Friday Question #61
Do you “brown-bag” your lunch or a lunch for your kids/family members? How often?
A little blurb in the April issue of Marie Claire made me think about this. They had a little chart that compared the cost of making a sandwich at home, to buying one at Subway. They concluded that the cost was so close ($5.01 vs. $5.59), it might not even be worth the effort to make the sandwich at home.
Hmm.
I bring my lunch to work every day of the week, unless I have a planned lunch date. I usually only have one lunch date a week (with my favorite lunch buddy, diane), but this week, I had THREE lunch dates – one every single day I was at work!
It’s expensive to eat out downtown every day. But some people do. I know people at my old office who did. And I am sure there are people at my new office who do as well. I’d rather have it be a treat, then do it every day. Three days in a row was too much this week.
Themocracy
I RARELY eat out or at the cafeteria at work during the week. A typical lunch here is over $6 and breakfast would be around $4. That’s $10 a day, $50 a week! I bring ALL of my food for the day with me: breakfast (fruit & oatmeal), snacks (veggies w/light ranch, another piece of fruit, raw almonds, protein bar, etc), and lunch. I just make sure to pack everything up the night before so it doesn’t take long in the morning. I find that not only is it cheaper, but it also keeps me eating healthier.
I work in the office four days a week out of those four days, I bring lunch three days. Once a week I go out with my co-worker.
A few weeks ago we had an office lunch and my boss was in town so I went out to eat three days and it was way too much for me.
I bring mine 99% of the time. Either leftovers or some sort of gross frozen food, but it makes me feel better than eating out.
normally i bring my lunch, leftovers or eat a frozen smart ones and a yogurt… dc’s really good about asking if i want him to make extra at night so i can take some to work for lunch the next day! i try to limit my eating out to once a week at lunch though… unless i am just craving something!!!!
=^..^=
I bring my lunch 4 out of 5 days of the work week. Sure if I ate at Subway everytime I ate out it’d only be $5.25 for a footlong BUT I rarely eat at Subway, most other places it’s easily $10-$15 per meal, before tip. For a while (pre-Weight Watchers) I was eating out everyday. When I looked back at how often I was going out, it was easy to add up and see I was spending $60-$70 a week just eating lunch!
I guess I’m the outlier here. Heh!
I’ve always gone out for lunch. I try to keep it on the cheap, and the lower I can get my meal to be the happier I am. Lately I’ve started asking for a cup for water instead of ever buying a drink. But the idea of packing my lunch every single day stresses me out for a couple reasons…
1) I am already packing my snacks and my breakfast, I really don’t want to have to worry about ANOTHER meal to prepare.
2) I need to get out of the office at some point in the day. I often just sit quietly by myself (if I don’t have a lunch date! *smile*) or take the time to chat with my mom, which almost always makes me feel good.
I’m glad to hear the difference in sandwich cost is minimal. E. and I already have a problem with fresh foods going to waste too quickly if they’re not consumed…I’d have to buy lunch meat and feel compelled to eat it every day so it doesn’t go bad and again, I feel like that would stress me out more than worrying about the cost of eating out!
I bring my almost every day. The only time I don’t is if I’m having a lunch meeting (where work will pay for the food) or if I’m in dire need of a trip to the grocery store. My husband eats out every day so I figure that one of us spending that kind of money on lunch is more than enough.
As for the Marie Claire article, I find it amusing that they compared the most expensive make-at-home choices with the Subway sandwich. I’d love to see a comparison where they didn’t shop at Whole Foods for their ingredients.
I bring my lunch about 99% of the time. If I am called in early to work unexpectedly or desperately need to grocery shop, I might stop at Wendy’s, but it’s too expensive to do every day!
