Almost over...

Friday of the second week of the school holiday at last. They'll be back at school next week. Phew!

School holidays are pretty easy for me - no having to worry about taking time off or trying to find a holiday programme that doesn't think playing in the motorway tunnel is a good idea.

But the holidays are so damn expensive!

Now, I'm not one of those mothers that hands lots of money to the kids to keep them amused in the holidays. Nope, Jake has to fund his own fun.

It's the extra food that costs all the money.

We reckon in a normal week Jake costs us about $150 to feed. I know that sounds like a lot, but we do keep a decent stock of convenience foods around, both he and Mark are enormous meat eaters and remember Jake does play half a dozen sports that need body-fuel.

Remember the days when one of those little multi-packs of chippies was a snack? A full-size pizza is a snack for kids like this.

You'd think we'd go through less food in the holidays - after all he's always out. He's slept at home maybe five times in the last two weeks.

But large amounts of food can be consumed in the quick visits home to shower and change clothes!

Of course, I don't help myself. I've always encouraged his mates to spend plenty of time at our place (at least then I know where they are). I attract them with all the things teenage boys love - 42 inch TV, X-Box, a fridge full of soft drinks and, you guessed it, food. Not to mention the Rugby Channel.

They're all very good and know there are some things in our pantry that are out of bounds. But we go through huge amounts of: spaghetti, instant noodles, creamed rice, chippies, bread and juice. They do a fairly good job of cleaning up after themselves too.

And then there are the sausages. A bunch of boys came over after rugby training the other day for a poker tournament. I told them I'd cook them up a feed before I went out for the evening. That feed consisted of three dozen sausages, onions, Watties tomato sauce, American mustard and two loaves of sandwich bread (which has to be white, no slipping any of that healthy brown muck past these boys). I stupidly thought that would be plenty and that they'd have some leftovers to snack on later. WRONG! All gone before I left the house. And when I got home there were 10 pizza boxes in the rubbish as well. At least I don't get to pay for those.

Now, before anyone decides to jump all over me for letting them eat so much junk food, let's put their consumption in perspective. These boys are all jocks and play at least two top-level sports. Most of them are doing Elite Physical Education at school and know more about nutrition and the body than all us weight-loss bloggers put together. Several of them are so serious about their sport they've never had alcohol - these are 17 and 18 year old boys! Jake definitely reduces his eating when he reduces his exercise.

And I know some of them eat fruit - because I always take bananas and apples to the 1st XV two hours before a game!