As soon as your children reaches Year 3 in the UK, they’re no longer eligible for free school dinners. The cost of continuing to pay for school dinners every day of the week seriously adds up, so many parents choose to make the switch to packed lunches.
Swapping from school dinners to budget-friendly school packed lunches not only provides your kids with a healthy, delicious meal, but it also saves you money.
There are lots of budget-friendly school packed lunch ideas in this blog post to inspire you, as well as cheaper alternative options to some of the most popular school lunch snacks.
Budget friendly school packed lunch ideas.
To make the most out of your food shop, save money, and create delicious home-cooked lunches for school, start cooking meals and snacks at home instead of buying them. The following recipe ideas are perfect for school packed lunches; just be sure to check with your school’s food safety policy to ensure all the ingredients you want to use will be suitable.
- Lunch box pasta salad: cold pasta with pesto, tomato sauce, or any other sauce of your choosing is a great budget-friendly school packed lunch idea. Add in any ingredients you want, such as cucumber, tuna, or olives.
- Savoury muffins: Cook up some savoury muffins using cheese and herbs, then include them in your child’s packed lunch as a tasty snack for breaktime.
- Carrot sticks/celery/bell pepper & dip: let your child pick their favourite veggies and cut them into sticks for dunking. You can use shop-bought dips such as hummus, or make your own.
- Savoury scones: Scones are cheap and easy to make at home and make a good alternative to sandwiches. Add some cheese and herbs into your scone mixture and either leave them plain or add some fillers such as a soft cheese triangle.
Leftovers make great school packed lunches.
Adding leftovers to your child’s school packed lunch is an almost entirely free way to feed your children. If you’ve made too much food the night before, you can use this to feed your children at school and save yourself some money, as well as cut down on food wastage.
You can also use leftover ingredients to create additional meals specifically for packed lunches. Leftover meat, such as chicken, is good to add to pasta and salad, as well as tasty sandwich fillers, for example, homemade coronation chicken. Leftover vegetables are good for use in mini quiches and leftover sweet potatoes can be used to create healthy homemade crisps.
Make your own cheaper alternatives to popular snacks.
Packed lunches often get expensive because we tend to add branded snacks and treats, such as crips and prepackaged chocolate bars. A good way to save money on these treats is to buy the supermarket’s own brand or shop in budget supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl. Another way is to, of course, make your own versions of these foods!
A few DIY snack ideas for school packed lunches are:
- Popcorn instead of crisps: popping corn is cheap to buy in the whole food section of supermarkets. A popcorn maker isn’t necessary, so don’t worry! You can make your own popcorn in a pan on the hob – just make sure you use a pan with a lid to stop the popcorn from flying everywhere! Homemade popcorn is a cheaper and healthier alternative to crisps.
- Ditch the cardboard raisin packs & make your own snack pots using sultanas and other small snacks. Sultanas are cheap to buy in the bakery section of the supermarket and can be added to small plastic tubs with other cheap snacks such as pretzels or Cheerios.
- Save money on cheese strings by using the cheese you already have at home. Buying a large amount of mild cheddar cheese from the supermarket costs around £5, this can be cut into sticks as a Cheese String replacement.
- Let your children build their own homemade Lunchables. Crackers are so cheap to buy, especially if you get a supermarket’s own brand. Add some crackers, cut up cheese and ham to your child’s school packed lunch and let them build their own cracker sandwiches.
School packed lunches don’t have to break the bank.
With a few swaps and alternatives, you can save a huge amount of money when putting together your children’s school packed lunches. Creating a plan at the beginning of the week is a good way to rotate your children’s favourite lunches and keep them from getting bored. You can also plan ahead and meal prep your children’s school lunches to take all the hassle out of busy school day mornings!
