I have started cutting out pretty much all drinks from the store except milk and pks of Kool Aid for the kids. OJ concentrate when it's a good price. I never really thought about how much money I was spending on soda and juices. I even started bringing a gallon of homemade ice tea to work instead of buying a 12-pk of diet coke every week. It frees up more money for actual food.

But I need to know how you guys send drinks for your kids to school. I want to cut out juiceboxes, but I am afraid if I send a water bottle it will leak all over the place. Should I use a thermos?

my son has a backpack with a side "pocket" for a water bottle.
maybe you can invest in a backpack if you see it on sale.

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my kids lunchboxes have a side pocket that holds a water bottle that came with the lunchbox. we love it!

for my youngest dd I bought her a thermos with a pop top type lid. Her lunchbox sits up so there is no problem with leakage. For my oldest dd I bought her a plastic water bottle with an insulated cloth holder for her. She carries it since it doesn't fit in the lunch box at all. She has never had a problem with it but she is 9 and more responsible than her little sister.

I would suggest giving them water until you know for sure it won't leak.

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I send a mini-waterbottle with DD1 to school, it seems to work just fine for her and it's the right amount. I do buy the Koolaide juice cooler pouches from Sam's club and they end up costing 14 cents per pack, I'll send one of those with her for lunch once or twice a week.
As far as buying soda, juice (less than 100% juice) and special drinks- we don't do it very often...too much sugar and bad things in it. I do buy the large jugs of 100% apple or orange or cranberry juice from Sam's when we go...I spend less than $8 a month on juice. Our family goes through two large jugs a month. My kids like juice for breakfast and I give them one juice cup of juice, after they drink that they can have water or nothing.
For lunch and snacks it's either water, lemonade (I've been using the big container of powder mix from Sams and I buy one of those every two or three months), koolaide or sometimes milk. For dinner we always have milk.
My husband works from home most days, but when he does go in to work his office has a fridge supplied with walmart brand/store brand pop.
Every once and a while I'll buy a 12 pack of store brand pop- I like to stock up on it at Hyvee when it goes on sale for $2.00 for a 12 pack- i'll get like 10 packs of it and we'll have it on hand for months! the kids don't drink much pop- maybe in total it ends up being 1 can a week (they always split a can if they have some).

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Thermos and sports bottles are what we send with our kids. Never had a problem with them leaking.

I send a mini or small water bottle with my DD to lunch each day and she brings it home with her empty, I wash it would and reuse it several times before tossing it out. She prefers water to juices. I have never had a leak!

my dd has a metal thermous that I fill with milk! She says its just fine!!

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Kelly mom to 3 great girls A Peanut, a monkey and a little burrito.

Just wanted to say these are all great ideas! I am going to start sending my DS to preschool with a sippy cup with his name on it for now and try to cut down on juice boxes too. They just have way to much sugar in it ( we buy only organic juice boxes) and are very expensive. Way cheaper to buy the big jugs of it. That way we can all drink it and when I give it to DS, I always prefer to water it down.

Wonder why I never thought of doing this before?????

Sandra