Year 7 lunch spending?

[Kemer2018]

My dd has spent £45 in 2 weeks on canteen food. I topped the account up thinking at least 4 weeks .
I would never and have never spent that on lunches for myself.
Ive got her making packed lunches now until after half term.
What do your ks3 kids spend?

My boy spends about £2.60 -70 a day. £45 in a fortnight is a crazy sum!! What's he spending it on?

One spends £2.50 per day, the other can spend up to £4 per day or so plus snacks at breaktime. I've suggested that they can choose when they have packed lunches or school canteen stuff. Its all fairly healthy choices too, one just has more than the other. However, I do packed lunches 2/3 days per week to make it last a bit longer.

My Y7 is spending between £2.50 and £3.15 per day. Main course, pudding and sometimes a drink. The school have a £4/day cap on spending. This can be changed by emailing the school. I can see via Parent pay what mine has bought. Your dd isn't subbing someone elses lunch is she?

Can you see what has been purchased?
We have 2 rules

1. no buying drinks - stick to water
2. take snacks from home so canteen money is for lunch only

We’ve agreed a budget of £12 per week.

Mine gets £30 each month put onto his account. When it's gone, he brings sandwiches.

Forest, that was my thought too. My DS regularly treated one of his pals whose parents did not provide much money for lunch.

Mine don't eat in school. One comes home for lunch. I give the other £3 a day.

Ds has £10 a week. If he runs out he has to take a pack up. I top up weekly. Wouldn’t trust him with a whole month at a time

We have a £15 a week limit. I top up weekly a y the moment to help with learning to budget. Will move to half termly probably only in Y8 or later part of Y7. As long as he has had a good meal at lunch, approx £2.70 he can do what he wants with the rest. It usually amounts to one treat, a hot chilocalte or donut etc a week. After the first week he now takes in a snack for break. Always takes a water bottle.

Thank you. I will go for 10 weekly top up and when it's gone, she'll take lunch.
Ive told her to take water and snacks...she "forgets".
Some days she's bought cheese sandwich £1.80 🙄(if i buy myself one from aldi its under £1.🙄
Plus 2 shitty drinks at 90p each plus popcorn, donut, slush.
Hence why, until half term break, she's taking lunch in.
After that 10 per week.

£2 a day isn't much of its £1:80 for a sandwich just though

Thankfully DD (12) doesn't like the overpriced canteen food anymore and is happy to take a packed lunch. Previously she was spending about £4/5 a day!

Mine get £5 Monday morning. Idea was that they take lunch each day and just buy a snack.

Reality is that they gorge on the first day and have nothing for the rest of the week. Once it's gone it's gone. unless they convince disney dad to top up

You can.ask for a limit to be set, once they reach their limit they can't spend any more. My dd has a £2 per day limit.

I’ve had £5 a day spent here, lunch at £2.75, cheese on toast for morning snack and a Capri sun for afternoon break...I’m going to give her £15 a week from now on and give her snacks. It’s been a bit of a shock tbh 😂

Mine used to be about 12-15 a week. This year they have new caterers and they have been raving about the food but when I checked one have spent 19 and the other 26! It turns out the meals aren’t much more expensive but they have been buying a load of extra shite. £1 for juice, which they aren’t supposed to have anyway, and getting croissants for breakfast (after having breakfast in the house) and getting snacks at break plus pudding after lunch. I’ve told them from next week it’s a max of £15 which is enough for a decent meal plus a breakfast or break time snack or pudding most days (not all everyday). I’ve also bought some stuff to take with them and told them they can take a biscuit from the jar instead of spending 80p on one

My yr 7 is spending ablout£12/15per week which is a bit of a shock after £7/week at primary school, i have to topup his money on line and they have a thumbprint system .

Mine takes a packed lunch comprising of

Soup or hot dogs (in a flask)
Roll or wrap or bagel
Variety of fillings
Fruit
Crisps
Cake or chocolate
Box of juice

So... I try and cover all bases! I put £4 a week on his account and he spends £1 a day. It's more for the novelty factor of using his thumb im sure!

But £4 is as much as I'm prepared to go when the school are selling one item for a quid and I know I can get a pack of four of them for the same price

So just a few quid as a treat

Glad to hear it’s not just my DS then! I try to encourage packed lunches but had to do school dinners this week. The £10 I put on was gone by Wednesday! Annoyingly about £2.50 of that was on drinks which I have told him not to buy as he can take drinks from here or use the water fountain. Today he’s buying himself a meal deal from Sainsbury’s.

My teenager has £20 a week. School lunches are bloody expensive.

my son was taking £5 a day to cover train and lunch. We have just moved i now make him have pack lunch apart from a friday when he gets £3 for canteen. to get a decent meal and drink at his u r looking at £3-£4 a day !
i discovered the food he eats from the canteen is gross !

At my sons school a main meal and a drink at lunch time is a fiver. That's without any break time spending.

So he takes a drink or two every day and a snack. He rarely eats lunch because of the queues for the canteen.

I top up £5 per week, my dd takes packed lunch for 2-3 days and enjoys a hot meal and pudding on the other days. However our lunches seem a lot more reasonable than pp, 90p for pasta and sauce, 40p for a hot pudding 35p for large water. There is also the traditional school dinner option of hot main with pudding and drink for £2.

Its good that you can see what they are buying.. when elsest DD started secondary school she was just buying muffins and cookies! I told her that wasnt a lunch and if she carried on I would stop dinner money and she could take a packed lunch... she was on packed lunches by the 4th week and never bought anything at school again till she finished yr11! Lol.. Second DD takes drink, fruit and snack and buys a mini bagutte everyday that is £1.. she is being monitored for cookies and muffins tho!