Saving Money - Lunches and Snacks

It's easy to see that brown bagging it to work and school is a great way to save money, but often all those prepackaged foods add up to a lot of money!  Here are some ideas to save money and give variety.

*Make your own Lunchables - pack some cheese squares, some crackers and meat along with veggies.  Include some homemade snacks, fruit and you're set.

*Try a tortilla wrap instead of bread.  PB&J, cream cheese (make it herbed by whipping in some garlic, onion, parsley, dill, or whatever sounds good) and deli meat and/or veggies.  My kids think these are a great treat when I roll them up and cut them into pinwheels with fancy toothpicks from the Dollar Tree.

*Pitas, hummus and veggies to dip are cheap and delicious.  Speaking of dips - the Dollar Tree also sells a pack of small containers with lids that I use for ranch, bbq, chocolate or caramel sauce for dipping, fruits, veggies, and wraps.

*If you're not going to eat your leftovers for lunch right away, store them in a freezer bag for another day.  No one wants the same lunch for 3 days in a row and at our house it'll get thrown away if we don't save it for later.

*Repackage larger bags of chips, crackers and pretzels (we get ours at the Dollar Tree) into smaller snack containers or plastic bags.

*Make one or two batch of treats for the week and then give everyone a couple for each lunch.  We make granola bars, cookies or a quick bread like banana, apple or zucchini.

*Make a batch of chocolate pudding or gelatin and put it into smaller containers with lids.  I usually make one of each and then let the kids choose one each day.

For snacks you can make quick breads, cookies, cut up fruits and veggies (mine love peppers), dish up yogurt and granola, and any of the lunch items described above.

Make sure to keep some quick snacks in your car when you're out and about to curb hunger (isn't someone always hungry?).  I try and make sure we all have water bottles as well.  We usually have some Cheerios and a bag of pretzels in the car.  My sister-in-law keeps juice boxes in hers so that if she does stop at the drive-thru she orders a few things from the Dollar Menu, hands the kids a juice and they think it's a treat.