Taking your lunch to work

[gorcorps]

Try a box of those Jimmy Dean Low-Fat Breakfast Sandwiches. That's what I do for breakfast... and save by doing it... 3 min in the microwave, and eat it on the way out the door to work.

That's what I've been doing. They're over packaged though so they fill up the freezer.

 

[preslove]

I have an 8-10 minute bike commute to work. I ride home to eat lunch, most days. Today I'll have left over pizza and a salad (and make a vinaigrette, to boot).

Because of this, the most I spend is about $3.50. It's usually less, though.

 

[edro]

I eat out for lunch everyday.
Wendy's, Subway, Chinese, etc.

I eat the healthiest foods there because I know it's worse for you.

$7/day on average

 

[Gooberlx2]

I dunno, a sandwich + apple + granola bar costs around $2, probably less. Buying lunch at the cafeteria is usually $4-$6.

So that's $2-$4 per day x ~20 working days per month = $40 - $60 saved. Much more versus actually eating out at places like Chipotle which tend to be more like $9-$12 for lunch.

 

[DrPizza]

I save about $1000 per year by taking lunches. For a few years, I was suffering through the school lunches that the kids get, but the kids get a gov't subsidized price. Someone did some fuzzy math and determined how much a lunch actually costs by dividing the entire lunch department budget by the number of meals to find a new number that faculty should pay. I recall the day I got a softshell taco. The cashier explained that by their rules, since I put lettuce on it, it now constituted a whole lunch, rather than just an a la carte item. That equivalent to a 79 cent taco bell taco was now $4. I haven't eaten a school lunch since. If I remember to take my lunch, the most it costs is about $2.50. If I go out to lunch, I'm usually looking at $7 or $8.

 

[alkemyst]

I rarely bring lunch as I never know if I will be called out to the field.

I spend $10-20 on lunch out. When I do bring my lunch, I can't imagine it costs more than $2-3 usually unless steak from the night before and even then $5 tops. If I ate off the 'dollar menu' / fast food then I don't know if the costs would be a wash or not.

There is a huge cost savings in brown bagging it, but YMMV on the practicality of it.

 

[Aikouka]

I'd probably save some money, but even when I brought my lunch, I was never terribly cheap about it. I would get these tasty chicken slices from the deli along with some good cheese. Essentially, you add in some other quality ingredients, and you're still spending a modest amount and you have to make it yourself.

Although, I'm usually pretty picky when it comes to choosing a place to go to lunch. I'm really looking for a place that's quick, the food is good and I feel like I'm getting a good value. Some places I find that they're just too pricey for what you get (lack value). Other places I cannot stand going there because of things such as terrible parking or poor seating area. Fast service is just always a bonus though. I like this one Mexican restaurant in town, because your food usually comes out ridiculously fast, and unlike some restaurants, the chips and salsa are free.

Oh, and I am usually rather sad if we go to a place with terrible cellphone reception.

 

[Ns1]

I'd probably save some money, but even when I brought my lunch, I was never terribly cheap about it. I would get these tasty chicken slices from the deli along with some good cheese. Essentially, you add in some other quality ingredients, and you're still spending a modest amount and you have to make it yourself.

this. if you like to eat, bringing your own food aint that cheap.

Got my GF to start making us sushi. Nailed the rice and everything and came up with this cool spicy tuna recipe...except tuna is a minimum of $17/pound.

 

[nageov3t]

probably not much.

I go to a lunch truck and get an order of chicken and rice for $6... I usually get 2-3 meals out of that, though.

 

[Gooberlx2]

this. if you like to eat, bringing your own food aint that cheap.

I guess it depends on what you're making. Making your own yellowfin tuna sushi, yeah, I can see that adding up quick.

But a sandwich with quality bread, quality meat, quality cheese, quality greens and quality mustard still isn't going to cost all that much.

 

[Dannar26]

I have an hour lunch and access to a toaster oven at work. Recently, I've taken to bringing in a half pound of ground turkey meat to make burgers out of. It's not as complicated as it sounds, believe it or not. Cheap too.

Duely blundered from my thunderdolt

 

[Pantlegz]

typical fast food meal is like $7-8, I can make 3-4 meals out of $10-12 of chicken, rice and some sort of veggie. When I was more strict on my diet I would spend ~18 a week on lunch vs going out to eat everyday costing 35-40. I guess that would be a savings of $17-22 a week or about 50 cents an hour.

 

[Ns1]

I guess it depends on what you're making. Making your own yellowfin tuna sushi, yeah, I can see that adding up quick.

But a sandwich with quality bread, quality meat, quality cheese, quality greens and quality mustard still isn't going to cost all that much.

yeah but you gotta use ALL of it or else it goes to waste. And if you got waste, that increases your per unit cost by quite a bit...easier to use everything if you got a big family. A lot harder if it's a party of 1.

