Steve Jensen will be sad when his eldest child finally leaves home. But his 18-year-old son’s impending departure for a religious mission will have a silver lining.
“Deep down, I’m really happy that he’s not going to be around to spend so much on food,” jokes Jensen, a father of five in American Fork, Utah.
Any parent of teenagers will tell you: They’re expensive to feed. Between the post-football binge-fests and the late-night snacking, your hormone-fueled offspring can devour a sizable chunk of the household’s food budget. In fact, between ages 13 and 19, teenagers gobble up more than $50,000 worth of food, according to a May 2017 survey of 2,000 parents by Farm Rich, a frozen snack and appetizer company.
“It makes sense,” says Jensen, who estimates that his 18-year-old son consumes about one-third of his seven-person family’s grocery budget. And while $50,000 may sound astounding, it breaks down to just $142 per week, says Shannon Gilreath, Farm Rich’s director of marketing. That’s not so crazy for anyone who’s seen a ravenous teenager demolish an entire rotisserie chicken in one sitting.
So, how do you keep your beloved bottomless pit from becoming a money pit? There are some strategies parents can use to mitigate the costs of feeding their hungry, hungry teens. Here’s what to know.
[See: 20 Tips for Saving Money at the Grocery Store.]
Skip the pricey grocery stores and brand-name items. It’s not fancy, but skipping the upscale supermarket and focusing on generic items from your local discount grocer can add up to big savings.
“We tried cutting coupons, but found the better deals were generic grocery store brands,” says Lissa Poirot, whose blended family includes five children between ages 12 and 18, in an email. “We look at the cost per serving/ounce/pound and choose the cheapest.”
Other parents, such as Susan Helene Gottfried, a mother of two teens in the Pittsburgh area, find that ditching the pricey local supermarket chain and heading to Aldi for certain staple ingredients stretches a tight food budget. “I buy a lot of ingredients we use to cook with,” she says, of the discount food chain. Those staples include cocoa, cheese and eggs.
[See: 10 Money Leaks to Shut Down Now.]
Buy in bulk … but don’t let it backfire. Buying bulk ingredients or heading to the warehouse clubs, such as Costco and Sam’s Club, can score you cheaper-per-unit prices. But parents should be careful about which items they buy en masse.
“We thought buying in bulk would be smart, but with teenagers, they will eat everything we put in the house, so now we buy just enough to get them through the week and let them know that when the food is gone, it’s gone,” says Poirot, who works as editor-in-chief of Family Vacation Critic, an online travel resource for families that offers reviews of family hotels, resorts and destinations.
Another strategy Poirot uses is to stock up on unloved snacks, such as granola bars, which her children work through more slowly.
But don’t rule out the wholesale club completely, parents say. Families can save money by bulk buying foods that aren’t subject to impulsive overindulgence — think frozen meats, frozen fish, pasta and canned tuna — to tamp down on costs.
[See: Basic Money Lessons You (Probably) Missed in High School.]
Keep dishes simple. Budget-conscious parents find that keeping recipes classic — for example, quesadillas, tacos, sandwiches and burgers — only require low-cost ingredients and still delight picky teenage palettes.
For Gottfried, the mother of two in Pittsburgh, ruling out pricey, single-use ingredients, such as exotic spices and uncommon herbs, stretches her $450-per-month food budget. She no longer makes adventurous, experimental recipes, instead focusing her cooking skills on the classics. “Get really good at making your own macaroni and cheese,” Gottfried advises newbie parents of teenagers.
Have your teen pitch in. Parents may walk a thin line between making their teenage offspring conscious of their limited food budget — and not encouraging them to worry that they’ll go hungry. “We believe it’s never too early to involve kids in meal planning,” says Gilreath, of Farm Rich. “Even helping teens realize the cost of food and why we shouldn’t waste is very important.”
If your teen is old enough, encourage him or her to secure a part-time job. Not only does part-time work impart valuable personal finance and career lessons, but it gives your teen a chance to pitch in on household expenses — or to cover his own gas bill, dining out or entertainment expenses — which can open up your budget more to pay for food.
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How to Feed Your Teen Without Destroying Your Food Budget originally appeared on usnews.com
