Taking your lunch to work

[KingGheedora]

Spend about.. $125 a month on bfast and lunch here at work. Im single and a young guy.. making that crap everyday for myself requires too much effort. If I had a wife make it for me, then sure, I'd take it. But only if it was a yummy sammie.

What if both of you work? Who will make the lunches?

 

[wirednuts]

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.

this is one of the most intelligent posts i have ever read. you said it absolutely perfectly, and covered all points without coming off as elite. especially about the yet to be discovered problems with preservatives. i think they do indirect damage. the chemicals may not be harmful to our bodies, but they somehow eliminate the nutrients that would otherwise be there, or block them because it is very obvious when you switch to a lightly processed food diet (like eating mostly whole foods, and never eating something processed in large amount). when you eat processed foods, your body does not get the same benefits and you do suffer from it.

and not only does the malnutrition cause you to lose energy, it makes you look older faster. your skin doesnt look right, and you get wrinkles when you shouldnt. now that i saw how much it effected my body inside and out, i can just see it in other people. they just always look slightly sick... but they still function so they think everything is ok. and they always complain about stomach pains and bad nasty shits

you have to eat real food. i would bring a lunch to work even if it cost more.

and the real cost? at most 2.10 a day. thats a loaf of store baked french bread, a block of sharp cheddar cheese topped and turkey lunchmeat, a bag of chips and a 12k of pop (yes, the one processed food that i still love to death. at least the sugar has short term benefits)

but often, i skip the sub sandwiches and bring leftovers from dinner the night before. then youre talking dollar lunches, with even more nutrition and less work. love it.

 

[wirednuts]

What if both of you work? Who will make the lunches?

people make making lunches harder then it should be. prepare as much as you can on sunday night. have things ready to go throughout the week. takes me less then 5min to pack my lunch everyday. it used to be a pain, but i just thought about how to do it efficiently and now its almost enjoyable to fill my lunchbox in the morning.

 

[Imported]

I've started to bring leftovers for lunch. I'd typically spend $6-15 a day otherwise.

 

[zCypher]

I can eat pretty tastey lunch for 2 or 3 bucks but I'm usually too lazy to do it. Last time I made a big saucepan full of rice, vegetables, sausages with sauce and spices, it was really good and I had ~7 meals from it. Worked out to $2.-something per fairly large meal.

If I eat out at work, there's never anything that's actually good under $10.

 

[Alienwho]

I make sure not to spend more than $15/week on lunch when we go out. Usually it's more like $10 though. Lunch for me though is much more about the social aspect than the food. The peer pressure from my buddies at work to go out to lunch every day is astronomical.

Typically one day a week I'll get a $3 burrito, another day a $5 footlong, and another day $4 worth of dollar menu items from a burger joint. The other days i'll bring in leftovers from home, survive on the free oatmeal and granola bars at work, or just go hungry until dinner.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I tend to go out 4 days per week. Usually 2 days are cheap sub $10 places, and then 2 days are a bit more $. I work at home on Friday so I tend to eat at home then.

I don't do breakfast, and Lunch is the biggest meal of the day for me by far.

If I were to bring in deli meat sandwiches on Rye or pumpernickel with good cheese ... I'd probably eat 3 or 4 sandwiches and save around $3-5 vs eating a bunch of double stacks or mcdoubles. Or, I'd save maybe $10 over some of the slightly more expensive places.

If I brought in the cheapest crappy white bread sandwiches with cheap imitation jam ... or if I tried to starve my self and eat only 1 or 2 of those little tiny prepackaged 8 oz lunch things .... then I'd spend a lot less ... but then I'd simply eat a lot more at dinner time.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I usually just go home to eat but I sometimes bring healthy snacks to try to discourage me from eating so many chocolate bars from the snack bar at work.

When I'm on night shifts I tend to order a pizza on my first night before the pizza places close, and it usually feeds me for the rest of the shifts. It's usually 4 days at a time. I'm usually not that hungry at night anyway so I'll have two pieces at most. I'll eat something at home before I go to work as well.

On day shifts I just go home to eat since I'm not the only one in the building. But when I'm on weekend day or night shift I'm the only person there so I can't leave.

 

[shopbruin]

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.

It really just comes down to planning, which I find a lot of people are not willing to do. I often make something to last me at least three lunches at work. I don't eat the same thing for dinner, which will help. Your other option is to do something like roast a chicken, eat some for dinner, eat leftovers for lunch, and then transform it into other things for other meals. Make a sandwich, make a salad (hell plan that well, you can do both in one week), make a wrap, make chicken salad sandwiches, etc.

