Summer is almost over for many of us and school has started or will be starting shortly. For my family, school starts this week and we are always looking for ways to save money and time during this hectic period. I’m happy to announce in partnership with Nestlé, I’m bringing you some money saving and time saving tips using some of my favorite Nestlé products.
Let’s start with lunch.
As the price for school lunches increase each year, you can save money by packing a your child’s lunch a couple of days of the week. Skip the prepackaged lunches and create your own healthy alternative. NestleFamily.com has many fun lunch ideas such as Sports Time Lunch Fun to get your creative juices going.
We don’t pack a lunch everyday but we try to do it 1-2 times a week during the school year. During the summer is actually when we make lunches for day camp on a daily basis. To save time, I like to buy a combination of prepackaged items for convenience as well as buy in bulk and make my own smaller packages.
For example, I will buy Juicy Juice in individual packages for those quick mornings when we are scrambling to pack a quick lunch – which is most mornings. For those days when I have actually planned their lunch, I will pack their juice in a sports bottle to save money as it is less expensive to buy Juice in a larger package than the convenient individual size juices.
Lunch for Two - PB&J, Cut Strawberries, Cheese (2% Milk), and Juicy Juice
To the right is a typical lunch, which feeds both of my school aged children. This particular meal was packed during Summer Day Camp so for convenience I packed some of their items together for them to share. The big bottle of Juicy Juice was not packed but shown as an example for what is in the sports bottle.
- Get the best deal on lunch box items by combining sales and coupons. Stock up when they are at their lowest price. Stack with Mail in Rebates and other store loyalty programs.
- Skip prepackaged chips, cookies, and other snacks unless convenience dictates otherwise. Buy larger packages and use snack size containers or bags to make your own small portions.
- Use reusable containers and utensils for lunch storage whenever possible.
- Freeze your child’s beverage to act as a freezer pack to save space in the lunchbox.
- Sneak a fun treat like Raisinets in your child’s lunch for a fun surprise!
My absolute best investment for lunch making, was the Cut n Seal from Pampered Chef. This allows me to make our own crust free sandwiches. The kid’s favorite is peanut butter with jelly but you can use this tool to make any type of sandwich. It makes it a little more fun for the little ones and you can freeze these and use as needed! Stock up on bread when at a low price and make a batch of these to save time and money.
To save time, I like to go ahead and make up enough sandwiches and “sides” for the week. Then the kids can pick and choose which items they want for the day, which allows them a little control over their lunches. Items not needing refrigerated such as crackers, chips, snack cookies can be pre-bagged by you for your own convenience.
So in addition to these money/time saving tips, Nestlé is offering a $500 Walmart Gift Card to (1) lucky Bargain Briana reader to help with your Back to School Expenses. Plus, stay tuned for more Back to School money saving/time saving tips!
How to Win?
Easy Entry: Share your favorite Back to School Money Saving Tip by leaving it on this post as a comment.
Bonus entries (Up to 4 additional entries):
- Blog about this giveaway.
- Tweet: BTS Money/Time Saving Tips from @bargainbriana + Enter to Win $500 Walmart Giftcard: http://tinyurl.com/mmsdqe #nestleBTS
- Grab my button. (It is on my sidebar)
- Subscribe to my free newsletter via email or RSS. (You don’t want to miss out on any deals/giveaways!!!)
- Use my “Tell a Friend” Widget to share with a friend via email, Stumble, Digg, etc.
Leave a separate comment for each extra entry. It is very important that you leave a separate comment for each additional extra entry.
Ends around 8/28 at 11:59 EST. (As long as you can still comment you can enter!) Winner, chosen by random.org, will be announced on the Giveaway Winners Page by 08/29/09 and I will contact you shortly. (If winner doesn’t respond to my email within 48 hours, I will pick another winner.)
Want to win more? Enter to win the rest of my current giveaways!
Bargain Briana Giveaway Disclosure: This is a sponsored giveaway by Nestle. All reviews/recommendations are based on my own honest opinion and experiences and not edited or written by the sponsor.
