How do you manage school dinner money at secondary?

DD going into Year 7 in September. Is used to packed lunches from primary so the plan at the moment is to start with packed lunches and see how things go, what days friends have hot food etc (have to eat packed lunches in a different place I think) and maybe buy stuff a couple of days a week. She will get a set amount on her card and will have to learn to budget a bit so if she wants a cake one day rather than something from home then she will have to balance how many days she can do that. It used to work for me when I was at school. Obviously we won't leave her short of a bit of emergency money on there in case she forgets lunch but they have to learn to plan and take responsibility, giving them whatever they want to buy whatever they want isn't helpful in the long run. Like one PP said if they go in early one day then bacon sandwich is sensible, or if they had a late lunch that day or a club or something it would be sensible but it would cost way too much to buy breakfast out every day. Well it would for us anyway

@Yokohamajojo. Please don’t give up. That’s an awful lunch irrespective of hunger.
Come to a deal with him. 4 days of proper lunch and then fifth day he can do whatever the heck he likes.

Otherwise absolutely no treats at home

That kind of thing

I've given up! He started well but now it seems he only buys flapjacks and milkshakes. Occasionally he'll have a meal but it seems to be very far in between now. He claims he is not hungry

@MyDcAreMarvel it's normal round here. £5 pounds limit set by the school to spend a day. Food is expensive. Sometimes he uses all of it sometimes he doesn't. We only have one child I don't know how other people could afford £100 per month with more kids.

We were putting on £100 a month and DS was eating as much shit as he could so we decided to give him pack lunches. I did check what he was having but there was always an excuse, mainly time, why he ate 4 flapjacks and had a bottle of Oasis each day. 🙄

He goes to a different school now and his lunches are included but they don't have all the crap on offer that they used to have at his old school.

Thanks Pink

School meals are compulsory at DC school. I thin’ we currently pay £2.30 a day, but that is increasing to £2.50 or £2.75 in September.

I don’t mind if the quality improves.

It was telling that when visited there were more choices, nothing ran out and portion sizes were larger

@PenguinsRabbits that is absolutely adorable! He sounds great

Both my DC have just finished school, one at 18, the other to do an apprenticeship. Overnight I am £500pm better off just in school meals and bus fares Our free state education can be really expensive

DDs y12 & 13 get £15 a week with the option to take a packed lunch if they want. If they want to spend any more it comes out of their pocket.

DD school has parent pay and I can see what she eats. She has 3 school meals a week. This costs £15 and two packed lunches.

In year 7 she thought it was great at first choosing (crap) food each day. Now going into year 10 the novelty has worn off.

She used to waste £3_£5 of her dinner money buying water at school at £1 a bottle. I got her a snazzy water bottle to put an end to this!

My DS is going into S3, he gets £15 a week.

25 quid a week! I wouldn't spend that on my own lunch

It's be cheaper to do a Boots/Greggs/Tesco meal deal every day on the way in.

25 quid a week! I wouldn't spend that on my own lunch!

When my ds was at secondary he was entitled to free school meals, so the system topped his card up by £2.30 (I think) each day. I never policed what he spent it on. If he wanted to buy anything else at school beyond that, or go to the shops / takeaway he could use his pocket money. I feed him healthily at home, so I don’t feel the need to worry about what he eats elsewhere.

I put £10 a wee in for DD this covers three school meals a week plus snacks/drink on the remaining days, we can set a limit they spend a day, also a finger print system

I started off with all sorts of attempts at banning drinks, insisting meals, not cakes were bought etc but life became so much more pleasant when I gave up

Fingerprint system here too. We can top up in units of £10 so I put £50 on and hope it will last about 4 weeks.

DS has packed lunch one day a week and school lunch the other 4. Food is available before school (Cooked breakfast, croissants etc) and at break (sandwiches, cakes, cooked breakfast, croissants etc) at lunchtime (full range of hot and cold meals and sandwiches) and after school (snacks).

We manage spending by saying DS can have 1 main meal per day. He is allowed 1 pudding and 1 snack per week and no drinks. He also takes a carton drink and chocolate biscuit or fruit for a morning break snack.....so most days is just buying a main meal, which is in the region of £3. I can see what he has had electronically and there haven't been any real issues because he's had clear boundaries. If he's forgotton his break time snack, he is allowed to buy something but knows this shouldn't happen much.

I remember lots of parents at the start of Yr7 saying they topped up £50 and it was gone in a week or so. With the fingerprint system kids aren't always aware of what they are spending or prices. They get carried away with the choice and especially buying stuff beyond their main meal....so expensive drinks or extra snacks at break. Easy to spend £8-10 in a day if you're not excited by all the options.

Best way to manage it is to clearly set out what they are and aren't allowed to have and carefully checking in the early days.

I also like the ideas of having a monthly limit and after that they have to have packed lunches, or they mostly have packed lunches with a small allowance for the odd snack.

I load £15 per week on my DD's lunch card - I can see what she orders and mostly it's junk (sausage rolls, cakes, pizza, chicken nuggets) i just make sure she has plenty of fresh and homemade healthy meals and snacks at home to compensate.

I don't mind her high calorie choices at school, she is very skinny so filling up on a bit of stodge and not being hungry at school is important.

Forgot to say, he buys a roll in sausage at break for £1 and a salad/ham or chicken roll at lunch for £1 and tops up his water bottle for drinking.

When ds turned 11 we opened a debit account for him and deposit £100/month which he spends on school lunch/phone/sometimes netflix, pocket money etc.

He keeps parent pay topped up from that account himself.

He quickly learned £100 (sounds like a lot of money for an 11 year old!) doesn't go very far if he buys expensive drinks/cakes/treats daily in school (or too many PS4 points) and he'll have no money left to go out with friends/pay for a giff gaff goody bag with a reasonable amount of data etc.

Switching to a monthly budget which he manages and makes decisions what to spend on instead of it being endless handouts during the month saves us money and makes him realise how lots of little daily spends that seem insignificant soon add up.

We use parent pay too and it’s a minimum £5 to add at a time

Just to clarify, I think the poster means you can't top up by less than £5, which seems reasonable as there might be costs associated with topping up.

Whereas maximum spend limit per day per child can be set by each parent, with schools usually setting a default.

I wonder why parent pay has different minimum limits, ours is no where near £5.

We use parent pay too and it’s a minimum £5 to add at a time so I can’t control it on a daily basis. Frankly that would be a real pain as well.

I am not sure if it is on parentpay or through the school, we are on the thumb print system, all payments are made on parentpay so there is no cash in school.

We were definitely told on both induction evenings for my children that you can put a limit on their daily spends.

Oddly sometimes the system shows me what they have had but the cashier puts it through as something different. So it will say cookie when they have had a crumpet at break. They regulate what they eat rather well so we don't say anything about a cookie.

We just put £50 on and then top it when needed, parentpay alerts us to when it goes below £10. They are very sensible with money.