3 Strategies to Simplify School Lunches

We’re counting down to the first day of school with advice from a hand-picked panel of back-to-school experts: All are moms—with kids at every age and stage—who also happen to be pros at saving time, money, and most important of all, sanity. Today, Crystal Paine from MoneySavingMom.com shares how she simplifies school lunch packing using just her freezer, her shopping list, and a bit of advance prep time.

Looking for some tips and ideas to simplify back to school lunches? Here are my 3 top suggestions:

1. Have a Plan
I know that this sounds so simple, but your success in actually following through with your good ideas and ambitions all hinges on actually having a plan. Just as you need to plan a menu for the week and buy the groceries to make those meals if you want to, you know, eat at home, you also need to have a plan for lunches you want to pack if you actually want them to be able to get packed!

Think ahead of time how many lunches you’ll be packing that week, what you’ll be packing, and what groceries you need to purchase. I recommend keeping it as simple as possible.

Don’t feel pressured by Pinterest pictures to think you need to come up with fancy new meal ideas every single day. Really, you don’t. Trust me on this.

Instead, rotate a few different sandwich options and side options throughout the week. It really won’t hurt anyone to eat the same thing a few times each week! :)

Write this list of lunch ideas down, write down the ingredients you need to buy, and then you can use this plan over and over again. I recommend typing it up and laminating it or keeping it in an app on your phone so that you never have do the planning work again.

If the thought of making the same thing over and over and over again just won’t work for you or your family, try a 4-week or 6-week rotating lunch menu. This is more work to plan and follow through with, but once you’ve made the plan and created a grocery list based upon the plan, again, your planning work is done.

2. Prep Ahead
Part of the drawback to packing a lunch is the part where you have to pack it. If only lunches just magically packed themselves, eh? :)

One of the best ways to make things simpler is to prep things in bulk. When you get back from the grocery store, wash and chop all the carrots and celery and store them in a little water in an airtight container in the fridge. Slice the cheese. Cut up the melon. Wash off the berries. Hard boil the eggs. Bake the chicken.

Have everything as ready to stick into a lunchbox as you possibly can. This will make packing a lunch a breeze and will give you little excuse not to actually make it happen.

I’ve also found that doing sack lunch prep the night before makes it so much easier. For some reason, I’m much more motivated and creative at nighttime than I am most mornings. Take a few minutes after dinner to figure out what you’ll be packing the next morning and even get as much as possible ready. You’ll never regret this in the morning!

A few of our favorite Make Ahead Lunch Ideas:

Hard-Boiled Eggs
Veggies
Fruit
Sliced Cheese & Crackers
Homemade Soup—especially great for the colder months!
Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets (these are great if you have access to a microwave at work

3. Use Your Freezer
One thing that helped me in packing lunches was to divvy up serving-size portions of muffins and cookies in baggies and stick them in the freezer. Then, when I’m packing lunches, I can just pull a few of these baggies out to add to the lunch and round things out.

Baggies of muffins and cookies are also great to have on hand for when we’ll be out and about running errands. Being prepared with our own food means we divert the urge to make a quick stop through the drive thru!

A few of our favorite Freezer-Friendly Lunch Ideas: