Best School lunches on a budget

aless02

I made a post on the work-lunch hunt thread that also works really well for children: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=17400679&postcount=24

Basically, pack them a really creative lunch full of homemade things that you've made over the weekends and frozen for storage. Fun things like mini-hamburgers, meatball, quiches, mini muffins and the like go a long way! Why waste money buying all this prepacked snack rubbish when you can make it yourself for WAY cheaper?

OwtForNowt

Farmfoods had little bags of fruit for making smoothies the other day for 15p each.

MrsBartolozzi

beyond_skint wrote: »

Are primary age children allowed soup in a flask? Does anyone know.

I have never had problems from the school with my 2 DS's who often had soup in the winter. I would suggest though that you use a stainless steel flask with no glass inner as most schools have a ban on glass bottles, and of course it might just last longer too.

MrsB.

dawnteabag

My son who is in Y3 also takes a flask to school without problems. Its entirely plastic (I was concerned about him burning his fingers on the lip of a stainless steel one whilst eating). He regularly has a time of ravioli or spaghetti hoops for lunch in it. He's never been one for eating sandwiches (they used to come home with one bite in them no matter what I put in - I even sunk to jam sandwiches to no avail!). Other alternitives he does like are tuna mayo and pasto salad (with reduced fat creme fraiche or plain yoghurt instead of mayo) or wraps/pitta bread with tuna 'mayo' in them.
One tip I would give is that it is generally cheaper to buy a litre of OJ and put it in a watertight cup container than to buy the individual cartons. Less waste and they don't have to drink it all at once too. 200ml per day for a litre of OJ lasts a week for about 70p. Indiviual cartons are £1.06 in LIDL. Finally, if you do buy cartons and they are getting close to BB date. Pop them in the freezer. They'll defrost by lunchtime and keep the rest of the lunch cool. Same goes for Frubes etc and yoghurts (extra low
fat ones don't freeze well.

OwtForNowt

Oh, try that golden savoury rice and add a tin of tuna and a handfull of frozen peas and sweetcorn. Would probbaly do afew people or afew days and tastes nice.

helwarren

great thread, son doesn't complain but I would get bored with what he has for lunch! dairylea dunkers are on offer asda and tesco at the moment and I usually stock up on cheese strings when on offer. Also if you get the microwave popcorn you can put some in a sandwich bag and put the rest in airtight container for couple of days as alternative to crisps.
I always buy big bags of raisins and apricots and put them ina little pot rather than buying the small lunch box size packets.
Our school doesnt let them take the pouches or tubes of yoghurts because the staff used to get covered in it when trying to open them for the little ones!

tessie_bear

home bargains is great for crisps and pop .....10p to 15p a time if u use those things...they sell cheap lunch boxes

happymummy24-7

I struggle with our school policy on this:
Healthy break and countless allergies means no peanutbutter sandwiches,kiwis,bars with nuts in,egg ect........its very stressful!
My main problem is the healthy break part-they say its optional and they just encourage it but all the teachers tell the children off if they have anything un-healthy and wont allow them to eat it.my 7 year old is soo tiny and skinny that i need to get calories into her whenever possible but she point blank refuses to eat anything theacher wouldnt aprove of!!! Its one step away from creating food issues with the kids,its pushed that much.
Oh,my best advice is pancakes!! Buy in bulk and freeze just lift a couple out the night before and butter and jam them in the morning-great source of energy!

dawnteabag

Another idea if you're struggling to get kids to eat is to give them a buttered teacake (Fruited) or Fruit loaf. I kid myself that its only the same as giving them bread and butter + some raisins but sometimes you have to give them what they will eat rather than them coming home with an uneaten lunch and an empty tum. That said, my son will often eat an unfinished sandwich on the way home. I suspect lunchtimes are far too exciting for him to concentrate on eating.

babybimbles

A favourite in this house is scrambled egg tortlla with a dash of ketchup!