School dinner @ £1.20 vs a lunchbox meal?

Penny-Pincher!!

I think £1.20 is good value if you know what they eat will be of good quality and portion size. He sounds like he has a healthy appetite, so you need to make sure he will eat enough if having dinners.

DD is 13 and currently gets free school dinners and she has a token daily valued for £2.55 which covers a hot meal, drink and piece of fruit. All their food is of good value and a healthy size. She has told me that a couple of days she buys a baguette or hot panini (sp), cookie and smoothie and her token covers that.

OH maybe starting work again soon so the free lunches will stop but I will leave it to her to decide but will probably settle on packed lunches 3 days and hot dinners 2 days. The 2 days will be a Roast dinner and the other fish and chips..lol.

I will send her in with a bottle of water (she does this already)and fruit/snack though for break. A bottle of water at her school is 90p which I think is disgusting.

PP
xx

madtrekker

fizzel81 wrote: »

also there lunch box's sit on a trolly untill lunchtime

sorry for the ramble

When I was at school (1980s), our lunch boxes had to sit on the floor in the cloakroom, right by the big pipes for the heating. We all had warm sandwiches for lunch and I don't recall anyone ever getting ill. Assuming that everything that needs to be refridgerated long-term only comes out the fridge just before school, it's not sitting around long enough for bugs to grow.
That said, dry, crunchy crusts were never very nice:rotfl:

fizzel81

thank you for the replys

the little ons go all day so thats not just all eaten at lunchtime, i also know they have fruit and soyamilk at preschool, not sure ds1 will have quite as much in his box, also should have said ds1 doesnt like crisps (no im not jokeing he went off them a while back) but the little 2 do get a pack as with what else they eat i dont think a small bag is of any harm

i think im going to need to see what they have dinners wise at school, ds1 is fussy as in he likes 'proper meals' loves things such as cottage pie's casseroles pasta bakes etc and is not greatest fan of things like nuggets and chips (he will eat them but prefers proper food) but also i dont want him to go off what he likes if he gets more used to chips etc, my boys eat better than i do some days

im new to all this packed lunch thing, when ds1 was in preschool lunch club before we moved the keyworkers were more than happy to heat up his fave foods so quite oftern he took cottage pie and veg, casseroles etc and they would heat it for him (which they wont do at school)

HariboJunkie

fizzel81 wrote: »

im new to all this packed lunch thing, when ds1 was in preschool lunch club before we moved the keyworkers were more than happy to heat up his fave foods so quite oftern he took cottage pie and veg, casseroles etc and they would heat it for him (which they wont do at school)

Would he eat soup Fizzel? You can make soups so cheaply and they're very nutritious. If he likes hot food perhaps you should invest in a food flask to give him stews and casseroles.

CravingSaving

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Our school dinners are £1.65 per day nd I have 2 children. I reckon my lunches average out at about 70p per day so I am saving literally hundreds of pounds a year by opting for having school lunches only [strike]when I really really can't be arsked[/strike] in emergencies.

This really made me laugh, thanks!!! :rotfl:

I have two kids at secondary school and one at primary school. I also try to give my youngest packed lunches every day. My older two used to have school dinners with an allowance of £3 per day, which they used to use about £2 of. I have now talked to my older two and said that I just don't have the funds to spend at least £20 a week, £80 per month on school dinners and they have agreed to have packed lunches. They still have an allowance to buy extras if need be, but now take sandwiches, crisps, fruit and home made cakes in on a daily basis and seem very happy with that.

I think that each packed lunch costs me approx £1, so £15 per week as opposed to £38 for 3 school dinners is a bargain, and I know what they are eating too...

fizzel81

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Would he eat soup Fizzel? You can make soups so cheaply and they're very nutritious. If he likes hot food perhaps you should invest in a food flask to give him stews and casseroles.

he may well do and that may be worth a try, can i get a child sized food flask easily? (dont know where to look for one)

HariboJunkie

fizzel81 wrote: »

he may well do and that may be worth a try, can i get a child sized food flask easily? (dont know where to look for one)

Amazon have a 0.5 L one HERE or have a look at this thread from the I wanna board for more ideas.

oliveoyl

Wilkinson have this one at £4.99... more like a pot than a drinks flask, keeps food hot for upto 5 hours so sounds like it's up to the job.

moanymoany

I am very interested in this thread and went onto Tesco’s site and made a list of items I would put into lunches. I didn’t include yoghurs or cartons as my children said they were too fiddly. Here is my list:

Value wholemeal bread – one loaf 30p
Value pitta breads – pack of six
Value cheese
Value pickle
Value ham
Value snacks – small packs –
Value coleslaw
Value chocolate wafers
Value butter
Value pizza
Cucumber
Value apples
Value pears
Value carrots


The total cost is £11.35. This would make loads of lunches – I would freeze cheese and pickle and ham sandwiches. I would make those with pitta bread and coleslaw/cucumber the night before.

The pizza I would cook and freeze in quarters. I would give the small chocolate wafer and pack of snack alternately. The 3 packs of fruit would be about 18 portions. I would put carrot sticks in – about 10 days worth in 1 kilo.

I would fill a drinks container with squash and they can refill with water.

I reckon this would make about 20 + lunches .

MeAllOver

£1.20 is excellent value! It's at least £1.80 at DS2's primary school and DS1 would need well over £2 at his secondary school. For DS2 who is also 5, he has: sandwich (or cold pizza or pasta), fruit or veg and a pudding. DS1 has the same but with 2 puddings. Puddlings will be cereal bar, flapjack, yoghurt, homemade biscuits, babybel or crisps. I'm sure this works out much cheaper than school dinners.

When DS2 started full time, he hardly ate any of his lunch. I think it must have been the excitement/nerves. He kept saying I'd given him too much. But now he easily eats it all and doesn't ask for more.

hth