One expense that can get seriously out of hand is the food you consume while at work. The cost of buying snacks, drinks and lunch can really add up when you’re doing this daily, year after year after year.
Like so many people, I used to feed the machines, and fork over cash for a less-than-stellar lunch nearly every day. And I was helping me to go broke. I recall endless visits to the ATM because I constantly needed money to feed the junk food machines. And this was in the days when a 12 oz. can of soda was only 45 cents!
These days, I rarely spend a penny for food at work. (Make that extremely rarely!) Here are some ideas to help you save some big bucks (that you can use to pay down your debt if you still have some) and the planet at the same time:
1. Bring your own lunch. This one is obvious I suppose – but I’m amazed at how many people who complain about their bills still buy food at work. Essentially, buying your lunch at work is the same as eating in a restaurant: you’re paying someone else to cook and often package your food for you. And unless you work at a place with gourmet chefs in the kitchen, the food you bring from home – humble as it may be – will almost certainly be fresher and taste a whole lot better.
2. Eliminate waste. When you buy a salad or sandwich at work it inevitably comes packaged in a plastic clamshell, or plastic wrap, along with some plastic “silverware” that’s also wrapped in plastic. The styrofoam cup comes with a plastic straw (also wrapped in plastic) with a plastic lid. Sheesh! All this packaging is one reason it costs so much more to buy your lunch than to bring it from home.
3. Streamline your packaging. Find reusable containers, and…reuse them! Avoid, if possible, the throwaway mentality of plastic bags. Bring your own silverware, or if you use plastic, take it home and wash it. The throwaway mentality is an invention of manufacturers designed to keep us buying more of their stuff to replace that which we unthinkingly use once and then send to the landfill.
4. Nix bottled water. Forever. The volume of resources used to bottle one quart of somebody else’s tapwater is staggering. Your tapwater is just as good, so to pay to have water from some other municipal water supply trucked to a store near you is simply absurd. Forget the environment for a minute; why would you spend your money so foolishly? Buy a nice stainless steel or BPA-free plastic bottle and fill ‘er up.
5. Think about getting a little fridge for your office, if that will work for you. Yes, it does consume energy so if you can, look for an Energy Star one. And unplug it if you’re going to be out of the office on vacation. It’s not so much about saving your employer a couple of bucks, it’s the principle of the thing – why put more carbon into the atmosphere while you keep a box of air cold? (Oh, and prop the door open while it’s unplugged to keep it from getting funky inside. Put a sticky on top that says “DO NOT CLOSE DOOR”, otherwise the custodial staff will surely shut it.)
6. Bring your own soda. If you’re addicted to soda from the machine, and can’t bring yourself to give it up (yet), at least start buying your own and bringing it to work with you. These days, a 20 oz. bottle of soda from a machine is $1.50. If you drink two a day, that’s $3 vs. about $1 to bring your own. Let’s see, $2 saved per day works out to $10 per week, or around $500 per year. That should more than cover one car payment.
7. Bring your own junk snacks. Similar to the soda, if you tend to feed all your change into the snack machine, then start buying those multi-packs of convenience snack foods. Better yet, dump the junk and bring healthy snacks from home: apples, carrots, or walnuts.
8. Get a microwave. Some folks buy a little itty-bitty microwave for their office so they can reheat leftovers. This opens up whole new worlds of lunch options, because you can make big batches of yummy stuff at home for dinners, freeze the excess and then reheat at work. If you’re a half-ways decent cook, you’ll become the envy of the office once they get a whiff of the wonderful aromas from your micronucleator. (Unless, of course, you’re into fish!)
9. Go low carb. This may seem like a weird one, but many, many people are carb addicts. Being one myself, I can tell you that a constant influx of high carb snacks and sodas just keeps you on a blood-sugar roller coaster that adds to your expenses. After a sugary or starchy snack, you hit bottom very quickly and are soon ravenously searching for another sugar fix, so you feed the junk food machine again. Get yourself off your carb addiction and you’ll not only save money but probably lose weight as well.
10. Depending on the nature of your job, plan a lunch time pot-luck. If you work with a bunch of people who are constantly asking you to eat out with them, try a different tactic. Suggest a lunch-time pot-luck where everybody brings a dish from home. Try to coordinate it so you get a variety of simple entrees plus desserts and you’ll find it’s probably healthier, tastier, cheaper for everybody and even fun!
There you have it: ten suggestions for saving money, eating healthier and greening your lunchtime at work. This weekend, give it some thought and do some planning and maybe a bit of shopping to get ready for the workweek ahead. And then figure out what you’ll do with all that extra money you’ll suddenly have!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
A $500 saving on soda! That should be an easy one for most to implement. Good tip. I don’t drink soda, but it’s still a good tip.