My husband is a blue-collar worker, so I know he burns a ton of calories during the day. He’s not overweight at all, and this isn’t about his weight—it’s about our grocery budget. Groceries are so expensive right now, and I feel like I’m constantly making trips to the store because we run out of food so fast.
He’ll make himself 5–6 eggs at a time, drinks around 3–5 sodas a day, use an entire bag of shredded cheese, cook a whole pack of chicken or an entire box of pasta for himself, piles what looks like a mountain of food onto his plate. Sometimes he finishes it all, other times some of it ends up in the trash.
I’m starting to feel stressed because our grocery bill just keeps climbing, especially with a baby about to arrive. We recently did a huge meal prep for postpartum meals and they’re already almost gone and baby hasn’t even arrived yet. So we’ll need to restock that again. I’ve tried gently suggesting smaller portions (he can always go back for seconds if he’s still hungry), but he gets defensive because he thinks I’m commenting on how much he eats. That’s honestly not the issue, I just don’t know how to make our grocery budget keep up with his appetite.
Has anyone else dealt with this? I’d love any grocery budgeting tips or meal ideas that helped feed someone with a huge appetite without spending a fortune.
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For starters, stop throwing away perfectly good leftovers. Even if they were on his plate, they can still be saved. It's just you, him, and eventually the baby eating leftovers - if the Pope comes over you'll make something fresh.
Second, you need cheap bulky food. Beans, rice, lentils. A lot of people here will add 1/3 lentils to any ground meat they are cooking. Stretch it for cheap, and you probably can't even tell. Beans and rice is a nutritionally complete meal, you can eat just that forever. Add some cheap cuts of pork or sausage in there and you are swimming.
Popes eating leftovers too.
HA HA! YES! We are always putting our plates of food we didn't feel like finishing in the fridge and then when the next person is hungry, there's already a plate ready to eat. Its quite convenient actually! I wouldn't serve it to company but its fine for the 2 of us. We don't waste in this house!
Have you directly told him it's a budget issue and shown him the numbers? Not placing this all on you of course, but it might be time to tell him that it's not about his intake, it's about money. Also, if you haven't been you need to be super direct about your needs as a mother and the conditions of being postpartum. He can't be selfish anymore. Do you buy a lot of meat? Anything in bulk? You can stretch ground beef with lentils. Buy ground turkey instead of beef. Fiber helps. Also, if he wants food, he doesn't get to touch the postpartum stuff. If he's hungry after eating he makes something fresh.
PB&Js
Sodas are empty calories and expensive, he needs something with fiber and protein so that he feels full longer. Beans and lentils are great ways to get these important macros in. Increase the fiber and protein and you should be able to cut costs. There are many content creators who show high fiber and high protein budget friendly meal prep on YouTube.
Budget bites
If he’s not overweight and has an active job then empty calories aren’t really something he has to worry about. Getting enough fiber is still incredibly important for long term health but someone who isn’t overweight shouldn’t be employing any strategies with the express intent to limit caloric intake. That’s how you end up with an eating disorder. In terms of cost effective calories, soda is in between lentils and cheese but way closer to lentils. If he’s 6’ tall and working a physically demanding job like cleaning out farm stables or stacking freight boxes by hand having 1000 of the 5-6000 calories he needs to get in a day come from sugar isn’t a big deal. But it is much better for his endocrine health if that happens with some fiber in there to slow things down.
Am I the only person who knows people who HATE the taste of water and won't drink it? I drink a double coffee in the morning and water for the rest of the day. But I know more than one person who will not drink water. SMH!
I think potatoes were ranked the highest of any food for satiety, they help you stay fuller for longer.
Practically all the carbs to be honest. The asian version is lots of rice and noodles. Not as satiating as potatoes but is more food for less money.
Carbs fill you up fastest but protein makes you feel full longer. Carbs give you quick energy but can crash and burn.
They are one of the most satisfying foods and if eaten whole with the skin also high fiber and nutrient dense
Of course I know him. He is me. My wife was flabbergasted at how much I could eat in a day without gaining weight when we first moved in together. If I eat the same calories as my wife over the course of a week I’ll lose 1-2lbs on average. To cut the costs I try to fill the difference up with cheaper proteins like beans and lentils whenever possible. Highly satiating foods like potatoes are good too.
But would you eat through meals she portioned and froze to have after delivering your child? There’s a big appetite and then there is not giving an f about your family.
