When having a salad, put the dressing on only the portion served. The remaining salad can kept fresh by wrapping soda crackers in a paper towel and placing them in the bowl. Cling wrap the container to seal out the moisture. This trick will extend the life of the remaining salad.
By Dave from Oshawa, Ontario
This page contains the following solutions.
To save paper and money, I take my lunch to work every day in a cloth tote bag that I bought at the Dollar Store. It is about 10x10 inch square and has a nice handle. When I come home, I just put my lunch bag in the fridge so I can find it fast in the morning.
Recently, at my work, I have been on a committee that is looking at strategic planning for the next year, 5 years, and 10 years into the future. One of the issues we have been looking at is sustainability.
If you have a thermos, you have a very thrifty money-saver at your fingertips! Instead of spending money by eating at restaurants during trips, take your meals with you!
I take my lunch to work and have been buying tubs of Hillshire Farms lunch meat. Once the tub was emptied, I had a bright idea that it could store a sandwich instead of using a baggie. The sandwich fits perfectly and does not get crushed or moist from other contents in my lunch bucket.
The prices of school lunches, like most other things, are rising. Yet, parents need to question whether these lunches are providing their children with healthy lunch options and whether or not the lunches are worth the money.
Tips on school lunches from a pre-K teacher: Invest in cold packs. You can get these at dollar stores.
As hard as I looked, I couldn't find cold packs small enough to fit inside a lunch bag or lunch box. I finally picked up a few heart shaped baby teething rings and I keep them in the freezer. They're just small enough to keep in a lunch bag, but not so big that they take up all of the room.
Many people already enjoy this food tip, I hope you will too! Some foods you can heat up and insulate in a Thermos (besides soup). I added more ideas to the magazine I found this in.
I pack a lunchbox for my husband and have been having an issue with condensations. To solve this problem I am using kuzies.
My husband puts my 6 or 8 oz. yogurt cup in a coolie cup which is normally used for cans or bottles. It fits right into the cup, and makes a handy way to keep it chilled until lunch.
I am always looking for ideas for my kids lunches since they don't like to eat at school. When I go to various restaurants to eat we usually have leftover "ranch" of any dipping containers.
Save Naked or Odwalla juice bottles and fill with water and freeze. These are just the right size for a child's lunch box.
My daughter has an old-fashioned type lunch box with a thermos. Putting in one of those hard ice substitutes took up too much room, so instead I use frozen bread to make her sandwich. The bread thaws in time for lunch while keeping the lunch meat cold enough to prevent bacteria from forming.
If you take your lunch to work, put in a pocket-sized hand sanitizer. It's great if you can't wash up before lunch.
I make my lunch the night before I have classes each day. Usually I bring for lunch whatever I have leftover from my dinner.
Freeze a week's worth of lunchmeat sandwiches for your children on Sunday night. Place in ziplock bags or plastic sandwich containers. Freeze and take out the next day right before your children leave for school. Pack in lunches.
put plastic cutlery in my husband's lunches for work. After him losing a couple of my "good" forks on the job site, he's gotten plastic ever since. Those I don't care if he loses.
To save time in the mornings, make sandwiches and freeze them on the weekend. The sandwich turns out best if you start with frozen bread. Make the sandwich on the frozen bread, then pop it back into the freezer again.
I buy canned fruit & spoon into small bowls with lids (allow room for the food expanding when freezing) for my husband's lunches. Frozen cups of canned fruits and frozen sandwiches will be thawed in time for my husband's lunches. He works construction.
When I pack lunch for my school age children, I pack one for my younger child as well that way he gets a kick out of using his lunch box and we have lunch prepared if we are on the go at lunchtime.
Slip "I love you" notes into lunches, pockets, or between pages of school books for your children or spouse. Costs nothing but means everything! But be careful!
I live too far away from work to go home to eat and I can't afford $3-$4 per day that it takes to go to fast food restaurants. Since I live alone, I only cook 1 day a week, usually on Sunday afternoons.
This is a tip that will help anyone who packs lunches! These days, we all need to tighten our belts and packing lunches is an excellent way to not only save money, but also to eat healthier!
Making Lunch a Little Different. My DH brown bags his lunch. To make his sandwiches more interesting and to save time, I took three large frozen chicken tenders, greased them top and bottom with extra virgin olive oil. . .
Avoid Juice Box mix-ups by placing a different sticker on each child's juice box or juice bag. Everyone can pick their favorite sticker and no leftover juices!
Put tomatoes and lettuce in a separate container and place in your sandwich later to avoid mushy bread. Also, keep your mustard, etc. in the lounge kitchen (also to avoid mushy bread). By Crystal Podvin
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am looking for lunch ideas for hubby working on forestry gang. I have a tight budget, and he is sick of sandwiches. Any thoughts? Thank you.
By Elaina
My son takes pasta mixed with tuna, sweetcorn and mayonnaise for a change.
If he has real good thermoses(that doesn't look right) he could take any leftover from the night before as long as it would stay warm. There is also chef salads. I have seen men eat them for lunch quite often, This is all they have for the meal, but they are really large salads, probably about the size of a plate and piled quite high. When I was working every now and then I would take some of that soup to go, but you need access to a microwave to heat it.
If you are comfortable in the kitchen, how about hand pies and stromboli? The most basic difference is that hand pies use a short crust (flour, fat, no leavening); and stromboli use a yeast dough crust. You can fill them with a ground-beef based filling, mixed with whatever vegetables you like; leftover meats and veggies; sausages; lunchmeats and cheese; ricotta and mozzarella cheese; you are only limited by your imagination.
Go to a site like allrecipes.com and search the following terms:
Pasties
stromboli
calzone
samosas
runzas
Many ethnicities have a version of them. With many, you can cook them ahead and chill or freeze.
They can be eaten chilled or at room temperature.
I get bored with lunch, I need thrifty ideas and variety.
Lucy from West Covina
I usually make a dish from my dinner the night before for my lunch and if this seems to be too much of a good thing, I pack up the same dinner and fridge it and then have it 2 days later for lunch,,,I always make too much for dinner anyway since all the kids moved away.
Hi Lucy----
I pack lunch for work in the small square Ziploc or Gladware reusable containers. When I make my meals I always make enough for leftovers and I fill one or two little dishes for work each time I make dinner. I put them in the freezer and then heat them up at work in the microwave. I get a nice variety too!! If you like soups they also have containers with lids that don't pop off--they screw off. Even leftover pancakes and sausage can be frozen to eat later.
Best Wishes for Thrifty and Healthy Lunches!!
Peach in PA
Someone just posted the same thing a couple of days ago. You can probably find the info. in the archives.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what to pack for my ten kids' lunches? Two of them can't have anything with added sugar or food dyes and one of them can't drink normal milk and has to drink soy or almond and my oldest is allergic to mushrooms. What can I do? My kids are sick of the same old tuna fish sandwiches, with an apple, and a low fat sugar free juice and maybe some crackers. Suggestions?
By mc4lifes from Sydney, NSW
The small lemon shaped plastic juice containers can be reused for a small ice pack. This is a page about using lemon juice containers as an ice pack.
This is a page about using a school lunch chart. This school lunch chart is a great tool to help make it easier to prepare your kids' lunch throughout the week. Each child picks their meals for the week, allowing you to prep ahead, and know what they are taking each day.
This is a page about packing salad for lunch. Many delicious combinations of vegetables, fruits, cheeses and/or meats can create a fresh healthy lunch.
