Comments on: Saving Pennies or Dollars? Brown-Bagging Lunch

By: MARY S

MARY S — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:41:43 +0000

For years I’ve brought my lunch (and dinner,too!) since I worked 12 hr days in a chain pharmacy-no lunch hr or dinner hr-just eat when you are not busy (whenever someone isn’t staring at you waiting for their prescriptions to be filled). Otherwise, it’s count on the kindness of your technicians to go out to get you fast food or eat junk food from the front of the store! Glad I don’t have to do that anymore.

By: Carol Cripps

Carol Cripps — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:48:00 +0000

AT one place where I worked, a colleague told me that bringing my lunch was making *her* gain weight! The reason? The leftovers, soups, chilis, and whatever was left from supper smelled so good that she had to go out to the coffee truck to buy lunch, instead of eating the meagre thing she’d brought. I told her that it really wasn’t a big deal to bring lunch – she just had to cook good meals at home, and, once a week, peel and cut up vegetables and put them in baggies. We had tea and coffee in the kitchen, and didn’t have to pay for that, so a drink was free. She told me that with a husband and two children it was “too much work”. I had two ill parents at home to look after, and did it. I’d sometimes make a big batch of something on the weekend, and freeze lunches in plastic containers – even margarine containers would work. I’d toss one, frozen, into my bag in the morning. It would be thawed by lunchtime, and a couple of minutes in the microwave would warm it through. I’d also tuck a roll into the bag – they, too, would get cut and buttered, then frozen – and a baggie of vegetables. Tea and coffee were provided by the company, so I didn’t have to worry about that. I would seldom have the same lunch twice in a week, because I would sometimes take sandwiches, or there would be leftovers from dinner. I couldn’t justify spending money on the coffee truck when I had better food, cheaper, that I brought from home.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 02:24:59 +0000

I am single and almost always have a homemade lunch. I cook two meals on the weekend and freeze the portions. I also pre-make salads. This week my snack/lunches/dinners consist of salad, (quesadilla with corn, black beans, and whole wheat tortilla) or (whole wheat pasta with ground turkey and marinara), homemade popcorn, and two pieces of fruit. My meals are generally less than $1.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:17:54 +0000

My cheap “go-to” lunch when I don’t pack one is kind of pathetic, but cheap: I get a 12 inch subway sandwich and eat 1/2 one day, 1/2 the next. Most are $5 footlongs, but sometimes I get a $6 one. usually that is not quite enough, but I might have a piece of fruit from home, or I buy (junk) snack food for .50 from our snack room. Still, that is anywhere from $2.50 – $4 per a lunch. The time cost is also negligible as it is a very very short walk, and no line if I go just before 12 or just after 1.

The trouble is, that gets boring fast, and I am tempted to go into the $10 range for something more varied and delicious.

If my dinner has leftovers, I like to bring them. That is clearly the best value. I pretty much never create ‘real’ lunch meals at home. it is either leftovers or sandwhiches/salads with veggies and such on the side.

By: karishma

karishma — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 20:29:39 +0000

I brown-bag because eating the cafeteria food would require as much planning ahead for me. I work 7pm to 7am, and the cafeteria closes at 8, so I’d have to get my food before my shift starts.

But a year ago, the cafeteria closed at midnight, and I was pregnant and eating a lot more and I did regularly eat their food (plus my brown-bag). It was ridiculously unhealthy (fries, chicken tenders, etc), because I didn’t want to eat a cold salad at 3am, but it was cheap. With the employee discount, I never spent more than $4, and that included my giant Diet Mountain Dew.

Now that I no longer have my pregnancy metabolism which lets me eat whatever I want, my work lunches are a lot healthier, but I don’t think they’re much cheaper. Leftovers from dinner, plus yogurt, cheese, etc that are easy to eat on the run if I don’t have time to take an actual lunch break.