Besides, taste is important to me. I can't eat the same thing everyday...I don't even think I could eat the same thing everyday for a week.

I do have a ghetto chirashi though that's about $3-4 that she makes - sushi rice, furikake, some masago, and spicy shrimp. Making spicy shrimp is significantly cheaper than making spicy tuna.

 

[Gooberlx2]

yeah but you gotta use ALL of it or else it goes to waste. And if you got waste, that increases your per unit cost by quite a bit...easier to use everything if you got a big family. A lot harder if it's a party of 1.

This is certainly true. After turkey day, I can eat leftover turkey sandwiches for a couple weeks straight...and then I'm basically done with those for the next year. But yeah, if you can't stomach eating the same/similar things until your ingredients have been used up before they go bad, it certainly reduces that cost savings.

That's actually a big reason I've taken to growing my own veggies. It doesn't irritate me when I have to throw some out. It's a guarantee that I'll finish cheese and lunch meat before they go bad.

 

[Slew Foot]

Food at the hospital is free for me

 

[Perknose]

The hidden health problem with most processed foods is their ridiculously high sodium content. The other would be the possible, long-term, as yet undiscovered, negative health effects from the preservatives used.

Plus, I'd wager far fewer folks would eat processed, pre-prepared stuff so regularly if they saw it being made.

Look, I buy some processed foods at times, and I'll eat some fast food at times, so I'm not trying to be holier than thou. But five times a week, every single work week, and you should at least look into the possible, long-term health effects.

 

[Perknose]

Food at the hospital is free for me

Institutionalized inmates always have it so sweet.

 

[Texashiker]

But five times a week, every single work week, and you should at least look into the possible, long-term health effects.

I used to eat processed lunch meat every day for right around 15 years. As I got older, and started to take my health into consideration, I try to stay away from lunch meat.

Something I have been trying to do for the past few years is eat some kind of fruit every day, especially a banana. I have been eating a banana everyday for probably close to 4 or 5 years? Throw in some cherries, peaches, pears,,, from time to time.

The sodium, and the preservatives in the processed foods do have a negative effect on our health. To try to counteract the negative effects, I try to eat something healthy every day.

It would be easy to eat something like a sandwich and everyday, but those items do not contain needed nutrients.

For the past few weeks I have been eating peanut butter and honey on wheat bread sandwiches, small bag of chips, and some kind of healthy snack. Todays snacks are dried bananas and shelled sunflower seeds.

 

[GT1999]

Shelled sunflower seeds and ATOT are highly addictive from what I hear if you have a job with downtime. You'll piss off the people next to you though with all the noise from spitting

 

[ch33zw1z]

My lunch consists of this almost daily:

-PB+J
-apple
-bag of baby carrots
-bag of some kind of chips(homemade popcorn is my fav)
-bag of cucumbers
-various other fruit, grapes, melon, banana, etc..

Many of the items are seasonal, so sometimes it costs a bit more. Overall, I pay less than eating out everday and get better food.

 

[sunzt]

biggest benefit to bringing lunch is you control the portion and know exactly the amount of oil, salt, fat, and other ingredients in your food.

 

[preslove]

I try to plan meals around left overs. Every time I nuke something from the night before, I'm not spending money. If the meal from the night before is a <$4 chicken that I slow cooked the day before, I'm really saving.

 

[Vdubchaos]

99% of the time I bring my own lunch

Usually my wife gives me left overs from night before, if not a sandwich.

Figured I've been working for 13 years or so.

$5 x 260 working days x 13 years = $16900

I would probably say 1/3rd went to food purchase and I'm not counting mine/wifes time to prepare.......time is money too.

I don't like to eat out as I have 0 control in quality of food or how it's prepared. Also it's next to impossible to eat out healthy.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

I've started doing this the past week because I've been spending way too much. My cost estimate for lunch now...

1lb of ham every 3-4 days + misc sandwich items = $3
1x fruit = $0.50
1x snack bar = $0.50
Small serving of mixed nuts = $1

So maybe $5 on lunch now? It's better than the $8-$10 plus gas that I was spending before. I need to figure other things out though because sandwiches get boring fast.

My overall food expense is still high though, and that's partly due to gluten intolerance, and then mostly due to me eating 3000-3500 calories a day. It costs so much more per calorie when you're eating healthy.

 

[QueBert]

I never liked taking my lunch, took too much time to make, and would be either a cold sandwich or something I'd have to microwave *yuck* Not to mention when I'd hit the grocery store I'd tend to ball out and it always ended up costing me more to make my lunch than to go get it out somewhere.