To think a leftover happy meal isn’t the worst packed lunch you could have?

OP are you quite sure it’s not you who has sent in a cold leftover happy meal for your child’s lunch and have had some stick from either your partner or the school and now you are trying to find people who will think this is okay so that you don’t feel so bad?

Well the emulsifiers are not great - the ingredients list for the happy meal is posted in this thread. Read what van Tulleken says about those, it’s not very pleasant.

Because it needs to be hot! If it's not possible to re-heat it, I wouldn't eat leftover Mcdonalds.
A ham or paste sandwich is completely different.

It’s not the actual McDonalds, it’s the Gran’s reasoning. I also thought the teacher was being weirdly picky about the cereal until I read the reason.

You didn't, I do apologise, I picked your comment out of many similar 'buy a loaf of bread/buns/bagels and some ham' to reply to.

Yes, you could buy a pack of bagels, they are around £1.80 to £2.15 a pack, so significantly more than the average loaf of bread price I picked.

Not really sure what your point is except you think a pack of 5 bagels is better value than a whole loaf of bread. It really isn't.

I am not defending sending a kid to school with a cold happy meal, but some peoples finances are horribly badly managed and yes they will not budget, make from scratch, figure out that a loaf of bread, spread, pack of ham/cheese is better value.

I am very aware (thanks to my nosey sister who delivers a LOT of takeaway food locally) that there ARE people who buy takeaways around here with the intention of having left overs to send the kids to school with.

My point is that if you are coming to the end of the money, have no budgeting skills and need to find something your kid will actually eat, that might seem the achievable option.

You know there are people out there who do not have a store cupboard full of basics, who do not always have cheese and butter/spread in the fridge, who will give in to the kids desire for McDonalds one night even though it means running out of money faster tomorrow. What seems logical and easily achievable to you is not to them!

It's not cold and manky. Sausages are ok cold however

it is far better to save food than waste it

I literally provided you a definition and you started rambling something about a teacher I don’t know… 🤷🏼‍♀️

Argue with yourself in the mirror, I’m out!

For me, its that McDonald's is a shite option 😄

Left over domino's, I'd understand

Lying about what?! That you were wrong? When I've clearly been able to highlight how you are, by explaining every point I made in that post you quoted?

This is getting ridiculous. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

🤣 saying this over and over doesn’t make it true. You’re lying.

I don't think you really read my post. My pack lunch was one digestive biscuit and a drink because that was all I would eat.

I included a description of my sister's lunch to show that it was my choice not that dm was being mean/thoughtless... And you don't know from the description that they were fresh sandwiches either. It could have been yesterday's cold minging left over sandwiches ( it wasn't, but I hadn't stated that)

You accused me of poor prejudice. That was a gross misinterpretation of my comments. I've clearly been able to point out how you were wrong. You've now tried to side step that point and change the subject. Just own it. You made a mistake.

It's junk food which was probably not fresh when bought and overnight and whilst in lunch box has been growing lots of bacteria. I get people can't always afford stuff so they should be applying for 3 meals. A happy meal is about £3.50. you could make a pasta dish that lasted a couple of days.

I haven’t misinterpreted your comments at all. I’m clearly playing back what you’ve said.

Because it's an unnecessary waste of money? Because it's an unhealthy way of living? Yes I do find it sad that so many people (regardless of income) live that this these days. It makes no difference to my life that they do, but I'm allowed to find it sad all the same.

Regarding your budgeting comments, there are plenty of people who are classed as neither rich nor poor. Obviously rich people don't technically need to budget, but due to the cost of living crisis far more people are in need of knowing how to budget appropriately and live within their means than ever before. Many of those people aren't technically poor, but their spending habits can make them feel like they are (which was the point I was making before).

You seem to be changing the subject pretty quickly to try and cover up the fact you completely misinterpreted my comments. An apology for wrongly accusing me of poor prejudice would have been nice.

Take that one up with the op so as they posted it and started an entire thread on that article.

No, I just think if you accept that people of all income levels eat regular fast food your complaints fall away, ie

“Sadly though I know a lot of families on the breadline who live off takeaways. So many people don't know how to budget and meal plan these days”

why would rich people need to budget and meal plan? Why is it sad they don’t?

That article is clearly nonsense then, as it claims it was a member of staff who’s Granny sent them to school with a dodgy lunchbox.

Direct quote from the article:
A member of staff at a school in Birmingham was sent to school with a Happy Meal box with a cold McDonald's burger and fries.
Their gran explained it had been bought the day before but the pupil hadn't wanted it so it was a "shame for it go to waste."

Talk about twisting my words! Of course I notice them. So many people waste money on take aways and can't meal prep/budget. That was my whole point. You chose to hone in purely on the opening breadline comment, and wrongly assumed I'm only talking about the poor.

Here's what I said:-

Sadly though I know a lot of families on the breadline who live off takeaways - this was directly in response to you, saying "mcdonalds aren’t known as the food of people in poverty who can’t afford anything else". That suggested to me that you were saying people who genuinely struggle for money don't waste money on take aways. My point was, some absolutely do, the same as some people with more money also do.

So many people don't know how to budget and meal plan these days. It's quite scary - general comments. I didn't say it was just 'poor people'.

People waste so much on expensive crap food and then wonder why they're so skint. I'm not saying it's the only reason they're struggling for money, but poor eating habits don't help sometimes - I can see why you might assume I'm just on about poor people here but again this was intended to be pretty general. Feeling skint and struggling for money is all relative. If you do waste your money on take aways, it can feel like you're struggling for money if you don't have any spare money to buy the other things you want/need, even if you're not compared to someone who has less money than you but budgets better.

We couldn’t possibly blame the parents now, could we?
It’s all fecking Granny’s fault 😆

It's the worst I've heard of.

My kids aren't fed mcdonalds, let alone cold congealed yesterday's mcdonalds. They aren't given ham sandwiches and crisps as a packed lunch either- I'd also consider that a crap lunch for a small child although above the cold junk food.

If you can afford a mcdonalds you can afford a decent lunchbox.

I do think McDonald's in general is gross and cold leftover - I would judge tbh. But you're not wrong, it's more balanced than the packet of biscuits at least.

Worst one I ever saw was a sharing pack of jelly babies (the entire lunch).

what about all the people who aren’t poor who eat take away every night? You didn’t notice them?