How much do you spend on your lunch each day? If you spend just $5 a day eating out for lunch on weekdays, that’s $25 per week, over $100 per month, or $1,300 per year.
If your lunch spending is closer to $10 per day go ahead and double those numbers. That would be $2,600 per year.
Or maybe you don’t buy your own lunch, but you send your kids to school with lunch money instead of brown bagging it.
Our kids’ school lunches are $2.75. With three kids in school that’s $180 per month on school lunches! Yikes! That’s a lot of money!
The good news is– if you have a habit of eating out for lunch, grabbing something to eat on the go, or sending your kids with lunch money, then you have lots of money-saving potential in packing your lunch.
If you have already mastered the art of packing your lunch (and eating it), then we’d love hearing your experience and tips in the comments. I know there are lots of helpful ideas out there!
What’s stopping you from packing a lunch?
If you aren’t already packing your lunch, what’s holding you back? Before we talk about practical tips and ideas, we first need to address whatever it is that’s keeping you from bringing a sack lunch to work or sending one with your spouse and kids.
Are the mornings too rushed?
Do you not have anything to put in lunches?
Do PBJs make you cringe?
Are you worried about what your co-workers will think?
Have you thought of the obstacle or concern that is preventing you from bringing your lunch or “forcing” you to eat out? Is it a bigger deal than your goal? Unless your boss subsidizes all of your lunches out, I’m pretty certain that bringing your lunch will bring you closer to achieving your goal than the alternative. And hey, if it turns out to be terrible, you can go back to buying lunch after you reach your goal.
Plan Ahead to Pack a Lunch
Packing lunches is not my most favorite way to be frugal. When my kids were younger I dreaded waking up to pack their lunches if I hadn’t planned ahead.
When I was on top of my game, I’d have lunches packed for Mike and three school-aged kids the night before. Unfortunately I’m not always that organized. I still send lunches with them every day (I can’t stomach paying $2.75 for a school lunch), it just means mornings are rushed if I don’t plan ahead.
Now, Mike and the kids pack their own lunches. In fact Mike does the whole morning routine including taking the kids to school while I stay home with the three little ones.
Just like we talked about with cooking at home on Day 5, planning ahead is the key to success in packing lunches. When you’re in a hurry to rush out the door in the morning is not the time to plan. Here are some tips to help with planning lunches:
- Make sandwiches ahead of time and freeze them! By lunch time they’ll be thawed and ready to eat. Don’t freeze lettuce or other greens, but PBJs, meat, and cheese freeze really well.
- Make a list of possible lunch foods and incorporate them into your grocery list.
- Have fresh fruit on hand like bananas, apples, grapes, and oranges (or Cuties). They’re so easy to toss into a lunch and are good for you too!
- Plan to make enough dinner to have leftovers to put in lunches. We made pizza for dinner last night. Each person got to make their own and eat right off their pan at dinner (the kids love this). Everyone gets their leftover pizza for lunch for the next two days.
- Last week someone mentioned mason jar salads, which got me thinking. My husband would love a salad in his lunch, but I’m too lazy to make one every day. Mason jar salads can be made for the whole week. Just put a jar in each day’s lunch and you can dump it in a bowl at lunchtime. And they’re so pretty too (search “mason jar salad” on Google or Pinterest if you don’t know what I’m talking about).
- Divvy up a week’s worth of lunch snacks at a time (see first bullet of next section). This is especially helpful if you’re making lunch for several people.
Maximize Savings with a Sack Lunch
By packing just about anything, you’ll be saving money over going out to eat, but there are ways to save even more money on your sack lunch. Here are some tips:
- Instead of buying individually packaged items that are marketed for lunches, buy a normal (or extra large) sized package and divvy it up into individual packages yourself. Think pretzels, carrots, cookies, mini muffins, etc. They’ll cost less than the prepackaged counterpart but still be easy to grab when you’re putting together your lunch. You can divvy up a week’s worth of lunch snacks at a time, which is especially helpful if you’re making lunch for several people.
