Lunch habits

Ever since I started working, I would buy lunch on site or go out for lunch. It was rare that I brought my lunch to work. For two summers in college, I worked at Sea World. I ate lunch on-site because my co-workers did. Buying lunch was the social thing to do. At my part-time job during college, I bought lunch because I felt I had the money to pay for the convenience of not bringing my own lunch to work. At my current company, I bought both breakfast and lunch for convenience. But what was the price of convenience?

When eating out, breakfast would cost anywhere from $1.50 to $5, with the average being around $3. When eating out, lunch would cost $4 to $10, the average being about $6. Each week, I would spend an average of $45.

Ever since December, I've been on a mission to save more, and I first targeted food, my biggest expense. I joined thegrocerygame.com which is site that combines grocery sales in addition to coupons for top savings. Sometimes items are even free. I usually spend about $30 a week on groceries, and that not only covers my food for just working hours, but for every meal and snack for 7 days.

Buying groceries and bringing my lunch to work saves me $15 a week, or $780 a year. Besides the money savings, I also save time and make my life more convenient. When I bought lunch went out, I had to drive somewhere, find parking, wait in line to order, eat, then drive back. The gas is not free so driving costs me money. When I ate at the on-site cafeteria, I had to walk to another building, look around for something to eat, wait in line, wait for my food to be prepared, and wait to purchase my food before I can finally eat. The whole process for buying lunch could take an hour. When I brought my lunch to work, it takes maybe 5 minutes to prepare my food if I had to use the toaster oven or microwave, and I would not have to deal with waiting in lines, wasting gas, and wasting time. I would only spend 10 minutes preparing my lunch the night before but I had the convenience to do that at any time. So the "convenience" of fast food and paying others to prepare my food wasn't really all that convenient after all.

One last area of savings of groceries purchases versus eating out was credit card rebates. When I would eat out, I used the Chase Freedom Visa, which would give me 3% cash back. When I shop with groceries, I would use my American Express Blue Cash, which would give me 5% cash back.

By buying items according to thegrocerygame.com, my groceries vary from week to week which forces me to try new buy familiar foods. I even the the equivalent of fast food places for cheaper. My favorite sandwich at Quiznos was the Turkey, Bacon, Gaucamole, better known as the TBG. I make the exact same thing with their same ingredients: whole wheat bread, deli turkey, bacon, guacamole, mozzarella cheese. I even toast it using the toaster oven at work to get the same crispy texture. My only regret for bringing my lunch to work is that I didn't do this sooner. I would have saved thousands over the last few years.