My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

AIBU?

To give my 14-year-old a budget for school lunches

97 replies

StuntNun · 14/05/2017 18:28

DS1 is spending around £20 a week on school lunches. I asked him to reduce his spending and have bought reusable water bottles and snacks for him to take from home but he still spends £3-5 per day. As he is 14 years old AIBU to give him a set budget and if he runs out of credit on his school account he will have to use his own pocket money or make his own lunch to take in?

OP posts:
Report
bigchris · 14/05/2017 18:29

Yanbu

Report
PastysPrincess · 14/05/2017 18:29

Sounds reasonable to me.

Report
BarbarianMum · 14/05/2017 18:29

No thats perfectly reasonable.

Report
Squishedstrawberry4 · 14/05/2017 18:29

Yes. Do it

Report
Trb17 · 14/05/2017 18:30

Absolutely fair. I know many people that do this.

Report
HeyCat · 14/05/2017 18:31

Do it. Valuable life lesson for him. I'm assuming you've checked the menu and he would beable to get lunch for the amount you want to give him.

Report
SnickersWasAHorse · 14/05/2017 18:31

I had the exact same thing when I was at school.
I was given £10 on Saturday (late 80s). This was my pocket money and dinner money.
If I spent it all on Saturday then I didn't have any lunch money for the week.

The downside was that it meant I only ate two packets of crisps and a dairy milk for lunch.

Report
Mamabear14 · 14/05/2017 18:31

Mine gets £16 a week. £3 a day and an extra quid on Fridays to stop in the shop for some sweets. He knows if he spends too much he gets packed lunch til th following Monday. He hasn't done it yet.

Report
gabsdot · 14/05/2017 18:32

I do that with my Ds.

Report
dementedpixie · 14/05/2017 18:32

Dd gets a top up of £9 per week and doesn't spend it all. £20 is far too much. Yanbu to set a lower limit

Report
elephantoverthehill · 14/05/2017 18:33

That's a lot to spend for school lunches a day, is he buying stuff for other students? Do you have the on-line system where you top the card up and can see exactly what he has bought?

Report
Wolfiefan · 14/05/2017 18:33

Depends entirely on what prices are like in the canteen.

Report
SnickersWasAHorse · 14/05/2017 18:34

Oh and if I over spent then there was no more money and I wouldn't have been allowed a packed lunch from home. my parents were a bit nuts though

Report
CurlyMango · 14/05/2017 18:37

My 12 year olds have a budget for school lunches. They just need a little reminding now and then.

Report
FreeNiki · 14/05/2017 18:39

I work for my money obvs as an adult and I set a budget for my lunches too as it is such a waste of money.

Yanbu. £5 a day is too much. Why cant he take a packed lunch? Working people do that.

Report
FluffyMcCloud · 14/05/2017 18:40

Of course YANBU. My year 7 son has a budget of £10 a week, and he chooses to take a packed lunch some days so he can spend a bit on snacks other days. He makes his own lunch and he can have whatever he fancies that we have in. Some days he will take drink and snacks from home and buy lunch, other days he takes a lunch and buys snacks. If he runs out of money mid week he has to make a packed lunch the other days!

Report
SomeOtherFuckers · 14/05/2017 18:45

That's fine to me but the budget has to be reasonable - my mum gave me £2 per day for lunch and that was less than even a sandwich cost :/ that was 7 years ago too ...

Report
hellokittymania · 14/05/2017 18:47

Yes, do it! Budgeting is an important skill to have

Report
2rebecca · 14/05/2017 18:47

Isn't it normal to just give your child a certain amount for lunch each day? Seems odd not to.

Report
Justmadeperfectflapjacks · 14/05/2017 18:48

Ds 13 gets a tenner.
Ds 15 £15 as they provide 10am butties for gcse exam year. .

Report
Ffsherewegoagain · 14/05/2017 18:49

It depends. DS school did set lunches so his cost was reasonable. DD school did a cafeteria system and anything decent was expensive (£5 for curry and rice)

Report
Littlecaf · 14/05/2017 18:50

Mid 1990s parents gave me £10 a week for lunches in high school. (Year 7 onwards). If I spent it all in one go that was my problem. I don't recall doing that, usually just got a ham/cheese roll at lunch and a chocolate bar.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

RitaConnors · 14/05/2017 18:50

It's all cashless nowadays Rebecca. So it's harder to keep track of it s you are t just handing over £2 every day.

I'm having exactly the same conversation with my 13 year old. I object to her buying drinks and fruit as she can't be bothered to pick up an apple from the fruit bowl.

Report
myst · 14/05/2017 18:52

My 13 year old gets £3 a day. Plenty for a main course / sandwich and something sweet. I have drinks he can bring in from home. If he goes over he has to make it back the next day or bring in sandwiches, works well for us

Report
Noofly · 14/05/2017 18:54

2rebecca It depends on the system. At DC's school, it's all online and the minimum top up is £20. I tend to put £20 and tell DC it must last the full week (the prices are quite expensive plus DS has breakfast at school so for us, £20pw is reasonable).

OP YANBU. My DC know that if they overspend they need to bring food from home --eat breakfast at home__

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.