Good Evening!
Over the last couple of weeks Jody and I have been doing an experiment to see if we can save money on having our kids bring homemade lunches. The girls had been having school lunch for the past 3-4 months and it's been very nice because we don't have to shop for lunch food or make lunches which makes it easier. I suggested to Jody, why don't we do a real test and see if having the girls bring their lunches from home would save money. Jody's a terrific sport in trying to make things work that I suggest.
The first week we tried it. Jody bought some lunch food and before we knew it Jody had spent $40 even before we had enough food for lunches.
The second week was similar and it seemed like in order to have lunch for 3 children with a variety it seemed to cost about $50.
We are looking for things our readers have done to keep the costs down for lunches and made it more cost effective than buying lunch.
What have you done to keep your lunch costs down and have you made a decision to feed your children school lunch or homemade lunch?
I'd like to get your thoughts on what you've done to feed your kids homemade lunches on less and still give them a variety. Please make a comment in the comment section and let me know how you've beat the homemade lunch game.
Thank you,
Greg and Jody Roche
Be Frugal Live Wealthy
When I was a kid, I took the same thing to school every day: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, and milk.
ReplyDeleteThere's always sales on some kind of produce. Send some fresh produce with them that's on sale for variety. This week, packages of strawberries were pretty cheap.
Hi guys, I love your blog! In response to your experiment... we pack our lunches and we are saving about forty dollars a month in expenses. School lunches would cost our family approximately $140 a month. We buy sandwich materials (lunch meat, tuna, nacho supplies), fruits, veggies, granola bars or Rice Crispy treats, chips or goldfish crackers and we bag a months worth of the non-perishable materials into lunch bags to save on valuable morning time. The kids bring water bottles with water or Kool-Aid. I let them pick their treat but they have to make five dollars supply their month of treat foods. Here's the monthly (3 child) break-down: Bread $5, Sandwich materials $25, Fruit $20, Veggies $5, Treats $15, Chips/crackers $20, Kool-Aid mixes $5. Any time they get bored, we switch out the materials but try to stay within the same price range. I hope this is what you were looking for... good luck!
ReplyDeleteGirls both take their lunches. I watch for certain things to go on sale, like fruit in the little bowls and certain fresh veggies. But the real savings is when I make their lunch, I also make mine, so I am saving an additional $6-7 per day that it would cost me to eat out.
ReplyDeleteOur daughter loves school lunches and especially likes to build a big salad at the salad bar. With only one child in school, the school lunches only cost our family around $50/month. Between the great variety, always fresh fruits and veggies available to her, the ease on grocery shopping and time saved in the morning, school lunches are preferred in the Stricklett house!
ReplyDelete