Easy & Affordable Packed Lunches for Under £15 With Jack’s Supermarket

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Now that the kids are back in the classroom, the endless requests for snacks may have waned, but you still need to feed them. Making (and eating) packed lunch can become monotonous. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and buy the same things week in and week out. The only trouble is, your children will quickly get as bored of eating the same lunch as you are of making it – so why not shake things up a little?

Jack’s Supermarket challenged me to create a lunch that packs a punch for less than £15 per week. You can even factor in a before-school breakfast and after-school snack in that budget it you’re savvy.

Cheap & Tasty School Fuel Inspiration

When it comes to feeding children, their hunger often knows no bounds and you can soon rack up a huge shopping bill. Choosing to shop at discount supermarkets like Jack’s can save you big bucks, even if you stock up on the snacks.

For the kids, going back to school means they suddenly need more energy. A day at school requires fuel to think, learn and play, which means what you feed your kids is so important. You want them to have a mix of healthy foods and their favourite treats, but you don’t want to be out of pocket.

That’s why it’s so important to stretch your money as far as you can to make sure their tummies stay full without emptying your wallet.

Buy the Week’s Breakfast for £1.30

Cornflakes have been a great way to start the day for over 100 years and some things never change. I like how hassle-free it is to feed my kids cereal before school. It takes no preparation time and they wolf it down like I haven’t fed them in days.

A big box of Jack’s Cornflakes like the one in the picture will only set you back 50p, while a litre of milk only costs 80p. This means you have a week’s worth of breakfasts for £1.30! The Cornflakes should last 2-3 weeks if you have one child, and you might need more milk if you have two or more kids, but it’s still a pretty sweet bargain!

Cheap Lunch that Packs a Punch

To avoid lunchtime boredom, I try and mix it up a little when it comes to lunches. I don’t do anything particularly fancy, instead I tend to rotate the same few options with enough variations to make the children feel they’re getting more variety than they actually are.

For the main bit, I try to rotate between sandwiches, flatbreads and wraps. I always got through the same combinations of fillings in varying permutations, but by switching up the bread-products, it makes the lunches seem slightly more adventurous.

Sandwich Ideas

Sandwiches are the backbone of a packed lunch and are so easy to switch up and give your child an assortment of options. Below are the items that are regularly on my shopping list with the prices they are in Jack’s Supermarket:

• Bread from 40p (I bought a 50/50 loaf for 80p)
• Wraps 75p
• Folded flatbreads 79p
• 10 wafer thin roast chicken slices 99p
• 10 honey roast ham slices £1.29
• Cheese £2.00
• Coleslaw 29p
• Sunflower spread 69p
• Cucumber 35p
• Piccolo Tomatoes £1.29

I wouldn’t buy all of these in one week, as some things last longer than others. For example cheese and sunflower spread can last 2-3 weeks, so it’s handy to buy these items at the beginning of the month as they will last well.

Generally I mix and match by purchasing one bread product, one meat or cheese and then a few things to garnish them with.

For example, I’d buy bread, sunflower spread, wafer thin chicken, cucumber, coleslaw and tomatoes. This would all come to £4.01, but I’d double up the tomatoes and cucumbers as nibbles on days it wasn’t in the sandwiches.

Below are the sandwich fillings I’d use, swapping between bread, folded flatbreads and wraps each week.

• Chicken and coleslaw
• Chicken and tomato
• Chicken and cucumber
• Chicken with cucumber and tomato
• Ham and coleslaw
• Ham and tomato
• Ham and cucumber
• Ham with cucumber and tomato
• Cheese and coleslaw
• Cheese and tomato
• Cheese and cucumber
• Cheese with cucumber and tomato

Lunchbox fillers

A packed lunch involves so much more than just a sandwich, so it’s important to do it justice with a few lunchbox fillers. While you might expect to see crisps and a chocolate coated biscuit, you need a few more items to keep things interesting.

Below are some of the extras I like to add in my children’s packed lunch and how much they cost. I only buy a few each week, and buy different things each time I shop.

• Crisps £2.65 (for 30 so you only need to buy once a month or less)
• Caramel wafers 85p
• Fruity Bakes 89p
• Apples Pies 75p
• Chicken straws £1.39
• Cherry Bakewells 75p
• Fromage frais £1.00
• Savoury eggs £1.45
• Bananas 69p
• Apples 79p
• Strawberries £1.45

Alongside these I would chop cucumber or cherry tomatoes to use as sides on the days I don’t include them as sandwiches. Normally I’d buy only a handful of the options, for example crisps, caramel wafers, Fruity Bakes, apple pies, fromage frais, savoury eggs and bananas, which would come to £8.28. To keep some variety, I would normally just put a few of these options in the lunch box each day and let my son pick a snack from this selection when he gets in from school

So with that example budget, you could get all that food with plenty of lunch box variety for only £13.59, which is well below the budget of £15 I’d been set for making varied packed lunches!

 

 

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