Dear General Mills, Your Charm is Not Making My Bank Account So Lucky!
NOTE FROM COLLIN:
Similar to how we do our Try Me Tuesday posts with product recommendations, I thought it would be also fun to do basically the complete opposite. With that said, I introduce “Waste of Money Wednesday!” 😂 This post will be exactly that – the Hip2Save team will be sharing products that they aren’t happy with, products they feel are a waste of money – basically product UN-recommendations.
Hey There! It’s Erica – one of Collin’s sidekicks!
I had a REALLY hard time coming up with something for this post. I am total ‘Positive Patty’ who just finds a way for something to be good even if it’s not (well… there may be a week in every month that this is so NOT true 😉 ).
Something DID finally come to mind…
☘️ LUCKY CHARMS. ☘️
If you have little ones in your household, it’s likely you have purchased General Mills Lucky Charms cereal! My kiddos LOVE Lucky Charms, but I have a slight problem with them…
You see, every time I sit them at the table to eat their Lucky Charms, there seems to be a bowl still full of cereal when they claim they are finished because they only eat the charms. One yummy charm at a time and that’s it! The rest of the cereal is left behind and wasted. Every. Single. Time.
Rainbows, Green Clovers, Pink Hearts, Blue Moons…
They would rather not have this crunchy cereal get in their way.
Now, maybe I shouldn’t be dissing General Mills or Lucky Charms. I could have a little more discipline and MAKE my kids eat all of their cereal. BUT I do like to pick my battles… and Lucky Charms is just not one of them.
End result. No more Lucky Charms in this household.
I recently attended our annual Hip2Save Team Retreat (you can get a sneak peak here), and was a little weird-ed out when I came home to number one, Lucky Charms in my home. And number two, Lucky Charms separated for easy access to ONLY MARSHMALLOWS.
Say what!?!?
My husband is the other issue. He thought it might be fun to take the kids to Sam’s Club to purchase the HUGE double pack of Lucky Charms and separate the marshmallows for fun. Hmm… 🤔
And just to let you know, the Ziploc bag above includes marshmallows from one ENTIRE large box separated.
This 2-pack at Sam’s Club is priced at $7.48 – making each box $3.74, which is neither a good deal or worth it when 90% of the box will be wasted.
Until this rather large bag of charms is gone, we have been using it as a little treat for potty-training and also to put in lunches as a surprise for good behavior, etc!
Don’t have time to separate the marshmallows out!? Amazon actually sells a bag of just the marshmallow Charms here. LOL… Thank you, Amazon! 😂
So I have to ask, is it just our family!? Does anyone else have this Lucky Charms issue?
Other Waste of Money posts:
- THREE Mascaras I Will NEVER Buy Again
- These Pioneer Woman Dishes are So CUTE, But Sadly They CHIP…
- Bryn Will NEVER Buy This Nintendo Product Again, Ever!
- Michelle Will NEVER Again Buy A Wanna-Be Roomba Vacuum
- Thinking of Buying a Hoverboard? Read This First!
- I Won’t Buy Cra-Z-Art Crayons Again – Too Waxy, Clumpy & Soft
- Seriously Amazon… Why Such BIG Boxes?
My kids do the same thing! I end up eating just the cereal once they eat all the marshmallows so it doesn’t get wasted!
Oh, good idea! 😉
We have the same problem in our house! My 3 year old promises that she will eat all of it but it’s just brown cereal when she’s “all done”
LOL.. I am happy to hear it’s not just me!
LOL..I glad I’m not the only one who have this problem. After several boxes, I told my kids no more Lucky Charms. Thank you, Erica for the Amazon info. Surely going to get it 🙂
Ha! Awesome, you’re so welcome!
My boys never did this. My 2 year old daughter however does this and it kills me. So I stopped buying lucky charms altogether because it’s just junk anyways. So disappointing but such an eye opener that most breakfast foods are completely sugary and candy substitutes. Now if only I could get her to eat actual good Whole Foods…
Agreed. Why doesn’t General Mills just make the actual cereal part taste better? It’s like eating cardboard.
I love the cereal.., it’s the darn charms that are too sweet! I hate the charms!
