Got kids who are always hungry? Let’s rephrase that, got kids? Then you need some cheap snacks to make sure they’re satisfied in good ways without sending you into hock.
This collection of cheap snacks ideas will keep your kids happy while helping you maintain control over the grocery budget. Win-win for everyone!
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Jump to:
- 1. Seasonal Fruit
- 2. Ants on a Log
- 3. Muffins
- 4. Yogurt with Jam, Maple Syrup, or Honey
- 5. Applesauce
- 6. Chocolate-Covered Bananas
- 7. Cheese Slices and Homemade Bread
- 8. Veggies and Hummus or Homemade Ranch
- 9. Croutons
- 10. Let them eat cake!
- Learn More in the Mom’s Kitchen Survival Workshop
- Now it’s your turn!
It would seem that kids are always hungry: breakfast, 2nd breakfast, elevensies, luncheon…. Oh wait! Is that hobbits or kids?
Same thing, really.
While three (or more) good meals are a great base, an afternoon snack can be just the ticket to help kids — and adults — make it through the 3:00 slump.
Truth is that cheap snacks, at least the commercial variety, are junk food. And they’re not really that cheap. A dollar does not buy a lot of neon colored cheese-flavored fishy crackers.
If you’re looking to move away from a steady diet of expensive, processed foods toward more wholesome fare, perhaps you’ve been looking for ways to provide snacks without resorting to boxed crackers, gummies, and other pre-packaged foods. At the same time, you need to serve snacks that won’t break the bank!
Can cheap snacks be good? You betcha!
Check out these ten good cheap snacks that are mostly unprocessed, feature seasonal foods, and won’t bust the budget.
1. Seasonal Fruit
Eating fruit in season is a great way to save money. The fruit is fresh, flavorful, readily available, and typically on sale!
- Summer: Load up on grapes, cherries, and stone fruits such as nectraines, peaches, and plums.
- Fall: Serve apple slices with a natural dip like nut or seed butters or even a little maple whipped cream. Pears, persimmons, and pomegranates are also on sale in the fall!
- Winter: Citrus fruits are king during the winter months. Focus on oranges, clementines, and grapefruits; be sure to cut grapefruit the best way.
- Spring: Enjoy the arrival of the first fruits of the year: strawberries and apricots are the heralds of spring.
2. Ants on a Log
Ants on a log are a classic cheap snack of celery spread with nut or seed butter and dotted with craisins or raisins. Kids love them! At least the ones that aren’t creeped out by the idea of eating ants.
Celery is typically a very affordable vegetable, ranging from fifty cents to $2.00 per stalk or head. Store celery in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator. Limp celery can often be revitalized by an ice water bath.
3. Muffins
I’m able to get a wealth of veggies into my kids when I bake them into muffins and quick breads. These Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins will put a smile on any kid’s face. Go sparingly with the chocolate. A little goes a long way. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are great in fall.
Keep a few batches of this Homemade Muffin Mix on hand so that you can quickly and easily serve homemade muffins for less than a dollar a dozen! You can even Freeze Muffins, making it even easier to provide a quick, cheap snack for your kids.
4. Yogurt with Jam, Maple Syrup, or Honey
This is one of my favorite cheap snacks! Don’t buy those expensive, sugary yogurt cups. You can top plain yogurt, preferably full fat because it tastes creamier, with jam, maple syrup, or honey. In this way you have more real food and you get to control the flavors and the sugar.
If you buy the yogurt in large containers, you can usually find it cheap or on sale.
5. Applesauce
Applesauce is a very cheap snack, packed with vitamins and fiber. You can buy large jars and dole it out, or make your own in the crockpot. It freezes extremely well, meaning that you can maximize your time by making a ginormous batch. My kids like to eat it still partially frozen, like a slushie.
If pears are on sale, you can make pear sauce in the same way.
6. Chocolate-Covered Bananas
These frozen bits of deliciousness, chocolate-covered bananas are quick to pull together. They taste almost like ice cream – only less guilt-inducing and a little bit healthier.