- Reuse sandwich bags. My husband and kids bring home their sandwich bags if they aren’t dirty and I use them again. Each bag only costs a penny, but when there are 4-5 in each lunch, it adds up. It’s also less waste and one more thing I don’t have to remember to buy as frequently.
- Use reusable containers instead of sandwich bags. You may have seen cute Bento box ideas on Pinterest. You don’t have to be all cutesy, but you can still use those great containers. We have some similar to these
that work great (though they’re not leakproof at all).
- Yogurt is one of the most marked up prices in the grocery store. We make our own yogurt, which saves so much money. These containers
work perfect for yogurt (or anything else that might leak, even soup)!
- Stores with closeouts and clearances like Grocery Outlet often have great deals on granola bars and other lunch snacks that are near the “sell by” date, but are usually just fine.
- Individual string cheese can be expensive per ounce (unless I find it at Grocery Outlet), but sometimes I’ll cut cheese sticks from a block of cheese instead.
- Instead of juice boxes or buying a ridiculously priced 1/2 pint of milk, pack a water bottle. I send my kids with water in a reusable water bottle every day. My husband keeps a water bottle at his desk and in his car. Drinking water not only saves money, it’s better for you than pretty much anything else you’re drinking and most of us don’t drink enough of it!
Now Eat It!
Reading the comments in some other Frugal Fresh Start posts, I learned that even when you bring your lunch with you, there is still a temptation to go out to eat instead of eating the lunch you packed. Your co-workers, who haven’t committed to being more frugal to achieve their goals, want company when they take their lunch break. I loved that Samantha shared that her husband will go out with his co-workers, but will bring and eat his own packed lunch. I thought that was a great example of someone who sticks to his guns and enjoys the best of both worlds.
You can be open with your co-workers about making changes so you can reach your financial goals. You could even challenge them to bring their own lunch. Maybe they’ve never thought about how much money bringing their lunch would save them. If you’ve been in the habit of eating out, you could cut back to once or twice a month. Let your friends know that you’ll take a raincheck for a lunch date until then.
Whatever you decide, remember that attitude is everything. This is a choice you are making, not a restriction being imposed on you. It’s not that you can’t afford to eat out, it’s that you are choosing to spend your money in a different way. You’re not a victim; you’re being proactive by making a choice and sticking to it.
Challenge– Day 10
Start packing your lunch! Challenge yourself with a personal goal for how often you will brown bag it, whether it’s for you, your spouse, or your children.
In the comments, I’d love to hear your tips for making lunches work for you!
Note: This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure policy.
We always have packed our lunches from home. We usually take left overs from dinner the night before. It is rare that we eat out for lunch. We only get a 30 min lunch (hubby & I both) so we don’t have time to go anywhere (plus he is not always near food places). So we just pack breakfast and lunch and snacks from home every day and keep our money in our pockets. Snacks are usually something I make from scratch for the whole week for us to eat. Breakfast for him: fried bologna and egg sandwiches, smoked sausage and egg sandwiches or leftover pancakes or french toast. Breakfast for me: smoothie, toast and fruit, oatmeal and fruit or a homemade mcmuffin style sandwich. People I work with don’t understand that we just don’t go out to eat for any meal. It is super rare. It is just to expensive and lunch out everyday would bust the budget for sure!
That’s great that you both have the habit of bringing your breakfast, lunch, and snacks from home. Sounds like you have a great routine and plan! Thanks for sharing!
I have a full size fridge at work in our break room so I usually batch cook something on Sunday and eat it for the week. I look forward to it because I usually make things that my family doesn’t like (tofu curry noodles for example). Usually something vegetarian and easy but yummy. Then I only have to lack my lunch once or twice for the week. I make extra dinner and pack leftovers for my husband because he can do leftovers once but then gets tired of it. My daughter loves sandwiches or soups and she has the luxury of being able to use a microwave at school. I’ve found that my husband has been more receptive of eating a packed lunch when we think about what we can do with the saved money.
Such great ideas Jennifer! I love the idea of making the meals that your family doesn’t like! And great idea for getting your husband on board by thinking about what would be a better use of that money!