If he’s not overweight and he is eating so much because he has a physical job then the problem is not that he is eating too much. The problem can be that he needs to find another job that pays the same but doesn’t use so much energy. If it’s costing too much and another job isn’t in the cards then switching to more cost effective meals may be the answer. If he’s eating whole packs of chicken or whole packs of cheese he is probably getting more protein than he needs and less fiber. Rice and beans are cheaper than chicken and cheese and swing away from protein and towards fiber. If that soda is cans of coke maybe switch to bottles of store brand soda. He’s not being greedy by eating enough calories to maintain a healthy body weight and shouldn’t be made to feel that way.
If it's truly affecting your budget you need to have a serious sit down conversation with him and he needs to participate in choosing what groceries to buy and yes possibly not filling himself until he's completely full. I'm not saying he needs to starve himself but eating a little bit less when you have no money is sometimes required. I think it's selfish if he stuffs his face all the time but you have to scrimp and save to buy food.
But if he is not gaining weight. Cutting calories will make him lose weight.
Yes, mine, its ridiculous how much food he can put away! I tell him I cant afford him all the time haha
Sounds like me until I found protein powder I enjoyed. Things like grits, oatmeal etc for breakfast.
Yes! Oatmeal for breakfast. Super easy to make, top off with brown sugar, splash of milk, raisins, dried cranberries etc. Or, buy a store brand pancake dry mixture...just add water. Its filling, you can again add fruit (fresh or dried), and you are saving on eggs etc.
beans, lentils, and other nutrient dense, yet very reasonably priced, are good options to add to the routine!!
This was a frustrating issue for me. My blue collar partner seemed to always be consuming something and it was SO expensive. We went thru a gallon of milk in 2 days, an entire package of cookies could go in a day, 12 packs of teas in 3 days. My god i would lose my shit if it was 6 eggs in a sitting. Tbh I did a mix of ultimatums and clever hacks to save us money. I told him it had to change, period, and he needed to actually try, not just me trying to fix it. So we don’t buy canned/bottled drinks anymore, we buy the big containers of powdered drink mix and he makes jugs of tea or Gatorade. He puts in effort to not eat entire packages of things at once. I make everything I can now to try and save us money, and I try to fill us up on cheaper things, like with dinner I’ll make less meat and a shit ton of noodles and vegetables. All this to say that he does need to put in effort, there’s nothing wrong with firmly addressing that you need a solution to how expensive his intake is. Chicken is fucking expensive, he can’t be cooking entire packs at once. He needs to eat 4 eggs and make an extra piece of toast. He’ll survive.
Oh you asked for tips I’m sorry. So I buy entire hams when they’re on sale, so I spend 10 dollars on a 10 pound ham, I cook it and then separate it into like 8 bags and freeze then and pull them out as we need. I use the ham with eggs for his breakfast sandwiches so that’s a cheap way to use less eggs. I mentioned the drink mix. He loves those cheap ass knorr packages of pasta that you mix with water and cook on the stove so he can fill up on them with dinner, they’re like a dollar a package. I switched our ground beef to the higher fat ground turkey, it’s cheaper so I’m not upset when he eats it all.
Have him do the shopping a few times. The sticker shock might reign him in a bit.
this is the answer. if he’s not willing to at least try and make changes, make him do it all and see how fast his tune changes.
Tell him to stop eating processed foods. That’s why it’s expensive. No more fried frozen entrees. Put a crock pot
No more shredded cheese. Put whole potatoes in the crock pot, at least two for him.
Go to food pantries. Make him go to the grocery store so he can see what the prices are like. He's a grown man and can buy his own groceries and cook his own food The cheapest meat options are going to be value packs of chicken drumsticks, pork roasts, and cold cuts. Maybe he can drink protein shakes to stay full longer. Blend 1-2 frozen bananas with milk and some peanut butter. Add cinnamon or chocolate or a drizzle of honey.
I am a person with with a bottomless pit stomach and I can say that high protein and high fiber meals keep me full with very little volume.
Sounds like he has a tapeworm (I may be half-joking). Resilia oregano oil (Amazon) will get rid of it if he does.