LOL Jenni! I am going to send you all our cereal! 😉
Lol I’m the mom that only likes the cereal and picks out the marshmallows and adds them to my kids bowls 😆
My teenager still does this. Not just marshmallows either. If there are chocolate bits, they are good as gone. Nary a corn flake is missing though, lol
LOL, oh wow! 🙂
My kids do the same thing…BUT I guess I’m that mean mom that makes them eat the rest anyways (mostly!)
Me too!! I actually go through the cereal and make sure there are only about a dozen marshmallows in each bowl.. So I must be meaner than you.. lol .. I have though also bought a big bag on amazon and let them add a handful to cheerios
LOL… you guys ROCK! 🙂
You should just buy the Lucky Charms with just the mallows. It’s a Lil’ pricey though.
I agree with you! I have stopped buying Lucky Charms because of the same reason. Have you tried to actually read the ingredients on General Mills cereal?
I want to say not too long ago, I saw a commercial for Lucky Charms Marshmallows Only! I even thought, “Wow, finally” lol
They sell at at Sugar.
i like how cap/n crunch recently brought out “oops! all berries” 🙂
Same problem here- it is totally wasted cereal. So in order to rectify the problem, I now keep the lucky charms for myself! Haha.
That has always been MY problem as a kid growing up! No surprise, kids today are no different!!! 😂😂😂 🌈
we have this same problem at our house.
bahhaaa this totally something my husband would do and would have flipped a switch… 🙂 🙂 aww love the honesty “pick my battle” totally agree with that one.
LOL!! 🙂
These marshmellows give me the creeps! Just thinking of the chalky crunch on my teeth. I have never liked these! Am I weird?!!
I agree with you. It’s certainly an odd texture.
No you are not alone. I can’t stand the way these feel on my teeth. Lucky for me my kiddo will only eat Honey Nut Cheerios.
I cannot eat these either. We like Honey Nut Cheerios (or Wal-Mart’s new organic brand is soooo good too), Annie’s Flakes (they are just like Frosted Flakes!) and Annie’s Berry Bunnies are our fave!
The only one who eats this in our house is my 30yo husband. And he only uses it as comfort food. My kids have had it and don’t like it which is all the same to me I would rather they had real food for breakfast and saved cereal as a treat. In the times I can’t make their breakfast and their dad has to, they sometimes get cereal, usually chex of some variety and they love it. My oldest likes to mix the chocolate and cinnamon varieties together.
I wish General Mills would use natural colors instead of food dyes 😞. My toddler is very sensitive to food dyes to the point I treat it like an allergy. Long story short he is a VERY different child emotionally when he does not consume food dye.
I agree! My kids are crazy when they eat artificial dyes! We have been getting the Aldi brand as a treat once in a while as they don’t use the artificial dyes in their “marshmallow and starts.” They also use natural colors in their “fruity o’s.”
Yes! Aldi is great for dye free products! They actually removed dyes from all of their brand of products. They even have cheese puffs and other salty snacks that don’t have dyes as well 😃
I believe Aldis version of Lucky Charms contains no artificial dyes. Might be worth checking out if you have one nearby. Less expensive than General Mills too.
Good to know, Emily!!
My kids do the same. I stopped buying them also.
We feed the left over cereal to our goats. They love it!
Just eating the charms is something I’ve been accused of for years and years. My brother said this cereal is named Lucky Charms because you are lucky to get any Charms after I open the box. I’m not admitting anything!
Like others have said, we also don’t like chewing the marshmallows. They hurt my teeth and have an odd texture. It’s like what I would think chewing on a piece of chalk would feel like.
Try Fruit Loops with marshmallows… Still a sugar cereal but atleast my kids eat the cereal and the marshmallows…
Froot Loops also has them with marshmallows.
Comes with a free vial of insulin, LOL
🤣
I guess I’m in the minority on this but we eat all of the cereal. As a kid, I “played” a game to see if I could eat all of the cereal and have a bowl of only marshmallows left at the end. I may have been sneaking a bowl when my daughter was little and she “caught” me playing this game. LOL To this day, she still insists on eating the cereal part first and considers that bowl of soggy marshmallows her “prize”. ❤️
This is so cute though ! ^^^^^^
Wow Laurie!! I LOVE that game idea!!
I do this too ever since I was little =)
Sounds like me as a kid!!! I’d eat the grain part then eat all the soggy marshmallows. I was in heaven 😍
I see the charms as a gift in between bites for eating such a plain cereal. So the whole box goes in my house. Side comment, I love Cocoa Puffs but it upsets me that the I end up with chocolate milk after 3 seconds. Weird, I know. I want Cocoa Puffs with plain milk! Ok end of nonsensical rant.
