Frugal Lunch by Clever Dudette
I would like to announce the first guest article by my wife Stacie, aka Clever Dudette. Stacie is a Registered Dietitian in the D.C. region, and runs her own nutrition site at Building Nutrition.
Enjoy!
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Clever Dude and I frequently disagree on lunch purchases. I work in a hospital (and therefore have ready access to the cafeteria) but have packed my lunch daily for over 6 months. The Dude works at a client site with expensive lunch options (cafeteria and food court). I believe that to be frugal (and health-conscious) for lunch, it is imperative to pack your lunch!
Average cost of an insulated lunch box:
$10 at Walmart or on Amazon.com. You can use the Amazon.com product search on the sidebar.
What are good and healthy options for lunch?
Let’s assume that you have a refrigerator but no microwave to heat foods:
Monday Lunch:
PBJ sandwich on wheat bread, raw carrots, baked chips and an apple:
- Peanut butter ($0.11)
- jelly($0.07)
- wheat bread ($0.30)
- raw carrots ($0.12)
- bag of baked chips ($0.28)
- apple ($0.50)
- water from the fountain (free). It’s safe, except where the Dude works, but they provide water coolers.
Cost: $1.38
Tuesday Lunch:
Turkey sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce, tomato, light mayo, carrot sticks, canned pears in light syrup and a snack pack of Oreos (the Dude’s favorite):
- turkey sandwich on wheat bread ($1.30)
- lettuce ($0.25)
- tomato ($0.25)
- light mayo ($0.14)
- carrot sticks ($0.12)
- canned pears in light syrup ($0.69)
- snack pack of Oreos ($0.41)
- fountain or cooler water again (still free)
Cost: $3.16
Wednesday Lunch:
Tuna salad sandwich, banana, celery sticks with peanut butter, baked chips
- tuna sandwich (light tuna canned in water on wheat bread with light mayo) ($1.00)
- banana ($0.25)
- celery sticks with peanut butter ($0.25 + $0.11)
- bag of baked chips ($0.28)
- the infamous water from the water fountain (free again)
Cost: $2.00
Thursday lunch:
Repeat of Monday.
Cost: $1.38
Friday lunch:
Repeat of Tuesday—have to use that lunch meat!
Cost: $3.16
So to calculate the comparison costs, let’s ignore that you may work from home some days, or don’t work all 52 weeks each year:
Cost of eating out (average $6 a day) = $30.00
Cost of packing a lunch for 5 days = $11.00
Total savings = $19.00/week * 52 weeks = $988.00!!!
What if you have no microwave and no refrigerator?
You could spend $10-15 for a lunch bag that comes with a freezer pack
. You can also just throw a few ice cubes in a re-usable Zip-lock bag to use as a “free†ice pack.
Each of these lunches will provide about 600 calories, which is appropriate for the average man or woman. So, not only are they inexpensive, but they are healthy too!!!
More from Cleverdude:
Some of the above comments refer to buying out as a way to counter blandness. I make a lot of ethnic food at home and take leftovers for lunch. I just graduated from college a few months ago and have never cooked in my life – but there are plenty of really easy recipes out there even for exotic-seeming sauces. It takes a few hours over the weekend to cook a couple interesting dishes that last me for lunch all week. It would be even faster if I bought pre-made sauces. Just saying there are many alternatives to sandwiches out there.
love this! i keep veggie burgers and buns in the freezer here at work. when i get hungry, i stick them in the microwave for lunch. not as cheap as PB &J but definitely a LOT cheaper than buying lunch in manhattan.
I only like sandwiches occasionally, and I’m vegetarian, but I’ve found that it’s really quite easy to bring interesting and tasty packed lunches… I often make a pot of chili, soup or stew, eat this for dinner on the night it’s prepared and then freeze leftovers to bring in a thermos a few times over the next couple weeks. Or brown rice, salsa and beans hot in a thermos, with shredded cheese carried separately to put on top. You could also bring other tex-mex type fillings in a thermos and wrap in a tortilla or eat as a dip with nacho chips.
Another option is to bring pita, hummus, tabouleh, veggies etc separately and then put together at work/school. Yogurt, fruit and granola is another great combination for lunch time.. For a kidlike alternative to pb&j, try bananas, apples, raisins etc.
