Buy some cheese sticks. Let the kid pick them out, so they get the kind they want. Put the Babybels at the back of a drawer, hidden by the bag/box of lettuce.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I know it’s silly. Part of it is that I tend to be thrifty about groceries and drives me crazy that those damn Babybel are so expensive and yet they’re one of the few things that my my rail-thin, not-interested-in-food kid will eat at lunchtime. Not a Costco member, unfortunately. But I will combine the previous advice, buy two next time, and put one package in a Tupperware. That way I won’t worry that there won’t be enough left for lunches. And the expense I will just have to get over. We lived hand to mouth for so long that sometimes it’s hard for me to take on board that we’re doing OK now and can afford an extra package of Babybel.

I guess that was a lot emotionally packed into a tiny red wax package...

Cut him up a cheese plate? Seems ridiculous but if it's the convenience he wants and it's annoying you, buy a block of cheese and cut it up and leave it in the fridge for DH.

Idk this just sounds like making trouble. Just buy more cheese! You also could try cheese sticks for dh and double the babybel purchase. I don't grocery shop, but my DH goes out of his way to buy me things I like.

These posts are so weird. The food in our house is for anyone who wants it. If lots of people like it, we buy more. If you can’t afford babybel cheese for your husband, you can’t afford it for the kid. Yes he is picky and skinny, I got that. I’m sure he doesn’t subsist on babybel alone.

Anonymous wrote:Impulse eater spouse and oldest kid. We have to keep snacks hidden. Spouse will INHALE a months worth of sports or lunch box snacks in a couple days and his mini me sneaks them to her room and gorges on candy, baking items, snacks.

MIL told me long ago she never had snacks except fruit in the house. It wasn’t because they’re all healthy, it’s because they have no self control and cannot stop. Same with soda, desserts, cake, etc. The kid gots sick at buffet picnic school things gorging only on the dessert table. And we do eat dessert 1-2x a week...

We've had a 'food locker' for years now because our oldest (now a senior) could/would not stop eating sports/lunch box items. It was so unfair to the other kids not to be able to pack chocolate milk/fruit snacks/etc. in their lunch because DS ate them all. It's not like there isn't plenty of food in the house or that he couldn't make as much chocolate milk as he wanted (there is plenty of chocolate milk powder). He just can't/won't stop himself. The 'food locker' was our solution and it's been great.

The PP who says everything in the house is shared because to do other wise is too stressful has never experienced the stress of, repeatedly, not being able to pack a lunch because someone has eaten/drunk all the lunch box stuff.

I assume DH contributes to the HHI. Buy that man his own babybels.

I don’t get it op. I’d understand being mad if half the neighborhood kids came by and your husband and/or son gave them babybells, and I’d be upset if nobody ate the babybells, but why on earth would you buy food for just one person and tell another member of the family they can’t eat that food.

Don’t use “thrifty” as a rationale, if you have financial anxiety, (and it sure sounds like you do) then you need to address it.

I am married to someone who has financial anxiety, I posted about it on another thread. It took years to figure this out because our society values “thriftiness” “being frugal” “saving for the future” “paying things off” and “buying what you can afford”. I blame this on too many stories of Grandpa buying a car when he was 21 and drove it for the rest of his life, or hearing too much about a grandma who needed meat so she went out and shot a deer, something you can’t do if you live in urban or suburban America.

You need to realize that money will still be there… unless you or your husband is doing things to ensure that it won’t be, gambling, drugs, loaning money to random people, investing with the guy who says he has a bridge in Brooklyn that he’s happy to sell you... Your husband eating babybells won’t financially ruin the family. The Great Depression did a whole lot of good for the country in terms of safety nets and how banks work. It’s not perfect, but it’s way better then it was literally 100 years ago.


You can always get a membership to Costco or Sams Club, situations like yours are exactly why people do this. Costco hass the kind of cheese my husband loves. I don’t care much about that type of cheese, but it makes him so happy and it’s something I can get for him.

Talk to someone trained in what I’d call financial trauma if you need to. Lots of people get anxious about money because of things that happened in their childhood, this was real common with the kids growing up in the Great Depression generation, and it is probably common to people who remember 2008.

Finally, think about how you treat your husband. My husband thinks that maybe all your love and care is going to your kid because “kids come first”. Up to a point this is true, though your husband also needs love and care. Yes, he should be able to make his own luch.. though you could also make him a lunch. Your kid can probably make his own luch too if he is aware enough to have a high preference for babybells.

Or, you can just buy more d**mn babybells and enjoy the blessings of a kid and husband.

Anonymous wrote:That’s funny that you mention baby bel because I never buy them and I saw them at the store the other day and they were so expensive at the regular grocery store. I have seen them at Costco and they were much cheaper in comparison.

Now, at my house all the food in her home is everybody’s food. If I buy something special for myself I fully expect to share it with everybody. There is no mine his hers or theirs because that would just be stressful.

You're someone who doesn't 'get' it. Whether it's food, clothing, shampoo, cosmetics or whatever, if someone buys something special for themselves or to be used only in certain situations (like for lunch boxes) it is perfectly reasonable to make something off limits. Just because it's in the house doesn't make it fair game for anyone to use. Teach your kids boundaries. If they struggle with boundaries, put supports in place to help them until they can - like hiding things in the vegetable drawers. If you won't do it for the sake of sibling relationships, do it for the sake of future roommate relationships.

Anonymous wrote:That’s funny that you mention baby bel because I never buy them and I saw them at the store the other day and they were so expensive at the regular grocery store. I have seen them at Costco and they were much cheaper in comparison.

Now, at my house all the food in her home is everybody’s food. If I buy something special for myself I fully expect to share it with everybody. There is no mine his hers or theirs because that would just be stressful.

OP has a picky eater and a limited number of things she can pack in his lunch. When your husband EATS it all, and you go to pack and have nothing, that's stressful.

That’s funny that you mention baby bel because I never buy them and I saw them at the store the other day and they were so expensive at the regular grocery store. I have seen them at Costco and they were much cheaper in comparison.

Now, at my house all the food in her home is everybody’s food. If I buy something special for myself I fully expect to share it with everybody. There is no mine his hers or theirs because that would just be stressful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haha! We have a similar issue at our house with bananas. DS likes to have one in his cereal in the morning. Sometimes DH will eat none, and sometimes he will grab 1-2 on his way out the door in the morning. It happens in spurts, so it’s hard to plan for. I guess I could just buy 10 extra bananas every week, but that seems excessive.

I have jokingly asked DH to let me know if he’s going to be on a banana binge, so I can buy more. He never has .

Annoying! If you do end up with extra bananas, let them get ripe and then mash them with yogurt and freeze. Easy starter for banana bread!

Or for smoothies!

Bananas are a complicated situation especially in my house where they only like them fairly green. Personally I despise them both the taste and their very short life. The two banana eaters get two a week (I only shop 1 time per week). They are served on Monday and Tuesday. You cannot be a casual banana eater unless you are willing to toss them often.

This thread is making me really happy that I'm not married.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with doubling the cheese supply. Put one pack out in plain slight and one in the vegetable drawer. Chances are, DH won't look there

My kid knows to sneak them from veggie drawer. Husband can’t see them there though 😂

Anonymous wrote:Hide them!! Place the extra Baby Bells in a cleaned cottage cheese container or similar. No man is actually going to dig around in closed containers in the refrigerator.

This!

Why can't he go buy more? If he finishes the kid's lunch stuff, he should be on the hook for replenishing.