I twitted your post http://twitter.com/gogreenbeth/status/3239146908
my best money saving idea is to buy big bags of stuff and divide it up. don’t buy the tiny bags of chips, buy one or two big bags and it will cost a lot less.
I think it’s a great money-saving idea to buy some extra school supplies in the clearance sales just after school starts. Some of them may be needed partway through the school year and others can be saved for next year!
I subscribe via email.
My best money saving tip for packing lunches is to buy reusable container to put sandwiches in instead of baggies. You won’t have to keep buying those baggies over and over plus it is good for the environment!
Also I love to google lunch notes and find FREE printable lunch notes to slip into my kids lunches. Anything from a picture of Princess Belle saying Your Royal Lunch is Served to interesting trivia tips such as What is the First Ladies favorite dessert.
My best tip for saving money is to really know what your kids will eat and what they won’t — I volunteer at our school for lunch duty and it’s disheartening to see some of the students throw away perfectly good food, some still in packaging!
Make some lists of ideas with your kids for lunch and snacks and everyone will be happier – your wallet included!
I make cookies every week and let the kids pick what kind I’ll make — they love getting those homemade cookies for a treat and they’re much less expensive.
I tweeted http://twitter.com/StealsDeals/status/3239693070
Buy school supplies throughout the year when things are on sale so that you are not stressed during the back-to-school rush.
Tweeted your post. twitter.com/npbradshaw
Subscribed to your RSS feed.
Getting prepared for the school day the night before cuts down on stress and saves time during the morning rush :) *Thanks* for the giveaway!
Blogged
Your blog and button are in my blogroll
Subscribed in Google Reader
Stumbled
I use cookie cutters to cut out the sandwhich. I like to find fun things like hearts for Valentine’s Day, bells for Christmas, leaves for Fall…etc. It takes away the crust and also is a nice surprise when they have lunch! It gives it that extra “mommy” touch!
It has been a long time since I packed a lunch for my kids but here’s an idea. I used to fill juice cups with tight seals half way with drinks and then freeze them Top them off in the am and put them in the lunches. Keeps the lunch cool and safe till lunch time and much cheaper than any pre-packaged juice!
Already subscribed on Google Reader
My mom used tupperware lunch boxes to pack us lunch. Most often it was made from the leftovers from the dinner the night before but changed differently … example making a toasted sandwich patty with the leftover veggies from last night. This kept me excited about the surprise new food for dinner and lunch! We were taught to eat all food and not be picky.
We also got uncut seasonal fruits as desert instead of cookies.
My best way to save money for back to school is to take advantage of all of the “back to school” sales – especially on school supplies! stock up for the entire year!
I posted about your giveaway on my blog here: http://treschicshoppers.blogspot.com/2009/08/500-back-to-school-giveaway-from.html
Laura – lauraf@post.com
I tweeted here: http://twitter.com/laurastoicescu
Laura – lauraf@post.com
I used to let my daughter buy school lunch almost every day but it’s gotten way to expensive. I still let her buy once a week but the other days we pack a lunch. Packing a lunch she’ll eat & that doesn’t cost a fortune, that’s another story. I started buying in bulk and buying more cost-effective snacks like a banana and a small glad container of Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup for dipping. Instead of lunch meat or peanut butter and jelly, I’ve made my daughter a cold BLT which she loves. I also make a pan of brownies on the weekend and prepack them in sandwich bags to throw in her lunch during the week.
As far as back-to-school supplies, I split purchases with another mother for some of the bulk items: I’ll buy the four-pack of glue sticks (much cheaper than just getting one) and split them with the other mother and she’ll get the pencils & pens. It saves me some shopping and buying bulk and splitting the cost for some of the “staples” saves both of us money.
Tweeted:
http://twitter.com/auntiethesis/status/3241951243
Blogged:
auntiethesis.blogspot.com/2009/08/looking-for-some-great-walmart.html