There’s a lot of moaning going on here. I can’t understand why people think that making lunch is extra effort or that things will have to be chucked (if you plan ahead and make the effort to eat it it won’t, duh) and what does it matter if the water isn’t palatable, bottles of water can be picked up cheaply (two litres of water costs about 12p, that’s $0.24 no?) then once you’ve drunk it, wash out the bottles and refill them. I once read something about freezing empty bottles to keep them fresh…not sure about the practicality of that though. The sample menu is…strange (i mean why would you mix peanut butter and jam? strange americans lol), but you’re making a sandwich and putting it in foil, how difficult can it be to make it interesting? I make my lunch every day and don’t find it gets boring at all. Salad takes seconds to prepare and things like radishes or onions (i personally love sliced white onion in vinager in a tuna sandwich) can liven up a sandwich. Taking a salad is a great idea too, i pack up leftover salad from the night before with a bit of dressing or dip to make it more interesting. If you don’t like tinned pears, there is always other tinned fruit, chopped up fresh fruit : halve a kiwi, wrap in foil and it’s ready to eat; chop up an apple or something and put it in a container with some yoghurt. These things are all easy to do. I mean if you can be bothered you can make your own houmus and chop up some crudites in what ten minutes? Nothing boring there.
I do the same thing as Dan. I cook more food than I need for two and bring the leftovers for lunch the next day. It saves time since I don’t need to spend the time making sandwiches. My dinners usually have more variety than the same sandwiches every week. This does require a microwave to be available at your workplace. Alternatively, you could make salad for dinner and bring the leftovers for lunch the next day.
Regarding the “drinks” thing, I bought a reusable water bottle and fill it up with my Brita pitcher. It saves me the hassle of going to the water fountain and also I’m not fond of using a fountain where I can see green things growing.
I really find that I save time by preparing my own lunch. I can take a half hour lunch break and leave half an hour earlier rather than going out somewhere and buying food. That usually requires an hour lunch break.
FYI people, I’ve removed the PBJ and Turkey sandwich pics since I found they were “All Rights Reserved” on Flickr. I got permission from the photographer of the tuna salad sandwich to reuse that photo though.
Thanks alert readers!
i’m finding more and more that i need to bring my lunch (or, various light meals as the case may be), but also reaching a debate on whether it is worth it to me, not in a monitary way though.
unlike most folks who go to work/school, which this article can easily be applied to, i’m in constant motion throughout the day and am frequently carrying more than i can handle. i can barely carry or stuff a bag of items into my backpack or side pack. i’m on campuses and offices in different cities throughout the day, so i have no real access to a fridge. however, my options for food are often expensive, unsavory, or unhealthy. $3 bagels, $5-6 sandwiches and an arm full of chips and candy bars can only go so far on my work study salary.
though this point seems obvious, i enjoy finding new articles on this topic and hearing suggestions, since it always motivates me to try something that’ll relieve the pressure on my wallet and also the guilt of spending more and eating terribly.
I love it!!!! You all (through this site and others commenting today) have so many healthy and different ideas for lunch (it even gave me a few). It’s so awesome to see so many people talking about nutrition and healthy meals (and maybe my article sparked some small changes to one person’s lunch (if not more people))???
Sorry that my options weren’t more varied…I will have to work on this for my future posts….
I’m glad to see that you guys are all interested in nutrition and thrifty/healthy eating. I’ll keep those articles coming!!
To Jenn who mentioned having more than she could handle–
I too am a student on the go, so I only bring meals when I really can’t soldier through the day without them. Snacks can get you through, though, and take up less space. On Mondays, for example, when I’m away from home for ten hours and hauling about books for my own class and the class I teach, I pack a Larabar (giving me lots of fabulous fiber), a couple of string cheeses, and a few chocolates (either Hershey’s kisses or Ritter sport, if I feel like getting fancy). As long as I’ve had a good meal first, and drink a fair quantity of fluids, these two tiny meals (chocolates/cheese and Larabar/cheese) keep me from feeling too hungry, and the inclusion of the protein from the cheese keeps my blood sugar from crashing!
Dudette’s ideas are good. Another: I’ve stopped shopping at Costco for food. It’s ok, but I spend a lot more at places like Wild Oats for better food. Not all the time, but as much as I can. Here, Salt Lake City, Wild Oats is practically the only big store and the prices are high, but I know that in other parts of the country there are good stores that have much lower prices. The difference, the better taste, is big. Saves only a little bit over the food court, so if you’re going solely for cost, it may not be better to shop at a place where the organics are plenty. What do I know, I’ve only been doing it a year. But my meals are tasty!
Great post. I’m daily lunch packer as well, without a microwave at my disposal. I do lots of hearty mixed salads (current fave is cracked wheat, cucumber, tomato, chickpeas, lemon juice and olive oil). One of your commenters raises a great point: it is moderately time consuming to pack a lunch. On average, I probably 15 minutes per day (depending on whether or not i have leftovers to work with, how ambitious/lazy I’m feeling, etc.), and since we’re being mathematical about it, that’s 1.25 hours per week. But how much does this inconvenience really “cost”? If you work a minimum wage job, you could have earned about $10 is that 1.25 hours. But if you are going out for lunch, aren’t you losing even more time getting to and from your lunch spot?
Then there’s the whole general goodness in getting out of the office and being social with coworkers thing. It’s a complicated issue and many of the costs are just not that simple!
