My daughter will be attending a summer pre-school this summer 5 days a week. Unlike her current pre-school (where her food is included) her new school requires her to bring a sack lunch every day because they are either on field trips every day or at the park. While I don't mind packing a lunch they require that it (the sack) be disposable and all contents in it which means I have to buy paper sacks or plastic zip lock baggies. I was just wondering if anyone had any frugal ideas for bringing lunches?
My frugal tip. Since they are disposable lunches, do not pack more than you think she can truly eat as the rest with be thrown away.
You can do a lunch review on what she actually threw away and what she actually ate. So you can gauge what to pack ( favorites and volume)
That will save you money in the long run.
Ice in a baggy or a small empty bottle filled and frozen with water works well for keeping things cool in her sack. Completely disposable too.
You can also freeze a bottle of water slightly and most of it will thaw out by lunch time and it can be her drink.
You will not need the keep in cool tips if the teachers are putting hte lunch in a chilled cooler.
egad that would drive me nuts to require disposable, how wasteful.
Frugal-wise I would say peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, could use a cookie-cutter to make cute shapes for her.
Then just a couple small items like carrot sticks, apple slices, air-popped popcorn, banana, orange slices (so she doesn't have to deal with peeling it herself) celery & cream cheese or celery & american cheese, celery & peanut butter.
I always tried to balance sweet and salty, soft and crunchy.
Will they have any refrigeration available? At all?
How unfortunate that you are required to send items specifically to throw away.
The obvious are sandwiches, raw veggies, hardboiled eggs (maybe), crackers, graham crackers. Knowing whether or not you have refrigeration or coolers would help.
You can use plastic grocery bags to pack in- that way if they get wet they don't disinegrate. Some ideas: peanut butter sandwiches- can put on bread, bagels, wraps, crackers for variety; Go-gurts- you can freeze these so they will stay good long enough for lunch; Fresh fruit or fruit cups; pudding cups; Hummus or salsa and chips; Fruit muffins; You can always freeze a water bottle for them to drink and then toss if you want to keep things cold- the you can pack about anything!
I agree with the grocery bag suggestion.
Also, you can wrap the sandwich in waxed paper or plastic wrap - disposable and cheaper than ziplock bags.
Of course you'll still need the bags for small items like carrot sticks, chips, pretzels, etc.
Wow, that does seem wasteful. I try to use reusable containers and water bottles for my kids packed lunches. Hard to be frugal when it all has to be disposable
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