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Original poster

How do you manage school dinner money at secondary?

90 replies

Taswama · 14/06/2019 23:02

DS is in Y7 and it’s still a bit hit and miss, some days he’ll have 3 cakes, other days he’ll have a proper meal.
I’ve said no drinks as a waste of money (and empty calories).
He takes a packed lunch some days but then buys something in the canteen instead.
How do other people manage it?

OP posts:
Bunnybigears · 15/06/2019 06:12

DC are deprived each get £10/month seriously? £10 a month!

HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 15/06/2019 00:18

I make sure we have enough good / tasty / interesting food for them to make packed lunches and if they don’t fancy that they use their own pocket money to buy something.

RoseMartha · 15/06/2019 00:15

School has parent pre pay system and whatever your child buys comes up on your account.

Kids have packed lunch though as cheaper. But my niece has the school dinners and usually buys a wrap.

LucidDream · 15/06/2019 00:04

Mine takes a packed lunch. She never buys food in school.

PettsWoodParadise · 14/06/2019 23:58

It used to be £5 a day limit for DD then they upped the card to £7. She never goes to the limit, it is auto top up and works out about £30 (top up amount) every 2 weeks. The PP students have the same cards and limits.

I can see online what she has bought which informs discussion about healthy eating but as she has a good meal in the evening at home we don’t stress too much about choices at school.

IHaveBrilloHair · 14/06/2019 23:34

£25 a week?
Shitting hell.

ragged · 14/06/2019 23:33

DC are deprived each get £10/month, 10 months a yr. There's a fingerprint system for payment. They can bring own cash if they wanted to buy more.

clary · 14/06/2019 23:30

Wow £25 a week, that's a lot! I used to put £10 on for ds2, then every couple of weeks or so £15. Occasionally he took packed lunch. I agree re drinks a waste of money, ditto tray bakes but I gave up in the end on that.

multivac · 14/06/2019 23:20

£25 a week is ridiculous!

Our boys (twins; Y9) have £10 a week each, and one packed lunch - so, an average of £2.50 per non-packed-lunch day. That enables them to get the set meal, or a snack at breaktime and maybe pasta or a roll for lunch. I don't police what they have - but I do keep an eye on it.

Bunnybigears · 14/06/2019 23:15

Some weeks DS gets £10 some weeks £20 depending on what money I have. A 2 course meal with water is £2.10, if he gets n extra cake its about 65p and a bacon sandwich in the morning is £1.50. He will normally only have an extra cake once a week and normally only has a bacon sandwich 1 day a week when he has before school sports training meaning he has to leave the house at 5:30.

Pipandmum · 14/06/2019 23:14

My kids have a card system and you can ask for a print out. But mine always ate the hot meal choices and neither like the snacks/cakes. My son decided in Y9 to make and bring his own lunch then once he started Y10 was allowed to come home and cook his own lunch as he was on a set regime for fitness (we are walking distance and they get an hour and a half lunch as they moved clubs to then rather than end of day for some reason).

MyDcAreMarvel · 14/06/2019 23:12

£25 a week? That’s ridiculous.

MrsBlondie · 14/06/2019 23:09

Year 8 here. I gave up with packed lunches as he wasn't eating them. He has a set limit of 3.25 a day. Like @bluejag above I dont look at what he's eaten. Not worth the argument!

Ragwort · 14/06/2019 23:08

My DS usually had a packed lunch but I would give him £2.50 maybe twice a week for a school lunch. It was a novelty at first choosing ‘fast food’ type options but he soon got fed up of them.

BlueJag · 14/06/2019 23:05

Our school has £5 limit a day. I don't monitor at all what he eats. I put £25 every week and he decided what to eat.
Our son is in year 8 now. I don't want to know as I know he isn't eating the best choices.