Uni students eating me out of house and home

Spendless

20 yo student son has 2 friends staying. He shared accommodation with them last year and will do so next term too. Currently they are in a big tent in our garden. For meals I said I would provide (or cook) their lunch & evening meal, but snack wise for them during the day if I'm not about I put items in a seperate second fridge I have. I went grocery shopping yesterday and put into 'their' fridge; pork pies, choc bars, bacon straws, continental sandwich pack (salami and cheese). Most of it has already gone along with crisps, most of a block of cheese plus a packet of sandwich chicken and a savoury pastry from a pack of 3  which I'd intended using towards a meal for the 3 of them. DS is the culprit of eating the last 2 items and knows I'm not best pleased. All this was in addition to providing choc crosisants for breakfast (I'd just got in from doing the shopping so went for an easy option), hot dogs with onions for lunch and  bbq chicken kebabs and chips for tea.

None of them has much money. They got stuck at their student accommodation when lockdown came in having not returned to their homes and found their student loan didn't stretch far when they were limited to what they could find in local shops. 

The rest of the household is me and DH, who is the sole breadwinner as I lost my job in the first week of lockdown plus 17yo vegetarian daughter  

Soooo I need some ideas. I'm not prepared to keep topping up the snacks at the rate they were eaten yesterday but I still need to feed them. I've got 2 slow cookers, a soup maker and a freezer drawer full of meat, mostly chicken but also some diced beef and 2 lamb leg steaks. I also bought yesterday mince, meatballs, bacon and sausages. In addition I have potatoes, varies various veg and salad as well as tinned items.

C_J

Lads of that age do seem to get through an astonishing amount of food - it's like they have hollow legs!  How about making up a large bowl of pasta salad to put in their fridge for them to snack on, or a couple of home made pizzas?  They'd both be fairly cheap to put together, and would be filling.  Do you have a sandwich toaster? If so, a couple of loaves of sliced bread and a bag of grated cheese (grate your own, which would be cheaper) would provide filling hot snacks.

Do they not have families elsewhere in the country, and could their parents not send a little housekeeping money your way to help feed their children? I know I would offer if the roles were reversed.  It's lovely of you to look after them though.  

warby68

Firstly something NOT to do - don't buy as many snacks that can be eaten straight from the fridge - even a tiny bit of prep can make a student lose their appetite (have 2 here)
I'd say giant slow cooker of well padded out chilli or chicken curry and some jacket spuds or rice/pasta - home made is also much more filling than processed stuff.
Cans of beans, box of eggs and a loaf plus big block cheap cheddar - lots of rounds of beans on toast or cheese on toast or eggs anyhow but they have to work for it.
Supermarket cereal and milk - less prep here but can be cheap
Frozen pizzas
Harder if you don't want them in messing in the kitchen though

3secondmemory

I never bought snacks, if mine were hungry it was Weetabix or sandwiches. 

I also had a big chalkboard in the kitchen and left specific instructions about food - eg not putting the oven on for one person but to all eat at the same time. I had three children of my own and three stepchildren so I put one in charge every day! 

At one point, I offered to give them their budget and let them do their shopping but no one seemed that keen. Instead I would ask one or two of them to come shopping with me and help me. That way they could see exactly how much planning went in to making sure there was always food in the house but being stuck to a very tight budget. 

Spendless

Pasta salad and HM pizzas are great ideas thank you. Yes I have a sandwich maker too (it's where the continental meats and cheese  got used by by them yesterday).
I don't mind them in the kitchen, I just wanted to keep 'their' food if they were hungry seperate from the food in my fridge that was to create household meals for all 6 of us from. 
Neither has a great family life. Friend A has a parent with serious illness, so has been isolating with a relative, who lives somewhere remote since returning from student accommodation. Friend B has a very small family that he is estranged from. So no, neither are in a position to ask families to chip in and I wouldn't want to ask them either. I don't mind helping them, I'm just not prepared to replace the food they've eaten every 24 hours.

