Breakfast + Lunch from home = big savings!
Posted by: SueI almost always bring my lunch - and breakfast stuff - to work. I say almost because, well, I’m human and I am nothing if not imperfect. Bringing lunch is nothing new to me, in fact, it’s so old it sometimes gets, well, OLD. Last week I started wondering how much of an impact this has on my living a frugal life. I mean, really wondering - how much am I spending on this, and even more importantly, how much am I saving. This little mind journey was prompted by a conversation with a guy in my department. He’s someone who is forever complaining about his finances, how there’s always more month than money. Now, he’s not receptive to my advice, no matter how small, how friendly, or the spirit in which it is offered. Don’t ask how I know this. I don’t try to tell him what to do, I just listen, nod, then go away and mull things over for myself.
Anyway! Recently this person mentioned the fact that he spends at least $10 PER DAY buying breakfast and lunch foods from the cafeteria downstairs. Plus maybe a “couple more dollars” for snack foods. So we’re talking $50 a week for breakfast/lunch ($10 a day times 5 days a week = easy math, very easy). Then let’s add in another $10 for snacks, although it’s probably higher, because he I’ve seen him produce four snack items purchased from the cafeteria from the depths of his pants pockets. Now my mind is wondering how much he could carry if he wore cargo pants. But anyway. We’re not talking huge quantities of food, generally - a sandwich and chips run $6 or so, individual boxes of breakfast cereals that he buys are $1 each, then an order of toast or some other side thing. He does bring in a lot of fruit from home, but I’ve given suggesting that we build on that. (See comment “Don’t ask how I know this”, above).
All this made me wonder - how much am I spending on breakfast/lunch by bringing it from home? What’s it saving me? So I did a little math (not so easy math), and this is what I came up with, for this week anyway:
Breakfasts have been two hard cooked eggs and half a banana. The bananas were 19¢ per pound, and the eggs 99¢ a dozen. So 17¢ for the eggs each day, banana…not so easy, since I have the scale put away, but what the heck, I’ll say 10¢. For lunch, I’ve been making quesadillas with corn tortillas from Aldi (guessing 99¢ for a 36 count pack, so 5¢ for 2 each day), cheese (99¢ for an 8-ounce bag of shredded cheddar - for simplicity’s sake, I’ll just factor based on the whole bag, so 20¢) and homemade salsa (everything’s from the garden. But I will call it at 25¢ for a percentage of the lid, and natural gas for cooking for a week’s worth, or 5¢ per day. Yeah, I’m getting weird with this.) Baby carrots - $1 for a 1 pound bag, so 20¢). Canned pineapple (another 20¢). Okay, let me add this up for a day: I’m coming in at just under $1 a day - 97¢ to be exact - for breakfast and lunch. Yes, I got some good deals. Yes, I can go for weeks eating the same or similar things and be perfectly happy. And finally, YES, my male co-worker probably eats more than I do. So my spending $5 a week on breakfasts/lunches and his spending $50 is not exactly a 1 to 1 comparision ratio. Bump up my costs to allow for more food and a bit more variety - heck. Let’s even double them and say $10. I’m still coming in at $40 less per 5 day week to keep me fed. And we haven’t even talked snacks. I now see just how little I’m spending on food some weeks. And just how much more it costs to buy prepared food at work. Because even using some of his examples - $1 for a single serving box of cereal vs $2 for a big box of the same cereal bought on sale with coupons…and the big box would have at least 10 servings, I think. We’re talking huge savings. Bringing a sandwich and chips from home vs buying them for $6 - I know you can make a sandwich and pack a few chips for several dollars less.
That’s settles it. I’m going to be bringing in my breakfast and lunch until I retire. The savings can be huge - and really do add up!