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Original poster

School dinners v packed lunches

106 replies

HintofVintagePink · 31/08/2022 17:17

My child’s school dinners cost £2.55 a day. Given the rising cost of food I’m not sure I can make him a big enough and nutritious enough packed lunch for the same cost. He is nearly 10 and eats almost as much as DH.
He has always had a packed lunch but I’m considering making the change to school dinners (plus it saves all the lunchbox faff!)
Am I just being lazy and unimaginative or is that reasonable?

OP posts:
Nat6999 · 31/08/2022 18:57

At ds school if you weren't at the front of the queue very often there was hardly anything left by the time you got served. Packed lunches for a week cost less than £12.75, a loaf £2, pack of ham £2.50, cheese £2.80, 5 apples £2.00, multipack of crisps £2, could be done cheaper if you use things like massive packs of pasta or leftovers.

Icannever · 31/08/2022 19:14

School dinners where we are are just awful stodge, I would not call them nutritious at all. Plus the kids eat as little as they can get away with so they can go out and play whereas they can take their lunch box out with them as eat as they go. You pay the whole £2.75 even if they decide to just eat a plain roll!
school lunch is £2.75 here and packed lunch is way less than that. Sandwich, apple, crisps and cereal bar is about £1.

Caterina99 · 31/08/2022 19:17

My kids have school dinners and I love it due to the lack of faff. Kids seem happy enough and don’t really know any different as the majority of children have them. However we’re in scotland and they’re free up to p5 currently I think.

If I had to pay £2.50 a day I might reconsider. I’m pretty sure I could make pretty substantial packed lunches for that price. I’d probably be happy to pay for the convenience though if I could afford it

BooksAndHooks · 31/08/2022 19:30

Packed lunches for my three certainly don’t cost anywhere near that. I certainly don’t spend nearly £40 a week on packed lunches. It’s half that cost.

ChocolateCakeYum · 31/08/2022 19:34

Ds is moving to packed lunches.

He’s a fussy eater so at school will only eat a cheese sandwich or some pasta (occasionally some chips). It costs £2.60 a day. It’s ridiculous how much I’m paying for him to eat a bloody sandwich especially as they don’t provide fruit or a yogurt to go with it. With a packed lunch he’ll be having sandwich, fruit, yogurt and a cookie and will cost me half of what it does currently.

MintyGreenDreams · 31/08/2022 19:36

I agree with pp about portion size.I work in a primary and often think wtf to the meal sizes

Starlightstarbright1 · 31/08/2022 19:41

I bought a loaf of bread a packet of ham £1 each. Multi pack of crisps £1.25.. pack of 6 apples 99p

Takes tap water.

My ds is secondary school so aware the lack of vegetables.

So would be far cheaper than your dc's.

SplashparkSummer · 31/08/2022 21:23

I've been into my DD's school for lunch and I was given the same portion as her. It was enough for me and plenty for her. It does sound like some school's meals aren't that great, though.

nocutsnobuttsnococonuts · 31/08/2022 21:46

I will still be doing packed lunch for my 2 (age 13 and 10). I will still be able to make a decent enough lunch for less than packed lunch. They don't take all of this everyday but I buy bits they can mix/match.

Bread 60p (will pretty much last the week, they usually have leftovers at least once, or couscous/pasta)
Cheese/jam/chocolate spread/ham we have in anyway.
Cucumber 59p
Tomatoes 48p
Grapes £1.27 for a punnet
Apples £1.40ish for 2 packs of 6.
Packet of biscuits × 2 (I put a few in the tub each day) 60p
Crisps £3ish for 30 packs (still have lots leftover from a party so not sure on exact pricing)
Cheddar crackers and breadsticks 60p (ish) per pack
Yogurts 80p for 12 fromage frais.

Total not including sandwich fillings or leftovers is £9.94 for 2 children. That's less than £1 per day.

Plus school dinners aren't massive so if he has a big appetite there's no guarantee he's going to be full.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 31/08/2022 21:52

Coming back to this thread having read subsequent comments.

It’s true my ds’s secondary school dinners cost quite a lot. But with teenage girls I’m reluctant to change this as I know she’s getting a decent amount of proper food, and I don’t want to encourage any food issues.

My problem with ds (primary school) and packed lunch economies is that he has some food issues that mean he won’t eat anything that’s gone even slightly brown, so cut up carrot, apple etc is no good.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 31/08/2022 21:52

And at my ds primary school they can’t have crisps.