A massive tapeworm running the whole length of the intestine uses like 30 calories a day. Why they matter is that they sequester a lot of the B-12 in the diet. Your body needs b-12 to make blood so you end up anemic (with neurological issues too). A person with a bad tapeworm problem eats less food. Oregano oil does nothing to clear parasites. There are more effective and cheaper means at the pharmacy.
your answer will come from what yall are buying, if it’s cheap food with a lot of empty calories then he’ll need to eat more to stay full. if you buy more quality protein heavy and fiber foods then he can eat less and be fuller for longer
Your meals need to be rounded out with lots of rice, pasta and bread. All cheap carbs that are filling. Maybe y’all can start making sweet tea. It’s cheaper than sodas.
I asked my grandfather once when he felt like a grown up. He told me that his father had always served himself last, often only after the youngest children and his wife (who with 13 kids I would imagine was always pregnant or nursing) had had seconds. See my great grandfather believed that if it was a man’s job to provide he had no business eating Pop tried asking, he tried insisting, he tried not taking a plate until the little kids got seconds but his father would not let him wait to eat with him. Poppop said he felt like he worked hard enough to wait, he hunted, worked the farm, and even worked at other farms to get them through the depression. The day he was allowed to wait to eat was the first time he felt grown. So yeah, I would comment on how much he eats because no one has business being a glutton when the people who depend on them can’t afford it.
Just a thought, but getting whole wheat pasta can really help fullness.
Yes! Mine is like that too. He'll have breakfast before actual breakfast i.e 2 slices of toast with butter, then, bacon and eggs, lunch will be a sandwich with a packet of crisps, dinner with either be a massive salad with all the trimmings or meat and 4 vegetables, thing that gets me, when he goes into the kitchen to get a drink he'll snack. Infuriating
Rice, Potatoes. Fill that mf up
How’s he always been like this, or is this just something recent because of a baby arriving?
Excellent question.
A box of pasta is cheap. Chicken and rice is really cheap too. You need to become an ingredient household. PBJ, hotdogs, bologna, 5 dollar sams/costo roast chickens (buy like 2 at a time), potatoes, walmart hamburger patties, don’t buy shredded cheese buy it by the block and shred your own. Frozen pizzas are like 4 bucks a pop. Half a dozen eggs is cheap food, buy them in bulk. Add rice, pasta, beans to like any dish you serve. Making chili? Make it over rice or pasta. I can make a pan chili last quite a few meals with just having it over rice.
I keep peanut butter pretzels in the pantry! They are an okay price at Costco. They keep my husband eating a more normal amount at dinner. Then he has a filling snack before bed. Powdered Gatorade. No soda. No juice. Berries are a treat splurge- fruits are mainly bananas, watermelon when in season, and pineapple.
This is such an easy fix. Bring up budget, get him on rice, potatoes, beans as a staple, build meals around that.
Me, I am the husband with a bottomless pit. We’re a family of five, and my wife has a list of low food cost meals that are filling. Bonus points for her designing the weekly menu for a picky eater. We take advantage of sales, and stock up on essentials.
If it is premade, don't buy it. You're paying for someone else to assemble a product. If hubs is hungry he can roast 10 lbs of potatoes and eat it with mayonnaise, like the rest of us bottomless pits.
And here I've always thought I was weird for putting mayo on my mashed potatoes when there's no gravy.....
Sounds like you would benefit from buying in bulk, at like a Costco, or a cash and carry, set up a fake company and apply for membership if you have to, you sound like you’re in the states from some of your terminology so I’m unsure if this helps or not. Also do you have space where you could grow some of your own stuff, even things in pots like herbs or chilli would help because they can be pricey if you have them fresh at home it’s tastier and cheaper.
