HELP !! i appear to be near to tears over lunchbox contents

[MrsMorgan]

I do have pmt, so that may have some bearing it, but fgs, I seem to be spending a fortune.

3 dc, two and primary school, and one at secondary school. All have been on free school meals for the past few years (single parent).
I now have a job and so i'm not entitled to them anymore, and can't afford to pay for the school lunches, so we all will now need a packed lunch every day.

I am sat now trying to do an online shop and it seems to be costing my rather alot. What am I doing wrong ? What do you all spend on packed lunches ??

£1.85 in Derbyshire for Primary.

For a treat mine take 'hot dogs'

I do part baked bauguettes ( Asa smart rice ones are cheap and relly good)

Filled with a dollop of ketchup and frankfurter sausages.

£1.90 for school lunch in Brighton. DS will having packed lunch! I am going to pinch some of the ideas from here :)

£1.15 in Glasgow

Thanks-just being nosy

It´s ?2,80 here which I think is quite steep tbh.

Fortunately most days they are home for lunch as school is 8-1.15

Have just checked Brighton school meals website and now says school meals will be £2.10 from September!!

£2.00 in Worcestershire, we are packed lunches in this house.

Free in Newham for all primary kids

Just a little update.

Youngest two went back to school today and had the following.

Tuna/mayo/cucumber wrap
A few mini cheddars (1 pack between two)
Chunk of cheese
Little tub of chopped grapes and strawberries

Oh and I opted for bottles of water, which I can reuse until they are battered.

My mum is also going to make some cakes lol. Oh and I am going to try making flapjacks at the weekend (dd wants to help).

This thread is brilliant. So many good ideas on here.

Great. Good on ya Mrs M. I want to try the flapjacks with condensed milk too - they sound yum.

Well done MrsM

dd1 back today also. Just for your records (!) she had ham roll (half a largish one) cherry tomatoes, box of raisins and (treat) a bag of add your own salt crisps. She also had a drink. I cannot tell you on here as the drink I am referring to causes great alarm amongst some of our fellow mners.

Tomorrow she has the other half of the roll, apple, pouch yogurt and diluted blackcurrant squash.

dd2 and I are baking the Annabel Karmel cookies someone mentioned further up.

i had vegimite (or marmite if you prefer) iceburg and cheese sandwhiches every day. got a bit sick of them but is cheap and yum.

Oh if you make a big square cake you can wrap individual portions and put them in lunch box in morning and they perfect by snack/ lunch time. cause you make heaps at once is quite cheap per portion and you don't have to worry about eating it before it goes off. And if you anything like me you don't eat half of it by impulse because you have to wait for it to defrost!!

whoops meant you have to put the portions in the freezer and then take them when you want them. sorry having a numpty moment

Tesco has got an offer on king prawns I put one frozen into ds's lunch box today. He heese sandwich, grapes and cherry tomatoes too. He loved the prawn - I rested it on a piece of kitchen paper to soak up the water that comes out when it defrosts. I use lock lock boxes with three compartments, one for sandwich, one for fruit/veg, and that leave one free for occasional additions. Sometimes I buy cooked mini sausages, freeze them, and put a couple in lunch boxes - they love those too and much cheaper than peperonis. I might start collecting sachets of tomato sauce to put in as my dc's love their ketchup.

Will definitely be doing the king prawn again as, when on offer, they are about the same price as a sausage.

£2 in Hampshire. And the portions aren't enough to fill up my youngest DC's (10&8).

I've been inspired by this thread to re-vamp the lunchbox in the StormyTeapot household

Mine normally have a sandwich, with marmite, ham or cheese, or pasta salad, with cheapy crisps , apple/banana/carrot/pineapple/melon, a Tesco mint chocolate biscuit (they come wrapped in green foil so the DC's think they're a nice treat) which are £1.08 for 14, or a slice of homemade cake/flapjack if I'm organised enough.

I sometimes chop up cheese squares, much cheaper than buying individually wrapped portions, and sometimes give them leftovers of sausages/chicken drumsticks/etc.

They usually have sports bottles of water which get washed and refilled until they go out of shape or the lid gets chewed.

I love the idea of sending them with a hot drink in cold weather. I'll have to see what the school says.

Can you invest in a breadmaker? After the first 3 months (apparently, DH worked it all out) they pay for themselves and you save a fortune on buying decent bread over time. I add seeds to my loaves making them healthier and DS can't even see them. Breadmakers have a timer on them meaning you can come down every morning to fresh bread.

£1.75 in Southampton (separate LEA to Hamsphire.) I only have 2 at school right now so they alternate throughout the week - I don't want to be making more than one lunchbox a day until I have to. We plan who's having what on Sundays so I can send the right money on Monday.

I'm making the condensed milk flapjacks now. It could be a whole new era!

Fantastic thread MrsM! Loads of great ideas on here... just wish you'd done it 6 weeks ago, as DD needed pack-up every day for playscheme

In London it's 74 pounds this half term so times three kids I can't face writing the cheque!

The ideas on this thread have been brilliant. I do try and buy on special offer. Tesco's always have Frubes on 2 for 3.50 and I freeze them.

I am envious of those of you who are allowed to send in peanut butter sandwiches. Every school we have encountered bans nuts from lunch boxes because of peanut allergy.

I get weekly lectures from ds about the issue and that X, Y and Z at school must not have peanuts etc...

Totally support and understand this but not sure rationale for banning nuts given the high awareness of children.

good ideas on here for packed lunch. However for those of you who are re-using water bottles and filling up with tap water, please be aware of the BPA implications.

Google BPA.

You can buy BPA free water bottles in Asda and Tesco etc , just check the label. Most 'character' water bottles are not BPA free.

I got mine in Asda for £2.50 and fill it with tap water.

Don't re-use bottled water bottles please!

I have to make the first packed lunch tomorrow. DS is going to have a sardine and tomato sandwich with tomatoes, an apple and possibly a cereal bar that I have in the cupboard. I am going to try and plan lunches as otherwise I will be all in a tizzy in the mornings.

Also - I absolutely love this thread so much. It is forever on my Watch list.

School dinners £1.80 here, 2 at school so packed lunches in this house.

We do sandwich (tuna/ham/beef/sometimes peanut butter), bread is bought at Waitrose heavily reduced to around £0.40 a loaf and frozen. Have a breadmaker but can't get along with it, although someone mentioned homemade breadsticks with dough from breadmaker so feel inspired to dust off my Panasonic.

Also do juice carton (Lidl/Aldi), pickled peppers in a resuable pot (Lidl)/piece of fruit/tinned fruit decanted into reusable pot, cheapo yogurt and a slice of homemade cake. Current favourite is carrot cake with orange icing from the Dinner Lady cookbook. It's a doddle to make and I calculated a slice to be less than £0.10. Have included a reusable container of milk in the past as I like dd1 to have milk but found it invariably leaked and the lunchbox stank and had to be binned frequently.

Can't justify the cost of school meals, and have explained to our kids that it makes better economic sense to take a packed lunch. They have no problem with it, and with the money saved they do gym on a Saturday instead.

Great thread, feel inspired to go get my breadmaker out!