I make an entire loaf of bread into sandwiches and pop it into the freezer. Kids get a sandwich, fruit, and crunchy snack ( pretzels etc). Save lots of time in the am. They also have mini crock pots they can take w leftovers or oatmeal.
Yes! Frozen sandwiches are a lifesaver! That’s awesome that your kids can (and will) take leftover oatmeal too!
I love oatmeal and enjoy it for lunch at work. I make my quick oatmeal with walnuts, almonds, raisins and a banana, with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Put that in a mason jar, refrigerate it and I’m good to go the next day. Takes me about 10 minutes to prepare and it’s a lot healthier then some prepared meal.
That oatmeal sounds delicious and good for you! Great idea to make it ahead like that Gary!
I almost always pack a lunch. I can’t see spending so much money to eat out all the time! Occasionally I go out with co-workers, but that’s maybe once every month or two.
We let the kids buy school lunch once a month on Pizza Day. Every other day, they take a packed lunch. My daughter loves to take leftover pasta or leftover mac and cheese, and she’s happy eating it cold. My son usually takes PB&J, but lately he’s been in a homemade “lunchables” kick. I put a baggie of crackers in a container with some ham and cheese. So much cheaper than a real Lunchable.
That’s awesome that your daughter will eat cold pasta!! And great idea with the homemade lunchables! When I see Lunchables at the store I think two things: 1- I would never pay that much for them and 2- That would never fill my kids up. Making your own, though, would save tons and you can adjust the amount of what you put in!
I’m a long time lunch packer. When my kids were in school, I packed the short, glass-free thermoses to send hot soup or stew in winter, but mainly they had sandwiches, fruit and veggie sticks or chips (portioned out of a big bag). We did the half-frozen juice or milk in a thermos, too, as described in a comment. We always used re-usable lunch bags and containers. My husband carried an actual cooler and took a big thermos of coffee. Since he worked 12 hour days, often outside, I packed enough for two meals for him each day. We also used a metal pie plate and aluminum foil for hot leftovers — he would wrap the plate of leftovers well and set it on the engine block of some of their equipment so it would be warm at lunch time. I doubt that’s allowed these days :). I keep soup in my desk for emergency lunches, and normally plan for leftovers at night, so that I can take them for my work day lunches, as I’m the only one working now. The key is definitely: packing at night, buying the large packages of lunch type foods and portioning them out, planning to have leftovers (may not be possible in a large family, of course), and scouring thrift stores and clearance sales for lunch containers. I still use some containers that I’ve had for decades.
One aside about school lunches: in our county, we have such a large percentage of people in poverty that ALL of the school lunches are now free to everyone, regardless of income, per state law. So it actually costs today’s parents here MORE to pack a lunch than to let the child eat at school.
That’s hilarious that he warmed up his lunch like that– very energy efficient! 🙂 And wow- that’s crazy that lunch is free for everyone at school! What state are you in?!
Hello Everyone! I started the “Pack Your Lunch Challenge” on January 1st, 2015 and so far, today is day 22 and I am doing pretty good. I decided to pack my lunch and hubby’s lunch every morning because I began to realize that spending $12.00 (not counting how much hubby was spending on lunches) a day, really adds up in a month & a year. I am also in snow ball debt challenge and this money can be used towards the debts. I been packing up leftovers from dinners and in the morning just add a fruit or two and call it a day. I am very proud of my progress & commitment. Good luck everyone! I will stay in touch!
For the suggestion of taking lunch with you when you go out with coworkers are these sit down places? My coworkers tend to want to go places where you are waited on and I feel wrong bringing food with me. I generally go and not eat. I cite health issues with what I can eat (which is true) but it is also that I don’t want to drop 10+ on a meal other than a rare treat with hubby. Suggestions on how else to handle.
I think you are handling it well Heather. I suppose the other option would be to just not go out (or not go every time). I agree that I’d rather save my eating out money for a date with my husband!
This is the one frugal area I’m really great at! But we have a well stocked break room at work with toasters, microwaves, and plenty of fridge space. I’m really grateful for this!
