Lunch, lunch and more lunch

Well, the verdict is in. Eating lunch out is a lot of money. $6 or $7 may not sound like a lot of money but add it up over five days, then a month and then a year and soon you're looking at over $1500 a year! And that doesn't include the two or three day a week Starbucks habit.

So brown bagging is in. Leftovers are looking better and better. It's now cool to bring your lunch to work. Who'd have thunk it?

But it's amazing to me that I still hear people in line at Panera talk about how bad the economy is and how they need to save money and then turn around and order a lunch for 10 bucks. It's like people think they have to eat, which is true, but don't think past "where am I going to get food if I don't go out." 

A few bucks for a loaf of bread, a bit more than that for some lunch meat, add a buck or two for some condiments and you've got yourself a sandwich with enough to make several more.

Try it for a week, see if it can work. What's the worst that's going to happen? You spend less and probably end up eating a bit healthier than the burger you picked up at McDonalds.

If you're one of those people that eats out every day, I'd suggest brown bagging it for only a couple days a week at first. When we first started doing it, we chose a day a week to take off from packing a lunch. By alternating days or whatever works for your schedule, it'll help the new system take. 

Go on, just try it.