Leasmom-
Here are some ideas I use for packing my daughter and husband's lunches.
Make "cup" meals by spreading bread or biscuit dough in the bottom and up the sides of greased muffin tins. Then fill with whatever sounds good. We make Pizza... pepperoni or hamburger, seasoning, tomato paste, and cheese. I have done chicken, ham, broccoli etc. using up whatever I had that sounded good together. Then bake at 350 for about 15 min. Cool and freeze. I then put one in a sandwich bag when packing her lunch. It thaws by lunch time.
We make homemade pudding and put in the plastic (1/2 cup) Gladware cups. One batch lasts several days. Add sprinkles, cookie crumbs, jam, etc. for variety. Or layer two kinds of pudding. You can also mix in 1/4 cup peanut butter into chocolate or vanilla pudding while cooking it for a new flavor!
Use pudding as a dipping sauce for graham crackers or apples. We also dip graham crackers in applesauce and fruit slices in homemade yogurt.
Try making mini Kabobs by putting grapes and cheese chunks on a toothpick. I make up a big container of these and keep in the fridge for easy snacking.
Snack mixes are easy too. We usually use an off brand Chex cereal or cheerios and mix with pretzels, nuts, or cheese crackers.
I find cutting a pound of carrots or several apples at once and then storing in the fridge makes it easier to pack and go. Try putting apples in pineapple juice and they won't brown. A bit of water in a container of carrots keeps them nice and crisp. Be sure to add the water to your compost soup when the carrots are gone. Sorry this is so long. Hope it gives you ideas. If you need more just let me know.
Can you re-post this in that Lunchbox Ideals link. This sounds really great. I know dd would love all of that. We already dip our cookies into pudding, but graham crackers are healthier-(I think). And I absolutely love the cup meals ideal.
Thank You!
Or Shawn, could you re-post this there? I think everyone would appreciate these suggestions. Thanks.
Welcome to our frugal thread. What wonderful ideas!! I especially like the mini kabobs idea, it sounds great. I might even get my dh to eat those. He doesn't like fruit too much. I could do fresh peaches cut into chunks and add chunks of cheese. YUM!
Anna
__________________ We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
As you may recall Shawn had asked about deleting the frugal threads as a new one is created. Some were ok with this others wanted to keep them. This is what we have decided to do:
Shawn and I will be going back into the now closed threads and deleting the "chat" and leaving the frugal ideas and suggestions so that this wonderful information can be saved. I for one do go back to look for ideas occasionally.
This does however mean that your post numbers may take a hit so be prepared. This will be taking place over several days since there is so much materail to go through.
And yes, I will take a MAJOR hit myself on this.
Thanks ladies and keep those fantastically frugal ideas coming in!
Jayne
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The ORIGINALnagymom
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My daughter has a very busy life with nursing and taking her kids to activies. She has a palm pilot and she took all the birthdays and other important events she can't remember on her own and downloaded them from her computer into her palm pilot. It beeps each morning to remind her of an event or special ocassion. She loves it.
Also, when my grandchildren have their annual fair at school, one of the booths features used books. My DD waits until the end of the fair and gets books galore at ever more cut rate values. My GD's love to read so this is something she always looks forward to.
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Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most!
Oh my goodness, I have not been online for a few days, since dh is trying to upgrade computer having problems getting online!!! I hope to have this fixed soon...Wow lots of chat lately, my frugal things for today not going anywhere, we did a walk to our local town farmers market today that was a lot of work, I added a baby to my daycare he is 4 months old and such a doll so I took him, ds, (2) other daycare boy (2) and his brother who is 7, the girls I watch are on vacation this week...Anyway I dont think with the baby and 2 2yr olds I will be able to be walking to the market anymore as I will be losing the two older ones to school. They were a help pulling the wagon....
Anna, glad you got your clothlesline up and working. I will hang clothes next year right now I think its not a good idea to be carrying wet laundry from the basement to the back yard while pregnant. (I had some spotting so it scared the @@@@ out of me...So no heavy lifting.
When you guys talk about packing lunchs I usualy give dh any leftovers from the night before he doesnt complain. However he has a fridge and microwave available at work so no problems doing that. My sil says her 15 yr old has never bought his lunch and packs peanut butter and Jelly everyday...I find it weird but I bet their are kids that could eat that everyday!
Leighann
* Got up early to be at Food Lion to stock up on 26½oz Del Monte spaghetti sauce for .59 each. Store clerk's tip was accurate after all! Someone beat me there and took quite a few already, but I was able to get what I needed (the sale goods disappear real fast at this store!). Bought 16 cans. We eat a lot of tomato dishes (good for dh's health). Would rather buy fresh tomatoes and make/freeze my own sauce. However, this will tide us over until I am able to get out more and find out where I can get either bulk tomatoes or bulk sauce as a base to start with.
* While there, noticed large, frozen raw shrimp were BOGOF (reg price-16oz bag 6.99). Bought 6 bags for 3.50/lb.
* Reorganized home-office/gym closet to accomodate more canned goods, putting storage boxes in garage.
* Made Bean Soup and Cornbread from scratch (which dh & I loved), using up the cubed ham and ham bones from the freezer. Yum!
Frugal News: Dh just informed me the Wal-Mart Super Center we've been waiting on to be built is not one year from completion, but about 1 month! Parking lot is paved & painted. Shelves are going up inside, etc. Yay! This is great for us as it will be only a 10-12 minute drive from home. Sure beats 35-40 minutes, with gas costing a small fortune these days.
Special Member of the Family
Sure beats 35-40 minutes, with gas costing a small fortune these days. 