Some of the things I do:
1) one of my coworkers and I have lunch together all of the time. We both do a lot of prep work there and share our side dishes, this gives us a lot of variety with vegetables and fruits that we cut up. And she is really fun so I never miss eating out.
2) I’m a microwave chef. I often steam vegetables in the microwave, for example I’ll bring a potato, broccoli and some cheese and have a fully loaded baked potatoe all by cooking the potatoe and broccoli by microwave and then melting cheese on top. Or I will bring soup mixes (I really like tamarind broth its just a dry package and only a few cents) and boil veggies in them and then eat as a Side with rice.
3) finally there is a ton of space in the break room and we all have a shelf so I leave a cutting board, knife and any other dishes I might need.
You have so many great tips! I seriously love this series and all of discussion it’s generating. You are excellent at laying out your ideas in a way that can really help people!
Great tips Judi! That’s so fun that you have a lunch buddy at work!
My husband is a “hot meals” kind of guy and hates “cold food” like salads or sandwiches. plus, he works in construction so he doesn’t always have access to a microwave. I learned to adapt by fixing his lunches each morning (at 5am, ugh!) in a thermos and putting the thermos in an insulated lunch bag… even with his 70 miles commute, it does stay warm if I have it piping hot when I take it off the stove and pack it in. Lately with my third baby I’ve fallen off the fixing-lunch bandwagon more often than not, but I really need to get back to fixing his lunches on a regular basis. The savings are definitely substantial, and I know our budget (and my husband) will thank me. Thanks for the inspiration!
Using a thermos is the perfect solution Georgia! That’s amazing that it stays warm. And you are a trooper for getting up (or even considering getting up) at 5 am to do it!
A few years ago when I first joined the retail workforce I enjoyed my bought lunches every day. It cost me thought $10 a day (more if I got the fancy drinks to go with it) … So $50 a week … It was at a point that everyone in the food court knew what to grab as soon as I stood at their counter… I gained 10kgs and got to my heaviest weight.
Then one day I decided to start bringing my own lunch… Just like that. I lost the 10kgs, and started saving at least $40 a week. Insanity. I still kick myself for ever even having eaten out every day…
That’s a great success story Jacinda! Not only did you save tons, you were obviously eating much healthier when you started bringing your own lunch!
My goal is to do all my meal prep for the week on Sunday, but that doesn’t happen. When it doesn’t, my go-to standby is a box of canned soup and crackers under my desk at work. Then, even if I forget to bring something, I already have it at work.
That’s nice to have a back-up plan at work just in case!
I used to take leftover meats, such as chicken or roast, and chop up to put in some tortillas with some cheese and roll it like a fajita. I personally get tired of eating the same thing each day myself, so I thought it’d be a nice alternative to sandwiches. I found out a couple years later that my junior high son would actually sell his lunch to friends whenever I made this and use that money to buy his school lunch (because I never let him buy lunch from school!). This plus homemade cookies scored even more cash:)
That’s hilarious Karen!! The kids who are sick of school lunches want his yummy homemade goodness and he wanted to try the school lunch instead! The grass is always greener…
I have a son who likes milk in his lunch. I fill a small reusable drink container half way with milk the night before and freeze it. In the morning I fill the container with more milk. By lunchtime the milk has thawed. It also keeps other items in the lunch bag cold, as well.
That’s a perfect solution Tina and saves so much money! Thanks for sharing!
At our school a half pint of milk is $.50. There are 8 pints in a gallon, so that is like paying $8 for a gallon of milk if you buy the cartons at school! Packing your own is a huge savings!
I go home for lunch and eat leftovers. My office doesn’t have a break room – we barely have a coffee pot! Generally, I eat out for lunch about once a month with a group from my church. My husband brings a sack lunch every day, but he works construction and only has 30 minute break. For a while, he was working about 2 hours away, and the guy he was working with could talk my husband into going out to eat. But lately, that hasn’t been an issue. He makes a sandwich and uses reusable containers and brings a yogurt, a string cheese, and some crackers and buys the big container of Gatorade and mixes his own every morning. On the occasion that he has a microwave on the job site, he will bring leftover soup or chili when it is really cold outside.
