Episode:319 - From Burnout to Brilliant: Affordable Lunches Kids Love
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The school year is about halfway through—can you even believe it? It's possible that the initial excitement of packing picture-perfect lunches in September has long faded. By now, many parents are tossing together whatever is quick and easy, finding the daily grind of packing lunches tiring. However, school lunches can become a sneaky expense that quickly adds up. If you find yourself reaching for prepackaged convenience foods, it might be impacting your grocery budget more than you realize. Fear not, here are some simple and budget-friendly lunch ideas that will make both your kids and your wallet happy.
The Cost of Convenience
Prepackaged snacks like cheese strings, snack packs, and fruit cups may make life easier, but they come at a higher price. Buying these items in bulk and portioning them yourself saves money and is better for the environment. With grocery prices continuously rising, it is more important than ever to plan ahead and avoid lunch packing burnout.
Calculate Your Costs
Consider this: spending $5 per day on a child’s school lunch amounts to $100 a month. Multiply that by the number of kids and it quickly grows. Instead, let's explore easy ways to cut costs while keeping meals healthy and fun—plus, getting that all-important kid approval.
DIY Over Prepackaged
Skip the overpriced snack packs and opt for family-sized bags that you pre-portion into reusable containers. For example, buying goldfish crackers in bulk means you can make triple the amount of individual packs for just slightly more money. There are numerous snacks like this that your kids already love.
Creating Fun, Simple Lunches
Kids don’t necessarily want gourmet lunches. They enjoy simple, familiar, and fun foods. Here are some budget-friendly ideas:
- Homemade Lunchables: Combine cheese, crackers, and a little meat into a fun snack. Add fruit and a little chocolate for dessert.
- Pasta Salad: A versatile meal for the whole family that includes cheese, ham, or chicken. Kids like the ingredients separately, so they’ll likely enjoy them together.
- Breakfast for Lunch: Mini pancakes can be an exciting addition. Make extra on the weekend and freeze for easy packing. Add yogurt and fruit for a complete meal.
- Mini Pita Pizzas: Use small pita rounds, cheese, and sauce for a DIY pizza lunch. Kids love constructing their own meals.
- Bento Box Lunches: Fill with finger foods like cubed cheese, turkey slices, fruits, and pretzels. Kids enjoy trying a variety of foods without stressing over presentation.
Save on Drinks and Protein
Instead of pricey juice boxes, buy in bulk and use reusable containers. Packing protein doesn’t have to be expensive either; boiled eggs or egg salad wraps are great options. You can also cut up cheese or blend cottage cheese with fruit for a high-protein snack.
Get Kids Involved
A fun way to ensure your kids eat their lunch is to involve them in the packing process. Give them choices, like between an apple and an orange, to make them more likely to eat what they’ve picked.
A Fresh Start
Revitalize your lunch-packing routine with these realistic, affordable, and kid-approved ideas. Swapping out pricey convenience foods could save you hundreds of dollars each year.
Resources Mentioned
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Transcript
Amber Taylor:
We're officially about halfway through the school year. Can you even believe it? And if you're anything like me when I was making daily school lunches, the excitement of packing those picture-perfect lunches in September has definitely worn off by now. Many of us are just throwing together the quickest, whatever's easiest type of lunch. Honestly, we're probably all tired of packing lunches every single day, but let's face it, school lunches are one of those sneaky expenses that can add up really, really quickly, and if you're starting to rely on prepackaged and convenience foods just to make life easier, it's probably hitting your grocery budget harder than you even realize. So today I'm sharing simple, budget-friendly lunch ideas that can keep your kids fed, happy and healthy without making your wallet cry.
Amber Taylor:
Hi, welcome to the Debt-Free Dad Podcast. I'm Amber, your host today, and my husband and I saved and paid off $54,000 in just 18 months and have been living debt-free outside of our mortgage since 2018. So let's dive in to lunches. We're so excited to get the kids off to school in September and start packing lunches and get them off to school, and we're getting creative when we're watching the videos and we're seeing all the fun things. And I'm sure that steam has definitely worn off right. But here's the sticky part about that steam wearing off, because oftentimes we jump into pre-packaged more convenience a little bit easier. Try not to think about it, shove things in and just get them off to their day right. And pre-packaged can often equal pricey those single servings like cheese strings, snack packs and fruit cups. They're all way more expensive than if you just bought bulk and portioned them out and listen, it's a little better for the environment anyway. Right Now grocery prices just keep going up and up and up and inflation means basic lunch staples are also costing more, which means planning ahead is even more important now. But I get it. There's a thing called lunch packing burnout and I know if you're packing lunches every day, you completely understand. And after months and months of lunches it's tempting to just grab whatever's easiest, toss it in, and that usually means spending more on pre-made store-bought. So here's the reality. If you're spending $5 a day per child on a school lunch, that's $100 a month, and if you multiply that by however many kids you might have if you have more than one that's really going to add up.
Amber Taylor:
So let's chat some easy, realistic ways that you can cut costs. Easy, realistic ways that you can cut costs, but keep the meals healthy and fun and their kid approved. I mean, that's the main thing, right? If you're going to send your kids stuff in their lunch and they're just not going to eat it, or they're going to throw it out there or they're going to bring it home, it's going to go bad. There's no point. You're just wasting money.
