This guest post is coming to your courtesy of Karrie from Fistful of Coupons! Aren’t those just the most adorable school lunch pics of her daughter!
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With summer ending it’s almost time for kids to head back to school. If your children qualify for free school lunch that is great, but if not it can be expensive to pay for lunch. I have 3 children that will be in school this year and with school lunches being priced around $2-3 each day that can add up to $40-$60 each month per child. For me that would be between $120-$180 for all three kids per month! Ouch. That is a lot of money for lunch and it’s a price I am just not willing to pay.
The truth is you can save a lot of money by packing a lunch from home. Ideally I like to try and spend $1.00 or less per lunch. So I thought I could share some of my ideas for thrifty school lunches. Plus I wanted to share with you some of the common FREE and cheap items we can get for school lunches by using coupons + smart shopping.
Lunch Item Stock-Up Prices These are some of the stock-up prices that I will pay for these lunch type items. Remember though that every region in the US is different, so your stock up prices might be lower or higher than mine on these.
Peanut Butter- $1 per jar or less
Lunch Meat $1.50 per lb
Sliced Cheese $1 per package
Block Cheese $3.99 for 2 lbs
Mayo: Free – $1.00
Mustard: Free – .50
Pickles: Free – $1.00
Ranch dressing for dipping: FREE – .35
Tortillas: $2
Macaroni & Cheese .33 per box
Canned Soup FREE -.50 per can
Hot Dogs FREE
Yogurt .30 per cup
Crackers FREE
Fruit Snacks .50-$1 per box
Granola Bars FREE – $1.00 per box
Candy: FREE from Hoards of Halloween candy we get. You can just give little treats out throughout the year.
One cold lunch that I make that runs about .98 is Cheese Quesadillas. I just throw some cheese into two flour tortillas and microwave. Then I take a pizza cutter and make a bunch of pie shaped wedges to put into baggies. In this lunch scenario I also add seasonal fruit (grapes) and carrot sticks with ranch. I normally always just have my children drink water in washable water bottles.My kids like the cheese quesadillas cold, but you could easily put them into a hot thermos with aluminum foil. Let’s breakdown the cost of this lunch with sale/couponing prices from above:
Cheese: 1/2 cup would be .35
Tortillas: 2 tortillas would be .18
Seasonal fruit (these grapes were .99 lb) 1/2 cup= .20
6-7 Baby carrots (.99 lb or less)+ ranch dressing= .25
The grand price of this lunch is .98!
Sometimes as mom’s we just need some ideas for lunches. I know that every once in awhile I get in a lunch-rut and cannot seem to think of any other lunch choices other than the ones I have made time and time again. So here is a nice list of a bunch of my favorite lunch choices for you. Please share any others you do at home in a comment below.
Main Item Ideas {Cold}
Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich
Cold pizza
Tuna sandwich
Egg salad sandwich
Meat + Cheese sandwich
Taco Salad in a bag
Quesadillas
Homemade pizza pockets or ham/cheese pockets.
Homemade lunchables: just slice up meat, cheese and crackers
Bagel sandwich
Pizza muffin bites
Salads of all types
Main Item Ideas {Hot} Did you also realize you can use a Hot Thermos? Just fill it up in the morning with boiling hot water for 30 minutes before you add the hot food. It should stay warm 4-6 hours (or until lunch time). If your item doesn’t always touch the sides of the thermos you can wrap the item in aluminum foil to keep it warmer longer too.
Macaroni & Cheese
Soups: from canned to homemade. Just add some crackers!
Leftovers – whatever you had for dinner last night
Spaghetti-o’s or Ravioli
Chili
Hot dogs
Chicken nuggets
Fried rice
Side Ideas
Applesauce cups
Yogurt
Fruit cups
Crackers
Celery n peanut butter
Carrots n ranch
Raisins
Seasonal fruit
Seasonal veggies
Chips (I buy a big bag and make them into individual Ziploc’s, much cheaper than buying the mini bag packs)
Fruit snacks or roll-ups
Granola bars
1 small treat from the hoards of Halloween candy
Home made cookie or freeze individual portions of leftover birthday cake’s (it seems there is always tons of that)
Pudding
I also love to add a happy note or special treat in my child’s lunch-box every once in awhile. It’s so cute when they come home and tell me what they found. Making your children’s school lunch can be so rewarding as not only do you know that they are getting a healthy and nutritious lunch, but that with some smart shopping you can save your family money. And when we are able to participate in helping out our families by saving money it just feels good.
What do your kids eat for school lunches?
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Karrie is a mother to four wild & amazing children. She blogs at Fistful of Coupons, a blog where she shares thrifty tips, deals, and frugal activities to enjoy as a family.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this post! I pack my kid’s lunches not so much to save money but because I think it’s healthier. I’ve been doing this even before I started couponing. Now it’s really a lot cheaper esp when I stockpile!
I do make chicken sandwich for my kid. Leftover chicken, chopped up, with mayo and a little BBQ sauce goes a long way too. And colored cling wrap adds that little funk to wrapped up sandwiches. I got 2 rolls after Xmas 2 years back for only 25 cents each and those lasted till recently.
I know exactly what you mean Andrea! I’m concerned about the healthy aspect too. These days you just have no idea how healthy anything is. Its nice to know exactly what is going into your child’s tummy!
Thanks so much for this wonderful post..its just what I needed to give me some lunch ideas.
Your welcome Susan! She did a great job. I know you can get into a lunch rut really easily. Its easy to stick with the same foods each week, but it can also get old so its nice to change it up a bit too
And you don’t have to break the bank, thats the nice part!
I just came over from fistfulofcoupons…Love all these great ideas. Cool blog too. My favorite lunch idea is to make tortilla roll-ups or wraps. Just add cream cheese and meat, cheese and lettuce. Delicious.
That sounds wonderful Becky! I have plenty of cream cheese from a Kroger deal recently so I may just have to try that for my lunch sometime soon!
My daughter loves the baby cucumbers from Costco. There are about 12 of them in a bag for $4-5 and she’ll eat it with her PB&J, cheese stick, carrots or celery, and fruit cup. If she’s lucky, she’ll get a leftover cookie or brownie or maybe some mini cupcakes. Otherwise I pull out those treats for after school.
I wish I could get my daughter to eat stuff thats good for her. She’s still in the no vegetables that are orange or green or red stage. I hope she grows out of it soon!
I just came over from fistful and I have to say I love your site! My daughter doesnt start school for 1 more year but this post has got me thinking. I didn’t realize how expensive school lunches were!!! I will definetly be using some of these lunch ideas for my little ones not only this year at home, but next year for school too! Thanks for having this guest post! oh… AND I am so excited to have another great couponing website to look at Amy!