To give my 14-year-old a budget for school lunches

[StuntNun]

DS1 is spending around £20 a week on school lunches. I asked him to reduce his spending and have bought reusable water bottles and snacks for him to take from home but he still spends £3-5 per day. As he is 14 years old AIBU to give him a set budget and if he runs out of credit on his school account he will have to use his own pocket money or make his own lunch to take in?

Our school canteen does a hot meal and pudding for £2.25, so I wouldn't be thrilled about £20 per week spend!

Having said that, it works out more expensive to buy baguettes etc, but a lot of kids do that because they can't be bothered to queue for hot food when they only have a 40 minute break. It's a shame as the meals are good.

I'vejust resorted to giving DD a packed lunch.

My dd gets £25 a month. The deal was she could keep what was left over. She started making packed lunches, keeping the money and I had to pay for more food in the weekly shop. Enterprising, or cheeky??

To be fair, she started with £35 a month, I've just dropped it to take into account the fact that she is not actually buying any lunch!

Yanbu to give him a budget, but make sure it's reasonable. Our primary school meals are £2.10, but the food amount is a very light meal for a year 6 boy.

Make sure he has enough.

My mum worked out the average cost of a meal and handed me that amount in cash daily.

YANBU.

Mine get £15 each a week, one has school lunches, one buys a weeks worth of food on Sunday evening (puts her name on it!) and one pops into the supermarket on the way in and gets a meal deal.

It would be a really good lesson on money and budgeting if he is given a limit to what he can spend. If I had that much to spend on food when I was at school, I would have gone a bit mad with it and bought anything!

DS soon to be high school limits there cashless card to £3.50 a day so no child can spend more than that as the school doesn't accept actual cash payments, only their cashless cards

£3 a day would be tight here, so do check the prices.

Absolutely reasonable!

Although, £3 a day may not be enough, so I do think you should check the prices.

But yes, I do think that the general idea is good!

My ds (14) get £10 per week that I put on the cashless system. If he spends more than that it's tough (I get an email when the funds are running low). He learnt pretty quickly to budget.

I have just set up a bank account for him with a debit card to further improve his money management. I pay his phone bill of £10 per month. He gets a weekly allowance paid for his travel plus a bit extra on top 50p. If he wants any extra money he needs to do jobs like the rest of the population.

My 14 year old does £2 per day. Which is a main meal. He takes his own water and banana from home too

i agree with GardenGeek £20 per week on lunch is only £4 per day - barely more than the cost of a supermarket meal deal, and possibly for hot food at that

the only secondary school in my small town charges £3.50 for a main course which is generally a small-medium portion (1 wrap or a small bowl of pasta with sauce - cheese is 50p extra) not necessarily enough for a growing and active teen, add on a drink/side/dessert and you could easily hit £20+ per week

you have to remember that school lunch providers have a monopoly on the market (unless students have packups) and charge accordingly

a budget is fine but it sounds to me like the amount he's currently spending is about right

I agree it all depends in the prices.

At my DC school £5 per day would be a normal amount for a lunch and drink. Even the sandwiches are about £3.

Mine spend about £3.50 a day on lunch with the odd morning snack extra. Drinks and deserts are more expensive than the supermarket but all their friends buy lunch so they don't want packed lunches.

Unless over spending on numerous snacks, I'd never make them buy their own lunch. Part and parcel of having children is feeding them.

RainbowsAndUnicorn I was about to post a similar response. £3.50-£4 is about what it costs my son each day for lunch. Not OTT, just a standard lunch and some days a snack at break.

OP definitely check the menu and pricing. I couldn't ask a teenage lad (they eat LOADS) to buy their own lunch if over £20. If this is not affordable could he take something from home?

20 quid a week is still only £4 a day.

It's been a long time since I had kids who paid school dinners but that doesn't seem extortionate for me considering how much food does cost these days.

My dd and ds have £4.50 a day

In my opinion £3.50 is reasonable (given that I'm buying snacks and he has a water bottle so he should only need to pay for his sandwich) but £5 is too much. The big problem for me is that DS1 is underweight so I don't want to restrict his food intake. So I'm trying to balance learning to budget with eating well.

I top up £15 a week each for my two. If it's gone before the week is up they can take a sandwich/pasta from home.

Only happened once or twice as it's chips on a Friday and they don't want to miss out

Teenagers need to eat more calories than most adults do. Sometimes a sandwich, snack and a drink is not enough.

You need to know prices of the food provided at school. When I was at school I'd have to spend £6 a day to get suitable lunch (sandwich, crisps, fruit and a drink or hot meal and a drink). The prices are shocking. You don't want to cap the amount you are giving him if it means he will barely eat. Maybe do a packed lunch, and give him £2 a day for an additional snack/drink? You might find it cost more to do a packed lunch, than to get the school meals though.

YANBU It's an important life skill, DD has an allowance and it's her the choice whether she spends it in ten school canteen or saves it to buy clothes or makeup.