Saving money is fun, most of the time. Figuring out HOW to save the money is the not-so-fun part. When we made the decision to stop cable, I figured it out that we would be saving a little over $100 a month. So what to do with this extra cash? Well, we decided to go ahead and "invest in" the school lunch program. Wouldn't you know it, the total for 3 kiddos is a little over $100 a month! When figuring lunches INTO our monthly budget, I figured that we would actually SAVE with them eating school lunch. How? Well let me break it down for you!
We have 3 kids so I am going to do this for 1 child then multiply it by 3 at the end.
Juice/drink - Most juice comes in a 10-pack and runs about $2 a pack. 1 child would use 5 juices per week, 20 juices per month so 2 10-packs or $4 per month for 1 child. ($12 for 3)
Sandwhich - Now, depending on what you send, this can be pricey, so let's stick to good old PB&J! The average loaf of bread costs around $2 a loaf and has about 20 slices of bread. 1 child would use 2 slices per day, 10 slices per week, 40 slices a month, so about 2 loaves or $4 per month for bread for 1 child. ($12 for 3)
Peanut butter can be bought for roughly $4 a jar and that jar should last 1 child 1 month or more. With my 3, I can get away with 2 jars a month so $8 a month for PB.
Jelly. Ugh. $2 or so per container that will probably last 1 child a week, maybe 2. So say you have to buy 3 jars of jelly per month, that's $6 a month for Jelly for 1. ($18 for 3)
Fruit - Depending on what is in season, fruit can be expensive. Bananas last about a week for 5, apples last a whole lot longer and oranges, well, oranges are super exspensive here so we only get them in the summer! Let's go with apples. They come in singles, 3lb and 5lb bags. Most economical would be the 5lb bag and that will run you about $6. There are about 9-12 apples in that bag but we will go with the lower. If you have 1 child, the bag will last you 2 weeks so 2 bags, 1 month, $12. (My 3 $36 per month)
Snack - Crackers are a hit, especially goldfish, and sometimes I allow cookies. My kids are stingy, but for economical purposes, we are going to keep with 1 snack and go with the cheapest, crackers. A 10-pk of crackers runs about, as the others, $2 and will last 2 weeks for 1 child. So that means 2 10pks for 1 month equals $4 a month for 1 child. ($12 for 3)
Totals - School lunch runs $32 a month for elementary school and $35 a month for middle school. I can tell you now that it is a S-T-E-A-L! Anyway, for a family with 1 child to pack a lunch every day, the food alone would run you about $34 a month. This doesn't include lunch bags, sandwich bags, anything extra like spoons for yogurt or pudding or if you have lunch meat instead of PB&J. For 3 kiddos, and MY kiddos at that, it would run around $98 per month plus all the bags, spoons and extras.
All-in-all, it may seem like we aren't saving anything by making the kids buy lunch at school, but we really are. We are saving a TON, including my sanity. I cannot tell you how many times in the past few years I have had to run a lunch to school for it being left in the van or a sandwich was left on the counter or the kids forgot to mention we ran out of juice until 5 minutes before we had to leave for school so they had to buy milk anyway. It's easier, cheaper and saves me from worrying if my 2nd grader is going to tell his teacher he left his lunch at home when it's really in his backpack just so he could have pizza and I could owe the cafeteria $1.75 at the end of the week.
