Yes, that's a complicated title - grammatically dodgy, but work with me here, ok?
My daughter just started middle school (eek!). The first day of school, she brought home information from the cafeteria that detailed all the costs - regular school lunch ($2.50), french fries ($2.00, available only WITH a lunch), and a la carte items ranging from 80 cents to $1.50. Amanda was aghast when she realized that buying JUST lunch for 180 days of the school year would total up to $450. If one added in the fries and something off the cart, it could be as much as $990 a year, or almost $6,000 for all of middle and high school. As the saying goes, that starts to add up to real money!
Some families don't think anything of $5 or so a day for lunch. After all, that's less than most restaurant lunches would be, and many working folks eat out every day. However, since this blog is about thrift, I thought I'd share my response to the cost of school lunches.
My four children each have their particular tastes. Three love grilled cheese; one can't stand it. One likes ham and cheese sandwiches; the other three prefer peanut butter and jelly. Three love oven baked chicken; the fourth only likes it cold for lunch the next day. However, I've heard alleged that variety is the spice of life. Therefore, I try to keep sandwiches in reserve for times when there isn't anything I can warm and put in their thermoses for lunch.
That brings me to dinner menus. Now, I cheated... I handed a four-week calendar to my children and told THEM to fill it in. That way, they got to choose what they would have for dinner, and they took responsibility for planning ahead for leftovers of meals they particularly like to re-run in their lunchboxes.
What I ended up with is just what I wanted... a reusable dinner menu that provides building blocks for yummy lunches. You'll notice that there's a lot of pasta. I stock up when it's not too extortionate... I remember when my go-to price was 20 cents/pound - now it's advertised as 'on sale' at $1/pound! However, the store brand 3-pound box of both spaghetti and elbow noodles is $2.89. 1 1/2 pounds of pasta makes dinner for five plus 8-10 lunches. I have never tried to make up a lunch using leftover mashed potatoes, but I have used rice.
When I'm ready to put together lunches in the morning, I start by boiling a kettle of water. I have a whole bunch of one-cup-capacity thermoses I've picked up at yard sales and thrift stores over the years. I pre-heat the thermoses with the boiling water, so that the warm food goes into a warm container, and doesn't cool off immediately. I put whatever food I'm serving that day into a Pyrex measuring cup and warm it in the microwave. Then I use a canning funnel to fill the thermoses without making a mess of the rims. I put the lids on (the 'keeps closed' lid and the 'use as a bowl' lid) and then turn to the rest of the lunchbox. If there is pasta involved, I need a small Gladware or Tupperware container of parmesan cheese. I keep a stash of plastic cutlery that we've received at various times and that I've washed for re-use. I pour a drink into another insulated container, add some fruit and a sweet, and it's lunch. By the end of the school year, the sweet is often store-bought, but so far I'm trying to bake a couple of times a week so they can take homemade sweets. My younger two (10 and 9) have discovered the joys of scooping banana muffin batter into muffin cups, which is great for me, since that's my least favorite part of the baking!
Week 1:
Monday - roast chicken and mashed potatoes
Tuesday - beef burgundy, cooked in the crock pot, served with egg noodles
Wednesday - breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs, homemade pancakes, bacon, fruit)
Thursday - rabbit with special sauce, cooked in the crock pot, served with rice
Friday - sandwiches
Saturday - oven baked chicken and mashed potatoes
Sunday - spaghetti
Week 2:
Monday - chicken pieces and summer squash pennies simmered in broth, served over noodles
Tuesday - meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Wednesday - children eat dinner at their father's
Thursday - chicken cooked in broth in the crock pot, served with rice
Fri/Sat/Sun - children are at their father's
Week 3:
Monday - beef burgundy, cooked in the crock pot, served with egg noodles
Tuesday - chicken pieces and summer squash pennies simmered in broth, served over noodles
Wednesday - spaghetti
Thursday - oven baked chicken with mashed potatoes
Friday - rabbit with special sauce, cooked in the crock pot, served with rice
Saturday - chicken cooked in broth in the crock pot, served with rice
Sunday - spaghetti
Week 4:
Monday - chicken pieces and summer squash pennies simmered in broth, served over noodles
Tuesday - corn chowder with bread
Wednesday - children eat dinner at their father's
Thursday - breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs, homemade pancakes, bacon, fruit)
Fri/Sat/Sun - children are at their father's
Lunches: PB&J, or noodles with chicken broth/summer squash/bites of chicken, or bites of rabbit meat with sauce mixed with rice, or beef burgundy and gravy over egg noodles. Parmesan cheese, milk or water, diced cantaloupe or raisins, and a muffin.
Inexpensive and yummy! And no complaining about their lunches, because they chose them.
What do you like to make/take/serve for lunch?
Thrifty ideas and tips from a truly thrifty woman and a whole community of clever, frugal friends
Phoebe will eat ww crackers with PB or cheese. She will always eat cold chicken or pasta and sauce. Muffins work and mean I can add squash or pumpkin. She like grapes and bananas. I often add chocolate milk if it's fortified. Ham chunks are a big favorite as are tuna sandwiches. She's pretty fussy. I detest making lunches.
ReplyDelete