Save Money on School Lunch
Create a Menu with Nutritious and Inexpensive Food Kids will Love
Sep 22, 2009
Want to save money on school lunch this year? First of all, skip the school-provided lunches which can cost as much as $2 or more per day (if you have more than one child in school this can add up quickly).
And definitely pass over the quick – but costly – store-bought ready-made lunches and snacks (which are not healthy anyway).
Instead, pack a nutritious and delicious lunch for your kids that are healthy and will save you money (these ideas can cost less than $1 per meal).
Make Appealing Lunches
Most kids get tired of eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day. You can make lunchtime easy on you and your budget – and a delight for your kids – with these ideas:
- Make lunch “kits” for pizza, taco or wraps. For pizza toast mini-bagels and then add to lunch box small containers of pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese, and other toppings such as pepperoni or cut sweet pepper strips, for your child to assemble in school. If there is a toaster oven available at school (or even a microwave, although this won’t work as well), they can even heat up the pizza before eating. For tacos and wraps, provide the fixings for the taco (cooked hamburger meat, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese and salsa) in small containers; for the wraps, you can provide containers of lunch meats (such as turkey or chicken), sliced cheese, cut up vegetables and lettuce for child to assemble as school.
- Provide an easy finger food vegetable and dip lunch. You can cut up a variety of vegetables and place together in a plastic bag or container (such as carrots, broccoli, sweet peppers, cauliflower, or celery), and slice up cheese and place in another container. Provide a third container filled with the child’s favorite salad dressing or dip (such as blue cheese, ranch or French dressing). You can prepare 2 or 3 days worth of this type of lunch ahead of time and alternate with other lunches throughout the week.
- Make extra for dinner to serve at lunch. Make a little extra of whatever you make for dinner and place it in a microwavable container for lunch the next day. Dinners that work well to serve for lunch the next day include spaghetti and meatballs, roasted chicken with rice, soups, stews and casseroles.
Skip Individually Packaged Snacks
Along with a major lunch meal, your child will need snacks to eat mid-morning and in the afternoon. To save money, skip the pre-packaged individual snack bags sold in stores. Instead, buy a family-size bag (on sale if you can) of pretzels, tortilla chips, animal crackers, or even a child’s favorite healthy cereal, and do the pre-packing yourself with small sandwich bags. Get the kids to help with this chore (you can set up a little assembly line), and put them into a large basket in your pantry for easy access for school lunch preparation.
You can also divide large containers or store-purchased (or home-made) yogurt, applesauce or pudding and place in smaller re-usable plastic containers. You don’t need to purchase these containers – start saving small yogurt, cream cheese and other small plastic containers for this purpose.
Make Your Own Snacks
Save even more money by making the snack foods yourself. Popcorn, for example, can be spiced up with a variety of flavorings. Granola and trail mix are easy to make by throwing together cupfuls of nuts, grains and dried fruit. Here’s a good recipe for Maple Syrup Granola.
With a little planning and creativity you can give your kids home made lunches that will save you a bundle – and that you’ll kids will look forward to eating at lunch time.
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