This is a guest post from my wife Tiffany at MyLitter, she has made a few school lunches in her day!
To help save on school lunches I make a lot of my own pudding, jello and treats. If I can get a killer deal on fruit roll ups and granola bars of course I buy them but for things like jello and pudding it is just too cheap to make! Plus, it tastes better then the pre-packaged stuff.
The night before, after the kids are in bed OR new for me this year, my 11 and 9 year old daughters make pudding and jello for the next day. They pour them into the little ziplock containers and toss them in the fridge overnight.
The trick is getting them to remember to bring back the container, or not leaving it in their backpacks!
I also use the little containers for small fruit, chunks of cheese, ham, mini pickles, chunks of fruit and dry cereal.
I also make sandwiches in bulk by using a 6 pack of rolls.
Next, comes the ham and cheese.
Then I flip it over and cut 6 sandwiches.
For me this is a quicker way to get a bunch of sandwiches and they are just the right size. You can do it this way and stick the rest in the fridge for the next few days if you don’t need that many sandwiches.
I try and stay under $4-5 dollars a day for all lunches. So about $20 – $25 a week on lunches. I buy bread and rolls on sale and freeze them. Earlier this summer at Randalls I bought 13 packages of string cheese for under $.75 a bag, then I freeze and pull out every few days. I also freeze lunch meat and load up when I get it on sale. The snacks are always very cheap at Kroger mega events. We go through an enormous amount of fruit, I always try and price match it at Wal-Mart.
What do you make for lunch?
What great ideas, thanks for sharing. Always trying to pack at least a partially healthy lunch for my little guy and those are great suggestions, thanks.
I am wondering how long the sandwiches will last in the fridge? I only have 1 in school right now but in the spring I will have 2 in school. Also, I’ve been couponing for a while now but I’m not sure on some prices. What is a good price for lunchmeat? Thank you and I love your pages:)
Wow, this looks great! I love the idea of making the big sandwich and cutting it up! Also the make-your-own pudding cups! WAAAAY cheaper than buying them!
I love that everything you use is a brand name item. I’m learning that you don’t have to buy store brands to save money. 🙂
Great money & time saving tips! t/y
Great tips! I pre make alot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches then freeze them. Just take one out and put it in lunch bag and its unthawed by lunch. Same thing with yogurt. You can also purchase “go gurt” like squeezable tubes so they can have a “go gurt” with regular yogurt! cheaper! How do the cheese strings hold up after being froze? I heard the texture with cheese can change? I also buy bags of carrots or other fruit and veggies and pre cut and peel before hand then just take them out a put in lil containers like above. Homemade pizza lunchables, get 1 tube of pizza dough, cook dough into small round disks, freeze until use. Pour a few tbs of pizza sauce in zip locs, 1/2 cheese in zip loc. Send with 1 spoon and waalaa a pizza lunchable!!
Thats great! I love the idea with the pudding. I usually send my daughter in with a thermos of chicken noodle soup, a fruit, drink, and a treat. The chicken noodle soup is really inexpensive.
I am totally stealing your sandwich idea next year! My kiddos wont be in school until next year but that sandwich idea is just too genius not to steal! Plus with two kiddos I would only have to make them twice a week, woo hoo! Thank you so much Tiffany!!!
I don’t have any kids but it still looks really good and chicken noodle sooup Like kathy said!! Yumm making me hungry!!!
When I buy cantaloupe or other melons, I bring it home and cut it and place it in the small containers (like for your pudding) right away. Not only does this work great for lunches, my kids are much more likely to take a single serve bowl of fruit out for a snack then to actually open a big bowl and make themselves a serving!
We do homemade lucnhables:
lunchmeat rolled up and ritz crackers. (this kid was wasting the cheese) and a few cookies, apple, gogurt, chips and gatorade in a reusable bottle.
Other PICKEY kids gets: 1/2 peanut butter and honey, danamils drikable and chips, pretzels…water in reusable bottle..
LOVE the pudding idea for evening snack…
never thought of doing this. i also didn’t know you could freeze the lunchmeat. does the texture change? i will definitely do this when they are on sale now!
I buy the big containers of yogurt and package them into small containers an add treats into them. My son loves when i mix his with Chocolate syrup or mini chocolate chips.. he also loves Gummy bears in them….
I tried the ‘lunchable’ idea too. I bought two package square container at the dollar store. They also off Land O Lakes block cheese for $1.00. I cut up bologna or ham to fit the cracker and slice the block cheese. I try to cross cross the slices, so they stick together. I put in a couple oreo type cookies and a folded up napkin as a divider.
Lunch meat freezes very well. I buy all my lunch meat in bulk from BJs and freeze it, nobody can tell the difference. It is so much cheaper than buying from the deli.
Lunch meat freezes great without any texture issues. So does sliced cheese. I pack some sort of sandwich, veggie with dip, treat and milk or water. So far so good. We’ve tried pb&j and egg salad sandwich so far this week and she liked both at school. Tomorrow she’s eating a ham, cheese and (light) cream cheese wrap with broccoli and strawberries. I do like the pudding idea. I will try that. You could also mix some cool whip with the vanilla pudding if you need to stretch it further. One of my favorite snacks.
This is a SMART easy idea! Thanks for being a great mom and giving us some ideas. love it.
So far… I’ve made sandwiches of roasted chicken breast with parmesan bread and mayo (the combination is soooo yummmyyy) in a ziploc container. Stuffed chicken with spinach and feta cheese and mashed potato in a thermo container. Today PBJ sandwiches and watermelon. I have a picky eater no fruit, no veggies, no cheese but I still slip some in her lunch
WOW!! Thanks for the helpful lunch tips! I have to prepare 3 lunches 4 actually if I include myself and these tips have given me some great ideas how to spend less on lunch for the family!! Thanks again!!!
To save money I buy the large 10lb+ pre-cooked hams, the ones with out the bones which I usually find anywhere from $1.69-1.99 a pound, and take it to the meat counter and have them shave it for me…then bring it home and divide it up and freeze it! The ham is similar to what they sell at the deli counter for $6.99 lb or more! Also if you have a food saver you can make your own “go-gurts” by freezing the yogurt first, then sealing it in the bags. Usually with a coupon I can get the larger containers of yoplait at krogers 88 cents.
Even without lunches i ALWAYS make serving size containers of pudding, jello, and fruits, so it’s all ready to grab and go. Whether it’s a snack outside, a lunch on the go, or dessert for dinner. I find for ALL of us that having it preportioned helps with eating too much too! plsu with the fruit cleaned and Ready to eat it always gets eaten also.
Oh and if you’re sending vegetables in the cups don’t forget to add the dip or salad dressing to the bottom for dipping!
Reusable gogurt containers?!?!?!?! Do tell! We have to use soy yogurt, and, of course, it doesn’t come in squeezable tubes!!!!!