Friday, April 9, 2010

Frugal Friday---Back to school!

Oh praise the heavens we go back to school soon!!! WOO HOO!!! Today's Frugal Friday post will be short and sweet. A "use what you have" type of thing.

Easter. Wasn't it great? I gained 4 pounds. No seriously...4 pounds of pastel M&Ms and Cadbury mini eggs. And now it's back to the treadmill. Easter was especially lucrative for my boys. Remember last week...I posted tips on how to keep your own personal Easter slim. But there are a few variables there that you really can't control. The Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles, generous friends, neighbours, etc who ply your children with gifts and treats. Remember the confiscate part? LOL Spell it with me C-O-N-F-I-S-C-A-T-E. I'm not all mean...I let my boys gorge themselves for the morning of Easter Sunday when they are opening their gifts and hunting for eggs. My little guy had 6 chocolate eggs unwrapped before we even realized what he was doing. The finding part was not so hard for him. But after breakfast (whole wheat pancakes!) I take 3 large Ziplocs and go to work. One bag is for items that would be appropriate to send in school lunches. Bag #2 is for sugary treats that I would allow the boys to have one piece of after supper. And Bag #3 is the "Absolutely NOT" bag that gets stored in the cold room and put out at Halloween. Oh yes, I do this. But that is a whole other post all on it's own! Mostly what goes in that bag is gum, weird colours of licorice and other things that are so out of this world sugary that they are generally unrecognizable as food. Like those little fake "hamburgers". What are those even made out of? Anyway...I am seriously off track here. Back to bag #1. Items appropriate for school lunches. The Grandmamas tend to go all out for Easter but these days the bags are also filled with puddings, Jell-O cups, goldfish crackers and applesauces. All things that my kids don't eat every day but I don't find it to be a horrible choice to toss into a lunch now and again. Even in Kindergarten I hear "So-and-so had pop, chips and LUNCHABLES today. Why can't I have that?" It's tough to explain to a 5 year old that his lunch probably cost $1 with tons of nutrition for his growing brain and his friend's lunch was $6 and loaded with preservatives. I did explain the money part at the grocery store because he does understand which is bigger and smaller when it comes to numbers. But when you are 5 you don't care about the budget. You care that so-and-so dissed your multigrain bread sandwich, apple slices, triscuits and cheese and batman water bottle. And I get that. I also am well aware that it won't kill him to eat something not made in my kitchen every once in a while. So this is where the frugal part comes in. When the baskets roll in, they are divvied up. And now I have a HUGE Ziploc filled with stuff. There has to be 2 months worth of appropriate lunch treats in there. My boy is happy, my budget is intact and Easter has saved the day.

Any specific Frugal Friday posts you'd like to see? Curious about how I do this, that or the other thing? I'm not shy! I love comments! xox

2 comments:

KMP Photography said...

Just to let you know, that the lunchable lunches do not stop even in grade 8. I honestly can't believe that at 14, you would still buy that unsuitable food for your kid to take for lunch. Don't you cook supper? I know teenage boys eat a lot but there must be left overs?

Don't people cook?

How do I know? Ds has friends who come home with him for lunch so I see what they eat and it is horrible!

My kid does laugh at them today and they wish they had a mom like his. So, my point is this, your day will come when your children will appreciate the fact that you nourished them with real food. Nice to know there are still some of us out there.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha. Lunchables, ahh the memories. My son was in his early school years when those monstrous things were invented. Now, I'm no Martha Stewart, but I know poopy food when I see it. I simply told my son that "that's what mothers who don't love their children feed them. Do I love you?" "Yes," he'd answer. "Then I promise NEVER to feed you that junk." Mother manipulation at its finest!!!