Packed lunches, how much do you spend?

mummyplus3

My eldest is starting school soon and will be having a packed lunch, I am just wondering how much parents spend on them a week and what types of things do you put in?

How much food is enough but not too much or too little etc?

rachbc

Not much! I roast gammon and beef joints to slice for sarnies, then pnb and cream cheese for variety. Home made rolls filled with one of the above, veg sticks (carrots, cucumber, peppers, raw sugar snaps) a yoghurt, piece of fruit and sometimes a piece of homemade cake or biscuit

no-oneknowsme

My lot are all "grown up" now and so decide what they want to eat at lunch time themselves but when they were little and I made pack lunches it would have been maybe 1 round of bread with filling (ham , cheese , peanut butter etc) a small drink , 1 piece of fruit and 1 biscuit . Two days per week they would also have had a packet of crisps.

This always seemed to be enough for them as they never asked for more and never brought any of it home in the lunch box.

Suppose it all depends on the appitite of the individual child.

At home at lunch time what would your child eat at the min?

Could you possibly guage his/her lunch around what they eat now?

mummyplus3

well at the moment kiddy has a cooked dinner at nursery then a small "tea" of sandwiches and something for supper at home, during the holidays and things I tend to do a sandwich, some crackers/quavers veg carrot/cucumber/tomato and some fruit or a youghurt cake or something.

But kiddy is always complaining of being hungry no matter what how much is eaten! I'm trying to work out whether it will be better for me to make her packed lunches or have them delivered to her school daily.

BitterAndTwisted

Remember that a child's stomach is about the size of their fist, so if you offer too much it will just come home uneaten.

I little lunch-box can be as cheap or as expensive as you want but if you pack it with things like those shop-bought cheese, ham and crackers, crisps, carton-drinks and chocolate biscuits in pre-packed portions your budge will go through the roof. All of these thing can be put together much more cheaply at home. Not that I think any of those things are appropriate for a child starting school in any case.

A little sandwich, some carrots sticks, a piece of fruit cut up and a few raisins in sandwich bags would probably keep the wolf from the door until after school.

I would consider giving your child some choices and involve them in the preparation, so they are happy with what you are sending them with could result in some of it getting eaten rather than binned on the QT.

gizmo111

But kiddy is always complaining of being hungry no matter what how much is eaten! I'm trying to work out whether it will be better for me to make her packed lunches or have them delivered to her school daily.

Delivered by who?

Nimeth

My OH's packed lunches are usually leftovers from the previous night's dinner, which can be sealed up in tupperware containers.

I would also suggest posting this down in the OS boards as they can give you a better idea of costs.

SkintGypsy

My girl gets a sandwich, a piece of fruit, a yoghurt, and maybe some cucumber/tomatoes or raisins. That is plenty and she usually leaves at least one item, although she knows the sandwich is mandatory! When at home she always seems hungry, but I'm sure that is just boredom. School do milk and fruit snacks too, so that is on top of any lunch.

clairec79

Mine get a sandwich, a yoghurt (whatever is on offer) a piece of fruit and something else (often something left over from the night before, ie cold pizza, or a slice of cake etc)

SkintGypsy

And don't forget, they have limited time to eat and play. My girl sometimes only eats her sandwich if she wants to rush off and play, cos she eats so slowly! She eats the rest as a snack when she gets in from school, to tide her over until tea.

Spendless

School dinners have recently gone up 50p a day in just over a year. :eek: Since then I've been putting my DD (8) on packed lunches more often. She has a sandwich, drink, yogurt, bun (or flapjack) and occassionally 1 other item, but I found what the above poster said, she started leaving her less fav item as she wanted to go out to play. School only allows crisps on fridays for snacks so I keep DD's packed lunch in line with this.
I buy the stick yogurts and freeze them taking them out in the morning. You can do this with juice cartons too, but they seem to take longer to defrost (I guess it's the volume ) when I worked as a school dinner we often had children trying to manage their drink which was still mostly frozen, so if you are going to do this take the cartons out when you 1st get up to allow more time, rather than as they set off for school.

I try to keep a mental note of how much her lunch costs to keep it below the 32 that a school meal would cost. I'm a fan of items that can be frozen as it stops them being eaten by everyone else.

I like the 3 packs of orange juice as it is a juice and not a juice drink so counts as 1 of the 5 a day. The last couple of times I've bought them in Asda for 45p but I think they used to be less in Tesco, unsure if they still are. The other days she has tap water.

I am further restricted as I cannot send in anything with nuts due to severe allergies with some children in the school, so it rules out spread like pb.

Today DDs lunch was
1 wrap with 1 large slice of ham, some thin slices of cheese and cucumber slices.
1 carton of orange
1 yogurt
1 flapjack