I don't have all the answers, but one thing helps with neat affordability for me is buying in bulk and also shopping the sales. We watch the supermarket weekly ads and buy different sorts of meat when it's on sale. Even if you dont plan to eat it right away, put it in a freezer bag and save it for when you want it. I also have a costco membership and periodically stock up on ground beef and chicken breasts and freeze each pound individually to thaw when we're ready to use it. If he's eating a whole bag of shredded cheese, one thing you can do is start buying big blocks of cheese. It's cheaper overall, and he might be inclined to use less of it if he has to go through the effort of grating it himself. It also melts better and doesn't have the preservatives of shredded cheese. If I were you I'd also start cooking more legumes. There are lots of recipes and they can be filling, nutritious, and tasty. Legumes don't just mean beans. Lentils are versatile and can be added to anything from soups and salads to being a main protein in a dish like dal. One of my favorite legume dishes is red lentil dal but there's a million things you can do with lentils. Dal is easy. Cook the lentils with a 3 to 1 water ratio. In a pan, cook onions, turmeric, cumin (i like toasting whole cumin seeds but you can use ground), salt, pepper, and whatever other spices you wanna add. Once the onions are cooked and the spices are fragrant, stir the onions spice mixture into the cooked lentils. Done. You can either eat with a flatbread like nann, but a more filling and cheap way to eat it is over rice. Brown rice makes it even more filling and nutritious but regular rice or basmati rice is good too. Can garnish with some chopped cilantro and plain yogurt (or sour cream if thats what you have). Lots of people eat it as a side dish but I like it as a main dish sometimes. Lentils and rice are cheap. The most expensive part is probably buying cumin and turmeric but a little goes a long way. I don't have a picture of a recipe right now but im sure you can find a similar recipe online. Dal also reheats well so it's a good meal prep option. Idk if your husband is picky about international food but vegetarian indian food like dal is a great way to make cheap, tasty, nutritious food. Another thing that could make your groceries last longer is whole grains. I know sometimes that's more expensive, but it might fill him up faster and keep him full longer. Whole grain pasta, bread, and rice are good things to consider and price. Store brands usually have some cheaper whole grain options. If he's cooking things and throwing them out, then you really do need to talk with him and make him realize it's not about you shaming his food intake, it's about worrying about the cost of groceries. You can always take a second portion later. You could ask him that even if he cooks a whole box of pasta, only serve himself half, and if he doesn't go back to the rest of it to save the leftovers for lunch the next day.
When I needed like 4k calories just to be normal weight I would try and eat a mix of fast and slow absorbing carbs in the morning like bread or rice porridge, with some eggs. Huevos rancheros and molletes and chilaquiles are cheap and delicious favorites along with a ton of Costco chicken and boiled eggs. They share a lot of the same ingredients.
Did your husband grow up in a food insecure environment? There can be strong emotional connections to food, like a feeling of safety in having a very full plate or associating leftovers with being poor. I agree with the other comments that sitting down and having an honest discussion about food costs might help him to be invested in choosing cheaper foods to eat.
This is such an important aspect.
Don’t shop according to a list. See what’s on sale every week and plan meals around that. There’s a store near me that has 10 lb packs of chicken quarters on sale for $0.58/lb at least once a month. When it comes around, that’s what we’re making for the week. If you have more than one freezer, stock up on good deals when you can, especially around holidays when things like hams and turkeys will be $1/lb. If you’re making meals that are meat and sides, switch it up to have the meats as the add in, and cheaper bulk foods as the primary, like chicken fried rice is mostly going to be rice and vegetables and you can cut up 1-2 chicken breasts to cook into it instead of having to make a whole pack of chicken.
Try getting him to graze food that will work out his mandibles ie whole apples and full carrots; 5 eggs and other soft food won’t provide enough bite count. As well, for breakfast, he could throw two eggs on top of a tin of baked beans, and freshly grated cheese. 5 eggs is too easy to eat and doesn’t last long as fuel.
Fill up with noodles pasta rice and potatoes Veggies and salad Buy what’s on sale and plan meals around that
My favorite thing recently is every leftover vegetable in our house at the end of the week, make it into split pea and lentil soup, and then simmer a cheap value pack of chicken drumsticks in the soup and serve over rice. Walmart near me regularly has bone-in chicken on sale for super cheap (\~$1.50/lb). High fiber, high protein, all the nutrients, super tasty if you spice it thoughtfully. Even better as leftovers.
You can buy 6 pack of egg whites at Costco/sams to stretch out the eggs.
