Donna Freedman over at MSN Money has proposed a simple, easy money challenge: pack your lunch every day for a month. Then, pay yourself $5 every time you don't go out for coffee or lunch during the workweek. If you transfer that money into an online savings account, you'll have a decent chunk of change at the end of the month. You can use that money to pad your emergency fund or to pay down some debt.
I like this idea because it is a way to cut back without dooming yourself to years and years of no frills drudgery. Food your cook at home is usually healthier than restaurant fare as well.
This does not mean, however, that you are doomed to a month of peanut butter sandwiches. You just have to turn on your noodle and be creative.
Here are some lunch-packing ideas from the Internet:
- For those who love the simple sandwich: what to buy and how to pack it to avoid the mushies.
- RecipeCzar also has some ideas and recipes for exotic, interesting foods that hold up well in a lunchbox
- The Dallas Morning News has a feature, with recipes, to avoid lunchbox blues
- The Dollar Stretcher has some practical, thrifty tips for lunch packers
Here at MPF, we employ a two-pronged strategy to keeping the lunch budget in chec.. First, we stock hubby's desk with ingredients such as peanut butter, crackers, bread, tuna, rice cakes, and other miscellaneous food items every month. That way, if he is caught away from home and forgot his lunch, he still has something to eat.
Second, we try to make large pots of easily-reheated foods several times a week. Since it is winter, we make a lot of big pots of soup such as vegetarian chili, corn chowder, and lentil-mushroom-okra stew. Pot roast with potatoes and carrots, magically made in the crock pot, also do well as weekday lunches. Come summer, hot soup will be replaced with a lot of salad and fruit.
My mother-in-law, who can pinch a nickel until the buffalo poops, claims that packing lunch for her andd her hubby saved them at least $50,000 over the course of their working lives. You may not be able to save that much, but isn't it worth a little extra money in the bank to try it for a month?
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