bring my lunch to work.

Found the only thing I was spending money on at work was hot chocolate – so now I’ve bought a pack of cocoa powder and a pack of brown sugar about the same size and mixed them together – (just like commercial hot chocolate mixes only better and at a fraction of the cost). I just have to buy milk every week and I end up saving about $10 a week.

restocked with sandwich stuff. A little over budget last week – hopefully save a little this week…

bread in freezer, assortment of sandwich stuff in fridge, saving at least $50/wk, no standing in queues, no greasy chips. much better.

I started this today and I have tomorrow planned. Maybe I should make it now so I don’t forget tomorrow!

Even though I technically can have an all-you-can-eat feast every day at work (as it’s a family business, and I have full access to everything), I want to try to bring my own lunch, because I believe separating this from all other expenses will help me budget and really see how much money I spend on food daily. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time.

It is the holiday, it is hard.

I am a good cook but I enjoy eating out (at some places, at least) to my own cooking. Still, I have been able to bring my lunch 4-5 days a week (sometimes I treat myself or just forget or don’t have time). I do sandwiches as a backup, but mostly I make full, balanced meals to bring in – protein, carbs, veggies, fruit for dessert. Lunch is my big meal for the day, because I work overtime and have a long commute so I don’t want to eat a big dinner late at night. Sandwiches every day can get boring – so you shouldn’t be afraid to try something else.

I think this saves me SO much money – the lunch spots around where I work are way too expensive, pretty much anything that isn’t McDonalds charges $8-10 for lunch. I can pack a good lunch for $1-3, so I’m probably saving around $1,500 a year by doing this!

for the past two weeks I’ve made my lunches on the weekend for the following week taken them with me. It has worked out pretty well so far. It seems to take me about an hour to do it all not including the time to make the bread for sandwiches in the breadmaker. My girlfriend told me that engineers are kind of like cats in that they can eat the same thing every day and be perfectly satisfied. Like it or not that’s me so now instead of going to Subway everyday for the same thing, I can eat my version without having to leave the office. I’ll wait for another few weeks to see if this sticks then check it off the list.

And fortunately I got stuff ready.

I’m not sure picking up sushi oh the way to work really counts. Besides, I get could-have-made-it-better-myself guilt.