Thinking outside the (lunch) box
The Irish Mail on Sunday’s financial columnist Bill Tyson shares his healthy, money-saving advice on the school food to give to your kids
Napoleon reputedly said an army marches on its stomach – so too does a family. But feeding a bunch of people many times a day is a costly and timeconsuming job. Woe betide the parent who fails to produce tasty meals on time. They’ll have one hangry family on their hands!
Cost is also a concern at this time of year when the back-to-school bills mount up. We have to fork out €1,400 this year for secondary students and €999 for primary kids, according to the latest survey from the Irish League of Credit Unions. And school lunches are among the highest expenses in the survey. Here are some tips to help cut those costs:
MAKE DON’T BUY
Giving your children lunch money instead of making it for them is a costly cop out. Unless you’re lucky enough to use a school with subsidised and healthy lunches, do you really think they will spend it on a nice healthy salad – even if they promise to? It’ll be straight down to the chipper for a lunchtime spicebag!
CONSULT YOUR KIDS
The days when children ate whatever was put in front of them are long gone. In our consumer society, everyone wants to be given a choice. So make a list of healthy, low-cost options and give your kids a choice.
LEAD BY EXAMPLE
How much do mum and/or dad spend on their convenient lunchbreak treats? Make lunch for working parents while you’re doing it for the kids and you’ll make back all those back-toschool costs. Even €8 for coffee and a sandwich a day adds up to €2,000 a year. It also improves the economies of scale to get your catering division working more efficiently. Napoleon would approve!
BE PREPARED
Like all parenting missions, be prepared. Buy in advance - and in bulk, cashing in on any special offers. Draw up your week’s menu and make all lunches in one go. That way you use up all the ingredients in a time and cost-efficient frenzy.
MAKE IT TASTY
Give your children boring or unappealing food and they’ll rebel and campaign for lunch money instead, or throw it away and buy crisps and sweets. Try to inject sweetness, spice or interesting taste combinations. Killer combos are deli classics including tuna corn and mayonnaise, pastrami, swiss cheese and gherkins, etc., etc., depending on personal preferences.
For a cheap treat, try peanut butter on digestives with banana, which is surprisingly low in sugar and full of protein. See bbcgoodfood.com for lots more tips.
FREEZE!
All those prepared lunches aren’t going to stay fresh, but they can be frozen and thawed out as necessary. Be aware of what foods do and don’t work for freezing, though. What works: Spiced/cured meats – pastrami, salami, chorizo.
What won’t work: anything with a high moisture content, inherent fragility or tendency to go a funny colour like tomatoes, bananas and cucumber. There’s a handy guide on stayathomemum.au.com.
PARENTS ARE NOT SERVANTS
Even better, get your kids to help you prepare their meals. Too many kids grow up expecting their parents to do everything for them and end up unable to look after themselves.
REUSE AND RECYCLE
Invest in a decent lunchbox to keep food fresh and compartmentalised. Otherwise, you’ll get your pastrami sandwich mixed up with a squashedand-brown banana. Ugh!
HEALTHY EQUALS COST-EFFECTIVE
Healthy foods are cheaper. Some even come with their own packaging: bananas and apples are great selfcontained snacks. Try some tropical fruits for variety, like mango or pineapple pieces.
CUT SUGAR AND PROCESSED FOODS
Packing in all those additives to processed foods costs money – and it’s addictive. If you cut the sugar, your children will be more focused, better behaved and won’t crave sweet stuff all the time, while rejecting cheaper and healthier foods. You’ll have some hope at least of getting some broccoli into their gobs! MEAT IS MURDER Well, it is on your wallet anyway. Meat is the dearest part of any meal. We all eat too much of it – and that’s not good for our financial or physical health. There’s no harm in having a meat-free day or two every week.
BUY IN BULK
Avoid single-serving packets. They’re handy but pricey.
THINK OUTSIDE THE SANDWICH BOX
Sandwiches are handy but children won’t get too excited about eating one. Sliced pan-type bread also tends to go limp and soggy. Try alternatives like wraps, home-made brown bread or veggies dips. Tasty leftovers are always handy, especially if you can avail of a microwave in school. And a thermos will help keep soup hot.
GET A PIZZA THE ACTION
Mini pizzas or pizza slices heated in the school microwave will be regarded as a treat by your kids. Make them healthier by adding cheese, meat and veggy toppings.
WASTE NOT
We literally throw away €700 a year in food waste. Planning your weekly lunches is a chance to organise how you buy and use food in general. Be aware of sell-by dates. There are lots more handy tips on stopfoodwaste.ie.
GROW YOUR OWN
It’s surprisingly easy, gratifying and educational for your kids if you grow your own food. This doesn’t mean turning your garden into vegetable patch and a chicken coop. You can start small with leafy veg such as lettuce and rocket grown in pots.
THE CYCLE OF LIFE
We pay to dispose of organic waste, which is actually very useful for our garden. A compost heap – where aerated waste turns into soil – is also a lot less disgusting than a brown bin, which turns old food into a vile stew (it’s something to do with the lack of air interrupting the composting). It’s tremendously educational for our children to see how food waste turns naturally into earth – which then grows more food. The cycle of life unfolding before their eyes will help them appreciate home-grown foods.