I would never buy the individual packaged servings unless they were super cheap, and occasionally, they are (for example, Lance peanut butter crackers for .50 for eight. Or an eight-count package of GoGurt for .80.) Have you considered buying snacks only with coupons and sales?

This stuff isn’t great for you, so manufacturers offer various promotions and incentives to get you to buy them. If you’re going to buy it anyway, might as well take advantage of this. You can even get organic snacks reasonably this way ($1 for two boxes of Earth’s Best cheese crackers).

I do love the idea of a tray of fresh veggies–if there was a way to keep the ranch cold! Hmmm. Sounds good right now!

Second, snacks. What a dilemma! There are two things that have worked wonders for our family:
1. Are they eating the calories they need for a day, and are they getting an all-around healthy diet?

If so, GREAT! Who cares if it’s pre-packaged, as long as it’s nutrional? String cheese, yogurt cups, granola bars, individually packaged peanuts. All are more expensive than buying in bulk and making up your own servings. If you can afford the luxury, go for it. If you can’t, make adjustments where necessary.

If they aren’t getting proper calories (too much, or too little) make adjustments where necessary. If they aren’t getting an overall healthy diet, make adjustments where necessary.

It’s helped me a lot to simply figure out how many calories they actually NEED in a day – because they would ask for food all day if I let them, and because it teaches them (and myself) self-control as well.

2. Water
We need gobs of it during a day, and thirst makes us feel hungry more than it makes us feel “thirsty”.

Blessings!

They each get a snacky type thing in their lunch, an after school snack and a bedtime snack. The lunch items tend to be a home made cookie or muffin, jello pudding, or snack sized containers filled with popcorn or ‘whatever happened to be on sale that week’ this is frequently pretzels, treaty type of cereals (froot loops, etc.), dried fruit with choco chips & cereal.
After school they know their snacks need to be healthy so they help themselves to fruit, cheese & crackers (not prepackaged), toast & jam or cheese, a small bowl of healthy cereal or a muffin (if there are any in the freezer). Once a week, I bake something so they don’t feel too hard done by!
If we are out at an activity after school I pack along fruit, yogurt cups, cheese strings, prepacked cheese & crackers, etc. They know that these ‘portable’ snacks are off limits when we are at home.
Bedtimes snacks can be a piece of toast, leftovers from dinner, a small bowl of cereal, etc. If they’ve been playing sports, they tend to be hungry and need something substantial.
Hope this helps give you some ideas!

I have tried to teach them to eat a high fiber snack with a bit of protein and healthy carb all together, because it will give them the biggest bang for my buck, and nutritionally, it’s the smartest way to take care of themselves.

I also follow up with them regularly to drink water and/or milk in the am, after school and at supper time. Dehydration can cause what feels like hunger.

I keep fruit bowls and nuts out in the open for my first preference for them. I have 4 kids, three are teenagers, and they seem to be always hungry. I just reassure them that I’ll feed them a meal again eventually, and they don’t need to be full off a snack, just satisfied. : – )