School lunch money

[MessyNDepressy]

DS is in 1st year at high school. For most of the year they haven’t been allowed to go out to the shops but they are now and will be going forward. When he was having school lunches I would put £4 per day on his lunch card as that is the maximum they were allowed to spend. Now he is going out for lunch he is getting £5 per day but still wants me to top up the card with at least £2 per day so he can get a roll etc at break time. So it will be £7 per day, £35 per week. AIBU to feel like this is quite a lot of money?

I am a single parent and money is always a bit tight but if that’s a normal amount for most kids then I’ll make sure he has it, he won’t go without but it’s just a bit of a jump for me.

That will definitely depend on the area... the local businesses here struggle with the college lunch hours... adding the 1000 secondary kids would be mayhem.

Fortunately the school is organised and at most there's only 400 pupils using the cafeteria facilities at a time (35minute slot). They wouldn't have time to get to the shops in 35 minutes...

I provide packed lunch with an open policy - if they ask for it, within reason I'll get it for them.
Yr 12 can spend £10 with a couple of days. I generally only put £10 on per half term.
Yr 9 still has £8.10 from when they started Yr7.

I wouldn't be able to afford £10+ a week each upwards.

I take pack lunch to work too, I don't see any difference. I think it helps them to understand that it would be more value when at work, although yr12 always buys lunch at work from their wages. I provide a full cupboard and don't give money generally to cover extra 'wants'. I Compare prices when they buy something at school and I show them I can get a pack of 6 for the same price in the shopping.

You are being more than generous OP. £5 is already more than I would be coughing up daily. I suggest he starts taking snacks with him and just buys his main. Especially drinks, crisps, chocolate, biscuits etc. you can buy a multipack of 4 for the same price as 1 of these in a canteen.

What are people putting in a secondary packed lunch? I need ideas, but it will need to be easy.

My ds started out with wraps and sandwiches and then moved on to taking a food flask with pasta or rice or noodle dishes. He liked hot food at lunch

Dts get £20 a week. If they spend it all they can take food from home. It's £3.95 for a 'meal deal', no drink, they always bring their water bottles in. They also have to pay if they want in take away box and for cutlery.

We do curries and rice, chilli, stews with couscous, pasta and sauces. We just cut the size of the meat / veg down a bit so we can get it in the flasks. Sometimes home made, sometimes shop bought. Preheat the flask with boiling water earlier so the food stays hot until school lunchtime.

Mine have £6.50 a week which will buy two meals and maybe a snack. Oldest does that youngest buys crap mainly and still would even if I have her £20 a week.

I take packed lunch to work 90% of the time to save money so they can do the same!

What goes in their packed lunch.

They make their own (their preference!). I have available

• cold meats and cheeses for sand wishes
• bread and wraps
• pasta and noodles (they make a pasta salad)
• salad veg like peppers, cucumber, tomato
• fruit like berries, apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, melon (changes every week)
• snacks like cookies, cake bars, scones, crisps
• flavoured water or juice cartons
• occasionally sausage rolls, or chicken nuggets (which they eat cold), or a scotch egg

Apparently similar to friends.

Mine take packed lunches, and have approx 20 per half term on their card for snacks and extras. They go through phases of spending more at which point I top up as and when. One is in year 9 and one in yr 7.

Why are they allowed out? Do they not provide or offer lunch onsite?

Mine are grown up so actual figures aren't relevant but in principle what I did was they had a figure for pocketmoney then 50% of a full school lunch every day. In the fridge/cupboard there would be the makings for a packed lunch so they could choose school lunch some days packed lunch other days, school lunch every day subsidised by pocket money, packed lunch every day with the lunch money being extra pocket money.

I felt that as a working adult this was basically what I had to do i.e. I had more spending money if I did a packed lunch and if I wanted to buy lunch every day it would definitely mean I had less disposable money for other things.

