Packed lunch cheap treats

Own_My_Own

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I often wonder where this idea of needing to include sandwiches, chocolate bars and packs of crisps in a lunchbox comes from? Is it a British thing?

What would suggest instead ?

pixiedust09

Hi, following this thread with interest as OH also has a very manual job and needs filling up. He always takes two lots of sandwiches, cake, two bags crisps, banana, and two yogurts. I think his lunch stuff costs more than dinners for the week :eek:. Last week and this week though, I am better prepared. I made two victoria sponge cakes, one for last week and froze one for this week, and a batch of chocolate brownies, num num.:p Ordered an Easiyo yougurt maker last night as we love yogurt in this house, and nice yogurts are so expensive so going to give this a whirl and see if it works out cheaper. Also shopped at Aldi for the first time last week and apart from the tills and staff was pleasently surprised at the prices. Does anyone have a soup canteen thingy, do they keep the soup hot all day? was thinking this might be another option, especially for the winter.

delain

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I often wonder where this idea of needing to include sandwiches, chocolate bars and packs of crisps in a lunchbox comes from? Is it a British thing?

Pretty much yeah.

Has confused a lot of parents when some schools bought in healthy lunchbox policies and crisps and biscuits weren't allowed!

pigpen

delain wrote: »

Pretty much yeah.

Has confused a lot of parents when some schools bought in healthy lunchbox policies and crisps and biscuits weren't allowed!

This was mainly because they just said you aren't allowed to feed your children these things with no suggestion as to what to feed them instead.. Most parents didn't have a clue..

Our school eventually sent out a list of alternative ideas for lunches which was helpful.. Then the dinner ladies complained about stupid stuff like having to take off 50 yoghurt pot lids.. The hot dinners at the new primary mine go to are fabulous and worth every penny.. they were cooked elsewhere and shipped in at the other school so kept warm and just not nice.

thriftlady_2

A boring suggestion I know, but when my kids ask what else they can put in their lunch boxes I say 'another sandwich'.

I've never bought crisps, chocolate bars or yogurts for lunch boxes. They have sandwiches/rolls/pittas/bagels, fruit and something homebaked like a flapjack or a muffin.

embob74

Wow so many replies, thank you for the great response.

OH does have a microwave at work but regularly spends the whole day out in a field with no option to return for lunch (in summer lunch is on the go). He doesn't always know where he will be the next day so it's hard to plan but I will batch freeze some meals for when he knows he'll be near the microwave the next day.
I love the making HM pasties idea. I do buy OH them for something different and I'm sure HM will be cheaper than the normal 80p cost.

I think I'll implement the swap a treat for another piece of fruit idea. Small steps! The fruit jelly is a good way to mix sweet and healthy.

I guess I just need to forward plan a little more. I'm sure pasta salad will be welcomed when we finally get summer!
I think I'll start making batches of sandwiches and freezing them as I do tend to throw ham and bread away if it hasn't been used in 3 days. My parents used to do that and it was so easy to grab a sarnie from the freezer and it was thawed out by lunch time. I won't be using ox tongue though as I always seemed to end up with it when I thought I had picked a ham sandwich!

anniemf2508

I make crustless quiche for my husbands lunches:

150g cottage cheese
3 eggs
2 onions
cheese

chop the onions and saute til golden brown, divide between a 12 hole shallow bun tin. Beat the eggs with the cottage cheese, season. Divide the mixture between the 12 holes. Sprinkle over a little cheese. Cook in an oven (200c) for about 18 minutes.

Butterfly_Brain

I used to have a cookathon on a Saturday when my two were at school and now find myself doing it for college as well I would make things such as honey muesli bars, Twinks hob nobs, chocolate dipped flapjacks, gingerbread men, pasties, cheese straws, HM bread, biscuits and cakes. They had 2 pieces of fruit each, no crisps and no yoghurt because it was too messy, they liked crackers and babybels with some HM pickled onions (Make sure they have a baby wipe in a plastic bag to clean their hands with or they will stink of onions all afternoon:rotfl:), they also liked egg, mayo and cress sandwiches, but you really have to be careful what is in the boxes, because invariably there is no provision for leaving them in a fridge and as I found to my horror one year, in the winter, the lunch boxes were left near the radiators :eek: So make sure that you have a chiller pack in their boxes. When they got to secondary school I started to send them with flasks of soup or stew in the winter now they like HFW's HM pot noodles as well.
I love this site
http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/2012/03/banana-breakfast-bars/

There is a brilliant recipe for banana bars and other goodies

Butterfly_Brain

There are lots of lunch box threads:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4632365

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4638893

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4631823

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4526955

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4387899

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4353343

Own_My_Own

Ds has decided he wants tuna and salad in pitta bread tomorrow. So that's one day out of 30 down. :rotfl: