Back-to-school shopping gets expensive fast, and some of the smartest purchases aren’t necessarily the cheapest things sitting on the shelf.
When it comes to packing school lunches, I’m willing to spend a little more upfront for things I can wash and use over and over again. Every reusable container in my lunch-packing arsenal means there’s one less disposable product I have to keep buying throughout the school year.
It also means a lot less trash.
Think about how quickly all those little purchases add up: sandwich bags, snack bags, juice boxes, individual yogurt and applesauce pouches, Lunchables and individually packaged snacks. You’re paying for the food, but you’re also paying for all that individual packaging. Much of it gets used for a few hours and then goes straight into the garbage.
Multiply that by five lunches a week and an entire school year, and that’s a lot of packaging to buy and a lot of waste to throw away.
My strategy is to invest once and reuse for as long as possible. It can save money over time while making your family’s school lunch routine a little more sustainable.
Here are five back-to-school lunch supplies that can help you do both.
1. Four-Compartment Containers for Homemade Lunchables
Lunchables are convenient, but you can recreate the basic idea at home using four-compartment reusable containers.
I like these four-compartment reusable lunch containers for making your own version.
Buy your child’s favorite crackers along with sliced meat and cheese in larger packages. Then use a round cookie cutter approximately the same size as the crackers to cut the meat and cheese into circles.
I like this set of round cookie cutters because the different sizes make it easier to find one that matches whatever crackers you’re using.
Fill the compartments with crackers, meat and cheese, then use the remaining compartment for fruit, vegetables or a small treat.
You’re still giving them the fun, build-it-yourself lunch, but you’re eliminating the disposable plastic tray and individual packaging that comes with buying a new Lunchable every time.
Save Those Meat and Cheese Scraps
Don’t throw away the pieces of meat and cheese left after you’ve cut your circles.
Those scraps are still perfectly good food that you’ve already paid for.
Chop them into smaller pieces and turn them into savory grab-and-go breakfast muffins.
You can use this Savory Breakfast Muffins recipe from Thriving Home as your starting point, substituting your leftover meat and cheese pieces for ingredients you would otherwise need to purchase specifically for the muffins.
You don’t need to buy buttermilk just for the recipe, either. For each cup of buttermilk needed, put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar into a measuring cup and add enough regular milk to make 1 cup. Let it sit for about five minutes before using.
Using those scraps is another small sustainability win, too. Reducing lunch waste isn’t limited to packaging. Keeping perfectly good food out of the garbage matters as well.
2. Two-Compartment Containers for Homemade Snack Packs
Those individual snack packs with something to dip on one side and pretzels, crackers or breadsticks on the other are another place where convenience packaging can increase the price and the amount of trash coming home from school.
Instead, use these two-compartment reusable snack containers to make your own.
One of the easiest combinations is Nutella with small pretzels or breadsticks.
Buy a regular jar of Nutella and a larger package of pretzels or breadsticks, then portion them into your reusable containers.
You get the same basic snack without having to continually purchase individually packaged versions.
Once you own the containers, you can use them for all kinds of combinations your kids enjoy. Buying larger packages and portioning the food yourself can reduce the amount you spend per serving while eliminating a steady stream of little plastic snack packages.
3. Reusable Pouches for Yogurt and Applesauce
Individual yogurt and applesauce pouches are incredibly convenient for lunchboxes, but reusable food pouches can give you that same grab-and-go convenience without throwing away a pouch every day.
They also allow you to buy yogurt and applesauce in larger, more economical containers and portion them yourself.
Fill enough pouches on Sunday for the upcoming school week and keep them refrigerated. When you’re packing lunches in the morning, they’re already ready to grab.
This can become even more economical and sustainable when apple season arrives.
If you have access to an apple tree or find a great price on apples when they’re plentiful in the fall, make your own applesauce. My Grandma’s Cinnamon Applesauce recipe is perfect for this.
Make a batch, fill your reusable pouches and you’ve turned seasonal apples into ready-to-go school lunch servings without needing individually packaged applesauce.
Whether you make your own or buy a large container, you’re reducing the amount of single-serving packaging your family uses while avoiding some of the added cost that comes with purchasing applesauce and yogurt one individual serving at a time.
4. Reusable Juice Bottles Instead of Juice Boxes
Juice boxes and individually sized juice bottles are another recurring expense that can sneak into the grocery cart every week. They also create another piece of packaging every time your child has a drink.
Reusable plastic juice bottles let you portion drinks yourself and use the same bottles throughout the school year.
They’re available in 8-, 12- and 16-ounce sizes, so you can choose the amount that makes sense for your child.
They’re especially handy if you make your own juice. If you buy juice, look at the price per ounce and compare the larger containers with the individually packaged versions. When the larger bottle is the better value, buy it and portion the juice yourself.
You can also fill several reusable bottles ahead of time and keep them refrigerated for the week.
The bottles require an upfront investment, but after that initial purchase you’re washing and refilling them instead of buying another case of juice boxes or individual bottles.
One reusable bottle going back and forth to school can replace a remarkable number of single-use drink containers over the course of a school year.
5. Reusable Zippered Bags for Snacks and Sandwiches
Think about how many disposable plastic bags can disappear during one school year.
One sandwich bag and one snack bag per school day adds up surprisingly quickly, especially when you’re packing lunches for more than one child.
A set of reusable zippered snack bags replaces something you’d otherwise have to purchase and throw away repeatedly.
Use them for sandwiches, crackers, pretzels, chips and other lunchbox foods.
They also make it easier to take advantage of larger, more economical packages of snacks.
Instead of buying individual bags of pretzels or chips, buy the larger package and portion the snacks yourself.
I like to fill the reusable bags with pretzels, chips or other snacks for the week ahead. Then they’re ready to grab on busy school mornings.
There’s another way this can save money and reduce waste: you control the portion.
You can pack the amount your child will actually eat instead of sending an oversized individual package that comes home half eaten or ends up in the garbage.
Every bit of food that gets thrown away is food you paid for, and reducing food waste is another important part of making packed lunches more sustainable.
Spend Once, Save Money and Send Less to the Trash
There’s no getting around the fact that switching to reusable lunch supplies requires some money upfront.
Buying reusable pouches, bottles, containers and zippered bags at the beginning of the school year will probably cost more than grabbing one box of disposable baggies and a package of juice boxes.
But one grocery trip isn’t the comparison that matters.
Think about how many boxes of sandwich bags, snack bags, juice boxes, individual yogurt servings, applesauce pouches, Lunchables and snack packs you would otherwise purchase between the first day of school and the last.
Now think about how much packaging comes with all of it.
A reusable container may go back and forth to school hundreds of times. Instead of paying for another disposable package with every serving, you’re washing the container and putting it right back into the lunch-packing rotation.
You don’t have to make the entire switch at once, either. If your back-to-school budget is already stretched thin, start with the disposable product your family uses most frequently. Add another reusable option when the budget allows.
Over time, you can build a lunch-packing system where more of your grocery money goes toward the actual food your kids eat while less packaging ends up in the trash.
Saving money and creating less waste are two pretty good returns on a back-to-school investment you can keep using year after year.
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