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A Month of School Lunches Prepped in 30 Minutes Saves $150 a Month
By Robyn Neal
I co-share looking after my Granddaughter, who is now 11, with her father, my son. Son was complaining how much it costs to give her a good lunch and what she brings home. The school has daily meals for $4.95 so she gets one every fortnight, usually when they have made the lasagne, as a treat for doing jobs around the place.
So I came up with a monthly meal plan for her for the coming year.
I thought it might give others ideas to save money and have their lunches ready all the time. It takes about 15-25 minutes a month prepare a whole month of lunches.
First you need a box of sandwich ziplock bags and a box of large ziplock bags. Aldi is the cheapest for these. If your child doesn't throw them out they can be reused over and over.
My granddaughter eats 1-1/2 sandwiches a day so we need 60 slices of bread for the month. I buy four loaves of bread a month for meals. Count the slices. Wonder soft and Aldi are the better buys for bread.
Fillings:
36 slices of cheese.
100g sliced ham
100g sliced chicken
100 g of beef
6 slices of salami
5 slices of smiley fritz.
I buy shaved meat, it's enough for the bread.
You don't use all the meat, which can be made into extra sandwiches for your lunches, and which can be frozen to save more money.
Step 1. Butter all the bread. Cut 20 slices in half.
Step 2. Put cheese on 20 whole slices and a half slice on 10 pieces of the bread that is cut in half.
Step 3. Put meat on the bread, add the top slice to make a sandwich and 1-1/2 sandwiches into each ziplock bag.
Step 4. Mark the bags with C+H, C+C, C+S, C+F, C+B so you know which one they are getting.
Step 5. Mark 20 large ziplock bags Monday - Friday (four of each day). Place one of each type of sandwich into each ziplock bag.
She likes muesli bars so she gets two a day. She travels on a bus and its 3/4 hour from school to bus stop here so she eats the second bar on her way home. We need 40 muesli bars per month. They are either bought on special, or what I make for her. Add 10 muesli bars to each large ziplock bag, they freeze alright.
She also likes custard or fruit in tubs. They are expensive to buy in individual sizes so I bought some containers from a cheap shop. I bought four packets of 6 for about $2; they will last long time and are good value. We put a mixture of custard, fruit and yoghurt into the tubs. I also have plastic spoons (she has lost a lot of spoons) to go with them. I have also given her left over desserts we have had the night before (cream freezes well). I freeze these tubs in the bags with the sandwiches and bars.
In a lidded container I have chips and popcorn for her. They stay fine,
Fruit is bought, whatever is in season and she gets 2-3 pieces a day so we buy that each week. She also gets a small container of salad food if she wants it and we have it in. She loves red capsicum, salad leaves, grated carrot and pickled onions.
In summer I add a frozen fruit box as it keep her lunch cold. She also has water that is frozen (the school has tank water). Frozen grapes are a favourite. I put them next to the drink container to keep them frozen and she says they are like lollies.
Doing this is easy and saves going to the supermarket, saving us over $150 a month not buying bits we don't want or need.
She doesn't like wraps so they are a waste of money. Best of all she eats most of what I make. I also put in a piece of homemade cake or a couple of biscuits for her.
We try to keep her lunch as homemade as we can, as well as cheap as possible while still being tasty, healthy and appetising.
So I came up with a monthly meal plan for her for the coming year.
I thought it might give others ideas to save money and have their lunches ready all the time. It takes about 15-25 minutes a month prepare a whole month of lunches.
First you need a box of sandwich ziplock bags and a box of large ziplock bags. Aldi is the cheapest for these. If your child doesn't throw them out they can be reused over and over.
My granddaughter eats 1-1/2 sandwiches a day so we need 60 slices of bread for the month. I buy four loaves of bread a month for meals. Count the slices. Wonder soft and Aldi are the better buys for bread.
Fillings:
36 slices of cheese.
100g sliced ham
100g sliced chicken
100 g of beef
6 slices of salami
5 slices of smiley fritz.
I buy shaved meat, it's enough for the bread.
You don't use all the meat, which can be made into extra sandwiches for your lunches, and which can be frozen to save more money.
Step 1. Butter all the bread. Cut 20 slices in half.
Step 2. Put cheese on 20 whole slices and a half slice on 10 pieces of the bread that is cut in half.
Step 3. Put meat on the bread, add the top slice to make a sandwich and 1-1/2 sandwiches into each ziplock bag.
Step 4. Mark the bags with C+H, C+C, C+S, C+F, C+B so you know which one they are getting.
Step 5. Mark 20 large ziplock bags Monday - Friday (four of each day). Place one of each type of sandwich into each ziplock bag.
She likes muesli bars so she gets two a day. She travels on a bus and its 3/4 hour from school to bus stop here so she eats the second bar on her way home. We need 40 muesli bars per month. They are either bought on special, or what I make for her. Add 10 muesli bars to each large ziplock bag, they freeze alright.
She also likes custard or fruit in tubs. They are expensive to buy in individual sizes so I bought some containers from a cheap shop. I bought four packets of 6 for about $2; they will last long time and are good value. We put a mixture of custard, fruit and yoghurt into the tubs. I also have plastic spoons (she has lost a lot of spoons) to go with them. I have also given her left over desserts we have had the night before (cream freezes well). I freeze these tubs in the bags with the sandwiches and bars.
In a lidded container I have chips and popcorn for her. They stay fine,
Fruit is bought, whatever is in season and she gets 2-3 pieces a day so we buy that each week. She also gets a small container of salad food if she wants it and we have it in. She loves red capsicum, salad leaves, grated carrot and pickled onions.
In summer I add a frozen fruit box as it keep her lunch cold. She also has water that is frozen (the school has tank water). Frozen grapes are a favourite. I put them next to the drink container to keep them frozen and she says they are like lollies.
Doing this is easy and saves going to the supermarket, saving us over $150 a month not buying bits we don't want or need.
She doesn't like wraps so they are a waste of money. Best of all she eats most of what I make. I also put in a piece of homemade cake or a couple of biscuits for her.
We try to keep her lunch as homemade as we can, as well as cheap as possible while still being tasty, healthy and appetising.