They moaned a bit at first but soon worked out what suited them e.g. one did a packed lunch every day but bought a pudding at school, one did school lunches for a while but then decided he wanted more pocket money. They are both very good with money as adults, have both bought there first houses in their 20s so maybe learning to manage their money early was a good thing.

I think £35 a week is a lot of money. I think you can get a meal deal in my local supermarket for £3.50 which includes a wrap or sandwich, an extra like crisps or a piece of fruit and a drink which could be bottle of water, fizzy drink or a juice.

Do you know what the £5 a day is being spent on? I'd definitely want to know that if I was handing over £35 a week but I might just be tight.

I wouldn't be providing any money, DDs school students can't leave and all food is paid for in advance on a Sunday any way. Paying for lunches everyday forms bad habits for when they join the work force. I wouldn't buy my lunch everyday and wouldn't pay for DD to do so. I might if DD was allowed off site provide her with money on a Friday as a treat as I would probably treat myself once a week if not WFH.

Packed lunch of a nice roll, bag of crisps, penguin, piece of fruit, some cocktail sausages or similar and a pain au chocolate or similar for break and a bottle of water. All he's going to buy in the shop is processed rubbish or chips, plenty of students take packed lunches he won't be the only one. Unless he has a horrendous commute he isn't at school that long and with a decent breakfast and dinner soon after he gets home that will be enough

DD gets £20 a week, she can choose to her bank account or her school account. She can also add wraps, snacks etc to the online shopping list if she cba to organise herself to take stuff with her.

Why can't he take a pack lunch. Just say no. If you can't afford it then he shouldn't have it.

That sounds like a ridiculous amount. Give him packed lunch and snacks.

Far too much, and they can't budget at that age. I let my Dd have one school meal a week plus snacks one day and give her a fiver on her lunch card that I put on the night before or she blows it all on snacks. She takes packed lunch and snacks from home the rest of the time. I had to do this because she was spending all her lunch money on snacks and drinks and constantly asking for top ups. It's not worth getting I to debt over, and ignore what 'everyone else' does. According to my Dd the rest of her friends can spent an unlimited amount which is just not true.

I gave something like £15 per week but said they could keep that if they made a packed lunch for themselves.

One child chose to keep it to supplement their pocket money.

The other spent it but took snacks from home too. They just didn’t bother making sandwiches and bought themselves chips, a pizza slice or a sausage roll each day instead

I don't spend that much on my own lunch or the children's! He's having a laugh!

If they're really advising that, you need to complain. £30 pw for lunches for one child is a ridiculous amount that many can't afford or will have better uses for the money. Sounds like they're stealthily trying to increase parental donations to school funds.

Full disclosure my DS isn't secondary yet.

But as an adult on a decent income I wouldn't routinely spend this. I go into the office 2-3 x per week and might treat myself to a nice sandwich and maybe a coffee from the cafe 1-2 x per week (wouldnt be more even if I went in every day). I think this is fairly normal in real life (some people buy every day, some never do. People have their budgets and priorities and make decisions accordingly). He needs to learn this as a life lesson, I think. Don't feel guilty.

Yes. We do the same. An allowance of £20 a week that dd can spend how she likes and then stuff for packed lunch at home she can bring in to supplement this

I topped ds lunch account up by £5 a week.

He took packed lunch from home.

If they could go out and use local ships I'd have given him a fiver cash in hand or topped his bank card up by £5.

He'd have still had a packed lunch.

There's no way £7 a day is affordable for most and even if it is £35 a week for 39 weeks is £1365. You could put that towards something much more useful.

I,alone if that was for 2-3 children per year 😳

Mains
Cold- pesto pasta, pasta salad, rice salad, sandwiches, wraps, bagels, sushi, cheese with crackers and antipasti, left over pizza. Hot, in a flask- any pasta with sauce, soup (+ roll), chilli (+ nachos)

plus snacks:
Crisps/ popcorn
Chicken satay/ cocktail sausages/ rollitos
Chocolate bar/ homemade flapjacks/ cookie
Fruit

Drink
Refillable water bottle.