Lunchtime Check-Up

Last week, I went by the store to pick up some movies and had an interesting conversation with a co-worker. I had explained that I made my children's lunches because their school gets its lunches from local businesses rather than employing a full time staff for that purpose. As a result the lunches tend to be rather costly in my opinion -- about $3.50 a day although all I told him was that it was over $3.00.

He suggested in reply that making a good lunch would cost about $3.00 anyway so I should save myself the trouble. I quickly replied that it didn't cost that for the lunches I made to which he laughed and asked if I just gave them ramen noodles. Unfortunately, he had to take care of a customer and was distracted so we didn't get to finish the conversation. Or, at least, I didn't get a chance to set him straight. :)

But after I left, I realized that I didn't actually know what a school lunch cost me. I was pretty sure it was less than $3.00 a piece but I didn't KNOW. And quite frankly, keeping my children from eating fast food every day would make it worth the extra trouble even if it did cost $3.00 each.

That not knowing though -- it kept at me. So, that evening, I sat down and figured it out using two of the lunches I had given them that week. This is what it came to:
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Lunch 1
Turkey wrap:
1 tortilla (purchased on sale for .65 pkg.) .07 (or .065 if you want to get technical)
3 slices Oscar Mayer turkey (on sale for 2.50 pkg.) .54 (.18 each)
1 slice bacon (1.79 lb. at my favorite cheap store) .18 (assuming about 10 slices/lb. but I don't know how many for sure are in a pound)
lettuce (regular price for one kid's Thursday meal, 1.79 ugh) .18 (I had to guess at this one but 1/10th makes it easy)

Turkey wrap: .97

Cheese Nips (on sale 1.65 or so and assuming no coupon- yeah right :) ) .10 - .12 (using the serving size which is a little large for the little bowls I use)

Yogurt cup (4 pk on sale and with doubled coupon price .24) .06

Water (I freeze about 2 inches in an old water bottle and fill it in the morning) nil

Total cost of Lunch 1 = $1.15 (feeling better)
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Lunch 2:

Peanut Butter Sandwich:
2 slices wheat bread (thrift store .99/loaf -- servings suggest 22 slices) .09 (.045 each)
appx. 3 Tablespoons peanut butter (generic brand) .15 (2 T. = .10)
my kids don't like jelly or jam

Peanut Butter sandwich: .24

Quakes (on sale for .99 - .75 coupon = .24 bag) .04 (using serving sizes again to calculate)

100 calorie pack Chips Ahoy (on sale 2.00 for 6 pk) .33

Water again (don't pick on me -- that's what they ask for) but let's use juice for fun:
V8 Splash (on sale for 2.00 - 1.00 coupon = 1.00) .25 (.125 for 8 oz. serving -- his bottle is about 16 oz.)

Total cost of Lunch 2 = $0.86
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Of course the cost would go down even more for when they eat leftovers (which they do) or homemade yogurt or pudding, soup, chili, etc. because the base cost for those things is lower.

And, like I said, that also doesn't include the benefits of not eating fast food everyday. I try to keep their lunches fairly low cal too. For some reason, this week, I didn't have their usual sides of fruit or carrot sticks, etc. rather than crackers and such. I guess I ran out at the beginning of the week and hadn't gone shopping to get more.

Nonetheless, this is a good exercise for me to do occasionally to make sure I'm staying in our budget. Plus I can now say with confidence that making my children's lunches run on average about a dollar.

And quite frankly, even without coupons and sales, I think you could still make a bag lunch for less than $3.00 as long as you weren't going crazy buying expensive juice boxes and Lunchables or other similar single serve items. Obviously, I throw a few in there since they've gotten so cheap for us but I NEVER used to.

Everything they had was as close to bulk purchased and homemade as it could get. It wouldn't have surprised me to find that they ran less than .50 each. And they still had some of the better lunches (as testified by the other kids).

So, in my humble opinion, backed up by my calculator, YES! You can make a bag lunch for much less than $3.00. And, don't worry, I'll inform my co-worker as well.

Hee hee.