Have you ever bought those Party Mix or Snack Bags before? If you have, you know how expensive they can be and that most kids will eat them all in one sitting. No thanks!
I’m home visiting my family in Alabama and my niece & nephew (ages 11 & 13) just started school this week.
Normally I come home for vacations in December for Christmas but a few years ago I was able to come home during the summer right before they started school. I wanted to help their mom out (she’s a single working mom) so I bought several items for their lunches and made up prepackaged lunch options for them. You can check that post out here!
Anyways, while I was home this go around I decided I wanted to do something similar but they are much older so I knew I was going to need to tweak some stuff. This time, they went with me to pick out a few things and we decided to try our hand at some homemade party mix.
I’m home visiting my family in Alabama and my niece & nephew (ages 11 & 13) just started school this week.
Normally I come home for vacations in December for Christmas but a few years ago I was able to come home during the summer right before they started school. I wanted to help their mom out (she’s a single working mom) so I bought several items for their lunches and made up prepackaged lunch options for them. You can check that post out here!
Anyways, while I was home this go around I decided I wanted to do something similar but they are much older so I knew I was going to need to tweak some stuff. This time, they went with me to pick out a few things and we decided to try our hand at some homemade party mix.
Here’s how we did it.
I had each child choose 3 snack type items that they liked & wanted to add to the mix. My niece chose raisins, goldfish, & pretzel thins. My nephew chose chocolate-covered pretzels, honey-roasted peanuts, & veggie straws. I added as fillers a chexmix party mix, pretzel twists, cheese curls, and popcorn. The kids together choose one cereal to add as a filler as well.
We bought all of our snacks at Aldi’s but you could buy snacks on sale or at a discount grocery store or even the dollar store.
Our total for snacks was right at $15.
I had each child choose 3 snack type items that they liked & wanted to add to the mix. My niece chose raisins, goldfish, & pretzel thins. My nephew chose chocolate-covered pretzels, honey-roasted peanuts, & veggie straws. I added as fillers a chexmix party mix, pretzel twists, cheese curls, and popcorn. The kids together choose one cereal to add as a filler as well.
We bought all of our snacks at Aldi’s but you could buy snacks on sale or at a discount grocery store or even the dollar store.
Our total for snacks was right at $15.
We then dumped everything into a large plastic tub although I’ve seen it mixed in a large garbage bag as well.
We opened everything & dumped it in. I then mixed everything up by hand making sure it was well mixed. Now, my niece decided she didn’t want popcorn so while the popcorn was cooking we made up a few bags for her.
We opened everything & dumped it in. I then mixed everything up by hand making sure it was well mixed. Now, my niece decided she didn’t want popcorn so while the popcorn was cooking we made up a few bags for her.
 |  |
We ended up making 25 sandwich sized zip top bags completely full of the snack mix, 12 with popcorn and 13 without. We even had some left over to snack on right away.
That means each bag only cost around $0.60 each. That's not too bad for a custom snack bag. You could even make it cheaper if you get things on sale or depending on the items you choose.
That means each bag only cost around $0.60 each. That's not too bad for a custom snack bag. You could even make it cheaper if you get things on sale or depending on the items you choose.
Now, the best part about this snack mix is that you can make it however you want. I personally would not have chosen to add raisins, honey roasted peanuts or chocolate covered pretzels. I would probably have added some cheese puffs, rye bread pieces, green bean crisps, but I'm a salty kinda snack person.
Here are a few other options that we found that would work well. You could also add some candy for a trail mix type snack bag.
Another great thing about these is every time you make it, it's something completely new & different because you get to add whatever you want or whatever is on sale. It's perfect to make that snack budget go a long way.
Here are a few other options that we found that would work well. You could also add some candy for a trail mix type snack bag.
Another great thing about these is every time you make it, it's something completely new & different because you get to add whatever you want or whatever is on sale. It's perfect to make that snack budget go a long way.
What would you add to your custom snack bag? Leave a comment below so we can try it out!
RSS Feed
