To think these lunches are too expensive?

[EssieTregowan]

My two teenagers are currently spending around £5 a day on lunch from the school canteen.

It's a cashless system and unfortunately £5 is the minimum you can set the limit to.

We've said they're not allowed to buy drinks from now on and take water in, so that should help a bit, but I wondered if I'm being tight. We can sort of afford £200 a month on lunches but it means making cutbacks elsewhere.

Do we need to just suck this up, or is this crazy money? It's only recent as DD was taking a packed lunch until a couple of weeks ago and DS has for some reason started eating more at school.

How much do your secondary lunches cost you? Is this about right or am I raising a pair of gannets?

The maximum meal price at both dcs schools is £2.65. Don't know what the drinks prices are but Water is provided free. Dcs get £15 a week each. I ask regularly to make sure that this is enough, they assure me it's plenty.

It's possible he could be spending the rest at breakfast.

Lules Until end of 2015 staff meals were actually free!

If I bought lunch from café or shop every day, I can imagine it costing at least £5 a day, easily. That's why I make food at home and take it to work with me, because buying bread/sandwich fillings/crisps/fruit in bulk is much cheaper than buying ready made sandwiches and meals from shops.

In other words, I would tell my kids to take a packed lunch. Maybe they could buy lunch in the canteen once or twice a week if I was feeling generous.

It's easy to spend £5 or more a day especially if they buy something at break and a drink. My ds was spending that but we now buy multipacks of bottled water and he takes that instead plus a packet of crisps for break ( he was previously buying a slice of pizza!)

So now he spends about £3.50 on lunch-we put £20 a week on parent pay and he can choose one day to have an extra snack!

This is why mine have to have packed lunches.
School dinners for two in primary and one in secondary would cost me £40 a month
We can't afford it.
I don't think their lunches are poor value but that doesn't make them any more affordable.

My ds was spending less than £2 a day on half a panini and a flapjack or cookie. He's just started needing more to eat at lunchtime so will now have a whole panini. Costs about £2.60 a day with flapjack etc too.
He takes water from home every day.
£5 seems an awful lot to me - what are they having each day? Can you see online?

Give them a choice - set a budget per child per week for lunch and tell them they get that - say £10. Tell them they can buy ingredients for packed lunches for that and spend the rest or you can add it to their lunch account at school. I'm betting they will spend a fiver on ham, bread and cakes from the supermarket, make their own and pocket the change.

I don't mind that amount, as long as there's some fruit every day. They're teenagers, growing, and it's a long day.

My son spends about that much a day. He's a huge, growing 6ft boy, so needs a lot of food. The portions are quite small considering these are growing teens, IMO, so he just doesn't feel full with 1 thing. So by the time he has had a wrap/toastie, some fruit, a desert, a drink and another snack during morning break, he's hit £5.
My dd1 spends about £3, but she eats a lot less at home too.

My son has said if he buys at school he's hungry with £3. He always takes water in.

If he goes out to the local Tesco he gets their meal deal for £3.50 and it's substantial.

Tesco is the clear winner as canteen lunches are so expensive for growing teenagers. Luckily he's in 6th form so he can get out at lunchtime.

I think £5 for lunch every day is OTT.My son is 21 and goes to a residential specialist college. They are given £3 a day for lunch.

That's an excessive amount of money to spend on school lunches - £50 a week for two teenagers. Actually in honesty £50 a week on lunches for an adult would be too much in my opinion.

There must be a way to reduce it, can you get a copy of the menu to tally up the typical cost of their choice of lunch - It's mad to be spending the whole £5 each day (£10 with two).

You shouldn't have to be making cutbacks in others "departments" to cover that level of school related expense, £200 a month on kids' lunches is ridiculous.

Mine have always taken packed lunches. In sixth form they often went out for lunch on a Friday.

I think half the problem is this crazy timetable many schools have adopted when that have a late break at 11.30, by which time everyone is starving and wants a bacon roll or the like, rather than an apple, and then proper lunchtime at 1.30, which is pretty late. Kids effectively seem to eat two lunches.

my DS 15 and DD 12 both at high school get £2.50 each per day, they both complain it is not enough but wont take fruit, cake etc from home so no increase at the moment we cant afford it.

Mine use parent pay. The lowest topup amount is £5 but thats not a daily minimum (unless of course you are topping it up daily). Mine take in packed lunches but I put £10 on their account each month so they can buy snacks or whatever occasionally with their friends. But once its gone, its gone. If they choose to use it all up in the first 2 days, then so be it!

Also with parent pay you can see online what they are buying

My two DDs were overspending on lunch too.

DD2 is at middle school and has Parentpay so I could see that she was buying a cupcake or drink or something like that everyday. The basic meal deal is £2.10 (Although there have been issues with the lunch providers charging the dishes separately if, for e.g. they had run out of the meal deal pudding. This meant it cost more. Following complaints from parents the school have hopefully put a stop to this)
We told her she can take in a water bottle and I make a batch of flapjack or brownies for her to take instead of buying the cupcakes.

DD1 is at High school. I give her £10.50 per week for her lunches. She can also take in flapjack and water and once a week takes soup and a roll from home.

Any more than that and they have to pay for it themselves.

£5 really isn't that OTT. A main meal costs £2.80, pudding costs £1.20. Everybody gets both courses, so that's £4 already. Most also buy a drink, at £1-1.50, and if you also throw in a snack at break time at £1.80, which most people also get, thats reaching the £7 mark.

Do you actually know what their menu prices are like OP? It should be available on the school or LA website. Our school does meal deals for £2.50. DS1 gets £10 for the week as he doesn't have lunch on Friday (we do half days on Friday here). Mostly he doesn't eat at school as he spends most of lunchtime queueing to buy food, big school with not big enough canteen. He walks into the local town with friends, which a huge number of kids do. He can then choose from 3 supermarkets, a butcher, baker, Greggs and a couple of sandwich shops.

DS1 is in secondary and has mostly packed lunch, if he fancies school dinner I give him £2.50 he always takes a drink from home though.
DD is in 6th form and gets £15 a week for her lunches.

I'd be harsh and top up a set amount a week and when it's gone it's gone.

But the point is Natalie that the OP can't afford this spend without making cutbacks elsewhere. She says her 2 DCs are spending nearly £200 a month on school lunches.

You would have to have a disposable income that is a lot higher than average to find that affordable and not see it as a bit of an extravagence.

No idea as mines too young but ouch - wouldn't spend that on my own lunch a day!

My daughter gets £2.50 per day (just increased from £2). I top up her card at the start of the month and if she overspends she's to use her own money to make it up.

Have you contacted the school to see if they'll set a maximum as well as through Parentpay? My son's school can set a maximum and also put some foods on a 'cannot buy' list.

At my dcs school you can have a proper lunch for £3.00 (that's the limit we have given to our dcs).
You cant set a max limit of they can spend though so its up to them to manage it.
A 'main meal' (aka a meal with a dessert) can be as little as £2.20 as log as you dont add extras such as extra cheese, a drink etc...

£5.00 sounds a lot.