Packed lunches, how much do you spend?

Lunar_Eclipse

I've never worked out how much our packed lunches cost, but they will be the same or less than school dinners.

My 11 year old has 3 or 4 food items such as:
a sandwich (bread/wrap/bagel) or pasta/rice based salad - always
one or two portions of fruit or veggies - always
a yoghurt or cheese
a leftover item eg sausage or a hard boiled egg
an occasional treat such as a cookie, muffin etc (not chocolate or crisps apart from on school trips)
a bottle of water - always
(youngest has a smoothie when on packed lunch, which increases the cost a fair bit but she doesn't enjoy eating many fruits so I consider it essential)

Sandwiches contain salad more often than not. Today's was ham and cucumber, tomorrow's is avocado, tomato & rocket wholegrain wraps.

I'm really trying to make sure my children have a maximum of one junk item a day which I actually think is far too often. Whilst I'm not that old but appreciate that my memory could still fail me, I'm fairly sure that for most of my pre-adult life I only had 1 or 2 items of junk food/puddings a week. Is anyone else concerned about this? I saw a couple of mentions of biscuits/cereal bar and crisps at lunch. I'm guessing this is for teenagers as opposed to kids in the 4-11 age bracket?

moomoomama27

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I'm really trying to make sure my children have a maximum of one junk item a day which I actually think is far too often. Whilst I'm not that old but appreciate that my memory could still fail me, I'm fairly sure that for most of my pre-adult life I only had 1 or 2 items of junk food/puddings a week. Is anyone else concerned about this? I saw a couple of mentions of biscuits/cereal bar and crisps at lunch. I'm guessing this is for teenagers as opposed to kids in the 4-11 age bracket?

No my children, 6, 8 and almost 14 have a cereal bar, or homemade cake, and a packet of crisps/crackers/rice cakes daily in their lunchboxes!

I have no concerns over their weight and health. It's part of a balanced diet, and they need a certain amount of sugar and fat in their diet! They are all extremely active, doing many sporty extra curricular clubs, carrot sticks, cucumber and the like they love, but would not sustain them through their activities. On top of that, as I don't drive we walk everywhere!

galvanizersbaby

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I've never worked out how much our packed lunches cost, but they will be the same or less than school dinners.

My 11 year old has 3 or 4 food items such as:
a sandwich (bread/wrap/bagel) or pasta/rice based salad - always
one or two portions of fruit or veggies - always
a yoghurt or cheese
a leftover item eg sausage or a hard boiled egg
an occasional treat such as a cookie, muffin etc (not chocolate or crisps apart from on school trips)
a bottle of water - always
(youngest has a smoothie when on packed lunch, which increases the cost a fair bit but she doesn't enjoy eating many fruits so I consider it essential)

Sandwiches contain salad more often than not. Today's was ham and cucumber, tomorrow's is avocado, tomato & rocket wholegrain wraps.

I'm really trying to make sure my children have a maximum of one junk item a day which I actually think is far too often. Whilst I'm not that old but appreciate that my memory could still fail me, I'm fairly sure that for most of my pre-adult life I only had 1 or 2 items of junk food/puddings a week. Is anyone else concerned about this? I saw a couple of mentions of biscuits/cereal bar and crisps at lunch. I'm guessing this is for teenagers as opposed to kids in the 4-11 age bracket?

lol! - my kids are aged 7 and 8 and they nearly always take crisps or twiglets/snackajacks in their lunchboxes.
I have been known to go nuts and give them a choccy biscuit a couple of days a week too - very naughty mummy

Looking at many of the lunches on here I'm not sure they would be enough to sustain DS (8) tbh but then he has always been a big but relatively healthy eater.
DD probably has a more normal appetite for a 7 year old.

DS lunch would typically contain
Sandwich (Marmite/ham and cheese are fave) or a wrap
Crisps/snackajacks/twiglets
biscuit/cereal bar
2 pieces of fruit (apple/banana/melon, strawberry)
Separate salad containing iceburg lettuce, grated carrot, cherry tom, cucumber, salad potato)
Yoghurt tube
Bottle of water

DD would be similiar only would be sandwich (tuna is a fave) or a salad with what DS has only containing pasta and tuna or ham/cheese (not salad and sandwich)
She would prob only have one piece of fruit.

DS never leaves anything but DD sometimes does.

Charlie23

I'm in the same position as the op. My dd is starting school in september. She eats a lot (is very tall but skinny) so i'm worried about what to give her.

At home she usually has:
sandwich with 2 slices of bread (ham or cheese etc)
yoghurt
bowl of fruit (grapes and an apple or strawberries and blueberries)
sometimes a pack of cheddars/ half pack of crisps.
a drink of water.

