Article - Save $ on School Lunches This Year

From Living on a Dime Newsletter - One of the August 2009 editions.
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I love reading this newsletter.  She has great tips for lowering the food budget.  After my first year on a gluten free diet, I had to cut back on spending on the food budget.  I had to look outside of the box and start making things that were either naturally gluten free or tweek the recipe and make it inexpensively gluten free.  I started looking at frugal sites.  I came across this one.  We can still apply this to a gluten free diet by tweeking things a bit.  I will make GF and CF notes in red. 

Save $400 on school lunches this year!

These days in America, it seems that everyone is so busy that preparing school lunches is liable to push a typical mom right over the edge. When you have to choose between making school lunches or spending that extra 15 minutes in bed, it seems like buying ready made lunches at the store is a no-brainer, but your budget doesn't agree.

The average mom packs $2.00 worth of pre-packaged goodies into each lunch she sends to school with her kids. (That works out to $720 for 2 kids.) What mother hasn't wondered if those lunches are even getting eaten?

Try these tips for things you can do in 30 minutes or less on the weekend to make those school lunches a snap!

Those snack bags of munchies cost a lot! Make your own by pre-packaging chips, pretzels, animal crackers and other snack items into sandwich bags on the weekends. (Have the kids help!) Store them in a big container or basket and just throw them in the lunch box in the morning.  Things that are naturally GF - Tortilla Chips, Corn Chips, Rice crackers, Nuts, cerials like Rice CHEX and other cerials made from corn or rice, Raisins, Dried Fruit, Fruit Roll Ups, ect....  There are great gluten free brands out there that make pretzels, crackers, cerials, cookies, etc...   Even better, make snacks at home - cookies, Graham Crackers, crackers, cup cakes, brownies, trail mix, granola, etc..... .  My mom use to store cookies in the freezer.

Let the kids create their own Pizza lunch kits. Toast bread and cut out little circles with a biscuit cutter. Add small containers of pizza sauce, cheese, and other toppings.  I think this is a great idea and can use GF bread (I would try toasing it).  I would also make them into squares so that I am not waisting any of that costly bread.  I have used rice crackers for pizza too.  You could even make the pizza crust in small sizes, bake them and freeze them.

Make fruit gelatin and pudding and put in small plastic containers for the week. Make a large batch of granola bars, cookies, pumpkin bread, banana bread or muffins. Divide them into zip top sandwich bags and freeze so that you can grab one or two when needed.  Try making muffin size cakes.  I use to use the small muffin size when the kids were younger. 

Brownie bites are simple to make. Bake brownie mix in mini-muffin pans and put three "brownie bites" in a sandwich bag for each child's lunch. They freeze well too!  Any GF mix will do or make it from scratch.  I know that if you are using a mix, Trader Joes has a GF mix that is a great price. 

Fill thermos (not glass) half full with juice the night before and freeze. In the morning, remove from freezer and fill the rest of the way. The juice will be cold when the kids are ready to drink it and it keeps their food cold too.

Clean vegetables, slice into pieces and bag. Preparing a week's worth of veggies at a time for lunches and snacks saves money and time.

Purchase cheese in blocks, cut into pieces and put in sandwich bags.  I haven't honestly found a good substitute for tasty cheese by itself.  Sorry, I am no help.  Maybe someone else can add some helpful comments. 

Save napkins, catsup and mustard packets you get from take-out. Use in lunches.  Have your gluten eating friends save these for you.