Save Big by Making Your Own "Individual Servings"

We are nearing the end of summer. Time to gear up for the start of another school year. 

If your kids bring their lunches from home, or if you do, and you want to cut down on the food budget the following will show you how to . . .



  spend a little time to save a LOT of money!

Every time we enter a grocery store we see more and more "individual serving" type products. 

Companies would have us believe they spend zillions of $$$ making things easier for us. In reality they spend those zillions trying to convince us we don't have the time nor the know-how to do things for ourselves ---luring us into dependency on pre-packaged, portion-sized this and that. 

I compared the price of food items that might be included in a "brown bag" lunch. 

The foods were identical in brand and quantity with the only difference being the type of packaging.

The lunch comprised of individual pre-packaged servings cost $3.88. 

The lunch made up from regular-sized packages re-packaged in per serving quantities at home cost $1.60

I'll do the math!

$3.88 - $1.60 = $2.28 SAVINGS per lunch
$2.28 X 5 days per week = $11.40 SAVINGS per week per lunch

Now you do the math

$11.40 X number of lunches you pack each week = $______________SAVINGS EACH WEEK!

If this sounds like a wise practice but you don't think you have the time

Find ways to make time!

• Let the kids help ---- approach it with enthusiasm and they will be eager
• Enlist the help of your spouse and make it a family activity
• Take the required time away from your electronic attractions (or are they distractions?)
• Consider what you could do with the savings

If you still don't feel you can find or make the time, do it once and time it so you can see how little time it actually takes ---- especially compared to the money savings.

If you are into the other kind of green savings (the environmental) think of the reduction in packaging waste.

At this point, consider again the motivating factors behind the pre-packaged items:  Is it for our convenience or for their greed?

If you want to save even more money and are willing to spend a little more time,  you can make some of these brown-bag items yourself and portion package them yourself --- providing the great additional benefit of eliminating  the additives and preservatives increasingly added to commercial food.

I'll give (or re-give) you some simple recipes in my next post.