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Save Time and Money Packing your own Lunch and Making your own Dinners

By save.spend.splurge 9 Comments

 

Save time and money packing your own lunch and making your own dinners

It can be really difficult to make food and think about making it when you’re caught up in the daily rush that is your job, but bringing your lunch to work can make a significant impact to your bottom line.

Think about it – if you go out to eat, the minimum spend is anywhere from $10 – $15 for a meal and a drink.

If you go out 5 times a week, that’s $50 – $75 being spent, or $200 – $300 a month. I am sure you can think of better things to do with $200 bucks than stuff your face with low quality junk food.

The bottom line is that you should at least be thinking about bringing your lunch for the majority of your work meals and going out to eat only as a special occasion with co-workers.

1. Meal Plan

The single most effective way to make sure you bring your lunches for the week is to be organized, and that includes meal planning. You have to know ahead of time what you want to make for each day so that when you go grocery shopping you have a list that tells you exactly how much you need to buy.

This also cuts down on waste because you aren’t buying more than what you need, and it lets you use the same ingredients across multiple meals so that you don’t end up with half an avocado, wondering what to do with it.

2. Buy all the ingredients ahead of time

Do all of your shopping on the weekend, either on Saturday or Sunday with your list of ingredients and make sure you have everything on hand.

This only works if you’ve planned your meals out! Otherwise, you will end up frustrated that you are missing half a lemon for your hummus.

3. Do as much of the prep work as early as possible

After you buy all your ingredients, set aside some time that day to prep your food as far as possible. This means washing all your vegetables and herbs, perhaps even chopping them ahead of time or marinating your meats so that they’re ready to be pulled out and cooked in a flash.

If everything is already prepped and ready to go in your fridge, it’s just a matter of pulling out the marinated chicken, throwing it in a pan, boiling some pasta on the side and mixing the vegetables together in a bowl for a quick salad. You could have a well-cooked meal in less than 20 minutes and pack the leftovers for your lunch the next day.

Alternatively, you could prepare all of your lunches ahead of time into separate Tupperware boxes and grab a box each day for your lunch.

4. Keep staples on hand

A good way to save time is to make sure that you always have basic vegetables on hand like onions or potatoes if you eat a lot of them. Other great things to stock your pantry with: rice, pasta, and flour. That way, even if you run out of food halfway through the week, you can still make a quick meal by chopping up a few potatoes, tossing them in the oven with some salt and pepper and eating it as a meal in a pinch.

5. Make extra food and eat the leftovers

When you cook food, cook for more than one meal so you can eat the leftovers as either your dinner or your lunch for the next day. You really don’t have the time to be making two individual meals a day, so why put yourself through that hassle?

6. Buy snacks

Finally, think about purchasing things that are easily transportable and easy to eat without utensils for snacks such as bananas, oranges, grapes, or apples. If you get sick of eating the same thing over and over again, pre-cut or peel your fruit ahead of time and make a fruit salad in individual Tupperware boxes to go so that you don’t need to cut up your fruit at work for your lunch.

Other great snack ideas are granola bars, yoghurt cups and anything that is easy to eat without requiring a fork, knife and spoon.

The bottom line is that although it might seem like a lot of work at the start to meal plan and shop ahead of time, after a while it becomes routine. You’ll wonder why you ever thought it was so difficult, and you will feel healthier (and perhaps slimmer!) while your bank account grows fatter.

Filed Under: Food Tagged With: dinners, lunch, money, pack lunch, packing your lunch, save time

About save.spend.splurge

Sherry (saverspender) got out of $60,000 of debt in 18 months using her budgeting and expense tracking tool, and now blogs over at Save. Spend. Splurge. where she talks mostly about money, particularly spending it (like on clothes!!), but also about style, minimalism, career and anything that strikes her fancy. She has a weakness for butter croissants, macarons, and a well-made cup of tea.

Comments

  1. Dan @ Our Big Fat Wallet says

    October 1, 2014 at 21:28

    I love this. I really think it’s one of the fundamentals of saving money and living within your means. It’s so simple and so many people overlook it for that reason. I always try to bring my own lunch to work and we only dine out once per week….usually fridays 🙂
    Dan @ Our Big Fat Wallet recently posted…Costco’s Secret Price CodesMy Profile

    Reply
    • Anne says

      October 2, 2014 at 10:12

      Absolutely, at least in North America, it is so much cheaper to feed ourselves, vs pay for the labour of someone else to feed us.

      Reply
  2. Jay @ ThinkingWealthy.com says

    October 1, 2014 at 16:10

    Not going to lie, as soon as I saw this title, I wanted to x out of the site! I’m not a cook and live off of freezer and to-go/deliver food. I really do need to get in the habit of at least bringing lunch a few days a week to work just to save money!

    Jay
    Jay @ ThinkingWealthy.com recently posted…Understand How to Manage Your PortfolioMy Profile

    Reply
    • Anne says

      October 2, 2014 at 10:11

      Egad, the calories! Give it a shot sometime, your mouth and waistline will also thank you!

      Reply
  3. Pauline says

    October 1, 2014 at 08:53

    I am not organized enough to meal plan but pretty good at reusing leftovers so that evens out. I have the oldest vegetables on the first shelf of the fridge so I grab them first. I read that they lose their vitamins and nutriments if you chop them the day before so I do it on the spot, even when I took veggies to work I would chop them during lunch break.
    Pauline recently posted…Going on holidays when you live on the beachMy Profile

    Reply
    • Anne says

      October 2, 2014 at 10:06

      That’s a good system with the shelves. I try to do that with the drawers sometimes, but usually I can’t fit things in the way that I want to. Cucumbers are so long!
      Interesting, I’ve never heard of someone doing the veggies on their lunch break before, except for some of the guys at work who basically just bring groceries.

      Reply
  4. Michelle says

    October 1, 2014 at 07:43

    I’m all about meal planning. It has saved us a good amount of money, and it helps us eat at home more often. We also have a lot less food waste now that we know what food items we need!
    Michelle recently posted…How Your Credit Score Affects Your Life + Credit Sesame ReviewMy Profile

    Reply
  5. Jen @ Save to Splurge says

    October 1, 2014 at 06:35

    I love this! I try to cook extra when I make dinner so that I won’t have to worry about lunch the next day. And if I don’t have leftovers, I’d rather pack a sandwich and lots of fruit than eat out. It gets pricey!
    Jen @ Save to Splurge recently posted…How to Pack a Suitcase (Three Weeks in a Small Carry-On!)My Profile

    Reply
    • Anne says

      October 2, 2014 at 09:48

      We always, always eat leftovers for lunch the next day. It just makes sense!

      Reply

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