Editor's note: This article was originally published on Live Like You Are Rich. It has been republished here with permission.

Bagel hot dog

Popcorn chicken and fries

Nachos with beef

French toast sticks with chicken sausage

Pizza

These are actual lunches our local grade school is serving this month. As appetizing as they might sound "¦ (or not), they sure don't seem very healthy. And my kids probably wouldn't eat much of it anyway. A friend of mine told me she always had her kids buy school lunch until she found out they were throwing a good portion of it away every day because they didn't like it. That's just hard earned money going into the school trash can everyday.

Our grade school lunch costs $2 per day and middle and high school lunch cost $3.25 per day. If you have three children eating school lunches you would be paying an average of about $8.50 per day. That is $42.50 per week and just over $1,500 per school year.

In general, according to the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), children ages four to 13 need 1,400 to 2,000 calories per day, and children ages 14 to 18 need 2,000 to 2,400 calories per day. A study that compared elementary school lunches across the country found that the average elementary meal is over 664 calories and junior high and high school meals contain 700 to 850 (not including al a carte items that most students add). They also note that many children snack on other treats in school for parties, food that might be given out as a reward such as candy, food purchased from the a la carte line, drink and candy machines etc. All these calories add up!

I'm not suggesting that you count your kids calories. I just use the numbers to gain perspective. If my daughter eats school lunch and consumes all of it (not including other school treats) she has already eaten almost half the calories and often the majority of fat, saturated fat, and sodium that she needs in a day. For one meal to constitute half the total calories of a day, breakfast, snacks and dinner must be very low calorie, very low fat, and very low sodium meals to balance out her lunch.

However, I understand that school lunch is a necessity for some. I know schools try very hard to serve hundreds of thousands of children. But for health reasons and financial reasons, I have chosen to pack my children's school lunches. Further, school lunches are perhaps the one place where many at-risk-kids get a nutritionally dense meal. In these cases, school lunches are very beneficial to them.

The lunches I make from home are much cheaper - less than a dollar per lunch, much lower in calories yet more filling - and much, much, healthier. Here are a few ideas on making inexpensive, healthy lunches.

1. Give your child a whole sandwich

Even if they don't eat all of it, that is better than them feeling hungry instead of focusing on their schoolwork. My first grade daughter only wanted me to pack her half of a sandwich so I complied at first. But then I noticed she was coming home starving every day. I started packing her whole sandwiches and we don't have that problem anymore and she eats the whole thing every day.

2. Pack a fruit and a vegetable with instructions that they are to be eaten before the snacks.

My children often come home with their snacks half eaten but the fruits and veggies are gone.

3. Instruct children not to throw anything away - not even the baggies

Just pack everything back up in lunch box and bring it home. That way you can see what was eaten, re-use uneaten non-perishables, and re-use clean baggies (pretzels, crackers, etc.)

4. Buy containers that can be re-used time after time

We have a sandwich container which saves lots of baggies. Tupperware containers are very useful to pack different things in.

5. Buy in bulk and re-use small containers

I bought some snack-size raisin boxes and then just refill them with my bulk-size bag of raisins.

6. Send water as a drink

We all need to drink more water and water is the cheapest and healthiest option for your children. I just wash and re-use the water bottles.

7. Don't send sugary snacks every day

I often choose pretzels, granola bars, crackers, etc., for a snack because they are more filling and kids get plenty of sugar as it is.

8. Change it up often

Kids need variety. Sometimes I pack whole-wheat pancakes instead of a sandwich, or juice instead of water, or applesauce instead of the apple. There are so many different healthy options available there is no reason to be boring. And don't forget the "I love you" note once in a while. Have fun with your kids and enjoy helping them be healthy!

Remember, if you had three kids, you could save over $1,000 per year just by packing their lunches instead of having them buy school lunch. But most importantly, they will be eating foods that you choose and that are healthier for them!

The post 8 ways to save money, lower calories and provide a tastier lunch for your kids appeared first on FamilyToday.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on Live Like You Are Rich. It has been republished here with permission.

Shortly after my husband and I were married, we decided to work on building a food storage supply. We didn't have a lot of extra cash but we did get a Christmas bonus so we used most of the bonus to buy a good supply of staples like wheat, rice, beans, powdered milk, sugar, etc. Then I started buying extra canned and boxed food whenever I saw a great sale at the grocery store. After a while we were able to build up a pretty substantial food storage.

