Many families are sending their children to school with packed lunches this term, as school meals become more unaffordable during the cost of living crisis. With school meals costing £2.20 in Newcastle and £2.25 in Durham, unless your child qualifies for free school meals, then it's almost always cheaper to make your own child's lunch.
Chroniclelive's sister site the Manchester Evening News, decided to put costs to the test, and headed out to the six main supermarkets to see which is cheapest for making your own lunchbox. The Manchester Family opted for standard products rather than budget, and the plan was to make a standard lunchbox of a ham sandwich, a tube yoghurt, a packet of crisps and a Royal Gala apple for a little as possible.
Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Aldi and Lidl were all visited, and overall, Aldi came out as cheapest, at 74.5p for the entire lunchbox, which consisted of two pieces of bread, 40g (four slices) of ham and 6g of margarine to make the sandwich, the yoghurt, crisps and apple.
