If you spend $10 a day on lunch, that’s $50 a week. If you ‘brown bag’ your lunch and instead invest $50 a week for a return of 3% per annum compounded, here’s what you can do:

• After one year, you will have around $2,638; enough for a holiday in Australia
• After five years, you will have around $14,021; enough for a trip to Europe
• After ten years, you will have around $30,310, which would go a long way towards a deposit on a house or your children’s education costs
• After twenty years, you will have around $71,222; enough to buy a brand new luxury car
• After thirty years, you will have around $126,443, which might allow you to retire much earlier than age 65
• After forty five years, you will have around $247,513 which, combined with your KiwiSaver funds, could allow you to live a very comfortable life in retirement.

I am reliably informed by several ‘brown baggers’ that the best way to take care of work lunches is to cook extra for your evening meal and serve it into a container that you can freeze or refrigerate for the next day or later. If you don’t have a microwave at work, stock up on easy to prepare cold food that won’t go soggy if prepared the night before. Do a quick internet search for ideas for lunches that taste good and help you save to enjoy life.

Liz Koh is an Authorised Financial Adviser. The advice given here is general and does not constitute specific advice to any person. A disclosure statement can be obtained free of charge by calling 0800 273 847.  For free eBooks, go to www.moneymax.co.nz and www.moneymaxcoach.com

Soup in a flask – always a favourite.  Mmmmm!

Mousetraps - this delightful marmite and cheese on toast treat can be made fresh or heated in the morning before school and wrapped in aluminium foil then in a hand towel so it is still at least a bit warm at morning break or lunch time whenever your child chooses to eat them.

Hot drinks – a hot milky drink is a treat on a cold school day.  Try this hot chocolate drink in a vacuum flask. Wrap it in a plastic bag and maybe a hand towel that can double as a cleanup cloth in case of any spillage.

Heat a serving size to a point where it is a bit hotter than your child normally likes their soup (to allow for some cooling during the morning).

Pour the soup into an unbreakable vacuum flask of the same size so that it is full (this reduces the amount of air and the soup will stay warm longer

Screw the top on tightly so it won’t leak.

For other anti-leakage measures include:

Place the flask of soup in a plastic bag and close with a wire tie.

Wrap the plastic bag in a handtowel (also provides more insulation so stays warm longer and can be used to mop up in the event of spillage)

Put it into your child’s bag so it stands upright, at least when it leaves home!

1. Grated cheddar cheese with tomato chutney or relish
2. Sliced cucumber with lettuce and mayonnaise
3. Sliced capsicum (fresh or roasted) with lettuce
4. Yeast extract (eg, marmite or vegemite) with lettuce and /or cheese
5. Left over roast meat with chutney and lettuce
6. Hardboiled egg, mashed with 1 teaspoon mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon fresh herbs and lettuce or fresh spinach leaves
7. Beansprouts, sliced tomato, slices cucumber and cheese

When you use tomato in sandwiches that are not going to be eaten immediately, always put a good layer of lettuce leaves between the bread and the tomato slices so that bread doesn’t go soggy.

Small sticks of carrot or celery with a small container of hummus dip

Scones or muffins cooked in mini muffin pans

Salami sticks

Leftover cold sausage cut into 1cm slices with a small container of tomato sauce

Mini meatballs with a small container of tomato sauce

Fresh fruit, preferably ready to eat.  Oranges, kiwifruit, mandarins, strawberries and other berries in season, plums are best as many other fruits go brown when cut and exposed to light – not an appetizing look!

Fresh peas in the pod or sugar snap peas,

Baby pikelets

Dried fruit – choose items your child likes from the bulk bins at the supermarket

My daughters still remember having to bring their raisin packets home to be refilled from the cheaper bulk pack for school the next day.  Evidently they were the only ones in their class who didn’t have a fresh raisin packet each day. (Well so they said!)

The small size packs appeal to young children because they are manageable and to the older ones because their food can fit into their pocket so they can snack on it as they continue with their other activities

You can expand on this concept by using small containers, self locking plastic bags and filling them yourself with any of the foods your children enjoy. Or you can wrap small portions in cling wrap or aluminum foil.

For example, cut their favourite sandwiches into

• small squares
• triangles
• animal shapes using a cookie cutter

Pack them into 2-3 small containers so that your child can eat the contents of one container at a time.  They get a certain feeling of satisfaction when they see an empty container.

Include some special food such as a small bunch of grapes, a bag of popcorn, a few juicy strawberries, a handful of cherry tomatoes.

If there is any competition at school about bought or home made lunches, here is a way to make your child’s lunch look impressive. You might even start a trend!

These ideas will work for children from 2 to 12 years and even older.  Small portions will appeal to the teens who don’t want to look as if they are eating too much or who don’t want to stop what they are doing to sit down and eat.

The ideas will work in various situations such as:

• school and day-care lunches
• in the car for short or long distance trips
• at the café for Sunday Brunch – a great distraction while the little ones wait for their brunch dish
• at the local playground
• during the supermarket shopping trip with toddlers