5 school lunches for the week under $25

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No-heat, nut-free, lunchbox-friendly. Prices are typical US grocery-store estimates (fall 2026); yours will vary.

The week

Day	Main	Fruit	Veg	Snack
Mon	Turkey & cheese roll-ups (tortilla)	Apple slices (lemon water)	Baby carrots	Pretzels
Tue	Pasta salad (rotini, cheese cubes, peas, Italian dressing)	Grapes	(in pasta)	Yogurt tube
Wed	DIY "lunchable": crackers, cheese, turkey	Clementine	Cucumber coins	—
Thu	Sunflower-butter & jam sandwich	Banana	Baby carrots	Popcorn
Fri	Leftover pasta salad or cheese quesadilla wedges (cold)	Apple	Cucumber	Yogurt tube

Drink: refillable water bottle every day.

Grocery list by aisle (≈ $23–25)

Produce: apples (4) ~$3 · grapes 1 lb ~$2.50 · clementines bag (use 2) ~$4 · bananas (2) ~$0.50 · baby carrots 1 lb ~$1.50 · cucumber (2) ~$1.50 Bakery: 8-ct flour tortillas ~$2.50 · sandwich bread (use 4 slices) ~$2 Deli/Dairy: sliced turkey 8 oz ~$4 · cheese block 8 oz (cube + slice) ~$2.75 · yogurt tubes 8-ct ~$2.50 Pantry: rotini 1 lb ~$1.25 · frozen peas (use 1 cup) ~$1 · Italian dressing ~$1.75 · crackers ~$2.50 · pretzels ~$2 · popcorn kernels/bag ~$1.50 · sunflower butter ~$4 · jam ~$2 Pantry items marked last much longer than one week; per-week cost ≈ $23 counting only what's used.

Sunday prep (30 min)

Cook rotini; mix pasta salad (makes Tue + Fri). Fridge.
Wash grapes; slice cucumbers; portion carrots into 5 bags.
Cube half the cheese; slice the rest.
Pop popcorn; bag pretzels and popcorn.

Nightly pack (10 min)

Pull the day's row; ice pack in; water bottle filled and in fridge.

Week of Lunches planner

Preference sheets, 5-day lunch grid, aisle grocery list, budget tracker, prep notes and a no-heat idea bank. Listing coming soon.

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