School lunches...Lunch box or cafeteria food? Sandwich or yogurt? Milk or water? I have been discussing these choices with my children since my daughter started kindergarten in 1999. She is a senior now and my boys are in 9th, 6th and 3rd grades so I have a few more years of school lunches ahead of me. A few years ago, I discovered that the issue of lunch money can provide an excellent opportunity to involve kids in budgeting and help them practice their money management skills.
When my oldest son started middle school, he and I were both unprepared for the lunch costs. (My daughter took her lunch every day so I was blissfully unaware of the expanded choices in middle school!) The school still had the basic lunch option which is very reasonable from a cost standpoint. However, the middle school also offered a la carte items, such as chicken fingers, pizza and fries. My son thought this was marvelous and was buying a la carte items every day. At the end of the second week of school, he had spent practically all of his lunch money for the entire month. I reviewed his purchases online and realized that he was spending $5-$6 a day on lunch.
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