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Save Money – Bring your Lunch instead of Buying It!

Are you constantly on the go? If you are the type of person who is always on the go, you might be spending a lot of money on eating your lunch out. Eating lunch out or on the go is generally more expensive than bringing something with you from home. 

If you work in an office, or if you are traveling a lot, you can find that your money seems to ‘go fast’ when you are always in line at the restaurant or in the shopping center. In this article, I want to teach you more about how to save money by bringing your lunch, bringing snacks, or at very least, ordering only what you can afford. 

Let’s start out early in the morning. What do you drink in the morning, coffee, latte, or tea? Buying just a cup of coffee or tea in the morning, every morning, you are going to spend in a week what you can purchase the entire box of tea bags or the can of coffee for. you. Making a half a pot of coffee or tea in the morning, as you are getting ready to leave can save you a ton of money over the year!

Think about this: if you were to spend just seventy-five cents a day on a drink, and that is just one drink, you would have spent $3.75 in just five days. A box of tea bags is under two dollars. A can of coffee is about six or seven dollars. As you can see, it doesn’t take too long before you bought the entire can of coffee, that could last you over a month!

Snack time? Are you hungry when you are out and on the go? Packing a few crackers, grapes, or even half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is cheaper and easier than stopping for a pack of fifty-cent crackers or a dollar bag of chips. 

Going into the store and buying something every day for that mid morning snack is only leading to over spending. Put something in the car you can snack on anytime. Even the thrift stores sell entire boxes of crackers for a dollar or a sheet of cookies for a dollar and these snacks could last you over a week!

Planning ahead is going to save you the most money when you are packing a lunch instead of running to the convenience store at lunch time. You can make a little extra from dinner the night before and freeze it. After doing this all week long, you have all types of choices that you can take for lunch at work, and it will all cost you just pennies!

Besides freezing left over food and taking them in your lunch how else can you cut back on what you take in your lunch? Do you make cakes or cookies for the children? Putting these in a reusable plastic container you can save lots of money on what you eat while you are at work all week. Reusable containers cut back on the baggies that you purchase weekly or monthly. 

Do you like something like pretzels or chips instead of the sweets? Purchase the big bags, and pack a few in a reusable container or in a baggie. This gives you a snack every day that you will enjoy but at a fraction of the cost of purchasing small bags in the store every morning. Cutting back on prices and you will notice a savings at the end of the week. 

Instead of using those yucky paper bags, opt for a plastic zipper lunch bag. These are actually quite nice. They will keep your foods fresh all day long, in the car or in the office. If you don’t have a fridge for your lunch, put an ice pack in the lunch bag and it will be cold all day long, even in the heat of summer. 

If you don’t like eating frozen foods in your lunch, there are all types of soups, sandwiches and such that you can pack. There are individual puddings, cheeses, snacks packs and such that cost just a fraction of what purchasing your lunch would. 

Add a few pieces of cut fruit or cut veggies in your lunch box. Using re-seal able containers, with a spritz of water, your goodies stay fresh all day long until you have a chance to sit and eat your lunch. 

If you like coffee for your lunch, take a thermos. If you like tea in your lunch, you can take this in a thermos as well for just pennies a day. Water bottles are reusable and you can take water every day instead of purchasing it if you like. If you like soda, buy a two-liter and pour it into smaller bottles that you have saved up. Costs so much less and you can still use the smaller bottles that you like!