Coronavirus: Mum of 16 struggles to get groceries because of COVID-19 panic buying

The impact of panic buying and supermarket shortages has hit everybody hard – but spare a thought for Jeni Bonell and her family of 18.

Weeks of panic buying and product shortages in supermarkets have hit everyone hard, none more so than large families.

For Queensland mum of 16 Jeni Bonell it has been particularly tough – her family usually goes through 50 litres of milk a week, meaning the current buying limit of just two bottles per purchase doesn't cut it.

"One the kids aren't allowed to touch the milk themselves, they have to speak to mum first," Ms Bonell told news.com.au with a laugh.

"It's almost like having to lock up the fridge or the pantry so nobody touches anything."

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The Toowoomba mum has a Youtube channel and Facebook page where she shows what life with a large family is like.

Normally, Ms Bonell would have no problem buying the groceries she needs for her family. She usually buys multiples of items such as tinned food or toiletries when they are on sale to save money.

Jeni Bonell documents life with a large family.

"Obviously we have a lot of groceries just for the volume of people in the family and I've always been a bit of stockpiling shopping style just to save money," she said.

"So if something comes on half price I would buy extra of it and put it aside, that's just always been the way that I've shopped, but it's completely changed now."

At the moment Ms Bonell has been forced to make at least one trip a day to the supermarket and had to get creative during a recent shop this week when shelves were bare.

"We went to buy a kilo of sugar and we had to bring home a box of sugar cubes," Ms Bonell said.

Even when she does manage to buy what she needs for her family Ms Bonell gets "a look" from other customers.

Earlier this month, she shared on Facebook how she had been shamed by another shopper for buying a large packet of toilet paper.

Her post resonated with other mums who had large families and said they too had been similarly judged at the checkout.

"(Recently) I was able to get some meat and of course for us you have to buy a few packs of anything to make a meal out of something," Ms Bonell said.

Earlier this month Jeni Bonell was shamed by another shopper while buying toilet paper. Picture: Facebook.

"You still get the little sly looks from people but you know what are you going to do? You've still got to get your food so if people want to be mean that's their problem not ours, so you've just got to let it go."

For now Ms Bonell's 16 kids are also pitching in when they can and try to pick up groceries that are needed whenever they leave the house.

"If anyone goes out it's like, 'well can you bring home bread, or can you bring home milk or can you get something' – always check for the toilet paper," Ms Bonell said.

"All these silly things that to me there's so much more interesting things to do in life than to have to be worried about what's in your pantry. It just makes life really difficult and quite headachy-worthy I think."

The Bonell family is also working to reduce the amount of food they eat and planning meals more carefully.

"We've had a lot of family discussions about our consumption, we need to pull it right back and (have spoke about) nobody taking anything, because that could be part of a meal or something else," she said.

But while other shoppers have been caught "gaming" limits by making multiple purchases of restricted items using family members during the one shop, Ms Bonell is determined to play by the rules – even if it makes following social distancing measures more difficult.

"You buy what you're allowed to buy like everyone else, if that means that you need to make several trips out to the grocery store over several days then you've just got to do it," she said.

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Police watch as people queue for a delivery of toilet paper, paper towel and pasta at Coles Supermarket, Epping, in Sydney on Friday. Picture: AAP Image/James Gourley.

"But the whole point of making people stay at home and have this social distancing it's just a slap in the face because we're all forced to keep going back over and over to the grocery store just to get the basic needs.

"And big families in particular, where two boxes of cereal is just never going to cut it or two tins of soup say, that's not going to be a meal of anything for us. You're forcing us to go back to the shop."

However, Ms Bonell would like to see if there is a way for exceptions to be made when it comes to buying restrictions for large families like hers or others that may struggle with the limits.

"It's really hard to say, because I understand why they've brought in these limits and I think we need to say find the panic buyers and stop them. Because the rest of us just want to buy regular amounts or in our case or if you live out of town, yes, you do need more," Ms Bonell said.

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Ms Bonell has called for panic buyers to fight the virus, not each other.

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"But if you can prove you've got more in your family, if you had to be able to share your Medicare card and then say well right I've obviously got more children, instead of a two litre limit you might be able to get four.

"It's difficult to say what's going to work across the board because there is so many different reasons for people to not come out of the house or to have a bigger amount to buy – it could be distance, it could be ill health, it could just be the size of a family. It's tricky."

Despite the headaches having to go grocery shopping everyday have caused, Ms Bonell still counted herself as one of the lucky ones. But she wants other shoppers to practise kindness and fight coronavirus, not each other.

"We're OK, as I've said I've always been a bit of a stockpiler so for certain items in our house we're perfectly fine," she said.

"But for things like your fresh fruit and veg, your milk and dairy products, those sorts of things, I would probably go a couple of times a week normally. But I'm everyday now because of the limits, you have to keep just going back."