Food, glorious food, as the song from Oliver goes, well sometimes I wonder where all our food goes!, 3 boys and a girl seem to consume the weight of a fully grown cow daily.

When we did decide to have 4 kids we totally forgot that once the children start reaching about 7 they just eat (and our friends with teenagers have warned us already to stock up, stock up like Mr. Trump has pressed the big “red button” and we all have to live in a bunker for 30 years playing scrabble, like in the TV show 100 or hope a space station is ready for us all)

Squash who is shortly reaching the grand old age of 11 eats more than I do (although it’s properly because if I look at a crisp I put weight on), he just piles it on his plate, and then we wait to see how it affects him, will he put on weight? are his trouser buttons going to burst? no, he just goes up like a solid log of oak.

Then there is Tibbius, only eats what he wants, different body type to both his bros but never seems to put weigh on and then suddenly overnight he turns into a bean stork.

ASBO, well ever since he was born he has just been a child with concrete legs, he walks heavy, cuddles heavy & talks heavy, the child is just heavy.

Then finally Tiddley, all our boys started slow on the hight but Tid’s went the other way, she is very tall for a girl her age and she loves her food! her guilty pleasure at the moment (due to still having Christmas stock in the house) is mince pie and cream, not a touch of cream but the pie looks like the titanic sinking in the cream but again she shows no extra weight gain, where do they all put it!

In our town, we may be blest with a cracking beach, amazing estuary and stunning wildlife but we only have CO-OP and Iceland in and a small Tesco for shopping on a budget (and a wonderfully expensive M&S simply foods which for all I love about M&S food with 4 kids unless you get the yellow labels a tenner don’t get you much) in town (but also 3 fantastic butchers 2 fishmongers 2 health food shops and hundreds and thousands of charity shops, estate agents and hairdressers) on the outskirts we have Tesco’s, Lidl and home bargains (which sells all sorts but you can get away with a food shop), today I just wanted to buy in town, so after running around the 3 main food stores trying to work out the best deals I had had enough.

Iceland won today as it is the best-priced supermarket for named brands but I don’t like shopping named brands as for a start named brands don’t taste that dissimilar from the supermarket own, but they one my vote today, as I did not have to get into the car and drive up to Lidl or Tesco and free delivery, is always a winner, but then I looked at my delivery, for the £66 would I have got a better deal in Lidl or Tesco.

We need fruit today and juice, which I have to say our local Lidl has the best range and price for fruit (yes Tesco do offers but once you have fought through the horrific car park like a Roman gladiator, you are far too tired to bother to look at the prices) so once I put all the food away pleased with myself I had the sickening thought that I still had to go to Lidls for the rest!

4 kids for one is hard work, 1,2,3,5 ….. having kids is hard but we do it because we want to, we want to spend time rolling in the mud at rugby or spend that time catching the smile of our child when they surf their first wave or hold them around the campfire toasting marshmallows.

For whatever the cost we will always try to get them the best food at the right price, I’m not being tight, just making the numbers add up, but unlike Oliver, if one of the monsters wants more I will always ask, “of course you can, but only if you are sure?”