How to give my son more "yes's"
TLDR: I find myself constantly saying no to my son & he's starting to have behavioral problems due to it. What are some free things I can tell him yes to, let him feel more in control?
My son (5) has been showing out lately at home. I know the cause of it is not getting his way a lot lately. For example he wants to bring lunch to school but he gets free lunch at school so we only let him bring it to school once a week. I've been cooking from scratch a lot more & I can't afford to make something completely different I always try to include something I know he likes but he's 5 & what he likes can change day to day (the main thing he absolutely doesn't like is "wet food" so like he'll eat plain spaghetti noodles but if I add spaghetti sauce it's "wet" or he loves raw veggies but something hubs & I like to do is saute them in sauce sauce with maybe some chicken & throw it over ramen noodles... He hates that cause they're "wet" so when I'm making something like that I will leave saw plain noodles or leave some raw veggies) & I'm putting my foot down that no I'm not cooking an entirely different meal for for I can't afford that... He LOVES yahoos. If I let him he could drink an entire 32 case of them in a day. We started limiting him to 4 a day & recently we had to move back to 3 a day & we want to move back to 2 a day but he's still having a fit over 3 & has started lying he'll ask how many he's had knowing good & well he drinks 2 every morning & he'll say he's only had 1. He'll also lie if he made a mess & doesn't want to clean it up & say he didn't do it.
I understand the development & logic behind it. I've studied Earl childhood education. It feels like we're constantly tell him no. "No you can't have another yoohoo, no you can't have chicken nuggets, no we can't stop at Chick-fil-A, no we can't stop at McDonald's, no you can't go to the neighbors they aren't home, no we're not going outside it's 40°f and raining" & I understand that he's tired of hearing no. I would be too. He's not old enough to fully understand, although I do explain stuff to him on his level.
What I'm asking is what are some yes's I can give him? Like if it's a nice day & he wants to go play outside sure go play. People give him so many toys... I have enough toys to run a daycare.. my uncle (our neighbor) buys him a new toy every week. I've had to tell him he has to keep them at his house.. until I told him that he was buying one 5 days week. He can go play with toys & be happy, but he doesn't want to. I give him an hour of whatever he wants to watch a day. After that I might let something educational be on but no more free screentime. So my point there is he has plenty of toys & stuff I can say yes too. What are some ways I can say yes more often while broke?