I'm worried as she'll usually have a snack during the afternoon too plus she has a large snack in the morning at pre school.

I will be reading with interest as i want to do different things for her lunch so she eats it.

Good luck op.

P.S. Can''t believe how expensive school meals are!!!

galvanizersbaby

galvanizersbaby wrote: »

lol! - my kids are aged 7 and 8 and they nearly always take crisps or twiglets/snackajacks in their lunchboxes.
I have been known to go nuts and give them a choccy biscuit a couple of days a week too - very naughty mummy

Looking at many of the lunches on here I'm not sure they would be enough to sustain DS (8) tbh but then he has always been a big but relatively healthy eater.
DD probably has a more normal appetite for a 7 year old.

DS lunch would typically contain
Sandwich (Marmite/ham and cheese are fave) or a wrap
Crisps/snackajacks/twiglets
biscuit/cereal bar
2 pieces of fruit (apple/banana/melon, strawberry)
Separate salad containing iceburg lettuce, grated carrot, cherry tom, cucumber, salad potato)
Yoghurt tube
Bottle of water

DD would be similiar only would be sandwich (tuna is a fave) or a salad with what DS has only containing pasta and tuna or ham/cheese (not salad and sandwich)
She would prob only have one piece of fruit.

DS never leaves anything but DD sometimes does.

EDIT - forgot to mention they have to take something for snack time (it's not provided) so they usually eat their yoghurt or a piece of fruit I think

Spendless

Yes, I've posted what my 8yo DD has, but she is a light eater. I haven't got the time or the money to say what DS would eat which is why I keep him on dinners. I thought the OP was posting about a young child though?

Mine does only have a weekly bag of crisps, as the school only allows crisp day on Fridays for snacks, and though I don't know if they would confiscate the item (I don't think their school does this) it makes it easier for me if I do crisps to fit in. I don't think DD 'needs' them more than once a week, as I take the view that I wouldn't eat cheese on toast followed by a bag of crisps, so why would she need a cheese sandwich followed by a bag. I give a bun or flapjack or equivalent, tomorrow she has a slice of cheesecake left over from tea,as she would receive a pudding if she was on school meals.

patchwork_cat

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Lidl does nice 250ml orange & apple juice cartons 5 for 99p (occasionally on offer). Otherwise Waitrose doe 6X 200ml for £120 or so.

I know that Waitrose are expensive, but!

daveyjp

"P.S. Can''t believe how expensive school meals are!!! "

£1.80 a day at DD school for a cooked on site hot meal, two veg, potatoes, a sweet and a piece of fruit? I wish I could pay that!

jetta_wales

When deciding on how much to give your young child for school and worrying if it's enough or not, look at the amount of food you have in front of you and think of yourself if you ate all that. Would you be full? If so then it's too much. Yes they're growing but they're still about a quarter to a third of our weight and they should not be having adult portions of any meal as this is one of the most common mistakes that leads to childhood obesity. My girls (will be 5 and 7 in a few weeks) both still have half a sandwich each in their lunch box and half a large peeled carrot, raisins, frube and cheese of some sort. If I put in all that plus a full sandwich that would be an adult lunch.

Sometimes we get the small loads that warbutons do of nice wholemeal bread bread that makes a perfect size sandwich for a child too.

By the way one of the biggest money savers is not buying raisins in lunch box multiple packs but buying ahugebag for about £2 from where the baking things are in the supermarket and it lasts months and months.

Lunar_Eclipse

moomoomama27 wrote: »

No my children, 6, 8 and almost 14 have a cereal bar, or homemade cake, and a packet of crisps/crackers/rice cakes daily in their lunchboxes!

I have no concerns over their weight and health. It's part of a balanced diet, and they need a certain amount of sugar and fat in their diet! They are all extremely active, doing many sporty extra curricular clubs, carrot sticks, cucumber and the like they love, but would not sustain them through their activities. On top of that, as I don't drive we walk everywhere!

Totally agree with you, although I think we need to be careful over the interpretation of balanced diet in terms of sugar and salt intake. Also, as lovely as crisps are, I don't think they're actually any more filling than carrot and cucumber sticks. Cereal bars can be great, but the yummy, more filling ones are so expensive! I can no longer find my favourite ones in Sainsbury's, although at around £2.20 for 3, maybe that's a good thing.

Flapjacks, muffins and homemade cake are really good options (along with nuts which are understandably usually not allowed in schools.)

Now I know why bananas are so popular!

The packed lunch that left our house today was a ham & salad wrap, a pot of grapes & sliced cucumber, a couple of biscuits (SATS week treat) and a bottle of water. Also some dried fruit for break (again to keep our strength up during test week;).)