SavingsVine.com

For as long as I can remember, I’ve eaten out every day for lunch. I enjoy leaving the office and getting into my car and driving out to a local eatery to get my lunch. In the last few months, this has all changed. My wife and I need to start saving money, so I decided to do my part… yep I now brown bag it every weekday.

I can see how this might be hard for some people. I for one LOVE going out for lunch. I can choose something different everyday to eat. Some folks socialize with their co-workers by going out to lunch. But lets face it folks, it’s costly and getting more expensive as this recession starts to hit restaurant profit margins. So what to do?

After doing the number crunching I discovered just how much I was spending a week by going out to lunch. On any given weekday, I’d drive out to the nearest mall and plop down anywhere between $6-$9 for lunch. Lunch always includes a drink which to me is THE most overpriced part of many meals. So let’s just say I spend an average of $7 a day on lunch, multiply that by 5 and wow… that’s $35 a week on food. It’s time to save some money!

Brown bagging it doesn’t have to be boring. It does require some will power and initiative though. You can’t be lazy when you’re brown bagging it. I take two homemade sandwiches, a drink and a small snack to work everyday. I prepare my lunch the night before and pack them in separate ziploc type containers and make a mental note to myself not to forget to TAKE my lunch with me to work the next morning.

The main goal of taking a home lunch is two fold: First of all you gotta eat and feel like you had a decent lunch. Secondly you wanna save money! I often take left overs from dinner as lunch for the next day. I also buy my whole wheat bread from Costco or SamsClub. I can get TWO Orowheat whole wheat loaves for about $5.50, it’s probably cheaper in your neck of the woods. My favorite thing to do is to buy a huge tub of Hummus and some sandwich meat and make a sandwich out of that. I also love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so I make that as my “other” sandwich. When soft drinks go on sale at Costco, you can buy a whole CAE for what it costs for one days lunch!

So how much am I saving? If I freeze the bread, I find it’ll last a long time. I don’t buy my sandwich meat in bulk but I do buy it on sale as I need it or I use a clip and save coupon. Peanut butter and Jelly takes a while to go through an entire jar. Overall, I’d say I save about $25 a week or MORE by not eating out and taking something from home. I probably save even more than that just because I don’t have to drive anywhere and that saves gas.

Do yourself a favor and start brown bagging and see just how much you actually save!