Yellow stickers and fridge hacks: How to feed children for less in the holidays

The school summer holidays means many parents face the task of cooking up lunches and snacks for children eating most of their meals at home for six weeks.

It can prove costly especially as food prices are rising faster now than at any point in the last year. School dinners are often subsidised so doing it yourself can get pricey.

Some parents have shared how meticulous planning and creative cooking has been helping them keep their shopping bill down.

For mum-of-two Evelyn buying reduced items is key. "Im not afraid of a yellow sticker, especially for my meat, thats what your freezer is for," she says.

At home in Gorton, in East Manchester, shes been preparing for the summer holidays for months, buying reduced items to pop in the freezer and use when there are more mouths in the house to feed.

She has a 12-year-old daughter who gets free school meals during term time and a 19-year-old son whos back home from university for the holidays.

"The snacking is immense," she says.

But like Colette, shes determined not to waste anything. "When youve got things going off, try and make something else out of them. Dip fruit into yoghurts, bang them in the freezer and youve got nice little frozen berry yoghurt snacks."

Evelyn receives a £50 voucher to help with the cost of summer holiday food from Manchester City Council issued by her daughters school. She says they are a "big help", particularly as they are not tied to one supermarket, so she can shop around for the best deals.

Food prices increased by 4.5% compared to June last year, and its expected the next set of official figures will show a further rise in July and August.

Benefit payments went up in April and after taking inflation into account, average wages grew by 1.5% between April and June.

But rent and mortgages rises, as well as increases in the cost of summer holiday clubs or childcare means many families say they arent feeling any better off.

Laura is out of work at the moment and has three children who she describes as "eating machines" who receive free school meals during term time.

But in the school holidays "sometimes weve got plenty of food, and sometimes we dont, so you have to get creative," she says.

Her tactic is to see what food she has, and put it into separate bags for each day, to help make sure the food lasts all week.

She says putting food in high kitchen cupboards - out of reach of the children - means the snacks dont all disappear in one go.

"It can be really really hard when youre having to scrimp and save and spend so much time thinking and organising and figuring out where the food is going to come from," she says.

Laura says her local pantry the Bread And Butter Thing in South Manchester has been "a lifeline".

She pays £8.50 for three bags of surplus food from supermarkets, farms and wholesalers. Whats inside is pot-luck but there is always fresh fruit and veg.

"It means I can put something on the table that they are going to want to eat and thats financially viable," she said.

The UKs biggest food distribution network Fareshare says it has already supplied ingredients for 400,000 more meals this school holiday compared to last summer.

Child Poverty Action Group is among charities warning the current funding is not enough to help all the households that are struggling.

Colette is mum to seven-year old Mary and 14-year-old Henry as has previously spoken to us about high prices in supermarkets.

She lives in south Manchester and juggles three part-time jobs as a music teacher and carer. She gets paid for her school-based work at the start of each term and says making the money last over the summer holidays is always difficult.

"We have to be clever and careful about how we use the food," she says. "Which is no different to normal its just theres more meals to make out of what weve got".

Theres one basic rule she sticks by: "We dont waste anything," she says. "Even crusts."

"It sounds really silly but its having a system in the fridge of making sure the stuff thats at the front is the stuff that needs using first," she says.

"The kids are not going to rummage around and look at use by dates, but if its at the front I know thats the one that needs using first."

The family try and batch cook too. Henry joined in to make a bolognaise this week, and now theres an extra portion in the freezer for another day.