bring lunch to work or eat out?

[nature boy]

so we were looking at our finances the other day and apparently i eat out a LOT. winnie said that i should start looking at bringing lunch to work, which i totally hate (not sure why).

i think i was traumatized from the lunches that my mom used to pack me when i was a kid. they were pretty bad. so i have a bad feeling when i need to bring a lunch rather than just go out and buy it.

it does save money though.

[geForce]

I've found that, unless you're bringing leftovers from dinner, then you're not saving a huge amount of money. I really hate leftovers with a passion.
If you're okay with leftovers, then I do highly recommend bringing your own lunch to work. Eating out is a pretty big expense.

[nature boy]

why wouldn't you be saving money by bringing leftovers?

wait, did we talk about this in another thread? i somehow remember breaking down the cost of making a sandwich or something...

[Duncan]

well, it doesn't really cost you anything to bring left overs because left overs are already there... you've already cooked it and if you don't eat it, it just goes to waste.. unless you're thinking that left overs cost money because if you portioned your servings accurately, you wouldn't have left overs to begin with. then you'd have to say to winnie "if you didn't cook so much, we wouldn't have left overs"... and have fun with that haha...

whereas if you eat out, it costs you $5-10 every lunch. lets say you're a cheapo and somehow you find a place to eat out for $5 every day without getting fat (good luck with that btw...), that's still $25/week (5 day work week) and $100/month. Chances are, it's closer to $10/day (some days $5, some days $15) and $50/wk and $200/month... and that's only for yourself for lunch... i think if you cook and budget properly, you can feed a family of 4 for $600-800/month if you don't eat out all the time... if you're averaging just $200/month for lunches (just for 5/7 days of the week)... it could get pretty expensive...

but yea, i think we did have a thread for this.. i think joel said him and joyce spend like $300/month on groceries

[nature boy]

i actually asked the question wrong, i meant to ask why is it only worth it to bring lunch if it's leftovers? gordon said that if you make lunch specifically then you're not saving much.

[jeSteR]

Nope... as it was stated before. It's waaaaay cheaper over the long run to make your own food. But it's all about getting into a rhythm.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=1726&hilit=recipe#p21359

Eat out: Open face Turkey sandwich special at a Deli $8.50 Turkey sandwich with fries and a pickle

Price Smart: 150gm of freshly sliced turkey. $2.29; Head of Romaine lettuce $1.29; Bread $2.59 150gms of freashly sliced cheese $2.89; Ingredients from your pantry for a cranberry relish (vinegar, Cranberries, sugar, cream, pepper, sherry, ginger) total equalized cost $1.39. Pickle 5¢

Total is $10.50 for enough to make 5 sandwiches. Substitute fries for chips in a ziplock bag. (less than 20¢) Lunch for less tha $2.30 You just have to make the initial investment.

If you like a hot lunch, a toaster oven in the office can do wonders for sandwiches too. And no, you don't need to have a turkey sandwich every day for the week. This is where the experience comes in. Those same ingredients can be used in a ton of different recipes. But even if you were to make 5 sandwiches in one shot, with two people, that's only two and a half of the same sandwich in one week. Tell me you haven't gone to wendy's twice in a week before?

Or three times for that matter

If you only pack a lunch 4 times a week and eat out once. That's $1289.60 a year. Or on a single income family, that's between 3-5% of your net income. Nothing to sneeze at.

[nature boy]

[geForce]

I didn't say you weren't saving money if you make lunch, but just not a ton of it compared to bringing leftovers which costs practically nothing.

Making sandwiches is probably the cheapest, but can you really eat sandwiches every day for lunch without getting totally sick of it after 3 days? If you're trying to save money though, you'll learn to live with it.

[geForce]

150grms of meat is not enough for 5 days worth of sandwiches.. You'd need at least 300grms if you want to make sandwiches with more than one thin slice of meat.

I found cheese costs more than $2.59, even the non-sliced generic kind.

[nature boy]

i used to get 150 grams for my two sandwich lunch for the senior bible studies.

[geForce]

150 grams for two sandwiches? That's a hefty sandwich!

[Duncan]

that's why he came back pretty hefty himself haha.. jkjk

when i used to work for dave and there was a kitchen in watson's basement, i'd just buy pasta and pasta sauce... i'd make my own lunch there and it'd be super cheap... the cost of dry pasta and pre-made pasta sauce is dirt cheap... a good alternative to making sandwiches... if you don't have a kitchen at work, it's pretty simple to prep at home and take to work and mircowave it. it'll probably come out to be 2-3 bucks for lunch. And if you want, you can spring for some italian sausage or soemthing to toss into the pasta.

you can even make salad for pretty cheap. Buying a head of lettuce and making salad yourself is super cheap too. if you buy some chicken breasts in bulk and cook it and toss it into a Tupperware container the night before, you just have to toss the salad together at work with some dressing and you're good.


just curious though... how much do you spend on average daily on your lunch? and do you go buy breakfast and dinner too? I'd understand if you didn't think it was worth it to make your own lunch if you have some secret place that serves amazing lunches for $2... but i just want to know what we're comparing to... obviously it'd be hard to say it's worth it to spend 10-15 min prepping a crappy sandwich that would only save you $0.50-$1.00 a day... but if you're spending anywhere near $10 for lunch, i'd say it's worth it especially if you're on a single income, paying for 2 cars and have a 2nd kid on the way

[nature boy]

my current lunch costs vary. i would only buy 4 out of the 5 days (tues-fri) and there are days when i just skip lunch. also, there are days when people pay for me (one of the perks i guess).

but i probably spend close to $10 a meal, and i'd usually just get one meal (if i'm at work for lunch and dinner, i'd just buy one big one in between the two and wait until i get home).

i hardly eat breakfast, but lately i've been going to mcdonald's every sunday morning to get some food and a coffee. although i hate the taste of coffee everyone is telling me how bad red bull is for the system so i've stopped drinking it.

[joel]

not sure if this is helpful, but joyce and I have been doing the following.

we prepare lunch for the week on sundays and basically make enough for both of us to last the week. it means eating the same thing everyday for the week, so it depends on if you are ok with that. i have no qualms with routine lunches so it not a big deal for me. I actually prefer it.

also if we have leftovers from dinner that week we try to re-use it in our lunch for the week. for instance i had made some curry puffs earlier in the week but had lots of left over already made ground beef/potato/onion stuffing. so that sunday i just made a pot of chili using the left over stuffing and some left over bell peppers from another meal. bought some buns on our grocery run and we were set for lunch for the week.

there are certain things that work pretty great as dishes you can throw left overs in. typically stews, soups, chilis, fried rice, etc...

doing this we have found we aren't wasting as much food as we used to with just the two of us.

[Duncan]

i have a feeling it's up to winnie if she's willing to do all that because nathan doesn't seem too keen on cooking or prepping food himself haha