- If you must hit the fast food, stick to places that have a $1 menu. I can usually get a burger, fries and a free water for less than $3.
- The grocery store is a great place. Remember that any work you do yourself, saves money. Instead of buying a ready made sandwich for $5, I get a fresh baked roll from the bakery for 50 cents, two slices of cheese and meat from the deli for less than $1 and build my own sandwich. Add in a banana and a bottle of water and I've spent about $2.50 on a healthy, quick lunch.
If you're normally spending $6 a day on lunch, after 5 work days you've just put a dent in your budget to the tune of $30. If you follow these tips you can knock it down to $15, cutting it in half. Add in a few brown bag lunches each week and you're easily on the way to saving big during your lunch hour.
What are some ways that you save during working lunches?
Great tips, Gayle! I also use the grocery store. We have a full size fridge at work, so Monday morning on the way to work I pick up lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, green pepper, shredded cheddar, a bag of frozen peas (I put some in a cup of warm water to thaw for 1 minute and put it on top of my salad), salad dressing, 1 bag bagels, 1 block cream cheese, and apples and oranges. This costs about $20 and I have breakfast and lunch for the entire week, plus some of it I have left over for the weekend. I always have fruit for breakfast, and I have salad and bagel or buttered bread for lunch. I also always have saltines, peanut butter, animal crackers, and Sobe zero waters on hand if I need a snack. And after spending $2.99 two Fridays in a row for a quick stop tuna sandwich, I got smart and just bought some cans of tuna at the dollar store. I always have bread/bagels at work and little packets of mayo in our condiments drawer, so this lunch would cost me about $1, that's one-third the cost of the quick stop option. Thank you so much for all the wonderful frugal ideas you have!
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