My partner is like this. He will go out to the kitchen, grab a dining chair, sit in front of the open refrigerator and fish around for snacks. He will eat what he finds, and if it has a wrapper he will drop the wrapper on the floor instead of putting it in the trash bin just a foot away. We are very low income and rely on food stamps and the food bank for groceries. My sister has a friend who is a food bank volunteer. She works with what they call grocery surplus. Every Friday she gives my sister a box of food for us. It will contain things that are right at the "sell by" or "use by" date. I plan the grocery shopping around these food boxes. I buy ingredients to use with the food bank items. Recently we have received 3 cases of string cheese (weeks apart). I thought it was a lot until he kept grabbing and eating a dozen or more at a time. He goes to dialysis 3x a week and they asked me to pack a snack/lunch for the days he's there. I buy things to make sandwiches and snack items, but he can't seem to comprehend that if he eats all the snack items there will be nothing for his packed lunch. I like to cook one - pan dinners in a variety of types. I don't like to cook a big meal daily so I'll ask him not to eat most of it the first night I've cooked it. He will nod and say he understands, then he will go back for seconds, thirds, etc until most of it is gone. Then I'll have to cook again sooner than I had planned. Talking about it goes nowhere, so if anyone can offer some advice, I'm listening. P. S. Don't tell me to get beans and rice because I've already got tons of those and use them regularly. Thank you
Feel free not to answer if this is too personal, but does he have an eating disorder? This sounds beyond the effects of diabetes.
Split the meal right away and don’t leave it out. Put it in a Pyrex while it cools to put in the fridge. TBH he sounds extremely inconsiderate. Throwing wrappers on the floor. I’d have him pick them up. Eat the whole meal, he’s cooking the next day. People treat you how you allow them to. Basic respect is essential. Maybe couples counseling.
Lean into rice and legumes; very calorie dense + fiber/protein. It will need flavoring but is a lot cheaper than animal protein every meal.
I have three men at my house (1 husband and 2 adult sons). Pro tip: take the chicken, beef, whatever and split it into smaller portions and then freeze. Use a vacuum sealer. There is something about having to open another package that will stop them. Don't worry about eggs, potatos, or bread because those are realitivly cheap. Buy generic items and didn't worry about name brands. I also declare things, like "don't you dare touch those Italian sausages, they are for a recipe." Also, we all write our names on things we didn't want anyone to touch. Best of luck. It didn't get any better.
Redirect the stress to point more accurately. "Yep I'm commenting on your plate. That's $14 for your dinner. Sure, eat, this isn't about weight. This is about cost." If he picks up a soda, "$3.99" and walk away. It's a bit aggressive so you need to follow up with "Let's tackle the budget together. Either you eat more cheaply or we make more money." By the way soda is absolutely not mandatory. He can switch to seltzer if he really needs carbonation.
My sister and her husband are trying to eat less meat for health and cost reasons. They add lentils to everything. Beans are a great substitute for meat in lots of places. Work on reducing your food waste. It sounds like y’all have a lot of food waste
Add more healthy fat to every meal and snack. One of my friends actually trained himself to drink straight olive oil!!! It worked!
Fill him with rice
My husband is a carpenter and eats thousands of calories a day and never gains a pound. Bitch. Lol anyway he eats a few thick PB & J sandwiches every day for easy cheap calories
Have you checked with a doctor to see if he has a hyperthyroid issue? I used to work with a guy that seemed like an absolute bottomless pit at lunch time eating 4 sandwiches, to large bags of chips and snacks afterwards. He told me he had hyperthyroidism and that it had gotten worse over the years causing him to need more and more calories. Just thought I should throw that suggestion out there.
Burritos Burritos are the answer. He needs to make breakfast burritos with 2-3 eggs, a thick layer of refried beans, some potatoes or rice and cheese Dinner burritos similar format plenty of beans, rice or potatoes, sauteed onions and peppers, cheese, etc He has to go with you to the grocery store. It’s hard to believe how crazy groceries are now unless you literally see them in person Cut soda or buy large bottles- math it out for him “it costs $20 a WEEK if you drink 4 sodas a day so that’s about $80 per MONTH on soda only”
My husband does physical labor and eats sooo much. I feel like I do a lot of trips to the grocery store to buy meat. Sometimes he wastes food but usually he doesn’t. Idk what to tell you, they need to eat bc of their jobs. Start making more rice meals, like meat and rice. Try potatoes. Bread and butter, more pasta and sauce. You’re gonna have to find bulk items. Does he like pork chops? Those aren’t too expensive. Eggs are cheap right now, too. I get bacon on sale a lot.
No more throwing away good food! Ever! Use fillers. Homemade breadcrumbs (not panko). Mashed Beans. Chilis, soups, and stews. Potato. Breakfast for dinner. Are you SAH? Pull out the pressure cooker. Beans from dry is super cheap. As is baking bread (I'm not talking sourdough. Just a white bread loaf).
Yep sounds like he needs fiber. Beans, rice, frozen veggies are all cheap and will fill him up and keep him full.