For me it’s less about the money and more about the quality – in general I prefer my own food to the processed garbage found at most “fast” food joints. And if it’s a nice day, I have my lunch outside (I’m a sucker for a good picnic). Once in a while I treat myself to a nice sit down lunch with my colleagues, which probably throws all my savings out the window. But I’m rich in wholesome lunches, and that’s a good thing. =)
Thanks so much for posting this. I’m in London and plan to do a similar calculation in GBP – it’s going to be scary.
Not to meantion health…you will die alot quicker from the food court fats than you will from blandness. Sometimes I bring cheese and crackers and some craisins or raisins for lunch. Then I can knit or sew or read in the lunch room and that creates a network of sorts for the creatives amongst us.
At my office, it’s the norm to bring your lunch (and eat at your desk while barely pausing from work, but that’s a different story). A lot of people bring a frozen entree, so there’s always that option (though personally I’d rather not eat than eat a frozen entree).
I struggle with bringing my lunch, and only succeed part of the time. However I always eat lunch by myself, it’s not a social time for me. I just have trouble with prepping my lunch the night before. However, when I take my lunch I feel better, eat better and generally am more productive. When I eat out I spend too much ($12 as a rule) and eat too much.
My lunch staples are pbj or a ham sandwich with raw veggie and a piece of fruit. It takes me all of 5 minutes to prep my lunch the night before and keep it in the fridge (it never happens if I wait til morning). Then again I’m a bland food hater, so after several days I always have to go out for some mexican food or something. (what? be organized enough to take mexican? lol)
Oh, and Phill — peanut butter and jam (the proverbial pbj) is a veritable american institution!
This is a great post with some great comments.
To address the networking issue – does your place of employment have a lunch room? We don’t have a cafeteria here but we do have a lunch room (they call it a staff lounge) with indoor and outdoor seating. Sometimes I eat my lunch there and sometimes I sit at my desk. It depends on how much work I need to get done.
I do try to bring my lunch everyday but am willing to save it for tomorrow if a bunch of people are getting together for a nice lunch. Sometimes you just want to be with the group.
And Dudette, it’s too bad so many people dislike peanut butter! I work two jobs, two days a week and have to eat lunch or dinner in my car on the way to the next job. A peanut butter and banana sandwich on light multigrain bread is the only thing I eat on those trips. It is delicious and I don’t have to worry about drips or stains to my clothes!
I ditto the leftovers. Even from when you eatout, I always bring home leftovers. So a $35-40 dinner for us can often net 2-3 meals. Often when we order steak out (or prepare at home) there are enough leftovers for a steak salad for lunch & then we do steak & eggs for breakfast…
When I did work in “Corporate America” I did go out to eat a LOT & am still paying the price for it (just a few extra pounds to go!)(but I was usually being woooed by a sales person) as for networking with peers we had Thursday lunch that was our weekly thing. So maybe you could set up a weekly “Date” we did chinese buffet & the occaisional pizza joint. But otherwise we’d bring our own lunches & hang out in the lounge or someone elses office.
Click my name for a website (not mine) with vegan lunch ideas.
I currently live close enough to work that I can come home for lunch most days, which is even better than bringing a lunch. But, during grad school, I did pack a lunch. You can do hummus, peanut butter and jelly, or seasoned lentils and rice, just to name a few. Since I’m vegetarian instead of vegan, I also like to make tomato and cheese sandwiches, with mustard and black pepper. Pack the tomatoes separately from the rest of the sandwich, and assemble before eating.
If you don’t want to make your own lunch, and you have a microwave, a can of soup is also cheaper than lunch out (although high in salt).
In case any of these ideas are helpful to someone, in my office (with fridge, kettle, microwave, bowl, can opener, chopsticks, spoons/forks/knifes) I often have
– some of those high fiber crackers that don’t go stale (or at least don’t taste different if they do) Ryvita right now.
– some brown rice cakes
– a block or 2 of cheese
– used to have couscous and a tupperware (add boiling water, put the lid on, wait, open and stir) but I guess I got bored of it. I’d put things like canned indian food over it.
– kidney beans, chickpeas, or something like that
– a few carrots (they get rubbery quickly)
– apples? oranges? … bananas, but they don’t last as well
– dark chocolate
– peanut butter
– instant Indian in bags
– noodles (I’ve been into the Annie Chun’s brand lately)
– chili and/or soup in cans
– sometimes bread, with a bunch of the loaf still in the freezer (the one I buy at the local coop, Colorado, comes to them frozen, so I ask for a frozen loaf from the back) but it’s still harder to “maintain” (not having some go bad or running out) than the crackers.
– and sometimes half of the last large lunch I bought
I still go out a fair bit, but often I can scrounge enough from the stuff I’ve left around to be pretty happy.