Weekly Tip- Use the Snack Sizes!!

This tip was an idea I stole from a friend of mine. It has to do with portion control. Have you ever gone to buy sandwich bags and accidentally picked up snack bags? You know, the little tiny ones? Anyway, instead of buying the little prepackages chip and snack bags like I usually do for the kids' lunches and snacks, I bought those little snack bags. I then bought large bags of things the kids like and then divided them into the bags. It is saving me a TON of money (at least $5/week for chips and $8/week for snacks- that included adding in the price of the bags) and the kids are happy (because, really, the options for prepackaged little bags is pretty limited.)

Bonus plan- when I make cookies and such I make them smaller and put them into the snack bags, too. Three small cookies per bag. Anything homemade I store in a plastic container in the freezer to keep them fresh.

So far, it has worked great! I keep one container for chips (or salty stuff) and one for snacks. Every morning the kids choose one from each container (or grab something homemade from the freezer for snack).

If you want to do this, too, here are my suggestions:

• Divide out the whole bag/box at once. Otherwise the kids will get into the stuff and it won't really be saving you money. After I put them into the bags I put them back into the container they came in (if it is big enough).
• Buy the $3 container and put some of each choice in it. It makes it easier to choose when they can see the whole selection at once. I try to keep three options available for both chips and snacks. When it gets low, I add more from their stored containers (from above)
• I tried not freezing the cookies because the kids would eat them pretty quickly- it is worth it to freeze the homemade stuff.
• Don't overfill the bags. 3 vanilla wafers or 5 pretzels seem to be enough for the kids.
• Buy the name brand bags. I tried the off brand, they did not work as well.

I think that is everything. This has worked really well for us. We are still using the cheese balls and pretzel sticks I bought the first week (and they don't taste stale yet!)