Lunch money: The cost of convenience

Skipping fast food or restaurant lunches is the obvious first step to trimming the lunch budget. And since school-age kids rarely want anything to do with leftovers, it can take a tiny creativity to find the right meal.

As a busy parent, it’s tempting to take advantage of the wide variety of affordable pre-packaged and single-serving lunch options at the grocery store. However, if your kid’s school is a “litterless lunch” school, which means students are encouraged to bring their food in reusable containers only, you may not have that option. By choosing litterless lunches, you may discover that not only are your kids throwing out less packaging waste, they are eating much healthier food, and you are seeing significant savings.

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But single-serve packages are so cheap Wastefreelunches.org says that a pre-packaged lunch costs about $4.02 a day, or $723.60 per school year, compared to $2.65 a day ($477.00 per school year) for a waste-free lunch — a difference of $246.60 per person per year. Though some pre-packaged single-serving products are clearly more costly per serving than the bulk packages, other items might appear so affordable it’s simple to assume you cannot make it yourself for less. However, the made-from-scratch version is almost always less expensive.

Cheese please Cheese and crackers ($1.77 per 100g) can be made at home for about $1.03 per 100g — and that is using real cheese. Using a spreadable cheese is even less expensive. Four servings a week for a year will cost $368.16, while making your own costs just $214.24, a savings of $153.92.

Also in the dairy aisle, single-serve yogurt cups make great paint cups for crafts, but there are only so many you can save before they begin filling up your recycling bin. At 80 cents per 100g, buying bigger tubs for 26 cents per 100g is definitely the way to go. One tub a week will cost you $102.44 annually, while 12 single serve containers weekly ring in at around $300.56 — a $198.12 savings.

Sweet and in-season A friend suggested buying a fruit tray every week to encourage my kids to eat more fruit. It worked great, but seemed expensive, even if it did save time. Find a fruit storage tray with dividers from your local thrift store and try preparing your own each week. Depending on the fruit chosen, the price ranged from 54 cents per 100g (strawberries) to 10 cents per 100g (grapes). One tray a week (83 cents per 100g) meant we saved between $274 and $600 a year. 

Sip and save Juice boxes might seem innocuous enough. After all, they are recyclable. But twice as much packaging also comes at twice the price — juice boxes cost $1.99 per liter, while bigger containers cost just 99 cents per liter. Switching from juice boxes to massive containers will save you over $100 a year.

Little lunches Stackable lunches, filled with processed deli meats and processed cheese (plus crackers and a mini chocolate bar) generally come in around $2.79 each. Making your own with fresh cheese ($1.20 per 100g), bologna (50 cents per 100g), crackers (85 cents per 100g) and mini chocolate bar (16 cents each) will cost you about a $1 each. Even if they are a rare twice-a-week treat, they will cost you $290.16 annually, while making your own will cost you $104 — a savings of over $185.

A tiny goes a long way When the savings resulting from choosing convenience over homemade are measured in pennies, it can be simple to think the savings aren’t significant enough to warrant changing purchasing habits. But haul out your calculator and you will find that just the few products compared here result in a $1,000 grocery savings annually on school lunches alone. How would you like an extra $1,000 to invest in your children’s educational savings plan?

© Investopedia ULC

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Lunch Money: The Cost Of Convenience
This Meal Will Cost You $200000 By Retirement - Business Insider
The Cost of Convenience
Waste-Free Lunches Save Money and Trash - City of Stillwater

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Submited at Wednesday, October 13th, 2010 at 8:01 pm on Finance by arrisa
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