Sandwiches by the Loaf

Written by Nickel - 9 Comments

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It’s that time of year again. The kids are back in school and it’s time to once again start packing lunches. This is actually a good thing for me, as it gets me back into the habit of packing a lunch for myself every day — I tend to backslide on this during the summer, and end up spending more than I should to eat out. The problem is that mornings around here can be pretty crazy, and lunch-packing just adds to the craziness. So, in order to keep things running as smoothly as possible, we’ve had to come up with creative ways of streamlining our morning routine. Probably the simplest of these steps has to do with sandwich making.

Rather than breaking out the PB&J every single morning, I’ve gotten into the habit of spending a bit of time on Saturday or Sunday afternoon making (and freezing) all of the sandwiches for the upcoming week. As it turns out, PB&J sandwiches freeze (and thaw) really well, and making a pile all at once is far more efficient than doing it piecemeal. As of this year, I’m making a grand total of seventeen sandwiches at a time (five each for myself and two full-time school kids, plus a twice-a-week preschooler). This works out especially well for us, as I like PB&J as much as the kids do, and the resulting modularity of the morning lunch-packing routine (i.e., grab a sandwich from the freezer, throw in a yogurt and some fruit and I’m done) makes it all the more likely that I’ll actually bring a lunch to work. And to think that sandwich-making is enough of a burden on society to support the creation of a entire frozen PB&J sandwich industry! Then again, they do come with their crusts already cut off.

Published on August 22nd, 2005 - 9 Comments
Filed under: Family & Life
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

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Comments (scroll down to add your own):

  1. Never thought about frozen pb&j sandwiches!! I don’t have kids yet, but it is kind of a pain to make and pack lunches every morning. However, my girlfriend wakes up to do her hair and make-up earlier than I do, so I now just wake up at the same time and make coffee and lunches which save about $2.50 and $11 respectively every day.

    Comment by Financial Fruition — Aug 22nd 2005 @ 8:51 am

  2. Frozen PBJs, ummm, ok. :-| I started packing my lunch a month ago and it’s saving me $20-30 a week!

    Comment by tdfb — Aug 23rd 2005 @ 10:05 am

  3. tdfb: They’re not still frozen when you eat them… They actually taste exactly like a ‘fresh’ sandwich by the time I break one out at lunch time. Now if you’re thumbing your nose at the idea of PB&J in general, that’s an entirely different issue.

    Comment by nickel — Aug 23rd 2005 @ 11:26 am

  4. That is a great idea. My little one just started Kindergarten so we are just begining many years of lunch packing for school. Thanks.

    Comment by trip — Aug 23rd 2005 @ 12:24 pm

  5. At least Nickel isn’t buying these frozen pb&j “things” These sound gross, and you have to be pretty darn lazy to buy these.

    Comment by Financial Fruition — Aug 23rd 2005 @ 1:52 pm

  6. I am not a big fan of PB or J, but when I make Ghoulash I tend to make 5-10 servings at a time. It can be frozen, but you will want to leave it just in the fridge for at least 3 days before freezing it so that it can self-marinate. It tastes better after reheating than it does originally. Grab a plastic container out of the fridge, freeze anything I won’t eat within a week, and it’s a ready made microwavable meal. Since I eat probably twice as much as the average person, you can probably get more meals out of than I do while making the same amount.

    Comment by Blaine Moore — Aug 23rd 2005 @ 3:08 pm

  7. Good idea! We make all of our food the night before to avoid the rush in the morning, but never thought of freezing a bunch at a time. I’ll need to try it.

    Comment by FMF — Aug 26th 2005 @ 10:13 am

  8. I think I tried this with meat and other sandwiches before. Note – it does not work with lettuce and tomato =). They kinda turn to mush. PB/J is a good idea.

    Comment by Jonathan — Aug 27th 2005 @ 2:24 pm

  9. Don’t have kids.
    But wife and I cook more food than needed every night.
    We pack the leftovers for lunch for the next day, and for those days when we don’t feel like cooking (saves us from going into a restarant when we could have cooked home).
    Money And Investing

    Comment by Jose Anes — Aug 28th 2005 @ 5:52 am

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