Each week for 52 weeks, I’m sharing a different way you can save $100 this year. If you do all of these things, you’ll be able to save over $5,000 this year alone! Many of these things will likely be things you’re already doing, but hopefully all of you will pick up at least a few new ideas or some inspiration from this series.
One way to save a lot of money is to make your own snacks. Not only are they often much more delicious than pre-packaged snacks, but they are usually much healthier for you!
8 Quick & Easy Homemade Snack Ideas
- Hard-Boiled Eggs
- Veggies
- Fruit
- Homemade Yogurt in the Crockpot
- Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets
- Popcorn
- Homemade Crockpot Pear or Applesauce Sauce
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies
8 Freezer-Friendly Snack Ideas
When you have a free day or a laid-back weekend, use some of that time to make meals and parts of meals to stick in your freezer. Things like homemade popsicles, homemade gogurts, homemade cookie dough, homemade muffins, and homemade smoothie kits are great to have on hand.
- Freezer-Friendly Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches
- Freezer-Friendly Banana Bread
- Easy Morning Glory Muffins
- Homemade Energy Bites
- Brown Bag Burritos
- Homemade Pizza Pockets
- Southwest Roll-ups
- Best Ever Chocolate Oatmeal Bars
Check out my list of 5 Freezer-Friendly Snacks + a Printable Grocery List
Bag Your Own Snacks
Tip submitted by Heather from Creative Family Moments
Food goes fast at my house, especially handy to-go snacks. A bag of chips? Forget about it. It’ll be gone before I can sneak a handful.
A baked pan of brownies? The smell lingers but I think I only got a taste test.
Pistachios? The bag is left for me, full of shells.
Part of the problem is that we decided long ago that we wanted our house to be a welcoming place for the kids’ friends. We made that decision when they were preschoolers. It was a no-brainer then.
Now that they are teen, tween, and elementary, these kids and their friends can eat! Afternoons, weekends, and summer means I see many pairs of hopeful eyes looking up at me before they ask, “Is there something I can have for a snack?”
Want to reduce your plastic bag usage? Lucy from Fly Away Home shows you how to make a fabric snack bag.
It was worth it though, for the relationships. Yet, packing cold lunches was my breaking point. Sending three kiddos and one husband off to school and work with a cold lunch meant I needed some handy to-go foods that would actually stick around long enough to make it into the thermal bags!
Snack bags came to the rescue! On sale (and/or with coupon!) I can get a pack of 100 snack bags for under two dollars. So when I bake brownies, I instantly cut them up, set aside a few for dessert, and store them in snack bags (Hide them immediately for later use!).
Find pistachios on sale? Sweet! I split up the serving portions and store them. Any special treat that goes on sale with a handy coupon (like the free Skittles I got awhile ago), I’ve learned to split up immediately so they’ll last.
I have happy kids, and a happy husband, because they have treats and good snacks that are already in serving size bags and inhibit mindless eating. It helps food last much longer and thereby saves me money and sanity!
Create a Snack Bin
If you have a snack time every day, take a little time on the weekends to put together a snack bin. This will save you having to even think about what to serve for snack. In fact, you can just tell your kids to go pick out something from the snack bin!
Best Ever Chocolate Oatmeal Bars
Looking for more snack ideas? Check out this post on Quick & Inexpensive Snack Ideas.
What are some of your family’s favorite homemade snacks?
Some useful tips for me that always want to save money, and ALWAYS is hungry! 😉
Just FYI in linking these recipes to pintrest I found I couldn’t do #2, Freezer-Friendly Banana Bread; the link goes to the PB&J sandwiches.
You read my mind! I have been so bored with the snacks that I make, but now I have a few more in my arsenal. Thank you!
For snacks, I make chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, banana bead with choc chips (or plain), pizza bagels, veggies and dip, fruit smoothies, any fruit with cool whip … I cut the sugar by half for cookies and use artificial sweetener for the breads and smoothies. Even my fruit pies are sugarfree.