BlueEggsAndBacon · 31/08/2022 21:54

Mine have always had school dinners. They like them, they offer more variety than my lunches would, and they save me loads of time (and probably a bit of money). What's not to love!?

Longdistance · 31/08/2022 21:55

I get my dds to make their packed lunches the night before. They hated school dinners and this was a bargaining tool. When they take them out if the fridge they are cold and fresh when they get to eat them. They also choose what they want and Friday is treat day. I find it cheaper than school dinners. If they forget their lunch, we are work, do they will then have a school dinner and there is money on their account.

weewill · 31/08/2022 21:56

I would totally do school dinners but ours are £5 a day!

BlueEggsAndBacon · 31/08/2022 21:57

weewill · 31/08/2022 21:56

I would totally do school dinners but ours are £5 a day!

Whooooaaaa!! 😲

YerAWizardHarry · 31/08/2022 22:01

Really surprised people are saying school dinners aren’t enough food! I’m a teacher and our kids get soup every day, their hot “main” meal (usually 3 choices), a dessert (usually not the healthiest but such is life) or cheese and crackers and a piece of fruit

LondonQueen · 31/08/2022 22:09

At primary age I'd recommend them, it's so much less faff and it's a decent meal most the time, but once they get to secondary they're really not a budget option, you can easily spend £5 a day if you have a snack at break time, main course, drink and desert.

gogohmm · 31/08/2022 22:16

It doesn't cost more than a pound to make a packed lunch

ToooOldForThis · 31/08/2022 22:19

I can't believe school dinners could be a cheaper option. £2 per day per child if they are very frugal with their choices (and of course they're not). £10 per child per week. £40 per month, and I have 2 of the buggers. £80 a month minimum? No way am i spending that much on packed lunch stuff!

HopelesslyOptimistic · 31/08/2022 22:19

School dinners are hideous. Pack lunches are a real pain but at the very least you know what your child is eating.

BogRollBOGOF · 31/08/2022 22:24

Mine had always had school dinners for convenience and variety until the start of this year when a combination of a price increase and realising that DS(11)'s vertibrae and ribs were more prominent than usual. I did a weight and height check and he'd slipped to the lowest centile of a "healthy" weight (nothing flagged on the y6 check a few months earlier.

I started doing food flasks with things like tinned chilli/ stews and DS quickly went back to his usual centiles and also gained more energy and improved mood because he wasn't so ravenous at the end of the school day. The cost averaged out around the same or a slight saving.

His secondary dinners will be about 15p a day more than primary school if he has pasta/ meal of the day. If he's filled up for that then I'm happy and it saves him lugging lunchboxes around all day.
I will be keeping DS2 on packed lunches as he was also complaining about inadequate portion size by y4.

Goawayangryman · 31/08/2022 22:32

My kid would eat almost anything apart from mushrooms and is polite and accepting to the point of falling over himself.

I was always massively in favour of school lunches until about end of year 5 when they were too small and much too bland for him. He had a food flask from then on and had hot, cheap, nutritious lunches from then on. Less than a pound a day and that was with fruit and some cheese and biscuits or maybe a Waldorf type salad without nuts, or something similar. The funding for free school lunches hasn't kept pace with the cost of resources and that causes issues for school caterers IMHO.

BogRollBOGOF · 31/08/2022 22:32

YerAWizardHarry · 31/08/2022 22:01

Really surprised people are saying school dinners aren’t enough food! I’m a teacher and our kids get soup every day, their hot “main” meal (usually 3 choices), a dessert (usually not the healthiest but such is life) or cheese and crackers and a piece of fruit

They vary in cost, quality and quanity from school to school.

When I did supply, in some schools the lunches were a great bargain. In others, I'd fish the emergency sandwiches out of the freezer before leaving the house.

DS was one of the smallest y6s (albeit with a hearty appetite) he would have become underweight if I hadn't taken him off school dinners. He likes his veg, but claiming the spare veg at the end of the sitting is still poor for meeting energy needs when the rest of the portion is inadequate.

Horcruxe · 31/08/2022 22:33

For me a packed lunch would be much cheaper.
Two slices of bread some cheese, cucumber. And maybe a snack/ piece of fruit.

Obviously youd have to make a variety of things.
But a loaf of bread is £1.20 and cheese is 1.50. Cucumber 50p.
That would make 5 sandwiches.

And snacks on top with water to drink, compared to 2.40 a day.

liveforsummer · 31/08/2022 22:34

If you're worried about portion size I'd stick with packed lunch. School dinner portions are measly and very easy to beat with a packed. For ease though obviously the dinners are better.

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