Most single serve items cost a great deal more than larger packages. They're a real convenience for busy families, but its just as easy, and much cheaper, to make your own! If you're buying chips, cookies, raisins, dried fruit, or dessert packs for lunches, and sweetened cereals for breakfast, you can easily save $25 or more a week just by buying larger sizes and a large package of zipper sandwich bags. Your very first stop should be Dollar Tree, the 99¢ Only store, or one of the other dozens of dollar-type stores that have sprung up in virtually every community.
A box of single serving packs of Goldfish crackers may cost $2.99 for a six-pack in a grocery, but a 6-10 ounce box of generic fishy crackers will cost .99 cents at a dollar store (unless you're lucky enough to find them on sale). Divide your fishes into six zipper bags, and even at a dollar for the bags, you've saved $1 already. Do the same thing with cookies, and your savings is even greater since an average size box of cookies contains 10-15 servings (and you already bought the zipper bags). Get juice boxes (if you use them) at the dollar store for 3/1.00 instead of $1.89 for three in the grocery. Buy cheese puffs, chips, or pretzels for a dollar instead of $2.89, and get 15 servings from the bag. Portion control at a third of the price!
Cereal for Snacks for Calorie Savings!
What child doesn't love fruity-o's, oatie o's, and other name-brand sugared cereals? Yet doctors are making it clear that these items provide empty calories and don't help start the child's day off right. If your child "needs" choco-puffs, fruity-o's, or that great cereal that tastes like cinnamon toast, consider buying a bag of another brand at the dollar store. Take it home, get a measuring cup, and put a half a cup in each zipper bag. When snack time comes, your child can have his or her favorite cereal as a snack. Save breakfast for high nutrition foods. By doing this, you can keep kids happy while saving money big time.
Save Money AND Calories
Cut back a six-pack of soda a week, and you'll save as much as $2.99, or Make your gourmet coffee at home and save $3 a day. Give up one snack cake a day and save $1.25. And who ever stopped in to the convenience store and just bought coffee? Skip that stop for big-time savings.
These Savings will Pad Your Budget
Consider that $25 a week saved on snacks is $1300 a year. One six pack of soda a week is $155.50 a year. Drop the snack-cake-a-day and you'll be ho-ho'ing to the tune of $65.00 a year. Making your own gourmet coffee will bring Stars to those bucks, worth $780 at one per working day. Total savings, $2300 in cash and at least 700 calories a day for coffee and cakes, painlessly, making you a winner all around!
