We Did The Math: How Switching to LunchBots Rounds For Yogurts Saves Money & Waste
We all know that switching to reusable stainless steel containers helps families save money and eliminate plastic waste, so when we re-released the LunchBots Rounds I decided it’d be fun to do the math. Since these 8-oz twist-top containers are ideal for packing yogurt and fruit, why not use them to portion out a 32-oz container of yogurt instead of purchasing the individual 6-oz cups? And more importantly, how much of a difference would this small change make?
Here’s the Scoop:
We brought out the measuring cups, the scales, and the spoons (for yummy taste-testing along the way) and calculated the economic and environmental impact of using LunchBots Rounds for yogurt.
Using Wallaby Vanilla Yogurt purchased from our local Whole Foods Market, we started with the basics:
One 32-oz container retails for $3.99 and produces 37 grams of plastic waste
One 6-oz container retails for $1.19 and produces 9 grams of plastic waste
If you purchased a 32-oz container and portioned out five 6-oz servings in your Rounds, you’d:
- SAVE $1.96 per week (versus purchasing five individual portions)
- SAVE $101.92 a year
- ELIMINATE nearly 1 pound of plastic from landfills
With these savings, you’d pay for your LunchBots Rounds in just 10 weeks. And don’t forget: since Rounds come in sets of 2, you’d have an extra set to use for snacks!
The numbers add up even faster if you happen to have two or more kids or really, really love yogurt:
If you switched to large 32-oz yogurt containers and packed 2 yogurts a day in your Rounds, you’d:
- SAVE $3.92 per week
- SAVE $203.84 a year
- ELIMINATE almost 2 lbs of plastic from landfills
Single serving snacks may be convenient, but buying larger quantities of food and portioning them into reusable containers is an easy way to save money and reduce our environmental impact. Try it next time you’re shopping for pudding, applesauce, fruit cups, and any other single serving snacks!
What other yummy foods can you pack in your LunchBots Rounds to save money and plastic waste? Share in the comments!
some granola and yogurt or some soup
I can see using them for leftover mashed sweet potatoes and homemade pumpkin or avocado chocolate pudding.
I love yogurt as a healthy snack but I would probably also pack fruit smoothies topped with banana and granola, or homemade rice pudding…the possibilities are endless :0)
Besides packing yogurt for my daughters lunch I would pack applesauce!
I’d use them for applesauce instead of buying the individual pouches – I bet that would be a great money saver, too!
Mac and Cheese for my son! Or butternut squash soup for me
Hummus! I would make my own & package it in these instead of buying 5oz containers of it. You could also buy the large containers of humus & package your own in the rounds.
Thanks for the giveaway! I love lunchbots.
These would be amazing for baby/toddler food and snacks! I made my own baby/toddler food for my son and I would have loved these containers back then!
I think I would pack little snack for little kigs like golf fisk or any cereal in the new rounds
I would love to the lunchbot rounds to either put homemade soup in them rather than using canned soup – better for you as well as not having so many cans to throw away. Or, I would like to use them to send oatmeal for the kids morning snack. Could make the bulk oatmeal in the crockpot overnight and send as a warm snack.
I’d definitely use them for leftovers, and also for portioning out applesauce that I buy in quart jars. Cost effective and less waste. I love Lunchbots, and I’d love to try the rounds.
I would pack my son some mac n cheese in it. Not only would it keep it warm and delicious, it would prevent waste by me not having to buy those single serve mac n cheese cups.
kimchi. yes/yes?
Love this idea! Would definitely use it for cottage cheese, applesauce, and hummus! Thanks Lunchbots!
Refrigerator oatmeal would be perfect in these! And you could even make it the night before in them and just toss them in the bag the next day.
I would use them to portion out canned fruit or applesauce instead of buying single serve cups.
I would use them to pack small crackers and cookies. It would also protect them from getting crushed.
They’d be perfect for packing canned peaches, pairs, pineapple, or other cooked fruit instead of buying the prepackaged fruit cups.
Chips or nuts!
Cottage cheese and applesauce! Not together, but my fridge has rows of individual package sizes of both.
You could pack dip for fruits or veggies, dressing for salad, dried fruits and nuts, tuna or egg salad, lots of yummies! No single serving packages needed for any of these!
I would put mixed nuts and dried fruit in it. Or some Japanese rice crackers!