By: NewReader

NewReader — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:06:44 +0000

Like George #31, I work in downtown Portland. The $5-6 food cart lunches are tasty, but for the most part high in calories and sodium, and many are bigger portions than one serving — the Thai and Indian lunches especially! — which could mean getting two lunches out of one order, but usually means overeating instead! I bring lunch from home (leftovers usually) mainly for health reasons, but it also saves money. I’m in the habit of putting dinner leftovers into single-serving containers and grabbing them for lunch, along with some snacks like fruit, nuts, or baby carrots. I haven’t calculated the savings but I know I’m not spending $5-6 on my homemade lunches.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 17:05:00 +0000

I would like to see an article on brown bag vs cafeteria if your workplace has one. I work at a larger company with a subsidized cafeteria and can get lunch for under 5 bucks every day. It makes making lunch in the morning a lot harder. I think it would be interesting to see how much the average brown bag lunch really costs a day.
Also, there is a factor of the time buying the extra groceries for packing lunches that should be factored in.

By: Paula

Paula — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:11:26 +0000

I pack a lunch for work almost every day for two reasons. First, we are on a budget with hubby being in school and working part time. And second, I do not get a lunch hour at work (we chose to work through lunch so my coworkers and I could get out a little early each day…its not really working well but that’s a whole other story!).

So, what I usually do is make sandwiches like PB&J, ham and cheese, or salads. Things that I can eat quickly. In the cooler months, I make soups, stews, lasagna, casseroles, chicken and rice dishes–stuff that can be reheated within a few minutes. I don’t like a lot of frozen meals because they just don’t fill me up or they have lots of sodium, which I am trying to avoid.

By: tentaculistic

tentaculistic — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 13:48:49 +0000

Oh, I would estimate (on the low side, unfortunately) that I was spending $20/day on food at work, so for 5 work days per week * 52 weeks that comes out to $5,200 a year. I now spend about $5/day, at $1,300. So I’m saving $3,900 per year.

By: tentaculistic

tentaculistic — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 13:44:59 +0000

I work somewhere with two close lunch places, and for both of them the typical unhealthy meal (fattening sandwich, fries, soda) would be about $9, and a healthy meal (salad and drink; hot/cold buffet and drink, etc) starts at $13. When I was not on a diet (either food or financial), I was dropping SO MUCH money at these places, between the lunch, mid-morning soda, mid-afternoon snack, sometimes even breakfast or dinner. WOW I was spending money, and packing on pounds!! It was so easy and close that I didn’t realize, until I switched jobs and suddenly there was all kinds of breathing room in my budget. I’m back at that job now, but I’m on a diet, so I pack my own food. I’ve lost 30 pounds and am doing so much better financially.

We never have leftovers (hubby’s quirk: no leftovers, so I have had to learn to pre-portion meat so I can cook only one meal’s worth at a time), but I am perfectly happy with pretty much the same thing every day. I slice and cook 2 giant family-size packs of chicken breasts, portion them into snack-sized ziplocks (perfectly sized for 4 oz of chicken slices), and freeze. I have an insulated lunch bag, so every morning I drop in a baggie of frozen chicken, a serving of soup (Tabatchnik frozen soup pouches, or a dried cup of soup), this week’s fruit or veggies from our CSA box, a small portion of nuts, and Greek yogurt with frozen cherries. Works great for me.

Someone mentioned the bento boxes — I am totally obsessed with bento, and I love especially the laptop lunch bento (especially when people color-code the inside containers to the kind of food, to help them portion control different kinds of food). My only complaint is that bento are generally plastic, not glass or aluminum, and I try to avoid microwaving cancer-causing plastic with my food. So instead I have a bunch of small Pyrex or aluminum containers with lids.

By: Jen

Jen — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 08:37:42 +0000

I have calculated making my own lunches to the point where I make my own hummus and it’s way cheaper than the bought stuff. I agree with Trent’s post; the key issue is what you expect your lunch to be. I’d say I’m easily pleased in that respect as I prefer salads and generally cold food like carrot and celery sticks. I have made it part of my evening ritual to either assemble or prepare my next day’s lunch but would be tempted to agree that it’s probably easier because it normally involves very little cooking.

By: Maya

Maya — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 07:26:52 +0000

Like many people here my lunch almost always consists of leftovers, which saves time and money and is generally healthier for me. I have one mediocre sandwich place near my office, and was spending $$$ on frozen lunches in the past. Having a hot lunch is a desire of mine as a couple of people have also posted, and it’s pretty easy to do even when we don’t have real leftovers. My husband and I usually make a large batch of rice each week, and it can take seconds to a minute or so to dish out rice, add some onion or artichoke hearts, or black beans, or whatever and stick it in the fridge.

