I am going to answer this not the way you intended…I have to agree with April C. on this one.
A child should not be eating ONLY pizza rolls for lunch. My son loves chicken nuggets - I don’t know how many come in a pack, but they are expensive! He gets 3 along with a vegetable and a fruit. If he eats all of his food and is still hungry, he gets more veggie or fruit instead of chicken nuggets.
Same with juice. We have always watered down his juice and he does not get it on a daily basis. Water and milk are always our “go to” drinks. We don’t offer juice on a regular basis. It is a special “treat”, and even when it is given, it is watered down. It is expensive, like you said, and not so healthy.
So, I guess I ration things in terms of nutrition rather than cost. Take a look at the pizza roll nutrition label and see how many are a suggested serving…
One week greek yogurt was on sale. The bowls were larger than my son was used to getting in his other yogurt, so I did try only giving him half at once. But then I looked at the label and realized that, nutritionally, this larger portion still had less calories, sugar, etc. So, even if he did eat the whole thing, to me it was worth the price because it filled him up and was healthier. He could just have the yogurt for snack instead of yogurt plus empty calories of crackers to fill him up.
when i read your title my first thought was ‘lobster.’
but the foods you are talking about i do not qualify as expensive. to me they are just junk. my 8 year olds know they exist but we just don’t keep them in the house. when we travel or vacation of course it is easy to make a pit stop at a bk or mcd or wendy’s and we do that, but even still i’d rather sit down at a restaurant that has options than feed them junk.
so to answer you, i don’t ration any kind of foods.
Yes, I ration expensive foods and junk foods. The boys each get two slices of pizza, and can fill up on veggies and fruit. Juice is limited because it is a treat. Cheese is expensive, so I control the portions. Yogurt tubes are a one a day treat, or they would eat the whole box. My kids love seafood and if we have a special seafood dinner (shrimp, crablegs, lobster) I had better ration! If the kids have chips I don’t just let them have the bag, I give them each a bowl.
Oh yea. When we first married my H really frowned on getting soda or tea when we went out so since it didnt really matter to me I went with water. I taught my kids we drink water when we go out. Turns out while we thought we were saving money we were also saving calories and sugar.
Sometimes saving money coincides with saving calories. I love it when that happens and it’s happened to you. Nice job, mom!
I bought what the budget allowed,including a limited amount of what could be considered junk food - frozen pizza and the like, and if the snack food was gone in two days, then there wasn’t anymore until next payday. She learned to ration herself on junk food.
Whole milk and undiluted fruit juice (real juicem not juice flavored drink), she could have as much as she wanted and I always kept it on hand.
Sure do. I ration most foods, actually. I will only buy 2 quarts of ice cream per month. Because a) it’s expensive and b) if I had unlimited supplies it’s all the kids would eat. They know that once it’s gone, it’s gone for a while to come. Of course they then try to compete to see who gets the most and the quickest. So then I learned to let them each pick one quart and we’d label it.
About the only things I don’t ration are peanut butter, bread, milk, and wine. I mean, I’ve got to have SOMETHING for dinner, right?
A serving size of frozen pizza rolls is 6 or 7, so I actually think you need to ration this more strictly in quantity, and limit it to once-per-week or less often. They are supposed to be a snack junk food and not intended to be a lunch. It isn’t surprising that she could eat 10 or more and still feel hungry, since there is nothing substantial in them. Always serve a vegetable, fruit, yogurt or other healthy items with it.
I do agree that juice = sugar and a small glass at breakfast is good.
I laughed when I read this. No, you are not the only one. My hubby is a culinary student at the moment, and occasionally we have some rather expensive very tasty things here - smoked salmon, good cheeses, etc. My kids LOVE them, and would gorge themselves if they could. I dole them out little bits at a time, trying to make them last awhile.
Nothing weird about it! It’s just my husband and me, now, but we have to be very careful with our food budget. Luckily, we’re on the same page here.
But asking your daughter to include fruit with her pizza rolls is also healthier than a lunch of just the rolls. Easier on your budget now, and possibly later, too, if she’s healthier for it. And fruit juice does have a huge sugar hit; also not healthy. Good for you, Mom!
We do have to ration some things. Like my daughter recently got Tofutti Cuties, thanks by the way for those with the recommendations, she loves them! These are $4 a box for 8, so they are pretty spendy. She would eat all of them if she could, so we have only let her have one at a time so they would last longer.
We also do juice because its not really good for them, so we water it down and they dont’ get much a day. But, they can have all the water or goat milk they want.
Steak is something that are really lucky to get often. Our Safeway does 50% off daily, so they get to pick what we are eating that night if they have something good. Otherwise, we have other options obviously. We only limit food if it looks they have had so much it would cause a tummy ache.
We have really picky eaters though, so we buy the best quality junk type food that we can find. Trader Joes fish nuggets instead of super processed ones. Home made fried potatoes instead of fries, that kind of thing. Mostly, we are just trying to get them to eat. That’s what the nutritionists all said to do.
If I had more $ we’d have sushi every day. We don’t, so we don’t.
Expensive ingredients, I tend to stretch, period.
I also ration junk food. Junk food has its time & place. Its completely allowed. Just rationed.
Some things are expensive… But important for growing bodies… So I cut corners elsewhere.
Vitamins
Milk
Are 2 examples. I haven’t taken vitamins or drank milk in 10 years… Because I couldn’t afford to buy them for ALL of us. Growing body gets the milk & vitamins. I might TREAT myself from time to time, but while my son has things daily, I get the cheaper version, or totally abstain.
I get your question, but I am having trouble getting past your portion sizes. Even before I purchase a food, I look at the portion size and if I don’t think I can be satisfied for that portion size and those calories I don’t even buy it.
I agree with rounding out her meal with fruits and veggies.
I never serve my kids juice. That is empty calories even when it is 100% juice.
So bottom line, my purchases are driven by portion size and calories not necessarily price.
My new favorite store for grocery shopping now is Aldi! (Which would you believe is owned by Trader Joe’s?) I find everything to be a fraction of the cost of Jewel and Dominick’s. They don’t have named brands, but I don’t really care. If you haven’t tried shopping there, please do. Oh, and don’t feel guilty for rationing.
I ration the fruit usually - blueberries, strawberries, grapes and watermelon are prized possessions lately. Other things I ration are just for healthy eating reasons - eating more then one fiber one bar a day is too much fiber for a kid, having more then one cinnamon roll is just too much sugar, etc.
Haha, it sounds like I just stuff my kid with junk food! I also ration the ORGANIC fruit I buy, and we also buy organic juice so while there’s no added sugars or anything, it’s still expensive. Pizza rolls are the only real “junk” food that I buy, since we make our own organic potato chips, our own dips and dressings, etc. I’ve found I use less meat since the grass-fed beef is so much more expensive, as well as the organic, free range chickens. Since she eats so well and she LOVES pizza rolls, I don’t begrudge her those. We all gotta splurge, you know? Just not all at once!