Soup, mashed potatoes
My boys love to take diced fruit to school for snack, but those little individual cups are hard to open, messy, full of added sugar, and don’t hold much actual fruit. This would be a perfect size to hole a diced up peach, pear, or apple, a sliced banana, or halved grapes. My little one would love if I filled it with diced cheddar cheese, too.
Yogurt or Cottage Cheese for my picky eater. Two things she will reliably eat, I’d love to send her bigger portions. Right now I send two of the little rounds of yogurt along with her lunch. It would be nice to send her a bigger portion without adding much bulk to her bag.
My husband loves soups so it would be great to pack homemade yummy vegetable soup to go or even chili beans!
Applesauce would be great! I’m sure e could fill them with all sorts of yummy things!
My 3-year old daughter eats Greek yogurt for breakfast every morning, so we go through way too many little plastic cups. (We save them for art class at her preschool, but still!) So, I’d use the LunchBots rounds to pre-measure portions of Greek yogurt with apple butter, which would DRASTICALLY cut down the amount of sugar she eats. If she doesn’t go for that, mommy would be happy to use them for “instant” oatmeal: quick oats, cinnamon and dried chopped fruit for my at-work breakfast. Or mommy and daddy can use them to split cans of soup for lunch (I usually dump in leftover veggies to make up the difference.)
Dried fruit, nuts and seeds! My daughter loves yogurt covered raisins and they are cheaper to buy in a big container rather than individual boxes.
I would love it for yogurt & granola for my daughter! She would also use it for cottage cheese, applesauce, fruit dices, even leftover side portions of her favorites from the night before.
Would freeze the yougurt with granola, so it would be perfect in my sons school lunch!
Yogurt, cottage cheese, applesauce… the possibilities are endless.
This would be great for my husband’s homemade soup! The kids love it. Plus the little rounds are great for goldfish toppers.
I love honey Greek yogurt with strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries topped with homemade granola, yum!
granola or mandarin oranges.
my husband is military and lets me pack his lunch every day. the other people buy their lunch every day and i dont know how they afford it! he adores yogurt though, especially raspberry greek yogurt. we pay $1 per cup when its on sale and its worth it, knowing he has a healthy snack he loves. but any little bit of saving is worthwhile!
I would use them for yogurt, applesauce, dips, salsa, mixed fruit…
I’d pack yogurt, applesauce, mac & cheese, pasta, and soup. The question is what wouldn’t I use them for!
I would definitely pack yogurt and cottage cheese. It would be a fun change-up for snacks too!
Apple sauce
I would probably use this for guacamole or tuna salad. These containers would also work really well for vegetable dishes that have sauce on them. I can’t tell you how many times my bag has been covered in oil from sautéed veggies that leak out of their containers. That would save me from having to buy food when I’m at work for fear of messes.
Pudding, Applesauce, mixed fruit….trail mixes….oh it’s endless! I want and NEED one.
Applesauce, yogurt and hummus!
My daughter likes fruit packed in water or fruit juice. I could buy a large jar and fill the Lunch Bots round container!
Homemade hummus for dipping!
Spinach & Fish Tofu soup, Oxtails Soup, Mac-n-Cheese, Clam Chowder, Fish & “100-year-old” Egg Porridge, Chicken Curry, Wonton Noodles for my son’s lunch at school now that Fall is on her way to CA. Would love to have 10-oz sizes too for “growth spurt days”.
Snack-wise, now juicy fresh pineapple can go to school with cantaloup and honey-dew melon too.
My spicy homemade chili!
This would be great for apple sauce. One large glass jar of apple sauce versus 12 small plastic pots of apple sauce – a no brainer!
Besides yummy yogurt I would pack soups, applesauce, rice pudding, mac and cheese.
sending home made applesauce (we make it in our crockpot- super easy), home made hummus, home made soup, etc. my husband brings his lunch to work and this is exactly what we need!
Oatmeal for sure!
We love our lunchbots. I love packing my daughters lunch with BPA free containers that look cool and are super functional. Chocolate chips, pudding, soups, etc. the possibilities are endless.
Homemade soup and chili instead of buying cans. Also peanut butter with little celery sticks already stuck in it.
These would be so helpful in giving a bigger variety of school lunch choices for my two boys. Plus, we’re definitely trying to cut out single-serve packaging and making our lunches eco-friendly. Besides yogurt, I could pack them soups, pastas, oatmeal, applesauce, cereal, and more!
