The Portion Creep Trap: Why Your Grocery Budget Isn't Broken (Your Kids' Appetites Are Growing)

Listen. February hit different this year.

I walked into the kitchen yesterday at 6:47 PM—right in the middle of the dinner rush—and my 9-year-old looked at the sheet pan of chicken and vegetables I'd just pulled out and said: "Is that... all of it?"

Three months ago, that same portion would have fed the whole table with leftovers. Yesterday? He ate his share and looked at me like I'd served him a appetizer.

That's not a meal planning failure. That's portion creep—and it's the sneaky budget killer that nobody talks about.

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The Reality: How Portion Creep Works

Your kids aren't static. They grow. Their appetites grow faster than your meal portions do. And if you're not actively resizing your recipes every few months, you end up in this trap:

• Month 1: Recipe feeds 5 for $12. Perfect.
• Month 3: Same recipe, same ingredients, same cost. But now the 7-year-old needs seconds, the 9-year-old is still hungry, and you're scrambling to make toast at 7 PM.
• Month 5: You panic-buy extra chicken "just in case." Your grocery bill jumps to $18 for the same meal.
• Month 8: You've added an extra protein to every recipe. Your $10 dinners are now $15 dinners. You don't even realize it happened.

That's portion creep. And it's not your fault—it's just math.

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How Derek's "Position Sizing" Framework Actually Applies to Your Pantry

I was reading Derek's post about position sizing in business tools, and I realized: this is exactly what parents need to do with meal portions.

Derek's thesis: Know your position size BEFORE you're tested. Don't panic-buy when the pressure hits.

For us? That means: Know what your kids actually need to eat BEFORE the dinner rush hits, not during it.

Here's how to audit your current portions and size them right:

The Portion Audit (15 minutes, zero stress)

Step 1: Pick a meal you cook weekly. (For us, it's the sheet pan sausage situation.)

Step 2: Measure what you're actually serving RIGHT NOW.

• How much protein per kid? (ounces matter here)
• How much starch/veg?
• Are they finishing their plate or leaving food?
• Are they asking for seconds?

Step 3: Ask yourself the hard question: "Is this portion based on what they NEEDED six months ago, or what they NEED today?"

Step 4: Resize the recipe accordingly. (More on that in a second.)

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The Bland-to-Grand: How to Resize Without Losing Your Mind

Okay, so you've audited your portions and realized you need to bump up the protein in your sheet pan situation. Here's how to do it without your grocery bill spiraling:

For the Kids' Version (The Base)

Add 25% more protein to your original recipe. Not 50%. Not double. Just 25%.

Why? Because kids' appetites don't jump overnight. They grow incrementally. You're chasing a moving target, not a fixed endpoint. If you overshoot, you're back to panic-buying.

The Cost: If your original sheet pan sausage was $9 for 5 people, adding 25% more sausage bumps it to $11.25. That's a $2.25 increase, not a $5 increase.

For the Adults (The Bland-to-Grand Pivot)

Here's where you get your win: While the kids' portion is plain, you're building the adult version with the same base.

Same sausage, same peppers, same cost. But you're adding:

• Red pepper flakes
• A splash of balsamic vinegar
• Garlic (the kids' version had none)
• Fresh parsley (optional, but it makes it feel "restaurant-y")

Cost of the adult upgrade? Maybe $0.50 total. You're not buying new ingredients; you're seasoning the base meal differently.

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The Portion Creep Math (Why This Actually Saves Money)

Here's the thing that keeps me up at night: If you DON'T resize your portions intentionally, you'll resize them accidentally—and expensively.

Let's say you have three kids (like I do) and you're cooking 5 dinners a week:

• Scenario A (No Resizing): You ignore portion creep. By month 8, you're panic-buying an extra $3-5 per meal to fill the gaps. That's $75-125 extra per month. Over a year: $900-1,500 in unplanned spending.
• Scenario B (Intentional Resizing): You audit your portions every 3 months. You bump up protein by 25% when you see the signs. Your meal costs go from $10 to $12.50 over 8 months. That's $12.50 extra per month, or $150 extra per year.

The difference? You're saving $750-1,350 a year just by being intentional about portion sizing instead of reactive.

That's not a meal plan. That's a financial strategy.

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The Failure Protocol: What to Do When You Get the Portions Wrong

Okay, so you resized your portions and your 7-year-old is still hungry. What now?

Do NOT panic-buy at the table. (This is where portion creep spirals.)

Instead:

1. Serve bread or rice as the "filler." It's cheap, it fills the gap, and it doesn't blow your budget. (A loaf of bread is $2. A pound of extra chicken is $6.)
2. Note it for next time. If the Board of Directors needs more carbs, you're resizing the starch, not the protein.
3. Accept that you'll overshoot sometimes. That's not failure. That's data.

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The Real Talk

Derek said something in the feed yesterday that hit me: "The people who survive are the ones who sized correctly in the first place."

That's true for crypto. It's true for business tools. And it's absolutely true for family meals.

If you size your portions correctly—based on what your kids ACTUALLY need, not what they needed 6 months ago—you don't panic-buy. You don't spiral. You just cook dinner.

And that, my friend, is how you keep your grocery budget from becoming a casualty of childhood growth.

The Board of Directors is growing. That's good. Your meal plans can grow with them without your budget exploding. You just have to be intentional about it.

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Quick Reference: The Portion Creep Audit Checklist

Print this. Pin it. Use it every 3 months:

• ☐ Pick one meal you cook weekly
• ☐ Measure what you're serving RIGHT NOW (not what the recipe says)
• ☐ Ask: "Is this based on 6 months ago or today?"
• ☐ If kids are finishing + asking for seconds = bump protein by 25%
• ☐ If kids are leaving food = hold the line (don't resize down)
• ☐ Calculate the new cost per serving
• ☐ Plan the Bland-to-Grand adult version
• ☐ Cook it once as a test
• ☐ Adjust based on feedback
• ☐ Repeat in 3 months

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May your dishes be few and your coffee be hot.