Lunchbox: Meal deal v homemade

 As my oldest son heads back to college we are having to provide packed lunch as a part of the COVID-19 measures.  Not an issue for us really as it is something that we normally do since food can be difficult to find when you have sensory issues due to autism. (Canteens are out etc because the smell of some foods makes him feel ill).  This usually adds 25-35% to my food bill for the week (for 3 kids), not this year eldest is off to uni and youngest is not going back to school yet.  There is a whole industry worth millions of pounds that relies on the fact that these days we want our packed lunch pre-packed for us; but it costs big time. So how can you reduce some of the cost even on just the humble sarnie.

1) Make you own sandwiches.  The small businesses won't thank me but pre packed sandwiches come with a premium price for the contents. It is all too easy to grab a box and hand over the card but this can add up to between £3 and £5 a day - if you were to do this it would be £15 - £25 a week. 

For instance 1 round of smoked ham and cheddar cheese sandwich at Tesco cost £2.30 on it's own (or £3 for a sandwich, bag of crisps and drink) 

From the same shop a loaf of bread (with 20 slices) costs 59p 

butter or margarine costs 85p for 500g

smoked ham costs £2 for 6 slices

cheese - 60p for 10 slices

cost for one round :

 bread 59/20*2 = 6p

butter - say 5p

ham= £2/6=34p

cheese=60/10=6p

and that is using reasonable quality ham, sliced cheese, wholemeal bread and butter spread all of which are medium priced not the cheapest.  total for one sandwich only 51p 

or to put it another way would you rather pay £11.50 (£2.30 for five days) or £2.55 (51 p for five days) for a little effort

2) Crisps are cheaper in multipacks.  

A single pack of crisps can cost 70-80p - A six pack of Walkers is £1.50 = 25p a bag. (own brands are even cheaper if you like the taste - also look out for special offers and multibuys)

You don't even have to spend time making this one- a no-brainer surely!

3) Drinks are cheaper in multipacks too.

A lunchbox drink is included in the meal deal from most places but on it's own it is between £1 and £1.54

A small carton of juice is £1 for 5 i.e 20p each.

Just on these three things five days a week (using the meal deal)

Ready-made lunch = 5*£3 = £15 a week or £720 a year (for a 48 week working year)

(with no meal deal it is a massive £4.40 a day or £1056 a year!)

Home-made lunch = (51p+25p+20)*5=£4.80 a week or £230.40 a year

Isn't an annual saving of  £489.60 a year worth spending 5 minutes making a sandwich and grabbing a couple of things from the cupboard?

More lunchbox hacks to follow...