It's a conundrum some of us experience every school year: buy lunch or don't buy lunch? Setting aside the health component for a moment, each family also needs to determine the expenses. This goes for school lunches or the work lunch scenario.
We assume that brown-bagging (or lunch-boxing) saves a ton of money over eating out, but is that true?
As with many things in life, the answer: it depends.
According to the School Nutrition Association, school meal prices vary widely across the country and are set by local school districts. During the 2016-17 school year, the average elementary school lunch was $2.48; middle school lunch, $2.68; and high school lunch, $2.74.
So the question is, on expenditure alone, can you do better? For many, the answer is yes. If you calculate how many sandwiches you can pack from one loaf of bread and a trip to the deli, combined with fruit, a drink, and a snack, many people claim substantial savings. And chances are good that, outside of school, a work lunch will cost far more than $2.48.
A school lunch that costs $2.74, costs $13.70 per week. If your brown bag lunch includes 1 peanut butter sandwich (bread, $2.50; peanut butter, $3), 1 apple (5 pound bag $5), and a container of fruit juice (30 for $10), you spend $15.50. You have left over peanut butter, apples, and juice. You might have to buy bread for $2.50, but if the rest of your stash lasts another week, that saves $13.
Of course, there are a lot more factors, including whether the kids will eat the same thing every week. If you splurge, you break the budget. And sometimes the school lunch route is just easier.