Let's Talk (cheap) School Lunches

With school starting, moms everywhere are faced with the issue of how to make an affordable boxed lunch that their kids will actually eat.
I know that there are kids that eat school lunches every day. However, at the price of school lunches, it will probably come as no surprise to you that MY kids are not one of them! My boys get to pick one school lunch a week, at most, to eat, the rest are all brought from home. They don’t even question this rule, as me and my frugal ways are all they have ever known. So I thought I’d give you some frugal, yet (relatively) healthy suggestions on what to put in your kids lunch this year.

My kids’ lunch consists of 3 basic parts, the sandwich, the snack, and the drink.

The Sandwich
This is usually a pb&j, cause quite frankly, it’s cheap, easy, and they like it. Some other suggestions for this part of the lunch are: warm leftovers in a thermos, ramen noodles in a thermos (this is my oldest son’s favourite), peanut butter on (generic) Ritz crackers, cold grilled chicken legs (leftover), chunks of ham, cold chicken nuggets….you get the idea.

The Snack
Homemade cookies, rice krispie treat, popcorn (this is super cheap…..my oldest actually has it in his lunch today!), piece of cake in a saved margarine or yogurt type container, yogurt, pudding, etc….. I need to say a few things here. Sometimes I can get packaged treats cheaper than I can make them. For example, a few weeks ago I got 10 boxes of individually packaged Kellogs Rice Krispie treats for the price of tax and one stamp. (Dillons had a great sale and there was a great rebate at the time….I promise I’ll let you know when this happens again!). So while homemade is best, I cannot past up a bargain!! The other thing I’ll say is that I don’t put fruit in my kids’ lunch….(with the exception of grapes in my oldest sons’) cause they usually just get thrown away. So I make sure that fruit is offered either at breakfast, or after school. I want to see it actually being eaten, and not wasted.

The Drink
If I can get a box of juice (Capri Sun, juice, etc…. ) for less than about 1.50, they get juice, otherwise, they drink water in a reused and washed out water bottle. I aim for the pouch/box of juice to cost no more than .15 each.

Obviously you’ll have to adjust the amount that you send for your children based on their appetite. For example, one boy only gets a half a sandwich, the other gets a whole sandwich, they each get one or two snack type items, and a drink.

~ps.....I make them bring home their baggies and I wash them and reuse them, but that's just me!! :) :)