Free Lunchbox Planner Printable For Easier School Mornings

Save time and stress on school mornings by having a lunchbox planner and doing a little prep work (10 minutes only!) on the weekend.

Morning.

Bleary-eyed.

You’ve got breakfast to make, coffee to drink, kids to get ready for school, and you still have to get yourself ready for work.

And there’s also the dreaded lunchbox to pack.

It’s tempting to reach for the packaged food or the tuckshop menu (I’ve done it, no judgement here!).

It makes the job so much easier.

What doesn’t make the job easier is looking for inspiration on Pinterest or Instagram.

(And don’t get me started on nutritionists who want to criticise which fruit we put in our kid’s lunchbox!)

All those fancy bento boxes scream MORE WORK when you know you don’t have time. Maybe some people find it inspiring, but I find it a bit stressful. I can’t match that level of lunchbox mastery.

Why do we make things harder on ourselves than they need to be?

A healthy lunchbox doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy!

In fact, you can have a healthy (and frugal!) lunchbox packed and be out the door in the time it takes to say, ‘no, you can’t have an LCM‘.

Here are some tips that have helped me pack lunchboxes for the last…decade – gosh, has it been that long?!

Start With a Lunchbox Plan

Just like menu planning dinners make life easier, having an outline of what goes into the kid’s lunchboxes also takes the guesswork out of it.

That way, you’re not staring into the fridge early in the morning, wondering what to pack.

What you pack in the kids’ lunchboxes can be pretty much the same every day and can be totally non-complicated.

You certainly don’t need to be wasting precious time cutting sandwiches and fruit into fancy shapes (who eats the scraps? – or do they get thrown in the bin?)

If you have a set idea of what goes into the kids’ lunchbox each day, you can throw it together in a few minutes without mental effort, which is essential in the mornings.

Below I’ve shared a planner you can download and print if you like, to make planning lunchboxes easier.

In our house, a lunchbox consists of the following:

• Morning tea: fruit and one or two items from a selection of (usually, but not always homemade) pre-prepared snacks, sweet (i.e. a muffin) or savoury (i.e. rice cracker).
• Lunch: a sandwich, wrap or leftovers and some raw vegetables.

Every. Single. Day.

It’s simple, but there’s enough variation within those parameters that it doesn’t get boring. You can switch up the fruit, depending on the season, add plenty of salad to the sandwich for extra nutrition, and, to make life easier (and cheaper), look for pre-made snacks like rice crackers and stock up when they go on sale.

And if your kids are old enough, it’s easy for them to pack themselves.

Use the Right Lunchbox

The right lunchbox can actually make packing lunches easier in the morning.

If you’re packing sandwiches or wraps, you need a lunchbox with a compartment big enough for a sandwich to fit. Those bento boxes won’t cut it.

On the other hand, if your child doesn’t like sandwiches but prefers a selection of foods, ploughman’s lunch style, a bento box is perfect!

You can get compartment lunchboxes like the Smash brand from Kmart or Big W, or you can check out Biome for their range of eco-lunchboxes.

Don’t forget the insulated bag, a small ice pack, and a good water bottle – an insulated bottle keeps water cool all day.

Then label everything really well to make sure it all comes home.

Fill Your Fridge and Pantry with Lunchbox Supplies

Have you ever peered into the empty fridge in the morning, wondering what you will pack today?

I have. Last-minute scrounges don’t look pretty (I now keep an emergency packet of arrowroot biscuits and a tin of fruit hidden just for these days).

Once you’ve planned what you’re packing in the kid’s lunchboxes for the week, add what you need to the shopping list and double-check on the weekend to ensure you’ve got everything you need.

I do a grocery shop online order on Wednesdays when the specials come out, so I can see if there are any specials on snacks like rice crackers to add to lunch boxes.

I find it cheaper to bake snacks, but I don’t always have time. Having a stash of snacks purchased at half-price can be a lifesaver.

You might also like: How to Save Money on School Lunches.

Do a 10-Minute Lunchbox Prep on the Weekend

If you want to, you can make a week’s worth of sandwiches and put them in the fridge or freezer, ready to go in the morning.

This is not something I do, but many parents swear by it. Having lunches prepared can be a huge time and stress saver in the mornings.

Alternatively, you can prepare and pack lunchboxes the night before while cooking dinner (this is something I occasionally do).

My usual MO, however, is to do a little 10-minute lunchbox prep while I’m cooking dinner on Sunday (you can get the kids to help!).

Things I might pre-prepare on Sunday include:

• washing lettuce and storing it in a tea towel, ready to go
• grating carrots for salad sandwiches
• defrosting ham
• grating cheese
• pre-cutting some fruits
• pre-cutting vegetable sticks
• placing yoghurt or dip into individual containers, ready to grab
• baking a batch of muffins. This takes about 8 minutes from scratch + 20 minutes of cooking time.
• pre-pack snacks like trail mix or crackers into containers or reusable snack bags
• boiling eggs
• slice leftover roast meat for easy sandwiches – a Sunday roast is a great way to set yourself up for weekday lunches
• pre-cook rice or pasta for easy salads

I don’t do all of these things every week. It depends on what we decide to pack for lunches for the week.

Download the Lunchbox Planner Printable

The lunchbox planner printable makes lunchbox planning super easy. You can download it here.

Choose a couple of sandwich options for the week or sandwich alternatives, a couple of fruit and vegetable options and a snack option, and you’re set.

If you want to plan out lunches for the week, I’ve included a printable planner you can laminate and reuse each week. It can be helpful to fill each box with a couple of options so the kids can choose and pack their own lunchbox.

You can download the fillable lunchbox planner here.

Make sure you’ve got the ingredients on hand, pre-prepare anything you need on Sunday and pack the lunchboxes each morning is as easy as 1 2 3.

What are your tips for packing a healthy lunchbox each day?