Have you ever considered how much money you could save by packing your child’s school lunch differently?

There are approximately 270 days in the average school year, so if you can pack a cheaper lunch for your children each day this can add up to a lot of savings over the course of the year. For example, even making lunches that are £3 cheaper will add up to a savings of £1600 over the school year.

Here are some tips for making school lunches for your children more economical:

• Save money at the supermarket by looking for sales and taking advantage of coupons and vouchers.
• Use fruits and vegetables which are in season, because this is when they will be at their most abundant, cheapest, and tastiest.
• Plan ahead and make school lunches the night before or on the weekend. When you are rushing to throw things together on the morning before your child leaves, you won’t end up making the most economical lunch.
• Cook up a large batch of soup, casserole, stew or other cheap and healthy meal on the weekend. Divide it into small containers and send it to school in a hot thermos with your kids each day.
• Instead of spending money on cans of pop or bottles of juice, you can simply use a refillable drink container. A cheap bottle of fruity cordial is a great way to make water taste great!
• Be creative and reinvent the leftovers from the evening meal into a delicious lunch for the next day. For example, use the leftover beef from your Sunday afternoon roast to make yummy sandwiches for Monday’s lunch.
• If you find something that your kids love in their lunch, why not buy a large amount of it in bulk? Buying items this way usually works out to a cheaper price per item. However, make sure that your kids really like it or it will go to waste!
• When you use paper lunch bags and plastic sandwich bags you end up throwing your money away every day, not to mention that the waste is not friendly to the environment. Instead, buy reusable containers and a washable lunch bag for your kids instead.
• Rather than buying those cute small single serving sizes of yogurt, which can end up being very expensive, you can buy a large, cheap container of yogurt and use small reusable Tupperware containers to make your own.
• Instead of spending lots of money on “cheese sticks” and other processed cheese snacks, it is healthier and cheaper to buy a large economy block of cheese and cut it into cubes for your child’s lunch.
• Home baked cookies and muffins are a much cheaper and more delicious lunch treat!

Have fun preparing healthy and delicious lunches for your little ones that will save you money!

Simon Grant is a writer and blogger who contributes to a great many sites, he has written this on behalf of Ulster Bank a provider of savings accounts.

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Karla Urwitz

As a full-time career oriented mother of one, I love all things travel. I was in the hospitality business for 15 years and loved it. So why not become a travel agent. I have been a travel agent since 2019 and enjoy helping others make memories. Now I am finding a balance between work, travel, and life.

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