You can also make and freeze chocolate dipped banana bites. Use dark chocolate for a little added health benefit.
Other fruits such as melon or berries can be frozen and dipped in chocolate as well.
7. Cheese Slices and Homemade Bread
Baking fresh bread is not all that difficult, especially when you have a bread machine or follow the 5-minute Artisan Bread method. It’s easy, quick, and much cheaper than storebought bread.
Hand your kids some cheese and a chunk of bread for a very Hobbit-like snack.
8. Veggies and Hummus or Homemade Ranch
You’ll be amazed at how much more veggies folks — both young and old — will eat when they’re served as part of a veggie tray alongside hummus or ranch dips.
Keep cucumbers, pepper strips, carrot sticks, and celery on hand for quick cheap snacks. It’s super easy and economical to make your own veggie tray.
9. Croutons
Got leftover bread that no one wants to eat in a sandwich? Transform it into croutons. Sure, croutons usually top salads. But, when I make homemade croutons, very few make it to the salad bowl!
Toss bread cubes with a little melted butter or olive oil and toast them in the oven or in a pan on the stovetop.
You can season croutons with garlic powder and cheese or go in the other direction and douse them with a little cinnamon sugar. Either way = yum!
10. Let them eat cake!
Whether it’s a quick bread or snack cake, sweet baked goodies are a perfect little pick-me-up. Use whole wheat pastry flour and you’ve included a whole grain. Plus, these bake quickly without a lot of fuss.
Boost their nutrition even further by adding seasonal fruit or even vegetables. This Easy Carrot Bread Recipe and this Pear Cake are favorites with our family as well as with friends. There are never leftovers!
Good cheap snacks are totally possible. With a little advance prep work, you’ll never need to reach for the nuclear colored cheese dip again.
Learn More in the Mom’s Kitchen Survival Workshop
Need a little extra motivation to get on your meal planning game? Want to make lunch packing less of a drag? Creating a kitchen survival kit to help you WIN in the kitchen this school year.
I’d love for you to join me for the next Mom’s Kitchen Survival Workshop!
Together, we’ll create a plan to help you get dinner on the table every night, fill your freezer with wholesome snacks and breakfasts, finesse your lunch-packing skills, and even make sure you get a daily dose of MOM food.
Learn more here so that when registration opens, you won’t miss out.
Now it’s your turn!
What are your favorite cheap snacks to serve your kids?
This post was originally published on September 13, 2018. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Lindsey Whitney
Thanks for this. I’ve been looking for some good homemade snacks. My husband says we never have enough snacks in the house!
Jackie Brown
I started making my own YoCrunch with homemade crock pot yogurt and granola and other fun toppings. I package them separately and send them to school.
Kate @ Green Around the Edges
You inspired me. I’ve got a vat of applesauce in the crockpot as we speak. I’ve never made it from scratch before. Next on the list is the pumpkin muffins. They sound fabulous.
Jennifer
For snacks, I love:
– smoothies (so does my one-year-old 🙂
– cottage cheese with apple butter
– string cheese
– baked apples
As well as many of the things you have already mentioned, especially apples and peanut butter!
Kate @ Green Around the Edges
Oooh! I love the idea of apple butter with cottage cheese. I struggle with cottage cheese — I want to like it, but don’t always.
Lorilee @ Loving Simple Living.com
Great ideas! We do lots of muffins… they are great for hiding all kinds of healthy things (we always add chocolate chips too… they make everything better)
Our biggest healthy go to snack is popcorn. We have a popper (I think that microwave stuff is exensive, unhealthy, and yucky). We pop it and put olive oil and sea salt on it and the kids eat tones of it. The straight poping corn is full of all kinds of good healthy things.
Mamie
I have awarded you the Versatile Blog award! Come by my site and check it out. I love your blog.
Mamie
Amelia
Oh that pear cake sounds so good, I must try it! Also on celery…thank you. I needed that reminder! I just saw a lady’s blog, she soaks her celely in V8 juice in the fridge and the juice soaks up into the celery. When I was a little girl my mom would cut carrots into sticks and put them in a container of cold water in the fridge. It was so good like that!
