Packed Lunches for School

minimoneysaver

Easiflow Insulated (12 months +) - by Tommee Tippee
My daughter uses one of these for school. They aren't babyish, never leak and are cheap to buy and fill. I got mine in Tesco.

msb5262

I'd second the library idea for school holiday activities - excellent plan. Also lots of local councils put on activities for younger children, some free, others subsidised, and some are for parents to come to with their children. Local museums/parks can be brilliant too; if you check out what's on, there are often free puppet shows, children's workshops or brass bands etc playing.
As far as the school dinners go, I'd have a chat to the teacher - it can't be in your daughter's interest just to eat the pudding, day in, day out! As a teacher myself, I'm not impressed if this is the deal that's been done without your knowledge or consent.

moggitymog

we found packed lunches worked out more expensive, due to only having one child the offers always seemed to be for bulk buying and we wasted loads of stuff so now stick with school dinners.

sooz

It depends on what you put into the packed lunches as to whether it works out cheaper or not.

Mine are certainly cheaper - like another poster we use leftovers, have lots of small pots to fill with dip, raisins from big packs, small cubes of cheese, yoghurt from bigger pots etc. I very rarely buy anything specifically aimed at the packed lunch box as they are total rip offs - more packaging than anything else.

Other friends seem to spend a fortune, but each lunch contains a mini babybel, a pepperami, a frube, a fruit shoot etc There is a great thread (probably in the index) on the old style board about making lunches, & bento style lunch boxes. If you get some good divided lock & lock tubs & a few small pots that fit in them, you don't need to pay the extra in the supermarket to have it packed up in little boxes for you.

foreversomeday

Packed lunches certainly can be cheaper - the OS board is great for getting your food shop down too, so have a look there to reduce your spending generally. You could give them the challenge of creating 5 lunchbox meals for a (fussy?) 5yo for less than £7, I'm sure they would love that :P

This is a good guide to packed lunches:
http://www.mumsnet.com/microsites/lunchbox.html

All the Old Style lunchbox threads:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=4272407&postcount=3

mummy2mygirls

i will agree on the lunch box being cheaper! MY little girl (5) will also like chees and crakers as a change some days and she likes pita breads as well (i was lucky to get the mini ones on really cheap a little while ago and i keep them in the freezer and just get one out everyday! Alos the raisins are a good idea, you could buy the little tubs first and then re fill them to save a little or just put them in a pot!
She also has fruit which i swap and change, and a yougart everyday - but might look into the above idea of using bigger pot and putting it in small pots for lunch.O rthe jelly with fruit bits in sounds a good idea..Also if we have pasta the night before she will have the left overs cold the next day, tuna pasta is her fav!!
Also you could make flapjacks, hm cakes etc all would be cheaper then pre brought!

Im of to have a look at the above link for some more ideas....

skintas_2

one of my sons has school dinners £9.75 a week the other has packed lunch they like it that way, for the packed lunch he has sandwiches crisps, sausage roll, fruit i vary it everday, i have seemed to save money this way. oh takes packed lunch to work to

Savvy_Sue

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Maybeanotherday

Hi guys wondering if you can help?
My daughter has asked for packed lunches...she's always been on good old fashioned school meals.
These meals cost me £7 per week...any ideas how I can offer varying food over 5days that sticks to this budget/
Also does anyone have any recommendations on a suitable bottle for school as every one she has had so far has leaked!
p.s she's 5years old

mummysaver

My 7yo dd3 takes either a rolls, a sarnie or pasta salad, a piece of fruit and/or a small pot of raisins, a treat (usually a muffin or twink's hobnobs or a traybake) and some yoghurt or a jelly. Sometimes she takes soup or hot choc in a metal unbreakable flask as well if it's really cold.

I have tried all sorts of beakers and bottles, and eventually they all seem to leak, think it's cos she bites the drinking bit! I now buy bottles of water in poundland and just reuse these. She has got quite a good High School Musical metal bottle with a plastic lid, that seems to have lasted pretty well so far though.

As for the costs, it really depends on how much you are prepared to make yourself and how much pre-prepared stuff you want to use. My rolls are homemade, I buy raisins in a big pack and just pop some in a little pot, yoghurt is homemade and flavoured with jam or honey (though occasionally I can be found buying High School Musical frubes lol - esp when they are £1 in Asda like they are at the mo, they freeze well and mean no ice pack is needed in summer!). Cakes are usually made in a big batch at the weekend and frozen individually, else by Friday there would be none left, actually probably by Tuesday!

Soup is usually the leftovers from whatever I've made recently. And pasta salad is just a bit of extra pasta, peppers, sweetcorn, runner beans, grated carrot, cheese, whatever is around really, and sometimes she has it in a dressing and sometimes not!

Occasionally we have rebellion about sarnies and she takes in an assortment of veg and dips and pieces of cheese!

Good luck with the lunches x