I don’t normally speak up about how other people parent and I’ll probably get bashed for this but oh well. This post I thought was ridiculous – it’s a cereal – that your kids eat for nutrition. If you want your kids to just eat marshmallows for breakfast there are bags of them down the baking aisle and you can dump milk on it. If you saw a kid walking into school with a bag of marshmallows and told you “this is my breakfast because I didn’t want to eat the toast my mom made” – would you really think….”Oh that’s too cute – his mom didn’t want to pick a battle this morning. I am going to ban Sara Lee Bread Company, it’s their fault.” The “plain” cereal shouldn’t have to be super sugary – cause that is the point of the marshmallows – it’s called a BALANCED BREAKFAST. Buy a different cereal if you can’t “make” your kids eat the whole bowl – that’s on you not General Mills -don’t post how you think it’s their fault and now you bash the product because your kids won’t eat the plain cereal. Picking your battles over cereal and teaching your kids it’s OK to waste food – again that’s on you – not General Mills. You want to give them a bowl of sugar – buy them a donut – same thing. Everything about this post saying it’s a “waste of money” is not actually a waste of money due to the manufacturer and everything to do with how you are “picking” your battles.
You are correct (bash) (bash) (bash) , your post is a little dramatic for such a fun parent (btw each parent does their own thing, there is no rule book) post.
And you totally missed the point of what I said – she blamed someone else for her issues – that was my point.
For the love…this post was obviously meant to be funny…
Hey there Samantha! I did mention that I likely shouldn’t be dissing General Mills or Lucky Charms – you’re right! This is just one of my struggles that I am owning up to as a parent and wanted to simply share! So sorry you didn’t enjoy the post.
There’s always got to be someone who ruins the fun of Wasted Money Wednesday. I enjoy it so I hope y’all keep this segment going!
That is the same reason I quit buying it. They only eat the marshmallows and give the dogs the rest of the cereal.
Um…I’m 53 and I may or may not have done this yesterday. 🙂
Love this!
LOL!! I love you Beth! 🙂
Ha! I relate to this on so many levels! My kids love their Charms but every day I end up yelling “MAKE SURE YOU EAT THE OATS TOO!!!”
Hey, that’s my line! I used to tell it to my 2 year old, and he’d show me his bowl of oats when he was “done” and say, “oats too.” At 3, he now devours it all.
LOL – so happy to hear it is not just me with the struggle! 🙂
Man! I wish I had some of you as parents growing up. We were never allowed to have cold cereal with the exception of grape nuts, yuck! I could never imagine telling either one of my parents that I didn’t want to eat something.
Same here. Never hardly got good cereal, except for a treat every once in awhile. And we were never allowed to question the food. We ate what was on our plate/bowl, or we went hungry.
Easy solution. I buy the bags of only marshmallows.
LOL… Yum-O! 😉
My kids do the same thing! We even got the Halloween Boo Berry the other day and same thing, all the marshmallows were gone but the rest of the cereal was still there.
O man I had no idea they just sold the lucky charm marshmallows I don’t want my son to see this he would be begging for these but would eat them all day if I let him
To each her own, but since you asked… no, this would definitely not be the approach in our house. I don’t have a problem with a sugary cereal, but I could never take the time to separate the marshmallows and wouldn’t be OK with my kiddos wasting so much food.
Dads always have a very “unique” approach to parenting.
AGREE! 🤷🏼♀️
I believe every child that has ever eaten a bowl of lucky charms has done this same thing. I know I did when I was little. I don’t buy sugary cereals for my daughter but if I did, she would probably do it too.
I have had the same problem with Strawberry Special K. The kids fight over the dried strawberries and leave the flakes.
Really?? I and my son always picked the dried strawberries out because we didn’t like the texture lol.
I’ve always wanted to try lucky charms but couldn’t since they aren’t kosher!
But, they seem to be gluten free? I find that funny?!?
I’m thoroughly enjoying this post and the accompanying comments 🙂
Aw, I am so happy to hear that! 😉
There’s a couple of local Amish stores that sell dehydrated marshmallows. We usually buy a few boxes of them and give them out for Christmas. They’re uber popular with kids and adults!
How fun, Sara! Thanks for sharing!