That’s great that you’re close enough to go home for lunch!
I think mason jar salads are adorable, but don’t understand the advantage of that over packing a salad in a Tupperware container and saving the trouble of packing a jar AND a bowl. It’s just one more thing to tote around and wash. And Tupperware salads can be packed at the beginning of the week too.
I think the idea is that you put in the ingredients in layers, so the dressing is at the bottom well away from the greens. It’s supposed to keep the greens crisp this way until you shake it up.
I also think the idea is that you can eat it right from the jar and not have to put it in a bowl first (unless you want to). Back in the day, McDonalds used to have salad shakers that I loved! Same concept and you could eat it right from the cup.
I haven’t tried this Mason jar thing yet, but I think I will this semester.
There’s nothing wrong with tupperware salads! I think the idea (at least how I understood it) was to pack the mason jar backward so that when you pour it out into a bowl it goes in in the right order. That way the wetter things like dressing and tomatoes don’t get the greens soggy sitting together all week. There are dishes in the kitchen at my husband’s office, so he can just use a bowl and fork from work. By all means, if you have a system that works for you, stick with it! 🙂
We have fridges at work but they’re always packed. I bought an insulated thermos tote from public for $10 and leave it at my desk. It keeps me from the cafe and I can fit all the food I’d need all day. Plus I use bottles of frozen water to chill it so when it’s partially melted, I just drink that and add more water to the ice. It works out great.
I agree! I keep my lunch at my desk too although it’s less because the fridge is full and more because I’ve heard of some people snooping through other people’s lunches and grazing from them! Gross!
That’s smart about the water bottle!
Genius! Way to take matters into your own hands and not use a full fridge as an excuse not to bring your lunch!
I just love that you’re doing this series. I can’t afford to spend time at night doing meal prep, let alone lunch prep. On Sunday I do all the prep for the entire week. Some people may hate it, but it takes me about 4 hours, and I’ve got 15 meals completely done. The kids take a cold lunch (no microwave at school) so they always get a fruit, veg, and main dish. Adults get hot lunch, usually beans, sweet potatoes or rice, and a veg. We’ve been doing it this way for years. I make a salad that lasts for 2 dinners, and another main dish and side for the other 2 dinners, then Fridays is either leftovers or something like frozen pizza. It sometimes sucks giving up all that time on Sundays (also make muffin tin omelets and oatmeal then), but when dinner is on the table in 15 minutes every night of the week, and we only eat out lunch if we plan to, it’s worth it. Plus cooking relaxes me.
Wow Amanda! That is awesome! That totally sounds like it’s worth giving up four hours on the weekend! You’ve got a great system!
I almost always pack lunches – but I do find the key to it is planning ahead. One of my tricks is the steamable frozen vegetables. I know they aren’t the cheapest – but still cheaper than buying lunch out, and super healthy. I bring in a grocery bag of 5 bags of veggies at the beginning of the week to put in the freezer at work. At least then I have no excuse not to eat my veggies at lunch!
Good for you! I have a hard time eating enough veggies, so getting a whole bag by lunch every day is really impressive to me!
Great Post! I love all of these ideas. I completely agree that “This is a choice you are making, not a restriction being imposed on you.” Such a great thing to remember!
Thanks Courtney! 🙂
Yay!! Im famous! haha. My husband was the one who thought of the idea about going out with his packed lunch! Im on day 3 of the mason jar salads and so far I love them!! I am trying to get all of my food prep done on Sunday, so all I have to do in the morning is grab it out of the fridge. Ive been making mini fratatas (Pinterest) for breakfast, mason jar salads and turkey meatballs for lunch and I have fruit (apples and bananas) and raw veggies that I portioned out in individual baggies for snacks. So far its been great. I think the only problem will be sticking with it. Ill let you know how its going a month from now. But the food prep did not take nearly as long as I thought it would!
Good for you Samantha! Getting the prep done ahead of time makes all the difference!