By: Sara

Sara — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:59:42 +0000

I always bring my lunch to work — usually just a sandwich and a drink. It costs less than $2/day, with negligible prep time and cleanup. I don’t feel the need to have something special and unique for lunch every day; it’s just something quick to get me through the day. I get my variety from dinners.

I think going out to lunch is one of those things that should be a treat, but if you do it every day, you just get used to it. You end up spending $10 every day for something that doesn’t even feel like a treat, and it adds up.

By: Priswell

Priswell — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:06:04 +0000

Bringing lunch to work is almost always the cheapest, calorie budgeting way to eat. But you have to plan for it, and be prepared, planning for extra lunch food from dinner and/or buying with packed lunches specifically in mind.

It really helps when you have the proper containers for it, too. For years, we used various kinds of ways to pack a lunch, everything got easier with Bento-type containers.

While you can literally use plastic wrap and a brown bag, Bento containers are excellent for this because they’re shaped exactly for a packed lunch and can better keep food at safe and proper temperatures. Some are thermos types and can keep food hot or cold, too. The Japanese were pretty smart about lunch packing ideas.

By: jackie

jackie — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:27:59 +0000

OSHA does not regulate meal times on the whole. They may regulate them in specific industries.

The Department of Labor and each state’s labor departments have some regulations. But the specifics mentioned here are not widespread.

It sounds like the rules Kristine is talking about are for hourly employees who are not paid for meal times.

All I had to do was look at the big L&I poster in my break room to see that Washington’s laws are not as comments here describe.

“Workers must be paid during their meal break when: # They are required or allowed to remain on duty. # They are required to be on-call at the business premises or designated worksite to be available to return to duty even if they are not in fact called back to duty. # They are called back to duty during their meal period even though they normally are not on call during the meal period.
Workers may give up their meal period if they prefer to work through it and if the employer agrees.”

That certainly indicates that they are not required to be off-duty. I’d link to the L&I page, but then my comment would get lost in moderation. Google makes it easy to find.

By: George

George — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:02:07 +0000

Working in downtown Portland, OR, we have the food cart culture, so it’s relatively easy to find $4-6 lunches. On the other hand, brownbag lunches from home are only $1-2… difference of $500-1000/yr goes into transportation costs resulting from move beyond the urban growth boundary.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:36:27 +0000

#30 Other Jonathan – The lunch & break requirements also specify that the lunch break is to be in the middle of the day, and the 2 paid breaks are supposed to be midmorning & mid afternoon, not ‘banked’ to the end of the day. As #23 said, it’s an OSHA requirement and companies can be fined if employees are not taking their breaks at the required times. It isn’t just HR or your boss being mean & not letting you leave early.

By: Other Jonathan

Other Jonathan — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 21:12:13 +0000

Kristine, the way I see it, in CA employers are required to provide a 30 minute unpaid lunch break and 2 10-minute paid breaks throughout the day (at least, that’s what it is for part-timers working a shift). I’m salaried, but also work on billable hours, and a 9/80 system where I work 9 hour days. I figure if I take 20 minutes for lunch, and forego a true unpaid “lunch break” then I leave after 9 hours. I have no interest in working 7-5 with an hour of leisure if 7-4 is an option. Especially given evening rush hour traffic.

By: Snowy Heron

Snowy Heron — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:31:37 +0000

People need to figure out what works best for them. I almost always bring my lunch, mostly for the $ savings, but also I tend to eat too much when I have a lot of tempting options sitting in front of me, so I can keep my calorie intake to a reasonable level this way. I have a coworker who would never bring her lunch. Just not a habit she has ever developed, but she is financially very careful and savvy. I probably spend a bit more on clothes since I’m not spending so much on lunches, but she buys her lunch and is fine with less stylish clothes.

By: jackie

jackie — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:02:09 +0000

Kristine, I work through my lunch, or work while I’m eating, because I have a billablity goal. Sure, I get paid the same no matter what, but I need an average of 7.5 billable hours per day to quality for promotions and raises. Some days it takes 8 hours on the job to reach that, some days it takes 10. If I work while I eat, I get closer to my target earlier in the day and am less likely to have to stay late.