I Recreated My Kids’ £1.07 Packed Lunch From 2012 – Here’s What It Costs in 2026….

I first wrote this post back in 2012 when my two were still at school and packed lunches were a big part of our everyday routine.

At the time, school dinners where we lived cost £1.95 a day, which felt like a lot when I was paying for two children – especially when one was a very fussy eater and the other didn’t have a huge appetite and would much rather rush through lunch to get outside with her friends.

We’d worked out by then what would and wouldn’t get eaten and I’d got pretty good at keeping the cost of their packed lunches down, so I sat down and worked out exactly what one of our usual packed lunches cost.

The answer was between 79p and £1.07, depending on what I used for the savoury part.

I’ve just come back to update this post in 2026 and, looking at those old prices, I couldn’t resist working out what exactly the same £1.07 packed lunch would cost me today.

I genuinely thought the difference would be huge.

It wasn’t.

My 2012 packed lunch vs the same packed lunch in 2026

To make the comparison as fair as I could, I’ve based the 2026 prices on Tesco, just as I did when I originally wrote this post.

This was the photo I used when I originally wrote this post back in 2012. 😁

I’ve used normal products that I’d realistically buy rather than choosing more expensive versions to make the increase look bigger. You could almost certainly shave a bit more off the cost by shopping around, buying things when they’re on offer or choosing cheaper alternatives elsewhere.

Here’s what happened:

Squash – 2012: 5p | 2026: 3p

Bun – 2012: 13p | 2026: 21p

Cheese – 2012: 30p | 2026: 25p

Small Gala apple – 2012: 20p | 2026: 16p

Squeezy yoghurt – 2012: 16p | 2026: 20p

Crisps – 2012: 16p | 2026: 18p

Packed lunch cake – 2012: 7p | 2026: 21p

Total – 2012: £1.07 | 2026: £1.24

I had to check that twice. 😂

The same packed lunch that cost me £1.07 in 2012 would cost me around £1.24 to make today.

That’s an increase of just 17p in fourteen years.

Even more surprisingly, some parts of the lunch are actually cheaper. The squash I used for my calculation works out at around 3p for a 500ml bottle compared with 5p back then, the cheese portion has gone from 30p to 25p and I found small Gala apples for 16p each compared with the 20p I allowed for fruit in 2012.

The biggest increase is actually my homemade packed lunch cake, which has gone from 7p to 21p a slice.

I definitely didn’t expect that result when I started updating this post.

Start with what will actually get eaten

This was probably the biggest lesson I learned from years of making packed lunches.

There’s absolutely no saving in sending children to school with the cheapest possible lunch if half of it comes home again every day.

One of mine wasn’t particularly interested in sandwiches and the other didn’t have a huge appetite and was usually more interested in getting outside at lunchtime than sitting eating a big meal.

Once I’d worked out what they would actually eat, packed lunches became much easier and there was much less waste.

That would still be my starting point today.

Make the freezer your packed-lunch friend

This was one of my favourite packed lunch tricks back when I first wrote this post.

I used to buy buns in larger packs and freeze them, then take out exactly what I needed. That stopped us throwing away half a pack because we hadn’t used them quickly enough.

I’d often make the sandwiches while the buns were still frozen and leave them in the fridge overnight ready for the following day.

I did the same with homemade snacks. I’d bake a batch, portion everything up and freeze it so I could just take something out when I was making the next day’s lunch.

It’s one of those tiny bits of organisation that can save both money and time.

Homemade packed lunch cake

One of the things I used to make regularly was my packed lunch cake.

When I originally costed it for this post in 2012, each piece worked out at just 7p.

I’ve just made and recosted the same packed lunch cake in 2026 and it’s now 21p a slice, so it’s actually had the biggest price increase of anything in my lunchbox comparison.

It’s still something I’d make, though. It’s a really simple sponge cake, it’s easy to portion and it freezes brilliantly, so you can make a batch and take out individual pieces as you need them.

And these days I actually make it for my partner’s packed lunch, so packed lunch cake has managed to outlive the actual school packed lunches in our house. 😂

Use leftovers for sandwich fillings

I rarely bought meat specifically for sandwiches.

If we’d had chicken, pork or beef for Sunday dinner, I’d save some for packed lunches. The same applied if I’d cooked a ham joint.

That meant I wasn’t buying expensive little packets of sliced sandwich meat and it helped make sure leftovers were actually used.

Sandwiches aren’t essential

You don’t have to stick to sandwiches either.

Leftover pasta, homemade pizza, wraps and other bits from dinner can all work in a lunchbox, depending on what your child likes and what their school allows. My two used to love homemade cheese and bacon wraps or leftover homemade pizza swirls in theirs.

I’ve shared tons of ideas for packed lunch fillers here. 

Don’t automatically buy individual portions

Those little individual bags, pots and packets are convenient, but they’re often a more expensive way to buy food.

Things like cheese, crackers and grapes can usually be bought in larger packs and divided into smaller reusable containers.

Obviously convenience has a value too, particularly on a busy school morning, so I wouldn’t rule out individually wrapped things altogether. I’d just compare the prices and make sure the convenience was worth what I was paying for it.

Fruit doesn’t need to be exciting

You absolutely can buy little pre-packed bags of chopped fruit, but an apple or banana does exactly the same job for considerably less effort and often less money.

I’d choose whichever fruit was cheapest that week and, more importantly, whichever fruit I knew was actually going to get eaten.

I also used to keep an eye on the reduced section for things like grapes and small bags of fruit that could be used over the next day or two.

Don’t get sucked into buying ‘lunchbox food’

There are so many products designed specifically to look perfect in a child’s lunchbox – little snack packs, mini versions of things, individually wrapped portions and all sorts of treats.

They’re convenient and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using them.

But you don’t need five different specially marketed lunchbox products to make a good packed lunch.

Something savoury, some fruit, a yoghurt or similar and a little snack or treat is plenty for most children, obviously depending on their age and appetite.

A reusable drinks bottle saves money too

This one really surprised me when I did my comparison.

Back in 2012, I worked out that the squash in their drinks bottle cost around 5p.

For my 2026 calculation, I used a 45p bottle of Tesco Stockwell orange squash, diluted according to the instructions. A 750ml bottle makes fifteen 500ml drinks, which works out at just 3p each.

Fourteen years later and the drink is actually cheaper. I wasn’t expecting to be writing that sentence. 😂

Packed lunches can still be surprisingly cheap

I started updating this post expecting to prove just how much more expensive my old £1.07 packed lunch would be in 2026.

Instead, I discovered that I could recreate it using Tesco prices for around £1.24.

Obviously that’s just one example of a packed lunch and prices will change. What your own packed lunch costs will depend on what you buy, where you shop and, most importantly, what your child actually eats.

You could probably make my £1.24 version even cheaper by shopping around, making the most of offers and adapting it to whatever you already have in the house.

But I love that fourteen years after I originally sat down and worked out the cost, the basic principle of this post still stands.

Packed lunches really don’t have to cost the earth.

I’d love you to follow me on Twitter and it would be amazing to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉

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