By Weston Blasi
A $500 grocery-haul video has gone viral for sparking a conversation about when stocking up on groceries might go too far
When does stocking up go overboard? A mom (not shown) has gone viral after sharing a video of her grocery haul with 32 pizzas in it.
How many frozen pizzas does it take to feed a big family? Turns out, at least 32.
A mom in Wilmington, N.C., is going viral for sharing her supersized grocery-store hauls on TikTok, prompting viewers to label the parent of three boys as the “32 pizzas mom” following one especially popular clip from earlier in August that’s drawn over 5.8 million views and counting.
The video, which can be seen below, shows 37-year-old Laken Huffman (as she identifies herself on her social-media accounts) sharing every item she purchased from a recent grocery-store run across Walmart (WMT), Sam’s Club, Food Lion and Piggly Wiggly. Huffman frequently shares her grocery shopping experiences and her life as a mom in her other videos.
This particular grocery haul across a few different stores included more than 10 pounds of cheese, nine 2-liter bottles of soda, and of course, the 32 frozen pizzas, among many other items to feed her household, which includes three boys and her parents. Her total was $476.68.
“We cleaned them out, we took all they had,” she said about the frozen pizzas. She did not immediately respond to MarketWatch requests for comment.
When stockpiling groceries goes too far
A lot of the comments and TikTok stitches, aka a feature which allows users to clip from another user’s video and attach it to the beginning of their own, have centered around the financial implications of a shopper who buys foods in such large quantities. Is this too much food, even for a big family?
Some viewers identify with her. “I used to be a ’32 pizzas mom’ because I grew up in a 32 pizzas family,” one TikTok user reposted about her own experience growing up with food. “I’m not judging how anybody feeds their family because I think that’s weird … I was naive about how to eat and how to cook.”
When MarketWatch reporter Venessa Wong interviewed several big families (defined as those with four or more kids) earlier this year, they shared pretty big grocery bills, too. One family with seven kids in Jacksonville, Fla., said their weekly grocery bill hits around $250 during the school year, and doubles during the summer when the children are all home. Another family with five kids, living in Albuquerque, N.M., said their supermarket shopping has been creeping closer and closer to $2,000 a month.
But as the conversation around the “32 pizzas mom” has noted, she’s feeding three boys – not an army. So what could be driving these massive supermarket hauls, and what can other shoppers learn from this about mindful spending?
Khara Croswaite Brindle, a licensed therapist and certified financial therapist, told MarketWatch that these types of behaviors could have origins in a number of different money mindsets.
Consider “what money beliefs are driving their behaviors, such as ‘spend the money before it’s gone,’ ‘get the food before it’s gone’ or ‘make sure you have plenty of food’ in response to financial trauma like having food insecurity as a kid,” Brindle said. “It can be common for an adult who experienced food insecurity as a kid to overspend on food to show themselves they have enough.”
Aja Evans, a licensed mental-health counselor and financial therapist, agreed. “A lot of life experiences can lead someone to this type of thinking, whether it stems from how they were raised or difficult circumstances they lived through, financial trauma can have a deep impact on how you behave with money,” Evans told MarketWatch.
It’s worth noting that some of the conversation about the viral video was also about the ultraprocessed foods that were included in the haul, which research shows can be detrimental to a person’s health as it raises the risks for an array of cancers. Both Evans and Brindle mentioned that the peoples’ strong feelings on ultraprocessed foods may have also played a part in the video’s viral nature.
“From this video, people will learn how to save money on cheaper, processed foods, but it comes at the cost of limited access to healthy foods,” Brindle said. “Other folks will learn what not to do when it comes to grocery shopping, because the foods they want to buy weren’t represented in the video.”
What stockpiling says about consumer confidence right now
While behaviors like stockpiling food could be related to financial trauma experienced as a child, they could also stem from anxiety about present-day adult issues, too.
“I definitely think people are concerned about the economy, their jobs and financial security,” Evans said. “This isn’t shocking, given all the ups and downs we have gone through over the years. Fear about providing for your family is a real concern for many right now. That fear and concern about scarcity of resources could 100% lead someone to start stockpiling what they can to sustain whatever hardships they may face.”
Consumer confidence, which had been hovering near recession levels for the past several months, ticked up slightly in July to 97.2.
See: Can a baby bonus really make Americans have more kids? Here’s what big families say.
What else can U.S. consumers learn from these videos?
“Please talk to your kids about money! I frequently hear people worried about burdening their children with their finances. You don’t need to open your whole financial world to them, but it is important to discuss developmental and age-appropriate money concerns with them,” Evans said.
“You can share your strategies to save money or how the family is shifting spending priorities, this will help them understand when they see or feel the changes. Always assure them that they are safe and that you are handling it and that while you know they may be worried, it’s your job as a parent to worry be on top of the finances,” she added.
It’s not just Huffman who is posting these types of videos. Parents everywhere, particularly on TikTok, have been sharing videos of their experiences buying food for their families online. Some videos are about budgeting properly, while others see parents complaining about high food prices, and many content creators simply aim to reveal part of their everyday lives to their online followers. Another viral video from 2024, for example, had a mother of six share her $444 Trader Joe’s receipt, even though she still said the store was “pretty cheap.”
See: I just spent $4,400 as the best man at a wedding. It’s not just bridesmaids who pay a fortune.
“It’s a great insight on how Americans actually manage their money,” personal-finance host and author Ramit Sethi said in response to the viral video. “It all starts from back when they were kids,” Sethi continued. “Those little things we observe. So when I see the pizzas, it’s pretty heartbreaking because I know, as it relates to money, so much of our relationship with money is formed when we are kids, and we struggle to really shake that.”
-Weston Blasi
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08-30-25 1317ET
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