diff --git a/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPut.hs b/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPut.hs
--- a/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPut.hs
+++ b/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPut.hs
@@ -15,11 +15,16 @@
     , reserve, reserving, unsafePutWord8
     , putByteString, putByteStringLazy
     , putc
+
+    , peekBufferSize
+    , peekChildCount
     ) where
 
+import Control.Applicative
 import Data.Bits
 import Data.Char
 import Data.Word
+import qualified Data.List as L
 import Foreign.Ptr (plusPtr,castPtr)
 import Foreign.Storable (Storable(..))
 import Foreign.Marshal.Utils (copyBytes)
@@ -221,4 +226,9 @@
         x = fromIntegral (shiftR c 12 .&. 0x3f)
         w = fromIntegral (shiftR c 18 .&. 0x7)
 
+
+-- | Obtain the total count of VRefs and PVars in the VPut buffer.
+peekChildCount :: VPut Int
+peekChildCount = L.length <$> peekChildren
+{-# INLINE peekChildCount #-}
 
diff --git a/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPutAux.hs b/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPutAux.hs
--- a/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPutAux.hs
+++ b/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPutAux.hs
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@
     , putVarNat
     , putVarInt
     , putVarNatR
+
+    , peekBufferSize
+    , peekChildren
     ) where
 
 import Control.Applicative
@@ -118,3 +121,22 @@
 _putVarNatR n = putWord8 b >> _putVarNatR q where
     b = 0x80 .|. (0x7f .&. fromIntegral n)
     q = n `shiftR` 7
+
+-- | Obtain the number of bytes output by this VPut effort so far.
+-- This might be useful if you're breaking data structures up by their
+-- serialization sizes. This does not include VRefs or PVars, only
+-- raw binary data. See also peekChildCount.
+peekBufferSize :: VPut Int
+peekBufferSize = VPut $ \ s ->
+    readIORef (vput_buffer s) >>= \ pStart ->
+    let size = (vput_target s) `minusPtr` pStart in
+    size `seq`
+    return (VPutR size s)
+{-# INLINE peekBufferSize #-}
+
+peekChildren :: VPut [PutChild]
+peekChildren = VPut $ \ s ->
+    let r = vput_children s in
+    return (VPutR r s)
+{-# INLINE peekChildren #-}
+
diff --git a/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPutFini.hs b/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPutFini.hs
--- a/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPutFini.hs
+++ b/hsrc_lib/Database/VCache/VPutFini.hs
@@ -36,26 +36,12 @@
 -- and that this be applied before any hash functions.
 vputFini :: VPut ()
 vputFini = do
-    szStart <- getBufferSize
-    lChildren <- listChildren
+    szStart <- peekBufferSize
+    lChildren <- peekChildren
     putChildren lChildren
-    szFini <- getBufferSize
+    szFini <- peekBufferSize
     putVarNatR (szFini - szStart)
     -- shrinkBuffer
-
-getBufferSize :: VPut Int
-getBufferSize = VPut $ \ s ->
-    readIORef (vput_buffer s) >>= \ pStart ->
-    let size = (vput_target s) `minusPtr` pStart in
-    size `seq`
-    return (VPutR size s)
-{-# INLINE getBufferSize #-}
-
-listChildren :: VPut [PutChild]
-listChildren = VPut $ \ s ->
-    let r = vput_children s in
-    return (VPutR r s)
-{-# INLINE listChildren #-}
 
 putChildren :: [PutChild] -> VPut ()
 putChildren [] = return ()
diff --git a/vcache.cabal b/vcache.cabal
--- a/vcache.cabal
+++ b/vcache.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name: vcache
-Version: 0.2.0
+Version: 0.2.1
 Synopsis: large, persistent, memcached values and structure sharing for Haskell 
 Category: Database
 Description: