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?

Crazy money. Do they have access to a microwave by any chance?

That way they could take something for home and warm up.

My DS school was the same its expensive and he wasn't eating as he said the food was not nice. So I now make a packed lunch each day with all the things he loves and he isn't coming home hungry anymore!

When my daughter turned 13 I used to give her £100!a month. That was for bus fares, diner money & any other bits she wanted to buy.
If she ran out of money it's was her problem.
She's 19 now & is brilliant with money.
Maybe you could do that, they'd spend less money if it was their own money they were spending x

Yes £15 only and they will need to pad it out with packed lunch items if they want more.

Our school charges £2.20 per meal and we pay via Parentpay.com. Mine are 9 and 7.

I have the same problem with my son, buying thee Cokes a day at 1.20 each, so £3.60 before he's bought any food. I've told him twice, the third time I used his bank card to top up his weekly food account. The was just before half term so don't know yet whether paying for it himself will teach him a lesson.

My ds1 is in year7, he gets £15 a week for lunch / snacks. A main meal and pudding is £2.40, sandwich £1.15, pizza £1.15. He takes a water bottle with him and refills it at the cooler. He usually has money left on his parentpay account at the end of the week so by the last week of the month I don't usually need to put anything on his account.

We put £8 a week on our son's finger (his school have a finger print system, we load up the money on line). He can choose how he spends it but also has the choice to take a packed lunch. In practise, he spends his finger on Monday and Tues then has packed lunch on Wednes, Thurs and Fri.

I have administered Parentpay for a school, and can confirm that the school pay the charges. The full amount paid into the account by parents, therefore, should show on their online account which is normally easy to check. We stipulated a minimum amount for a top-up to the account as this minimised the costs borne by the school - these being based on number of transactions. However, we were able to override the suggested daily usage limit to comply with parents' wishes. I would suggest that you contact the school in order to request this.

£200 a month is a lot to disappear on lunches. Could they take a packed lunch most days and eat at the canteen once a week? I suspect if they had an incentive such as a treat at the month end with (some) of the cash saved, you might encourage them to see the relationship between lunches and money (I would guess they don't particularly think about it and just take it as given).

My ds15 & dd13 have a limit of £3 per day.

Dd is in year 11 and has recently started taking packed lunches again, but for the last 2 years I have alternated between putting £10 and £15 a week so she gets £2.50 overall. Free school meal allowance is £2.30 or at least it was up to 2 years ago when she stopped being eligible. So I think £2.50 should be sufficient.
However I am aware that some kids spend a ridiculous amount. Highlighted by the fact that just yesterday we had an email informing us that the maximum daily spend has been increased by school from £5 to £5.50 as they have had complaints from parents that their dc are unable to buy everything that they want for £5

Schools always have a set hot meal which is the price of a meal if they were to get free school meals. Just because there's a £5 top up limit doesn't mean they have to spend that each day. They're taking you for a ride! Give them an amount to spend each day and have them stick to it, or they have to take sandwiches after that. Our daughter had a £3 budget per day. Now she's at a private school, they pay £3 a day and get a feast!

With my son the minimum top up is £5 also. I put £9 on at the beginning of every week for 3 meals (£3 a day). It's up to him to budget if he goes over then he has to take sandwiches from home. He could (and has) overspent easily, but he soon learnt no extra money was coming his way. Some days he spends just over £3 others just under, a main meal is £2.20,and he averages the £3 a day quite easily.

I've just looked at my daughter's and in total she spends £0.90 - £1.80 a day depending on what she chooses. She has pizza every day and the cost varies between £0.90 - £1.15 depending on the type and sometimes she gets something under cakes and cookies for £0.65. She used to have pasta daily but apparently the queue is too long here now. She takes water. £5.00 a day is a lot.

That's too much. £3.00 is ample providing they bring their own water in.

That's crazy especially if it's not their main meal of the day. Good opportunity to talk about the concept of opportunity cost, and get them making their own sarnies.

Give them a certain amount each week and let them learn to budget with that. £5 a day is a lot even for any working person to spend just on lunch. Any reason why they can't take a packed lunch and snacks, fruit and drinks from home? I buy cereal bars, drinks and snacks for DD wheb they are on offer or from Poundland. I can't imagine they are eating all healthy stuff at school either.

I'll also say, free school meals is £2.10 a day in my school and loads automatically onto their accounts, hence why the meal deal is £2.10.

But they don't have to buy that.

You'd be amazed how many buy food for friends, and then are shocked they've run out of cash by midweek.

It usually calms down around now , once parents actually check what the kids are buying and lower limits, lowest I've seen is £3.50 daily.
And the novelty, particularly for yr7s of having free rein over what they eat, wears off.

My DS's nursery charges £5 a day for a snack (fruit) and lunch (cooked). I think it's a lot and resent paying that much. He only goes 3 days a week but never even eats the food which drives me nuts!

That seems expensive.. Even in our work canteen, you can get lunch for less than £3.

My 2 get £6 a week to cover 4 lunches. They take their own water and snacks.

I am very tight.
Ds is in year 8. He gets £10 a week. Once it's gone it gone. He takes water in a bottle for drink and if I've baked a biscuit/flapjack occasionally. This allows a large pasta pot a day. I he wants anything more extravagant than this he'll be making sandwich es on Friday. They used fingerprint cashless system.

I know that others put on say £100 and then top as needed... Teaches nothing about budgeting or value of money.

Check they are not buying for other children whose parents will not sign up to the school meal account. They give their children cash which is then given to a child with a meal account who uses the bank of mum and dad to pay for first child's meal and pocket the cash.

Way too much. I'm working and I don't spend that much

Do you know other parents who'd join their voices to yours to challenge it?