Packed Lunches vs School Dinners

chaliepud

Am trying to be a more serious money saver, have only dabbled in the past, but with all costs going up trying to make more of an effort!

How much cheaper/healthier/time consuming are packed lunches as opposed to hot dinners. We are shelling out £3.40 a day for 2 x hot dinners, and it is going up to £3.60 in Sept...

Have done both over the years (eldest 2 are 9 and 7) and prefer hot dinners for convenience, really have enough to do in the mornings! and that the kids try stuff they won't try at home, but starting to come around to the fact that packed lunches would be more economical

Discuss......

H

AnnieH

Well I have experience of both as my kids have packed lunches and i work serving school dinners!!!

The dinners in Hampshire are £1.90 a day for a dinner and a pudding. i have 2 kids in school and there's no way that 2 packed lunches (I actualy make 3 as little un goes to childminder) cost nearly 4 quid a day!!!

There's no reason why you can't get the lunch ready the night before and just pack it quicklyin the morning it takes me about 10 mins tops to do the lunches. my kids usually have a sarnie, or bread/cucumber/carrot sticks with humus/mayo/philly to dip pittas are good too. a piece of fruit or a handful of raisins/apricots and a drink of juice. Maybe the odd treat of a penguin or something but not every day.

There's rally no comparison in price, and IMO school dinners although balanced, aren't always very nice and a great many children don't eat them. Packed lunches an be as healthy or as convenient as you make them.

conradmum

You can always send them a hot dinner as a packed lunch too. There are food flasks now available that'll keep the lunch warm. Maybe you could cook extra the night before , heat it up in the morning and they can have leftovers for lunch?

Spendless

I have a child on each.:rolleyes: For my daughter it definately works out cheaper for her to be on packed lunches, she has a small apetite and is happy with a sandwich and piece of fruit or yogurt. Frequently if I add a 3rd item, it comes back uneaten. In addition she prefers cold food (and has since she was weaned) so was often choosing a sandwich when she was on school meals.

With my son, I am better off paying £1.50 a day for a school meal. He has hollow legs! On the few occassions he has packed lunch (school trips etc). He has more than his Dad and he's only 8.:eek:

My son has definately tried more different foods by being on school dinners, whereas my daughter is only just occassionally saying x has such and such in packed lunch, can I see if I like it.

I would check with the school to see if you are allowed to send in hot flasks of food for packed lunch. I worked 6 months as a school dinner lady and some LA's have wierd and wonderful rules about brought in food. In can even vary school to school, where I worked you couldn't sit a packed lunch child on same table as a school dinner child, but they sit together at my kids school, which is in the adjacent village.

mark55man

definitely do packed lunches - with my brood (4) my OH and I - we saved £1500 by doing lunch boxes. it only takes a few minutes - make the sandwich, piece of fruit, treat and crisps <50p each if you buy on special offer. for me equiv to a £2k payrise

+ look at this thread

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=659253

td

Definitely packed lunches. Although school dinners aresupposed to be healtheir kids still generally get an unhealthy option which they often take (I work in a school). Packed lunches are easy to pack at night - buy those frooby yoghurts and freeze them so it keeps food cold til lunch and then stick in there what your kids like - my dd wouldn't eat half the school lunches they provide and other half I wouldn't want her to eat.

td

carolpinkdreamer

Same advice here too. I work in a school and the food in the dining hall very rarely matches the description on the termly menu that is issued to parents. The menu sounds healthy and tasty but on the plate it looks disgusting. The majority of children that have them at our school are on free dinners. They tend to eat very little of the small portion that they are given.
My daughter tried them, to be like her friend, but my friend in the dining hall said that DD only ever ate the pudding!
I'd definitely save the money and do them yourself,it's surprising how it soon becomes part of your evening routine to prepare them.

crockpot

Mine always had a packed lunch, I have 1 very fussy child so thought it was for the best.

Then they came home and asked to go on hot dinners. Thought ok might help with Mr Fussey, he lasted 2 terms. He is 8 and can have hollow legs, I thought if they have a full lunch I would be able to give them a snack for tea- they still wanted a full dinner!

Youngest did 2 1/2 terms and is on packed lunches till it`s cold again!

Hot snack pot, best to check with school as our `allowed` these for a trial period!!

Packed lunches are cheaper, and can be very cheap if you keep away from prepakaged designed at kids stuff.

I make sandwhiches for the week and freeze them,then in the am just pop in the lunch box.Keeps them fresh til lunch.

I have loads of small tubs, these can be filled with rasins,carrot sticks,cucumber, anything you have left in the fridge,

I also make jelly and pop into these pots, yougart aswell,

They only get crisps-in a tuperware never a whole packet, on a friday and a choc bibkie if we have had some given,i bake and wrap in clim film and pop that in aswell.

I find that lots of differant small things are best,they also take a drink bottle with juice or milk.

SuzySu

I am on the side of packed lunches too. Ok, they throw them away if they have a mind to, but if you make them interesting enough they won't want to. I got my 3 involved at a very young age (still in junior school) making their own sandwiches the night before and having the choice of what goes in it (within reason!). Then they took a piece of fruit, a yoghurt, some variety of tut (got to have tut to swap....) and make sure they get a decent meal in the evenings.

As someone else said....you can also send them with 'leftovers' from the night before. Things like pasta salad, quiche etc work well.

skintas_2

my kids are £9.75 a week each one was on diiners after easter the other on packed lunches. as of monday both will be on packed lunches food from bogoffs. at least im hoping to save £10 a week

poe.tuesday

I am definately on the side of packed lunches, not only due to the cost but the quality too

I will get a breast of chicken, cook it in strips (steam it over frying it) and then freeze the strips, and then use the chicken frozen in wraps with things like lettuce, salsa, sour cream etc, the chicken being frozen keeps fresher and there is no need for a freezer block in their lunch bag.

I make up jelly on sunday night and they have jelly with some thing like tinned manderines in, they are all in little pots, one jelly makes 10 little pots, litterally a spoonful or two each.
They get a little tupawear pot of chrisps as they certainly don't need a whole packet each day (all that fat and salt every day),
they have frubes that have been frozen too, this also keeps the food cool.
Then little pots of cucumber, peppers, carrots etc
they also get a buscuit something like a penguin, break-away etc, it all depends on what the BOGOF are at the time of shopping.
Then there's the fruit, usually a pot of watermelon or strawberries, it all depends on what's good at the supermarket
They only have water to drink as I am a mean mother!

In the winter they have hot pots, I make up chili, bolognaise, curry, chicken casserole etc and they have them in their pots, I have found that if you put pasta in the pots that it's best to put it loosly ontop of the bolognaise etc otherwise it just becomes a solid mass at the bottom of the pot, with the chili I don't give them rice but give them little pots of sour cream, salsa and tortilla chips, same with the curry, I don't put in rice (as it goes all stodgy), but give them little pots of sambals such as chopped up tomatoes, cucumber, spring onion, peanuts, mango chutney, sour cream, chopped boiled egg etc

of you have a problem with organising then prep everything on the sunday, you could buy a ready cooked chicken and make up chicken with sweetcorn for one day etc, it really does not have to be difficult, you just need to be organised and know what you are doing each day.

here is a link to the thermos pots, they keep food hot for 4 hours and warm for about another 2, I always put boiling water in mine to warm them up then I make sure that the food is red hot going in

http://www.gltc.co.uk/fcp/product/-/home_school_car_packed_lunches/Thermal-Food-Pots/703