The cost of secondary school

[pheasantchick]

Its slowly dawning on me that when my DS goes to secondary school, its going to cost me money.

When I went to school many moons again, the only money I took was for dinner and for school trips. I didn't pass any cafes, who had to catch buses, or pass go but literally went to school, and then returned home.

Living further away, I've realised that my DS will probably go to a cafe after school before catching the bus etc.

Just out of curiosity, what is the 'going rate' for teenagers to take to school?

[copella]

Luckily my son doesn't have to take any money to school. We live in London where he can use his oyster card for free travel on buses and at school all outings, lunch, clubs etc are paid for via parentpay a computerised system. His thumb is used to identify him for lunch payments and we pay via the computer for everything else. The system lets us see what he has for lunch, how much he uses each day etc and tells us when he is running out of money. Great. Costs aren't much more than primary at the moment. He plays alot of sports out of school so we had alot of additional kit for rugby, cricket, squash etc.

[rubyhettybetty]

I've been thinking this! We prob won't use public transport as we live in a remote rural area, but our petrol costs will certainly be more. I pack up lunches for all mine for primary school, but can see DD wanting the freedom to eat lunch with her buddies, and in fact at all the schools we've seen, lunch is REALLY late - so she'd need a substantial snack (bacon roll) at the am break - I can see us giving her £4 a day in cash....

[hermanmunster]

reckon £3 is our daily rate (no transport - short walk) - though we are going onto cashless catering soon and no doubt there will have to be some negotiation over the ice cream van....

[Just1-2go]

Both my secondary age DC have cashless catering systems at school and I just top up their cards as and when. DD rarely spends money after school, with DS it seems to mostly chewing gum and he and his friends sometimes team up to buy multipacks of doughnuts or giant cookies from the mini-supermarket. In the beginning they quite often went to the milkshake bar but that soon lost its novelty.

[doodles]

Cashless catering for us too - reckon DS spends about £3 per day. I top up his card by about £60 per month. Other than that he has a couple of pounds in his wallet for bits and pieces. The first couple of weeks he went a bit mad at the milkshake bar etc on the way home from school but the novelty soon wore off and he spends very little now.

[Snowdrops]

Cashless catering and bus pass for us too.

But ........................ DD often walks into town after school to catch the bus so we give her £10 'incidentals' money which is to last her the month. She can use it in any way she likes and if she uses it all the first day she gets no more until the 1st day of the next month (she forgot to ask for it today ).

[guest43]

For DD at inde. Lunches are included and compulsory. 5 min walk to school. Tuck shop best not mentioned. So on a typical day nothing/£0.00...

Of course there is a direct debit every month!

[andyb]

I pack up lunches for all mine for primary school, but can see DD wanting the freedom to eat lunch with her buddies, and in fact at all the schools we've seen, lunch is REALLY late - so she'd need a substantial snack (bacon roll) at the am break - I can see us giving her £4 a day in cash....

When DS1 started Y7 we put money onto the "cashless" system so he could feel grown up and buy lunch from the canteen - he was so bewildered by the choice he either had baked potato or pasta every day! We also found that although the food is very good value, the drinks were expensive so he was taking one from home. Also school lunch is at 1.45pm so I was giving him a snack for break (11.45am) as well. After about 1 month he asked for packed lunch because it gives him the freedom to eat at break time if he is peckish and finish off at lunch, or if he has sport he can eat all of it at break. All the boys can sit in the canteen to eat if they want so the packed-lunch-ers aren't segregated from their buddies, but if they want to eat in the fresh air they can.

[Minesatea]

DS gets £5 a day, for bus fares and food. The bus is about £2 depending which company he gets on! thus leaving him £3 for lunch / snack. He also finds the food good value but the drinks not, so takes a pouch style (light to carry) drink with him.
We have never really considered packed lunches as he seems to be a 2-legged pack horse without the added weight of a lunch box!