume things that you all do, so there hasn't been a truly noticeable increase in food bills. No choc milk, microwave single serving foods (wasteful and unhealthy), or oreos/junk foods. We don't snack.

The only increase I've noticed is an increase in orders of fresh organic fruit and veg, making 2 quarts of yoghurt weekly, and my oldest is having fun trying recipes from NYT/GBBO once a week, so there are the additional ingredients he needs.

Lunches are prepped every few days and put into bento style boxes in the fridge, and the children can take them to the pool/beach or eat them at home. Mostly things like pasta salads, quiche, cheese/bread/fruit, tea sandwiches, etc.

LOL
All that stuff is far more expensive than getting what OP has posted anyways!

[Anonymous]

Your kids are brats.

If they want to buy junk like Oreos, let them get a job and go to the store and buy themselves Oreos.

I keep the kitchen stocked with healthy foods. If they want junk, they can buy it themselves.