Jenny
Thanks for the tasty ideas. I often refer to my three boys (and myself) as having hobbit appetites. We eat a lot of popcorn, even though I have to keep the vacuum sweeper handy. The pear cake looks great. We have a pear tree in our yard and can’t keep up. It’s a nice problem to have!
Amanda
Great ideas, the recipe sounds yummy. I did a Daniel fast last year, and tried something called “date honey.” So easy to make, and super yummy and healthy as an apple dipper. Here’s a link to the recipe…
http://www.ultimatedanielfast.com/2010/01/i-told-you-that-i-had-special-treat-to.html
JanaC2
Thanks for the ideas! We are always searching for snack ideas because we have multiple food allergies to worry about (and allergy-friendly packaged food is expensive and of little nutritional value). I make bread weekly and freeze homemade waffles, pancakes, muffins and cookies but still feel limited in snack choices when the kiddos are tired and hungry.
Tori Palmer
Popcorn, popped on the stove.
Banana bread
banana muffins
homemade granola bars
homemade chex mix
homemade oatmeal cookies
Aimee @ Simple Bites
Delicious looking muffins! I’m going to have to try them. With me pregnant, I’m just as ‘snacky’ as the kids. Great list of ideas to keep our tummies happy.
Lucky @ Making My Own Luck
I love this list. It amazes me how much my 3 year old boy eats already. And then there’s my 10 month old who appears to eat a lot and then later I find everything I gave her shoved under the cushions of her seat of down the front of her shirt.
For anyone with a garden, there’s been a really easy type of celery that doesn’t require blanching that’s been showing up at my garden center the past two years. It grows well into November here in Virginia and doesn’t require very much work or water.
jesser
Posts like these are always so helpful. Kids are ever hungry, especially after things like swimming or gymnastics or SCHOOL!
We’ve spent the last couple of weeks with the dehydrator always whirring making apple chips and I want to try kale chips soon. We make lots of different dips including a buffalo chicken one to go with our carrot sticks and red pepper sticks. I am still buying hummus though since I haven’t had homemade I love as much as the brand we buy, but I really need to keep trying.
Another favorite are no-bake granola bars (http://jesser.org/?p=2115) … and I want to try making these power balls (http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/06/05/recipe-powerballs-two-versions/) as well – just need a few more hours in the day.
ELIZABETH VARELA
You will LOVE kale chips. I recently tried them and I couldn’t bake them fast enough. I stood at the counter eating one batch while the other batch baked, and so on until I ate the entire supply of kale I’d purchased. SOOOO good!
Tammy @ Skinny Mom's Kitchen
I love all the snacks you mentioned but especially the cheese crackers. I will for sure have to give those a try.
My favorite snack and it smells SOOOO delicious as it bakes is homemade granola. My kids eat it plain, in yogurt, over fruit, and as cereal.
Here is the link if anyone is interested.
http://www.skinnymomskitchen.com/2011/09/12/delicious-homemade-granola-silver-palate-outrageous-granola-recipe/
Sarah K. @ The Pajama Chef
that cake sounds great! i just made a cinnamon apple cake that sounds similar but love the idea of pears. 🙂
Kathy
Love, love, love that you are referring to the Dirty Dozen list when you talk about produce! We try to buy organic for those foods more and more of the time, ESP. The foods that the kids eat the most of: carrots, apples, lettuce potatoes and – when the price is decent – grapes and celery.
Jen
thanks for the great ideas! i have a hungry 2 year old, so i’m excited to try some new snacks. i did notice that the link to the cheddar crackers goes to the crock-pot apple sauce. where can I find the recipe for the homemade cheddar crackers? thanks so much!
Jessica Fisher
I fixed the link. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
Anne @ Modern Mrs Darcy
These look terrific. My pears can’t get enough apples and pears this time of year, in any form.
Also, homemade ettle corn is a favorite treat around here.
Jessica Fisher
Kettle corn sounds yummy!
kelly
Carrot Spice Muffins made with whole wheat flour and LOTS of grated or chopped fine carrots!