Not sure where you’re from, but my parents in Lancaster, PA bring us a box or two of bulk dehydrated marshmallows when they visit us in Texas. Some get eaten alone and some in hot chocolate.
Mine do the exact same thing because the cereal “is gross”. I don’t buy lucky charms anymore because of that reason. It just doesn’t seem like good parenting to give your kids a bowl of marshmallows for breakfast!!
My youngest (he’s 4 now) did that until recently, I think a growth spurt or something because he just demolishes all of it now lol. I don’t usually fight them on food either though, they finish it or they don’t, but they know they won’t get a snack in an hour when they get hungry because they didn’t eat. My husband & I both like Lucky Charms as well, but try not to eat it because… well, you can’t have just one bowl right? Lol.
Btw your kids are adorable & this was post was cute. I don’t think I could handle all the criticism (from strangers!) that comes with your job so hats off to you!
My grandkids eat the cereal with the marshmallows and don’t complain fortunately. I don’t buy it very often though. I like the idea of using the marshmallows as a potty training treat!
So true! I’ve actually named the cereal bits “luckys” so I’m always saying “Eat the luckys, not just the charms”! LOL!!
My niece and nephews were the opposite. They would only eat the actual cereal part and leave all the marshmallows….lol! My sister would get so frustrated with them picking through the cereal that she eventually banned it from her house😂
I have to make my 4-year-old eat everything in his bowl of Lucky Charms. If he chooses not to I won’t let him have any the next time he asks & I make that clear to him. It works a few times then we start all over again. My sisters bought a couple bags of all marshmallows from Amazon for my kids. 2 of them didn’t like them.
My oldest does fine with sugary cereal, but my youngest gets too hyper. I avoid sugary cereal now because I homeschool and really don’t want him bouncing off the walls all day!
My kids are 26 to 38. I banned them for the same reason more than 20 years ago!
My boys are 33 and 35. I banned them too. When they went to my neighbor’s house, she would let all the kids eat Lucky Charms and Count Chocula as a treat. She was the fun mom, I was the B. Anyway, it was fine because they got to have them once in a great while and I could be the mom I wanted to be. I didn’t really mind. Worked for us.
In our house, we label the cereal part the “Luckies” and the marshmallows the “Charms.” And of course, my 5 year old eats only the “Charms” and never the “Luckies!” Perhaps the “Luckies” are yucky? They certainly are after she leaves them to get soggy in her milk. I rarely buy them anymore.
We HAD the same problem. I no longer buy Lucky Charms for that reason, and that reason alone.
It is amazing how many Mom’s feed this crappy, garbage cereal to their kids! It is no wonder we have an obesity problem and so many kids are eating so unhealthy!
There’s a lot more to the problem than sugary cereal. My kids eat sugary cereal sometimes (and poptarts too! Yes I’m the devil apparently) and are healthy & fit, as are my husband & I. Actually none of our family is obese, and they don’t all eat organic non-processed diets. How does that play into your scenario?
It’s because there’s just not enough education happening when it comes to junk food. Many years ago, I bought this cereal for a time. My daughter asked me to stop buying it because it was making her little brother’s poops all the colors of the rainbow. lol He was young and hadn’t mastered flushing yet. That weirded me out and I never bought it again. Soon I learned the dangers of high sugar junk and artificial food dyes. Eventually we went fully organic. If people would just take the time to read up on what’s in the food in this country..
Be kind; you don’t know these people; don’t judge them! We could judge you for your derogatory and patronizing “tone”!
We don’t eat as healthy overall as we could/should but my daughter has never been allowed to have sugary/colorful cereals, PopTarts, chips with MSG/lots of dye (like Cheetos or Doritos), soda, white bread, mayo, regular Lunchables, etc. She doesn’t like juice or juice-drinks, prefers plain water 95% of the time and views flavored milk as a treat. But her dad’s side of the family isn’t very tall; he’s stocky; and the women of his family (mom, aunt, sister, nieces) have all struggled with weight. As a result my daughter has an apple shaped body and always has a bit of a tummy in spite of not eating a lot of the most controversial foods. Meanwhile my side of the family has generally been tall and slender and I manage to stay a size 0-2 while sitting on my butt in an office all day, not exercising and eating literally whatever I want (sshh I ate chocolate chip cookies for breakfast at work the other day) . All that to make the point that I think there’s more to a person’s health and weight than Lucky Charms.