It's back to school time, so tonight's SAVING YOU MONEY focuses on school lunches. To pack or not to pack? The short answer is: the cafeteria lunch costs more. By some estimates, you can save up to $200 a year by packing your child's lunch. Here's how:

1. Start with reusable containers. Using 4 or 5 plastic zipper bags a day is like throwing money away. You can buy reusable containers for what a couple of boxes of plastic bags would cost. It's a one time expense that pays dividends all school year.

2. Try to ween yourself off the convenience of pre-packaged snacks. It's all about the unit price, which is about 3 times more because of all the extra packaging. For example, pre-packaged Goldfish are about 47 cents per serving. Buy the big box and pack your own portion for just a quarter.

3. Swear off juice boxes and drink pouches. Get a couple of good BPA free drinking bottles and fill them with water, juice or whatever your child likes. If you're packing a bottled water each day, just know it's costing you about 3 times more than what you're paying for gasoline.

Try some of these ideas and pack in the savings. Many of you weighed in on Facebook tonight:

Randa Myers posts "Cheaper vs. healthier, homemade, as long as it's not juice boxes and hostess cakes, is cheaper and healthier. IMO (in my opinion)."

Tammy Moss-Harris writes "Considering it would cost $200 a month for schools lunch and breakfast, I spent $35 on packing lunch for this week. I'm saving about $60 a month packing."

Maria Louise Canaday posts "I pay for my 3 grandchildren to eat at school because I wanted the stress off my daughter. She's a single mommy. Williamson County Schools serve healthy lunches. :0 It's just easier for her and we know they eat well."

All good input. Find us on Facebook. Make the connection at Facebook.com/FoxNashville.SAVING YOU MONEY: School Lunches