With school back in session it’s time for the ritual of packing school lunches. The goal is always to send kids to school with nutritious, tasty lunches they’ll actually eat, without taxing the family food budget. Let’s review tips for saving money on school lunches.

Start with the Right Tools

A key to saving money and preserving optimal food flavor and temperature until lunchtime is to pack lunches correctly. Skip the brown paper bags and plastic zipper bags and invest in a reusable insulated lunch bag, freezer packs and reusable silicone, plastic or glass containers. If your child is forgetful, you might need to have two sets to rotate through. Either way, a small up-front investment will pay off in savings throughout the school year.

Get Kids Involved

Instead of guessing what your kids will enjoy finding in their lunches, ask them. Getting kids involved in planning their lunches makes them feel like they have a say in the decision-making process. For very young children, offer a small range of choices and allow them to choose one or two elements, while you round out the meal to ensure it’s nutritionally sound. Give older kids a little more room to request what they’d like — within reason, of course. They key is to make kids feel like they have a say in what they eat every day.

Buy in Bulk

Once you’ve agreed on some lunch ideas, it’s time to go shopping. Buying in bulk is a tried-and true way to save money. Rather than purchasing pre-packaged single servings of chips, cookies, trail mix, popcorn or dried fruit, buy the larger sizes and portion them out yourself. This strategy is also great for yogurt and applesauce. It takes just a few extra moments, but it will save you a bundle. And it reduces packaging waste, too.

The same goes for juice and other beverages. Juice boxes and individual milk cartons are expensive and create way too much solid waste. Use an insulated, reusable water bottle for juice or milk, instead.

Love Those Leftovers

When you have one of your child’s favorite meals for dinner, prepare enough so they can take leftovers for lunch the next day or two. Keep in mind they probably won’t have a way to reheat things, so it should be something that tastes great hot or cold — like chicken, pasta dishes or even cold pizza if that’s something they enjoy.

Start with Smaller Portions

You’ll minimize food waste if you keep portions manageable. Little kids in particular can feel overwhelmed by large quantities of food. Use your child’s home eating habits as a guide. If they typically only eat half a sandwich or a few bites of an apple in one sitting, there’s no reason to think they’ll eat more than that while at school. Start with smaller portions and see how it goes. If it’s not enough food, they won’t hesitate to let you know they’re still hungry after lunch, but they’re not as likely to tell you if they end up throwing away food because you’ve packed too much.

Build in Flexibility

Packing lunch five days a week — especially if you have more than one child — is a tall order. Do some price comparisons to see how much buying lunch from school is vs. how much you spend for a packed lunch. If your budget allows, it may make sense if you plan a day or two a week for kids to buy lunch at school.

Check out our Brown Bag Pinterest board for lots of fun and yummy lunch ideas.