Since we want to rotate our food, I try to buy extra amounts of the things that we normally eat and then use them up in my day-to-day cooking. Every six months, our grocery store does a case lot sale and I stock up on the things I have used again on canned food. I have been doing this for over ten years and I have come to really rely on my food storage.

Here are a few reasons why I believe that having a good food storage is essential, even in non-emergency situations.

1. Some days a trip to the store is not possible

I have three young children and my days are very busy. Often, I am not very good at planning out what I am going to be making for dinner and sometimes I still haven't decided when it comes time to making it. Many late afternoons find me looking in the fridge, trying to figure out what food I have that could make a filling meal for five people. If my fridge looks a little too bare, and my kids are nagging me about when dinner will be ready, it could be a stressful experience.

By this time, amidst helping with homework and piano, I really don't have time to go to the store. So I turn to my food storage. I have a handful of meals that I know I can make from the food I keep in my food storage. This knowledge helps my stress level when there isn't much in the fridge and helps the evening go much more smoothly. We can still get everything done and I don't have to pack up three kids and haul them to the store. It also saves lots of money because if I did have to make that trip with the three kids, I would most likely end up at the pizza place or the sandwich shop instead of the grocery store.

2. Food storage comes in handy when you are missing that one ingredient

As I stated before, I am not great a planning meals beforehand. Sometimes I look online before dinner to find recipes I can use if I have potatoes I need to use up, or broccoli or whatever. I will search for recipes using that ingredient and find something with great reviews I want to try. The only problem is inevitably those recipes will call for something that I normally don't keep on hand.

The other day my newfound recipe called for green chilies. That is not something I would normally have but I was able to go to my food storage room and grab a can of green chilies. Last night I was making pasta salad that called for Italian dressing. I made the whole salad and when I opened the fridge to grab the Italian dressing, it wasn't there! It was there two weeks ago when I made the same recipe, and who knows where it went, but there I was with a whole bowl of pasta salad and no dressing to put on it. My kids were starving and I was so grateful to be able to go to my food storage and grab a package of dry Italian dressing mix. I mixed it up quickly with oil and vinegar - two other things I always keep around - and served up a tasty pasta salad! It was a relief to say the least!

3. Food storage saves you lots of money

Whenever I buy food storage, I always buy it on sale. If you are only paying .49 cents a can for your green beans, you can afford to get a case of it and use it up over the next few months. Then every time you have a need for green beans you can use a can that only cost you .49 cents instead of $1.19. It may seem like a small amount of money but when you multiply that savings by every can or box of food you use, your savings become substantial. Also, whenever you are baking and the recipe calls for milk, you can use powdered milk which costs almost nothing compared to the $4.00 a gallon you pay for regular milk. There are lots of ways having a food storage saves you money.

4. Food storage brings peace of mind

Just as the old saying goes "It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark," we never know when disaster may strike. Ten years ago when we started building our food storage, the economy in Las Vegas was one of the best in the country. Housing, tourism, retail sales, and pretty much everything else was booming! Jobs were easy to come by and the pay was good. Then, in 2008, everything changed.

When the recession hit the United Stated, the housing market crashed in Las Vegas and our whole area went into a tailspin. So many people lost their homes to foreclosure, lost their jobs, or were otherwise adversely affected. Although we were not in danger of losing our home, many of our neighbors and even family members lost their homes and all the equity in them. Those were dismal days for the Las Vegas area as well as many other areas of the country.

I remember 2009 as a particularly difficult year for us. My husband is in the construction field and although he didn't lose his job, his work became really slow. He often wouldn't get 40 hours a week when we had been used to getting that plus plenty of overtime. We also happened to have our second baby in the first part of that year which made our expenses higher than usual. It was a real struggle and I am so thankful that we had our food storage to fall back on. It wasn't as if we were starving by any means, but it was the closest I have ever come to feeling like I was living paycheck to paycheck. We really relied on that food storage and used up a ton of it during those difficult days.

Having food storage is very important to me for a lot of reasons, but a big one is just having the peace of mind that if something bad were to happen, my children would not go hungry.

Thankfully we have not needed our food storage for "emergency reasons" but it has been super important for us because it has omitted the need for countless last-minute-trips to the store, it saves us considerable amounts of money, our food storage comes in handy almost daily, and most importantly it gives my husband and I peace of mind.

The post 4 reasons to have food storage in times of non-emergency appeared first on FamilyToday.