This is interesting because when I only had one kid in school, she brought her lunch every day. When there were 3 kids in school, we bought once a week and they brought their own the rest of the days. This year (or maybe last year?) I started having the kids either make their own lunch and snack or just pack their snack and then buy the hot lunch at school. At first they were buying it about 2 times a week. Now towards the end of the school year they are buying almost every single day. I think that is out of laziness, but I do find that I spend less buying their lunch than I would by having them bring it (and MUCH less than I spend making their lunches when they are home for breaks). They get fruits and vegetables that they probably wouldn’t get if they packed their own lunch, and a main thing that isn’t really very healthy but my kids don’t really eat that part of the lunch anyway. I figure no matter what, they are getting lots of fruits and vegetables they wouldn’t get so the cost doesn’t influence what we do even if it is more expensive.
I obviously am usually at home for lunch or out somewhere that I can’t really bring my own lunch to. My husband gets to go out for client lunches almost every single day that his company pays for. I am often jealous about that! But if he isn’t going out with clients, he still never brings his lunch. I would assume on those days he goes out by himself but I really have never thought about it.
Four out of five days I bring my lunch. Since I live alone it’s easy for me to cook dinner for two then bring the second portion to work for lunch during the week. If I ever shack up with someone, this might end up being a problem. I’ll just have to double everything so we both have lunch for work!
Up until this school year, my kids brought their lunch from home. Unfortunately, the food prices shot up to astronomical levels here, and I couldn’t beat the school lunch prices. I did a huge excel spreadsheet on it and everything. They had be beat by about a dollar per meal, per child – which meant that every day both my kids took their lunch, I could have paid for THREE lunches at my kid’s school.
But if I had to compare going out to eat at McDonald’s or Subway or something, I know for a fact I can beat those prices, easily. But then, I’m not piling all the junk into my lunches either. I don’t need $12 a pound slices of deli meat. There are lots of alternatives.
I eat lunch out every day that I go to work…if I work from home, I eat at home. I probably spend $10 a day on lunches, and I feel okay about that. I get time to myself, with a book, and I get a lunch I wouldn’t make for myself (fancy salads are usually what I get).
I thought the Marie Claire was interesting…I doubt that Subway uses organic tomatoes though.
I try to eat home (I work from home) every day. At least during the week. It’s such a money saver!
I probably go out for lunch at work once a week. Otherwise I bring leftovers, frozen meal, sandwich, etc.
Food here is more expensive, but I tend to prefer left overs from supper the night before. The frozen food thing is good but I find the sodium is stupid high…
I work nights, I try to bring left overs. It’s healthier and less expensive. I don’t think I’ve ever made myself a $5. sandwich at home. Ever. I shop the sales.
I used to eat out every day, as you know in Chicago can get expensive. I started to bring my own due to the fact it is so much healthier. Cost aside, you can’t control how and what is used to cook food. By bringing your own you can control what you eat. very once in a while, I do go out, but am selective in what I order.
Eating healthier is not necessarily cheaper, but I think worth it.
I really do not like eating out often. I enjoy a good meal and I like good food, but it adds up. Plus, I don’t like things to get “old” I like to mix it up a good bit.
I’ve been trying to eliminate almost all fast food from my diet (in preparation of getting my fitness program going again) and taking my lunch 2 days a week has been helping. Sometimes it’s leftovers, sometimes it’s a sandwich and sometimes it’s a can of soup (the Progresso or Campbell’s Selects brands). And then once a week (like yourself), I like to go out and sit down and have a nice lunch at someplace I like (Chili’s or Red Robin) as a treat. It makes it nice and less mundane and cuts back on the every day thing.
My boss is awesome, so we have a free lunch program at work. Mondays are usually sandwich days, but every other day we have a hot meal cooked for us. I won’t brown bag it, even if I don’t like what’s on the menu. After all, there’s always the salad bar.
I’m at home everyday, so I eat at home. BUT my kids generally take their lunch to school at least 3-4 days a week. I’ve never actually thought about comparing the costs, but I do think that they eat better when I pack their lunch. They will choose one or two items from the cafeteria that they like and then toss the rest. At least I know that they eat everything that I send them and we aren’t wasting food. So even if the cost overall is the same or less, the meal from home is usually better for them in my opinion.