Great 'cheap but nutritious packed lunches' hunt

ixia

bagels for a change £1 for five, one a day I like ham tomato and lettuce on mine or tuna mayo and a banana or homemade soup and portion it up for the week. Freeze in portions and take it out when you need it should save you money. A bottle of water is a must too. good luck.

themull1

There's nothing wrong with a sandwich for a packed lunch, my kids would not eat lentil wedges, or boxes of salad. i would maybe have the salad at night and i just give them a sandwich, chewy bar and carton of fruit juice for their lunch. I think if kids start asking for things to make them look 'normal' like the rest of their friends, you've gone too far with the salad/wedge scenario.

tentickles666

kids always compare lunches and someone elses always looks better because its different. I would never give in to 'pressue' to give my kids unhealthy food so they could be like someone else, i am responsible for doing the best i can for my kids they will eat healthily and they will blimmin well enjoy it!

FatVonD

CurrentWorker wrote: »

Basically I want to cut down my cost on lunch. I do indeed spend around 4/5 pounds a day on just lunch alone which is just..bad. Any ideas how I can get my lunch cheaper? I attend college smack down in the middle of a big town so I do have tesco's and M&S and lastly an ASDA and 60 other high street shops along the way..


Cheapest I found so far is 2 quid sandwich in asda...

Tesco's meal deal would give you a sandwich or a pot of pasta, a bottle of orange juice and a bag of crisps or fruit for £2.

Sainsbury's do a pack of 4 savoury eggs for about 60p, the others probably do something similar.

elvis86

Do you have a microwave at work? I'm all for money saving, but not so great at cooking or ensuring meals are particularly nutriotious (edit: or spelling, it would seem!)! So it's convenience all the way for me when it comes to lunches!

Today I had Heinz Cream of Tomato soup and a couple of thick slices of crusty bloomer loaf. The soup was 2 cans for £1 in Poundland/world and the bloomer loaf was 50p from Tesco. 75p a day.:)

I'm lucky to have an oven at work so will regularly have jacket potatoes, usually with cheese or cottage cheese and a little bit of salad. Works out maybe 25p for the potato, 50p for filling and 35p for salad (small bag of pre-prepared florette, 75p from Iceland, does 2 lunches).

I have a water bottle which I regularly fill up from the watercooler during the day (ensuring that the rim of the bottle never touches the machine, before any health nuts leap on me!).

fh5se12

Use one base ingredient like pasta, couscous (you just pour boiling water on it to cook it), beans or rice. Brown rice is specially good and whole grains preferable if they’ll eat them for extra minerals and fibre. Then add anything you like: diced vegetables, sweetcorn, tuna, raisins, cubes of cheese. Have you tried tofu? It is full of good protein and you can buy it ready to use. The lightly fried version available in supermarkets is less bland and more tasty.

elizab3th

Hi, thanks for such good tips. Does anyone know ideas how to save money feeding the family too? I'm new here, so this might be the wrong place - if so sorry, but thanks for any good ideas!!
Liz

MoneySavingQueen_2

X1 wholemeal pitta bead
X1 Asda mexican cooked chicken (in a pack chilled aisle)
2 tbs of low fat mayo
finely cut red and yellow peppers and cucumber.

1. chop the chicken up into small chunks and put into a bowl
2. finely cut up some red peppers, yellow peppers and cucumber into small chunks and add to the bowl.
3. scoop in the mayo and stir.

4. Warm up the pitta bread in grill for a minute on each side, cut in half and open the pitta bread and add the mixture to each half.

QUICK AND DELISH!!!!!!! :j :j

taxsaver

I bought a meat slicer for about £15 when on offer and now cook a joint of meat, let it cool and then slice it up into freezer bags of about 4-6 slices each and freeze them. I have beef, pork and chicken sliced and frozen this way (to give me variety) and every couple of days I take out a bag on an evening to defrost ready for my sandwiches for the next two days.

The stock of bags lasts for ages and when you compare the cost of buying and slicing a joint to buying the cut meat packets you get from the supermarket at £2 to £3 a pack it saves a fortune! - Not to mention my meat is cooked how I like it and has not had water added!

p.s - I often pick up joints from the reduced section when they are short on 'use by' date as I can cook it that day anyway.

dreamyd

I got a meat slicer at the weekend from Lakaeland, using some birthday vouchers.I tried it for the first time this morning ( on a small HM gammon done in apple juice), and I love it. I got about 30 slices from a joint that was about 1lb in weight , which is now labelled up in small bags in the freezer. Total cost - about £3.50 when I allowed for value apple juice and a pint bottle of decent cider to cook it in. ATM there's a small pork loin joint and a couple of chops in the oven, which will go through the slicer later tonight.
I'm planning to hit our local Waitrose on Saturday afternoon to see what meat bargains I can pick up, as they will be closed on Easter Sunday. We don't go there very often, but it has some good whoopsies from time to time.