Smoothies, yogurt, soup, fruit, yello, pudding the possibilities are endless
blyger
That 8-oz. size is perfect for a hearty helping of cheese dip, or even a cup of ice water. Or a handful of homemade chicken nuggets.
Applesauce!
We do big cooking projects on Sundays. Big pots of chili or stew or lentil soup or veggie soups. Easy leftovers for lunches all week. Lunch Bots would make these homemade meals more portable! Thanks for the chance to win. (PS: husband loves loves the little wasteful containers of Wallaby, a new Lunch Bot might help him adapt to the big container!)
Applesauce for the kiddos! And peanut butter in a smaller round (condiment container)…
Applesauce, hummus, and yogurt are all favorites around here. They also look like the perfect size for a serving of leftovers for my lil guys.
Applesauce, berries, pumpkin puree (for my 1 year old)…I could go on and on! Would love to win these!
Homemade applesauce! I’d also send mashed sweet potatoes, hummus, soup, and fruits that tend to be “drippy” after sitting in the lunch box all morning.
Fried rice!
applesauce, dips for a picnic, hummus, soup, mac and cheese, cut up fruit…the possibilities are endless.
Applesauce and fruit for my daughter, then for me it would be nuts, veggies, and oatmeal.
spaghetti!
I would definitely use it for leftovers! My son loves chicken and rice and the container would be perfect!
These would be perfect for leftovers or snacks for my 1 year old daughter!
Mashed potatoes, gravy, and a little turkey. . . getting ready for all those Thanksgiving leftovers!!
My twin boys would use the Lunchbot Rounds for hummus, applesauce, and chili. Savings of money and plastic times two!
Homemade baby food to take along when eating out.
I would use the lunchbot rounds to pack: soup, applesauce, hummus, veggies, salad, fresh fruit….mmmm getting hungry!
So many choices. We would use them for applesauce, yogurt, homemade pudding. Things that we have to use rubbermaid things for.
Perfect for marinated kalamata olives – no leaking like those plastic containers you buy them in at whole foods!
Cottage cheese + fruit! Yummy!
Leftover Ziti Pasta – Yum
I would take oatmeal in it. If you make a batch of baked steel cut oats in the beginning of the week and used your lunch bot round instead of the single serve instant cups you would cut down on waste, save money and eat healthier! On another note it would be great for that left over apple crisp that is so hard to transport!
Roast Pork and potatoes
I would pack some home made chicken soup for my son and my mom-made mac & cheese for my little princess! We LOVE lunchbots and use them every single day. #1 fan.
Overnight Pumpkin Pie Steel-Cut Oats
2 cup steel-cut oats
1 can pumpkin puree
4 cups water
2 cups milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
Optional toppings: brown sugar, maple syrup, chopped pecan, butter, crushed graham crackers, raisins, dried cranberries.
Before going to bed, set crockpot to cook on low for 3 hours then keep it warm until you wake up (4-5 hours). Instant breakfast you can pack to work or school. YUM!
I would send them to school with my 6 year old:) She loves soup- so this would be awesome to use!!! also a pre-made steel cut oats with some drizzle of the maple syrup
any kind of snack that I would want to take with me to work, peaches with some granola ( instead of fruit cups) yogurt pretzels, doritos.
Homemade jello, tapioca pudding, apple sauce, cottage cheese topped with balsamic vinegar ( I like it scooped on to crackers).
Leftovers!
Applesauce and diced fruits would work great in the rounds. Maybe oatmeal for a breakfast snack!
Yogurt is exactly how I would use Rounds the most, and I’d put nuts and dried fruit in a Dips container to top it with.
I have been doing this for a couple months now… and it is by far the best thing ever! I get to monitor how much yogurt I am taking in along with my granola and fresh fruit. It is way healthier than buying pre-made yogurt, especially with all the extra sugar added. thanks again!
Jello or pudding! My son only eats only half a single container when he takes it to school. The rest usually gets spilled in his lunch box. Lunchbots rounds would totally save his lunch box and not waste either!
I make all of my own baby food and being able to warm it up ahead of time and pack it in the lunch bots round containers has been great.
They fit just the right amount of food for him and don’t take up too much space in the diaper bag. (with the added bonus of not having to worry the lid is going to pop off!!)
I LOVE all these ideas! I have one really good eater and one that’s a little more picky! I think any one of your products would be an awesome addition to anyone’s lunch routine!!!