Thermos Funtainers Review

My daughter started Kindergarten this year, and though she ate lunch at preschool 2x a week Jan-June, they served water there, so I didn't have to send a drink.  I was looking for something re-usable and BPA free to send her to school with this year.
 

I did pretty much all of my back to school shopping at Target (love that store, but very, very dangerous for my wallet!) and found these Thermos Beverage Containers.  They have a stainless steel interior, double wall vacuum construction, silicone straw,  and non-slip base.  They hold 12 ounces of liquid, are dishwasher safe, easy to open (but also easy to open accidentally!) and will keep drinks cold for 12 hours.
 
When I bought this, I didn't know any of that.  I knew it was BPA free and my daughter liked it!!  On the first day of school I sent her with a thermos of water and a little bit of ice.  After 8 hours, this is what I found:
 

Wow, it still had ice in it!  It really did keep it cold!!  This worked swimmingly for about two months.  Then one day I  went to unpack her stuff after school, and her lunch box, bookbag, and everything in it (including a library book) were soaking wet.  She claimed that she closed the top, but I wasn't so sure.  I sent her with it again the next day and this time everything was soaked again, including the special class Tooth Fairy Bag, complete with 2 more library books!!  Thankfully, it was just water, but still.  We tried keeping it in an outside pocket of her bookbag, but then she was forgetting to take it to the lunchroom.  So, we're still working on a new solution, and I have a different bottle to review as well.
 


I also bought her a Funtainers Food Jar so I could send her with leftover soup, mac & cheese and so forth.  before I sent her with anything, I wanted to test to make sure the TherMax® double wall vacuum insulation really worked.
 

I put hot water in the thermos, closed it up, and took the temperature of the water to see how it retained the heat.  I checked it after 4.5 hours:

 
and again after 6.5 hours:
 

 
It has worked really well.  When I send her with something hot, I make it just a bit hotter than I would if we were eating it right away, then close it up!
 
The regular price of both of these at my Target was $13.99 each, but I got them on sale for $12 each.  Just a few packs of juice boxes would add up to that quickly!! We're still using the thermos at home sometimes; if I could get her to stop chewing on the straw it would be perfect!

Lunchskins Reusable Cloth Sandwich Pouch Review

In January, I reviewed two handmade snack bags I purchased on Etsy, for my daughter to take to preschool.

The smaller, pink polka dotted snack bag I purchased from cottontopquilts, was used twice per week from January through June.  It's still works wonderfully and we're using it for Kindergarten as well.

Unfortunately, the Tinkerbell print bag from smartsnackbags did not fare as well.  I used the smaller bag each time she went to preschool for various snacks.  I only used the larger one when I sent fruit, or something else that wouldn't fit in the smaller bag.  Thus, it was only used once or twice per month, and was treated with care.  Unfortunately, after 4 months of occasional use, it had fallen apart.  I typically just wiped it or shook it out, but happened to flip it inside out one day and saw what it looked like.  My daughter told me it had looked like that for a while!

I contacted the seller to let her know what had happened, wondering if she'd had other problems with them.  3 months later I still haven't gotten a response.  Oh well!

In any case, I wanted a new, larger snack bag, and I wanted to get a few, since she'd be eating lunch at school every day at Kindergarten.

When I saw this lunchskins bag at our local organic market for $7.69, I had to pick it up.  My daughter loves pink!

Lunchskins are made of thick cotton fabric, coated with a food safe polyurethane liner.  They are lead, BPA and phthlate free.

The bag is very sturdy and durable, and appears to be well made.  The above photo is the inside seam, I don't think this one will fall apart!

I had planned to use the sandwich size bag as a large snack bag, but it became a sandwich bag when I discovered that the plastic sandwich tote Grandma had bought wouldn't fit in her lunch box!

It fits well and it didn't get squished.  Since we compost, my daughter doesn't throw anything away at school, so I'm not worried about it getting tossed.  Her crusts were still soft when I emptied her bag!

I was probably a little too excited when I realized Lunchskins are also dishwasher safe!!  Woo-hoo!!  Below is after it's first ride in the dishwasher (it emerged unscathed.)

After using it for a week, I had to have more.  With back to school, it was slim pickings at the store, so I got the last sandwich size bag they had.

My store also had the sub size bags, but they didn't have the snack size bags, which I want!  The bags come in tons of cute colors and patterns, and you can use them in pretty much any case that would have you reaching for a plastic bag!

Direct from Lunchskins, the sandwich size bag I purchased retails for $8.95.  The sub bags are $10.95 and the snack size bags are $7.85.  It may seem like a pricey investment, but they can be reused hundreds of times.  I don't buy many plastic bags, but I remember being shocked at the price the last time I did.

P.S. Boy does the word sandwich ever look weird after typing and looking at it so many times, I had to spell-check to make sure I wasn't spelling it wrong!

P.P.S. My spell-check wants to change smartsnackbags to stinkbugs, which I find hilarious.

FTC Compliance: All products pictured/discussed/reviewed were purchased at normal store prices by me.  All opinions are my own, based on my experience.