3secondmemory

Spendless said:

Pasta salad and HM pizzas are great ideas thank you. Yes I have a sandwich maker too (it's where the continental meats and cheese  got used by by them yesterday).
I don't mind them in the kitchen, I just wanted to keep 'their' food if they were hungry seperate from the food in my fridge that was to create household meals for all 6 of us from. 
Neither has a great family life. Friend A has a parent with serious illness, so has been isolating with a relative, who lives somewhere remote since returning from student accommodation. Friend B has a very small family that he is estranged from. So no, neither are in a position to ask families to chip in and I wouldn't want to ask them either. I don't mind helping them, I'm just not prepared to replace the food they've eaten every 24 hours.

You are good! 

Are they any good at cooking? 

One of my favourite books in the past was the student cookbook - I don’t know which of the children had at last but it was full of cheap nutritious easy recipes. 

I’m sure this time spent with you will be very beneficial for them 😃

monnagran

Ouchie Spendless.  Been there, done that.  At one time I was running a sort of unofficial youth hostel with 2 sons, their friends who came for a weekend and were still there 3 years later, students and stable lads from a nearby racing stable.  The last were the best as they were all trying to keep their weight down.

The thing to remember is that young males will EAT.  They don't need to feel hungry, if they are breathing they are eating.
Carbohydrates are the way to go.  Cheaper and filling.  A tin of bread pudding cut into squares is filling and cheap if you make it yourself.  Toast is good if you are careful with the toppings.  Cereals, porridge, jacket potatoes, pasta , sponge puddings, suet puddings, Yorkshire puddings with everything, dumplings. They all pad out the expensive protein. Baked beans by the hundredweight, 
Personally I would cut back on the snacks.  Maybe the aforementioned tin of bread pudding and some cheap biscuits, but you can't keep letting them free with the pork pies etc.  It just isn't doable.  They will appreciate what you are giving them anyway.  I found that young men were really appreciative of what you do for them.

Good luck and enjoy their company, you will be building up happy memories for all of you.

P.S..  When I was sick to death of cooking but had to produce a meal in a hurry, I fell back on the following.
Boil a load of pasta,  Mix with a tin or two of tuna and a few good dollops of mayonnaise.  Voila!

C_J

Maybe buy some own brand porridge oats and bake a couple of big trays of flapjacks - might keep them “fuller for longer”.

Nargleblast

Add lentils and tins of beans to batches of bolognaise sauce and chilli con carne, not just baked  beans in tomato sauce but tins of haricot, borlotti, cannellini etc. This will extend the meat and provide extra fibre to fill them up. 

Minced beef with chopped potatoes can be used to make a lovely keema curry.

Get some popping corn and do batches of popcorn for snacks. For sweet popcorn, put some butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan, melt it, pour over the finished popcorn, mix in, then spread it on a tray and bake about five  minutes in the oven. For savoury popcorn, stir in some melted butter or coconut oil and some yeast flakes. Yeast flakes are used in vegan cooking to give a cheesy, nutty taste, and they contain vitamin D.

C_J

Popcorn is a brilliant suggestion. I’ve often found packs of it in Asian grocery stores, where it is quite a bit cheaper than from main supermarkets.

My other suggestion is whether the lads might be able to find any casual work during the summer. I don’t know which part of the country you are in, but might there be some fruit/vegetable picking work which they could do? This would have many advantages - getting them out of the house (and fridge!) all day, earning them a little money, and perhaps providing cheap veg they could bring back for the household.

Spendless

Some fantastic ideas, thank you all soooo much. Love the popcorn and flapjack suggestions. DS did have a popcorn maker, not sure if he still has it, will check, though I know it's not hard to do without one. 
I've been out this morning. Unfortunately before I read the latter replies so didn't pick up popping corn or oats, but I've  since realised I've forgotten bread so need to go back out at some point anyway.
What I did get was some ready made pizza bases and a second tube of tomato puree and a single pack of pepperoni. I'll grate some cheese shortly, purely so I control portion size rather than have another block disappear. I've also picked up cereal (we're not huge cereal lovers here hence not much in) milk, half a dozen eggs and I'll add several tins of baked beans. They've also got a packet of bacon and of sausages in there   
The ambient  items I have are being hidden away and just dished out when the convenience is to me rather than them.
Was really thinking of doing a chilli in the slow cooker for later, but looks like it's going to be a scorcher here so unsure.