As summer winds down, the looming transition back to school routines usually brings one major headache: the grocery bill. Finding smart ways to stretch your food budget is one of the easiest ways for families to regain financial breathing room. Even if you’re already maximizing benefits like SNAP/FNS, getting more out of your wallet takes strategy. Fortunately, a little upfront planning not only protects your budget but also ensures you spend less time sweating over a hot stove and more time enjoying the final days of the season.

Today, we are going to share some money-saving tips for your child’s school lunches. We’ve adapted the Take Charge America list of tips below to help you plan and prepare school lunches that are both nutritious for the children and beneficial for your bank account.

Reusable Lunch Bags

Instead of constantly spending money to replace brown paper bags or plastic zipper bags, invest in reusable lunch bags that your family can use multiple times in different situations, including school. If you replace disposable sandwich bags with re-usable food containers, you can take this item off your grocery list. This will help you save long term, and it helps you avoid too much waste.

Involve the Children on Planning

Asking your kids what they would prefer to eat can go a long way in both planning their lunches and teaching them about the decision-making process. For older kids, this can also become a good introduction to budgeting. Allow them to choose food items they enjoy within reason, making sure their lunch is still nutritious.

Buy in Bulk

Spending a little bit more upfront can reduce the cost per serving. Bulk purchases can help your SNAP benefits go further and reduce how much of your own money you will need to spend. Family size or larger portions of products such as trail mix, dried fruits, yogurt, or applesauce will cover more lunches. Just be sure that you can use the quantity before it becomes stale.

Leftovers

When cooking meals for your family, a good strategy is to prepare enough to create lunches from leftovers for the next day or two. Keep in mind, however, that there might not be a way to heat up leftovers in school, so focus on leftovers that can be served both cold and hot such as pasta or chicken dishes. A cooked whole chicken can be deboned and used for chicken salads, sandwiches, or pasta dishes.

Smaller Portions

Keeping track of your child’s food habits at home can also help you when preparing their lunch. If they only eat half a sandwich at home, instead of sending them to school with a full sandwich, give them half and complete their lunchbox with a snack item to round out the meal. Start with smaller portions and increase as needed. Children are not likely to tell you they have been wasting their food.

Flexibility

If your budget allows, do price comparisons between how much you would spend every week when sending you children to school with packed lunchboxes versus how much it would cost them to buy lunch at school. Especially for parents who have more than one child attending school, you may not always have time to prepare lunches for all of them before they leave for school. So choosing a couple of days a week where your kids may be able to buy their lunch in school could help you with busy mornings.

SNAP Benefits

As mentioned previously, one of the easiest ways for low-income families to save on their food budget is by applying for the SNAP program.

In case you don’t know, SNAP stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and was formerly known as “food stamps.” In North Carolina, it is also called Food and Nutrition Services or FNS. SNAP is available for low-income families across the state and you if you want to learn more about it, contact the More In my Basket team. They offer free SNAP application completion assistance in English, Spanish and Portuguese Monday through Friday, 8 am until 5 pm.

Contact the More In My Basket team toll free at 1-855-240-1451 or visit their website at morefood.org.

Navigating a tight budget is a journey, but you don’t have to do it empty-handed. With a few smart adjustments, you can feed your family well, maximize your resources, and keep kitchen stress to a minimum as we head into the new season.

Source: https://www.takechargeamerica.org/how-to-save-money-on-kids-school-lunches/