Lunch time blues?
Tips and tricks on cutting the weekly lunchtime bill, a recession busting guide to lowering your weekly food bills at work.
The cost of living is rising at an alarming rate and our overheads are skyrocketing, but alas the pay packet seems to be shrinking, or not going as far as it should do and Definitely not as far as we would like it to go in terms of meeting our needs.
The daily skinny latte on your way into work, the endless trips to the vending machine at work and the sandwich and soda at break and lunch time is also taking its toll on your finances, in general the lunch time bill is not your favourite subject right now.
So its time for a serious look on what sensible changes can be made to your routine and lifestyle to help lower the lunch time bill.
The average the lunch time bill is in the region of $10.00 a day, for most people, this translates to a whooping $2600.00 a year, this does now start to look a lot, for a sandwich at work, so what can you do?
It is essential to eat regularly with a healthy and properly balanced diet. However it is not essential to break the bank in the process, so what can we do to help ourselves? And reduce that ever rising lunch time bill.
The best solution to tackling the lunch time bill problem, by a long shot, is to
Take in your own food; this is what I do, to take the sting out of the cost of lunch at work, and to reduce the weekly lunch time bills.
It is not mean or miserly it is just good economic sense.
You can easily tie this cost into your weekly shopping allowance, it has the added advantage of having your sandwich made exactly how you like it and with the right mix of what you want, you probably already have the bread at home so you just need to get in some meat slices or use some left over dinner meat, like from a chicken or joint of meat cooked previously for dinner.,
Throw in a can of soda or two purchased in a multipack (it's cheaper to get multipacks from the supermarket) you can also purchase bottled water in this manner and it will work out cheaper as well. This is also a major expense, with drinks costing up to $2.50; it will reduce your lunch time bill by a considerable amount
Note, buying multipacks of any sort will always be a cheaper alternative to buying separate, this includes chips, chocolates, granola and cereal bars, that is the power of bulk buying.
Utilize the leftover dinner, or purposely cook a bit more dinner than you need to, so you can take some into work in a container the following day, this is great as you take in stuff you really like without having to pay over the odds for it, and if you are on a healthy eating plan you know exactly what is in your food and your lunch time bill reduced, double whammy.
Fruit box, this is a very good and sensible alternative to snacks like chips and chocolate, a good selection of fruit chopped in a box will save on the expensive trips to the vending machine and cut down on the lunch time bill and it is healthy, granola bars and cereal bars will have the same recession busting effect.
Remember, vegetables can be chopped up and taken in as well; nothing beats a nice crunchy salad, with all your favourite ingredients. Not a make do salad where you have to pick things out of it.
Frozen meals and microwave meals and soups
These are also viable alternatives to buying sandwiches at work; they can be bought cheaply in the supermarket and taken into work on a rotational basis as a lunch time meal, to keep up variety.
So you don't get bored with it, and give up in your first week, it is important to make your choices interesting and to buy things you will enjoy.
It must never become a chore but rather something you derive pleasure from and will make your lunch time an envy of your colleagues at work.
Always be creative and add new stuff to your lunch time menu always,
When you go shopping to the supermarket, look for bargains and buy in bulk this is a method of getting your ingredients at bargain prices.
Free lunch, what is that? Yes it does exist, if you are savvy, you will stop ignoring the panel discussions, seminars and training sessions, while they have the added bonus of career enhancing opportunities and corporate networking, they come with, yes a free lun