With the school lunches i put thinks like a bananna or an apple, bananna chips, sultana's, my girls like avocado so i put 1/2 an avocado with a smoon in there lunch box. cashew nuts, yoyurt, carrot sticks, cerlery sticks with peanut butter in them or grated cheese, corn cruskets with cheese, or any other type of fruit or vegetable your child likes. boiled eggs, baked beans in a container, any type of dried fruit your child might like, pumpkin scones, salad sandwiches with or without meat and the list goes on. you could make your child a cold meat platter for there lunch box, with cold shaved raost beef, carrot stciks, celery stciks, red capsicum and things like that.

With fortnightly shopping you need to work out how much of everything you use EXACTLY! cause what you may find your doing is your just not buying enough of everything. milk, bread, meat, fruit and vegies will all last 2 weeks. you just need to work out exactly how much of it you use a fortnight and then shop acordingly.

Rice cakes - either plain, flavoured, with butter and vegemite, cheese etc.

Rice Crackers - cheese, meat, dip, or just plain.

Vege sticks, cherry tomatoes

Pikelets

Weetbix with jam or vegemite

Fruit, different ways of presenting, cut up in fingers, chunks, fruit salad, different fruit different days

Baked beans or spaghetti

cheese

Shopping:

Plenty of advice has been added up the top under related content. Check out mine on saving money - groceries. A few tips there that I found when we were not lasting for the fortnight.

Hey, as far as lunches go, I tend to buy large packets of things and split them up. Invest in some small plastic containers (or plastic zip lock bags). I split up things like biscuits, dried fruit etc into individual containers. It's cheaper to split up the big packs that it is to buy the individually packaged things (and it's less rubbish if you use containers).

I have a shelf in the fridge where I put all the snacks for the week that need to be refridgerated (carrot sticks, cheese and crackers, salad boxes) and a basket on the bench (packets of sweet biscuits, crackers, dried fruit, home made museli bars).

I make it all up in one go one the weekend, I know how many snacks each person needs for each day that they are at school/ kindy/ work that week. I just grab how may each person needs each morning. My kids are pretty well trained not to grab the containers for snack when we're at home - for school/ kindy/ work only! If you're shopping fortnightly, perhaps you could make up perishable snacks for the first week, and things which will last two weeks like biscuits the second week. You can make them all up in one go, and then you'd be set for the next fortnight as long as nobody snacks on them when they shouldn't!

I do weekly shopping now, but used to do fortnightly. In terms of shopping every fortnight, have you tried doing things like having fresh fruit and veggies (or salads) during the first week, and then frozen veggies and tinned fruit in the second week?  Freeze bread so it doesn't go mouldy, and we usually only had eggs in the first week (although keeping the eggs in the fridge did help), and had things like tinned tuna in the second week. This should help with buying food, having it go off and then having to go and buy more! Keeping perishables fresh for the two weeks was the biggest thing I had problems with. Still had to buy milk every few days because I didn't have the freezer space for it (and I don't like the taste of frozen milk anyway).

Having a menu - even if you just do it for dinners, or even just week night dinners, will help. Even stick the list on the fridge so everyone knows what's going on. If you know you've got enough veggies (fresh or frozen) for 12 nights and 12 lumps of meat in the freezer, you can get through the fortnight with two nights of leftovers/ omlettes/ cheese on toast. Even just writing down what is what night will help with the plan.

Good luck!

i have to do my shopping a few times a week cause my hubby is a depressive eater. :( so what we do is buy our meat in bulk from our butcher and freeze it all. i buy bread daily as we go through bread really quickly. we buy 2 minute noodles (homebrand as they are 99c for 5)

as fo school lunches i am very lazy. we go to a bakery and get cheese rolls. my kids like repeditive stuff.

I make up salad boxes or wraps. Fruit salads as well. Cheese and crackers. Um, a bit hard isn't it! If i think of more, I'll come back and post some more.

For the fortnightly shop, I count out how many meals I will need, 14 dinners etc. Things for lunches like cold meat and bread. Cereal for breakfast. Just break it down to count out how many days it will spread plus a few treats.

Hi Ange....

As for the shooping lasting, until next pay.... It's hard.... but can be managed....

Make a menu for every night, for that fornight you are just about to shop for.... and shop to that menu.... work out how many night you will be having vegies and really only but enought vegies for those nights.... meat.... I know 500 grams of mince would fees my family a meal, may it be rissoles, spag bol, lasagne.... etc... so if i was having 4 mince meals in that fornight i would buy 2 kg mince and just divide and freeze in the amount that i need....

if you start something like the menu, try and stick to it for at least a month.... as a new routine never seems to work out in the first few weeks, but it take our mind and body around a month (28 days) to make the new routine work....

As for snacks,,,, thats a hard one.... let me sit on it.... and i shall have a look at a few things....

Minti mail me it you want any more info on how i managed my menu/shopping and cooking meals on a budget........ I have one on my pc that i just print out.... I will sent it over if you would like a copy....

Hope you and you little ones are all well....

Cheers x

I wrote an article titled 'Kids Lunches' but I have no idea how to put in a link to it. Maybe you could find it among my advice. If not, try these ideas...

* Wraps & pockets - buy wrap or pita bread, add any filling you want. I use sandwich meat, lettuce, baby spinach leaves (available in supermarkets in packets), cucumber, grated carrot, cheese, sprouts - whatever your child likes.

* Buy cheese & bacon rolls, or pizza rolls

* Meatballs - make small meatballs & put with a bit of salad.

* Cracker biscuits with cheese (I use sliced cheese as they are thin, put between 2 crackers)

* Fritatas & quiches can be eaten cold.

* Bowl of salad.

* Chicken pieces. I crumb chicken wings & bake them - my girls love taking them to school. Of course, you don't have to crumb them.

It is always hard to make food last a fortnight. I buy extra breads & rolls & freeze them. When my kids were very young & drank a lot of milk I did the same with milk - buy extra to freeze (note: when milk is frozen it turns orange, don't worry about that, it will defrost back to white & is fine). Buy large packets of things instead of smaller packets, & buy extra of things you know you will run out of. The other option is to split your pay into 2, putting half away for the second week, & doing a week's worth of shopping.

For snacks, that's a tought one.  How about just fruit, cheese cubes, cut veggies?  I don't know how much of that would last but my girl loves cheese and crackers.  Also I do alot of dinners with rice and beans or noodles.  You can get alot and it won't take up a whole lot of space.  Hotdogs, and chicken for us are great.  I've cut our bill by like $200 a month and I don't need to buy it that often.  Maybe take the amount you would by a month and divide it up into weeks.  That way you just spend enough for the week and not have to worry about running out.  Just get what you need to restock.  And if you have the space by everything on sale!  That will let you save more money, so you can buy more if you do run out.  I hope some of this helps.