Amber Taylor:
So, instead of those expensive little snack packs which are way overpriced anyway buy the family-sized bags and pre-portion them in your own little reusable containers. Let's just pick on goldfish for a minute, right? A lot of kids love those goldfish snacks and you can buy them in individual packs, and the cost is likely around $8, obviously, depending on where you live and you're going to get 10 packs of those. But if you buy in bulk, it's $9 and you could likely make up to 30 packs instead of just 10. You're only spending an extra dollar, but you're making so much more, right? So you could do this with many different snacks that your kids, you know, will already love.
Amber Taylor:
Now let's be honest. Most kids probably don't want a gourmet lunch. So you can have easy DIY lunches that aren't boring, but you don't need to make it gourmet and fancy and cut it into little shapes. They want food that's simple, that's familiar and that's fun. So here are some budget-friendly ideas that you could use Homemade Lunchables.
Amber Taylor:
I personally have been doing this for a really long time. Yes, I still make a lunch once a week for my granddaughter, and I'm often doing cheese crackers, a little bit of meat. I just slice it all up, I put it in there. I had some fruit, I had a little chocolate and she absolutely loves it. Now another option could be pasta salad. This can be made so inexpensively and put in your fridge and divvied up for the whole family, not just the kids, right? So a little bit of cheese in there, some ham, some shredded chicken oh my gosh. Super simple, super easy, and these are items that they like separately and would likely eat together. And what kid doesn't love pasta, right? Breakfast for lunch this is another fun option Mini pancakes.
Amber Taylor:
So when I actually make pancakes on the weekends, I'll often save the leftovers and I'll just freeze them and heat them up on a busy morning for my granddaughter when I have her. So super easy and convenient. But you could also give these for lunch, right? Make little mini pancakes, add a little bit of syrup, they could just dip it in. It's super fun. Make a little bit of extra batter on the weekend, make it ahead, throw it in the freezer, pop it in their lunch Super easy. A little bit of yogurt, a little bit of fruit, they have breakfast for lunch. Who doesn't love breakfast for lunch or dinner? I'm all for it.
Amber Taylor:
Another fun option mini pita pizzas. You know those small little pita rounds with a little bit of cheese and sauce on the side for a DIY dipping, or they could construct it themselves. And then bento box lunches. These I see people get so creative in September. When I'm scrolling my feed I'm like oh my gosh, but listen, you don't need to make it animal-shaped bread.
Amber Taylor:
You could just add a little bit of finger foods, cubed cheese, some turkey slices, some fruit, cucumbers, pretzels, whatever you want to put in there that your kids are going to eat. Little kids love little finger snacks and they love to taste all the things. Right? Don't stress too much about it being perfect or looking fantastic. The kids really just want some fun snacks that they could eat. Now I don't know about you, but when I was in school I don't really remember juice boxes. You know what? I remember those juice box shaped containers and my mom would just fill it up and send it into school and it had a straw. You could save so much money by just pouring some juice in a reusable container and buying in bulk instead of these individual packaged juice boxes. So if you're looking to pack a little protein into their lunches and kids need protein but it doesn't have to be super expensive you don't have to buy crazy expensive meats.
Amber Taylor:
A boiled egg my granddaughter happens to love egg salad. Sandwiches are in a wrap, though, so I make her a little quick egg salad wrap, wrap it up, throw it in there. She loves it. If your kids really love like the string cheese, find it in bulk. It's a little bit cheaper, but you could slice up cheese for them. That's a nice little protein snack Cottage cheese with a little bit of fruit and I know a lot of kids in my granddad are included. She is not a super fan of cottage cheese and it's the texture, so you can actually blend that up to make it more of a yogurt texture and then throw it in some fruit with it. It's like yogurt and fruit, but they're getting like a super awesome high protein snack.
Amber Taylor:
Now a fun way to make sure that your kids are going to eat. What you give them is to get them involved in packing their lunches and I know this can be a chore when you just want to get it done. But seriously, instead of them coming home with the same thing over and over because they didn't eat it or they didn't want it, and then you're throwing it out and you're just wasting money, anyways, get them involved. I usually give my granddaughter, like a hold up, an apple and an orange which one do you want today? That just gives them a little bit more choice and a little bit of skin in the game where they're like well, I picked this apple today and I'm going to eat this apple. So there you have it A little motivation to get you back in the game, to stop grabbing those convenience items and start rethinking your lunches.
Amber Taylor:
For the last leg of the year, I've dropped some realistic, affordable and kid-approved lunch ideas for you that won't break your budget. If you take just a few of these ideas and swap out those expensive convenience foods, you could easily save hundreds of dollars a year. Do you have a go-to budget-friendly lunch idea that you'd love to share with us? We'd like to hear it in the comments or find us on social and drop it there Now, if you're ready to break free from living paycheck to paycheck, reduce financial stress, build savings and finally pay off debt for good. But you're unsure of where to start? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Simplify my Money is sent every Sunday to your email. It's your step-by-step roadmap to better financial control, stress-free money decisions, and to gain tools and confidence so you can tackle your goals head-on. Sign up for Simplify my Money by clicking on the link in the show notes.