 

[Ns1]

It really just comes down to planning, which I find a lot of people are not willing to do. I often make something to last me at least three lunches at work. I don't eat the same thing for dinner, which will help. Your other option is to do something like roast a chicken, eat some for dinner, eat leftovers for lunch, and then transform it into other things for other meals. Make a sandwich, make a salad (hell plan that well, you can do both in one week), make a wrap, make chicken salad sandwiches, etc.

Yeah I'm not willing to eat the same thing for that many meals lol


I'm currently on a japanese kick, so we'll see how many days in a row I can eat sushi rice.

 

[Iron Wolf]

I used to go out for lunch, and I was spending about $50 a week, not counting weekends.

I need to reduce expenses as much as I can now though. Luckily, I only live about two miles from work so I go home every day. I can buy a can of Chunky soup or chili for about $3, and that is about the most expensive thing I eat now.

Otherwise, I make sandwiches (pb&j, egg salad, tuna, spam salad, grilled cheese), with or without condensed soup, crackers, chips, or raw vegetables, and just water to drink.

I've already started losing weight. People don't realize how many calories plus other crap is in those fast food (or even restaurant) meals, not to mention sodas.

Plus, now I can watch TV while I eat, rather than just sitting in a restaurant or staring at my computer at work.

 

[Dedpuhl]

For the past two years I've paid $0.00 for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's one of the perks of being the resident engineer on construction sites that are hours away from home...

 

[Baked]

I probably save more money spending my money on hoes and blow, versus going out for lunch every day.

 

[Capt Caveman]

$4-5 for really good and healthy food from a couple of food trucks near me.

 

[Wreckem]

I cook a bunch of stuff on the weekend and then take it to work over the week.

I spend a little under $2/day for lunch.

I cook breakfast for under a $1 and dinner is between $2-5. People who go blow $10+ bucks a day eating out for breakfast every morning are stupid. You can do the same/better at home for about $1 and it only takes 5-10 minutes to cook everything. So not only is it way cheaper, it is also way quicker.

Since I have started, I've saved a lot of money and have so far lost 37 pounds.

 

[Imp]

I consistently blow $10 a day now on food. It use to be $5 a few years back. I tried bringing lunch a few times, but hated it each time.

 

[Wreckem]

I tend to go out 4 days per week. Usually 2 days are cheap sub $10 places, and then 2 days are a bit more $. I work at home on Friday so I tend to eat at home then.

I don't do breakfast, and Lunch is the biggest meal of the day for me by far.

If I were to bring in deli meat sandwiches on Rye or pumpernickel with good cheese ... I'd probably eat 3 or 4 sandwiches and save around $3-5 vs eating a bunch of double stacks or mcdoubles. Or, I'd save maybe $10 over some of the slightly more expensive places.

If I brought in the cheapest crappy white bread sandwiches with cheap imitation jam ... or if I tried to starve my self and eat only 1 or 2 of those little tiny prepackaged 8 oz lunch things .... then I'd spend a lot less ... but then I'd simply eat a lot more at dinner time.

Sandwiches are one of the more expensive and least filling ways to take your lunch.

Would also be cheaper if you cooked and ate breakfast than eating a crap ton at lunch. Breakfast is the cheapest and quickest meal to do your self.

 

[midwestfisherman]

Spend about.. $125 a month on bfast and lunch here at work. Im single and a young guy.. making that crap everyday for myself requires too much effort. If I had a wife make it for me, then sure, I'd take it. But only if it was a yummy sammie.

WTF is a sammie?

 

[Wreckem]

WTF is a sammie?

a sandwich

 

[Ronstang]

About $.60 for the chips, about $.20 for the soda, and whatever a peanut butter and jelly sandwich costs. It can't even be a dollar so I eat for less than $2 a day. PB&J is also pretty good for you.

 

[Leros]

We cater lunch every day so I wouldn't save anything.

 

[Demo24]

My problem is that I never know where I'll be that day, could be in town or I could be an hour away with work still to do. Lugging around my lunch all day would get annoying, plus I'd rather it not get 200 degrees in the van. I do need to find ways of eating better though.

 

[lxskllr]

My problem is that I never know where I'll be that day, could be in town or I could be an hour away with work still to do. Lugging around my lunch all day would get annoying, plus I'd rather it not get 200 degrees in the van. I do need to find ways of eating better though.

Use a cooler with an ice block. With the regular size PlayMate cooler you can fit 2 Teas Tea(sp?) 2l bottles inside, with plenty of room left for food and drink. That should keep it cold for a day under the worst conditions. I specified Teas Tea because they're rectangular bottles, and fit nicely in the cooler.

Edit:
To be clear, you fill the bottles with water, and freeze them. Leave headroom for expansion.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I usually take a turkey sandwich to work most days. Sometimes it just gets old and I want to leave the office and have lunch though.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i go home for lunch...saves me a little extra sanity every day.

i generally will go out with friends once a week though