| Friday, May 20, 2005 |
| Bag lunches |
I have been told by friends in various parts of the United States that our school lunch prices are extremely reasonable. And after looking at what they pay, anywhere from $2.50 to $1.50 for an elementary school lunch...I tend to agree.
Our kids do not qualify for free or reduced lunches. OD is in jr high school, her lunch costs $1.25/day. YD & OS are in two separate schools (one middle school, one elementary school) but get the same lunches every day and their cost is 90cents/day. YS goes to preschool twice a week, his lunches are included in his tuition ($86/month).
Even with this reasonable lunch price, our kids tend to bring a packed lunch from home more often than buying a school lunch. There are several reasons really. One, I can pack them a lunch for the same price or less than a school lunch costs. Two, there are only a couple of meals a month that they actually *like*. And three, no one needs to eat chicken nuggets, pizza, & tacos every single week! In other words, a home lunch is almost always healthier than what the school is providing.
So this morning, I sat down & calculated how much I spend packing my kids' lunches. I hadn't done this in a while, so it was an eye opener for me as well. Today they each took a turkey sandwich on white bread (I buy 3 loaves of bread at a time, 1 white, 2 whole wheat...just to keep them from rebelling...they prefer the white), a baggie of pretzels, a baggie of grapes, 2 sugar cookies, and a CapriSun drink box. Here's how it breaks down:
Pretzels 10c/serving
Bread 5c/serving
Turkey 16c/serving
grapes 50c/serving (ouch!)
cookies 7c/serving (store bought, reduced bakery section)
CapriSun 14c/each
Total per lunch: $1.02
Factor in the cost of the baggies (1c each) and it's probably closer to $1.05 (I wrap the sandwiches in saran wrap, they stay together better that way). I could have gotten it lower by sending them each with an apple from the reduced produce at 13c each, saving 37c/lunch instead of the grapes. But they like grapes, and like the white bread, I buy them even when they are not on sale to keep them happy. I try to get a lot of grapes when they go on sale for 99c/lb. But even $1.99/lb for red grapes is a good price here. And I probably could cut the cost of the cookies in half by making them at home, I just haven't been feeling that froggy lately lol. I could cut out the CapriSun completely & send them with water, but we drink water at dinner and again, the rebellion thing lol. I can only push them so far. And the CapriSun is cheaper than milk (25c) or juice (30c) at school. They get milk at breakfast, plus plenty of dairy & fruits as snacks so I don't worry about them drinking enough of milk or juice.
Then, because I was feeling froggy, I decided to figure out dh's lunches. Most of the time, I pack him a sandwich. Sometimes leftovers, if it's something he can eat cold. But the way his job is right now, he has no access to a fridge or a microwave, so it's almost always sandwiches. He takes a meat or some kind of salad (tuna, egg, chicken) sandwich & a diet caffeine free pepsi. I know he occassionally gets a bag of chips to eat w/ them throughout the week. But after seeing how little his lunch costs, I'm not going to fuss over chips!!
Today's lunch:
Kaiser roll - 21c/each
turkey (2 servings) - 32c
diet pepsi (bought in 6packs) - 33c each
Total per lunch: 86cents!
Even if you factor in a 99c bag of chips that lasts him 5 days that's just over a dollar a day for lunch. Not even the Dollar Menu at fast food places can compete with that :) |
posted by Heather @ 6:51 AM  |
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| 2 Comments: |
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Your kids lunches are very cheap. Ours is 1.70 for the elementary. posted by the other KAREN :)
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Good job Heather! Both on the lunches and the work it takes in figuring it all out.
Babs
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Your kids lunches are very cheap. Ours is 1.70 for the elementary. posted by the other KAREN :)