After School Snacks for Kids: How I Keep Six Full on $50 a Week

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The second my kids walk in the door from school, they're hungry. Not a little hungry. Starving, like nobody has fed them in a week. With six kids, that's a lot of hungry all at once.

For a long time, our snacks went the same way every week. I'd stock up, and two days later it was all gone. A lot of it was chips and other snacks that didn't keep anyone full for long, so they'd be back in the pantry an hour later.

This year I'm on a healthier journey myself, and I've been changing what I keep in the house for the kids too. Here's what our after school snacks look like now, the two rules that keep the snack bin from emptying, and how I keep it to about $50 a week.

Why the snacks are gone in two days

If your snack stash is empty by Wednesday, it's not just you. A lot of packaged snacks are easy to eat a whole lot of without ever feeling full. A bag of chips doesn't fill anyone up, so they go back for more.

What I've noticed is that snacks with some protein or fiber, like cheese, fruit or popcorn, seem to hold my kids longer than the crunchy stuff from a bag. Putting two together may help even more.

The after school snacks my kids actually eat

These are the ones that get grabbed first at our house:

String cheese. Easy to grab, no mess, and it has protein, so it may hold them until dinner better than crackers on their own.

Fruit. Grapes and melon are the favorites. Apples and mandarin oranges are always around too.

Popcorn. This is our swap for chips. A big bowl goes a long way with six kids, and popcorn is a whole grain with some fiber. We keep it simple with a little salt. If you want to skip the microwave bags, an air popper makes a big bowl with no oil at all.

Cereal. A bowl of cereal after school is still a classic here.

Chicken nuggets. On the days they come home extra hungry, a few nuggets are basically a mini meal.

Fruit and veggie trays. I've been putting these together more often, and they go faster than I expected.

Greek yogurt. It has about twice the protein of regular yogurt, so it's one of the most filling things in the fridge.

Hard-boiled eggs. About 6 grams of protein each. Making a batch ahead means they're ready to grab.

Turkey and cheese roll-ups. No bread needed. Just roll a slice of turkey around a piece of cheese.

Baby carrots. Crunchy, cheap, and no prep at all.

Juice boxes. Still in the rotation, and still a favorite.

Snack combos that fill them up

One snack on its own often isn't enough for a hungry kid. Pairing a protein with a fruit or veggie is what seems to keep mine full the longest. A few combos to try:

• String cheese and a handful of grapes

• Apple slices with peanut butter, if peanuts are OK in your house

• A bowl of popcorn with a string cheese on the side

• A veggie tray with ranch or hummus for dipping

• Melon cubes with a few chicken nuggets on the really hungry days

More high protein and fiber snacks to try

If you want more ideas that may help kids stay full, these are on my list to try next:

• Cottage cheese with fruit: about 12 grams of protein in half a cup

• Peanut butter or sunflower butter: about 7 grams of protein in 2 tablespoons. Sunflower butter is a good swap for nut-free schools

• Edamame: buy it frozen and microwave it. Half a cup, shelled, has about 9 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber

• Pears and berries: some of the highest-fiber fruits, about 5 to 6 grams in a pear and about 8 in a cup of raspberries

• Snap peas and cucumber: easy add-ons for the veggie tray

• Roasted chickpeas: crunchy like chips, with about 6 grams of fiber and 6 of protein in half a cup

• Whole-grain crackers: look for 3 grams of fiber or more per serving on the box

• Oatmeal energy bites: oats, peanut butter, a little honey, and chia or flax seeds. Kids can roll them

A few things that may make snack prep easier, which I haven't tried yet: a divided snack box with a lid so a veggie tray is ready to pull out, reusable snack containers for portioning out the big packs, and an electric egg cooker that makes hard-boiled eggs without watching a pot.

The general rule I go by: pairing a protein or fiber with a carb may help kids stay full longer than a carb on its own.

Our snack bin: they grab it themselves

My kids help themselves from the snack bin. We use clear bins for everything: string cheese and yogurt in the fridge, and the dry snacks in the pantry or on a shelf. Everyone can see what's there without digging. I don't have to hand out six snacks the minute we walk in the door, and the kids get to pick what sounds good. It's one less thing on me in the busiest part of the afternoon.

There are just two rules:

Close to dinner, keep it small. If it's almost dinnertime, they can have something small, like a piece of fruit (an apple or a mandarin orange). That way they still eat dinner.

If we're running low, ask first. When we're down to the last few of something, they need to ask before they grab it. That rule has saved the last string cheese for a lunchbox more than once.

Where I shop to keep it around $50 a week

I spend about $50 a week on snacks for six kids. Here's how I keep it there:

Sam's Club for the big packs. Buying snacks in bulk means I'm not running back to the store halfway through the week.

Aldi for produce. Aldi is great for cheap fruit and veggies, which matters now that we're eating a lot more of them.

Walmart for everything else. It's where I fill in the gaps during my regular grocery trip.

Making some myself. Homemade popcorn and our own fruit and veggie trays cost a lot less than the pre-packaged versions. I shared more of the habits that help us here: how to save money on groceries.

How I'm making our snacks healthier, a little at a time

I didn't throw out everything in the pantry. I'm just swapping a little at a time, so nobody feels like their favorite snacks disappeared overnight.

• Popcorn instead of so many chips

• Fewer ultra-processed snacks in the cart each week

• More fruit and veggie trays, ready to grab

• Washed, cut fruit where the kids can see it, because if it's ready, it gets eaten

If you're thinking about your kids' health in other ways too, I shared what I learned about supplements for kids. Always check with your pediatrician.

The kids still come in the door starving. But now the snack bin lasts a lot longer, and what they grab actually holds them until dinner. If the hour after school is chaos at your house too, here's how I get my kids to pitch in with chores without asking five times.