It’s expensive at the store so we make all meals at home and half the snacks. I do buy snacks if I know i don’t have time to make them.
I just read the comment policy because mine always seem to be deleted for some reason. I wasn’t trying to cause trouble when I said I disagree with fruit being a good snack to save money. It is soo expensive. I try to buy in season and buy cheaper fruits but it still seems more expensive than buying prepackaged junk! I honestly just wanted to know if anyone could give me dome tips on how to actually save $100 this year while still providing my children with nutritious fruit.
I was also curious as to the actual cost of homemade yogurt. Milk is $4 a gallon but I can usually buy yogurt for next to nothing with coupons and sales.
I love your website and think you are wondrrful. Please don’t delete my comment this time!
I have gotten some great deals by buying fruit in bulk! I also have priced the cost of homemade yogurt and it’s definitely cheaper than buying yogurt — especially if you use milk that you get reduced!
I hope that helps!
My kids love the individually wrapped cheese sticks. It finally dawned on me to buy a block of cheese & cut it myself & package in snack bags.
1.5 lb store cheese sticks=6.98
2.5 lb block of cheese=7.98
With kids in the house ranging from 19 to 7, snacks disappear so fast! I have found that when I do buy snacks or make homemade one, I need to hide them. I have chips, fruit snacks and my homemade stash in a chest in my bedroom closet. Might sound crazy to some but it totally works! Out of sight out of mind. One of my other tricks is to make a huge batch of zucchini bread or banana bread and wrap them individually and freeze them. Thanks for the great ideas, love it!
Thank you so much for featuring my snack bag. I had no idea so many people would be interested. I have had over 600 hits coming from your site! Thanks again.
Yay! So happy to send some traffic your way today!
Want the recipes for your snacks please would love to try them.
If you click on the titles of the snacks (in pink) it will bring you to the recipes. 🙂
I recently made those energy bites I have seen you post. My family LOVES them! Even the 1 1/2 yr old 🙂 Sunflower butter and almond butter work great in this recipe too! However I was pondering why I am feeding my children “Energy Bites” when their energy Never seems to run out LOL! Thank you for the great recipe.
This comment cracked me up! I think we need to hide the energy bites from the kids and eat them ourselves. 🙂
This site was recommended to me by my grand-daughter. Works for we older retired great-grand-parents, as well. Love all the tips and recipes–keep up the good work
Thank you so much for your kind encouragement!
I, too, portion snacks and keep a “snack station” stocked. I love the portability and portion control of individual packs, put don’t appreciate the extra cost of pre-portioned snacks. I found we were going through A LOT of snack bags, so I ended up buying 4 oz gladware round containers to use and reuse. They cost around $3 for 8 (less with coupons!), so you can get a lot of them, but it’s not a big deal if they get lost or broken.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0030HTZTM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0030HTZTM&linkCode=as2&tag=theacc01-20
Where can I find the snack bags?
Snack bags are made by several different companies and can be found in all the major Superstores, and most grocery stores. I personally like the Ziplok brand.
We also love those energy bites and go through a ton of them. I was spending a ridiculous amount of time rolling them into balls before I had my “aha!” moment and started pressing the mix into a pan and cutting it into squares after refrigerating! I use a 9×9 pan for a single recipe, 9×13 for double and a sheet pan with sides (maybe 11×17?) for a triple recipe…I told you we eat a lot of them! Just make sure you press them VERY firmly into the pan. I use a second pan on top with some wax paper in between to smash it down or use a rolling pin with the sheet pan. Hope this saves someone else some time. 🙂
Thanks so much for this tip!
I used a medium sized cookie scoop and that helps too 🙂
Snacks go fast at my house too! We LOVE the homemade energy bites! We all love making chocolate-covered bananas and chocolate-drizzle popcorn. Love the idea of making a snack bin. 🙂
I make popcorn or kettle corn at least once a week for snacks. My kids also love deviled eggs and they also are great for breakfast if they last that long.
Great!