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How much do you spend on your lunch each day?  If you spend just $5 a day eating out for lunch on weekdays, that&#;s $25 per week, over $100 per month, or $1,300 per year.

If your lunch spending is closer to $10 per day go ahead and double those numbers. That would be $2,600 per year.

Or maybe you don&#;t buy your own lunch, but you send your kids to school with lunch money instead of brown bagging it.

Our kids&#; school lunches are $2.75. With three kids in school that&#;s $180 per month on school lunches! Yikes! That&#;s a lot of money!

The good news is&#; if you have a habit of eating out for lunch, grabbing something to eat on the go, or sending your kids with lunch money, then you have lots of money-saving potential in packing your lunch.

If you have already mastered the art of packing your lunch (and eating it), then we&#;d love hearing your experience and tips in the comments.  I know there are lots of helpful ideas out there!

What&#;s stopping you from packing a lunch?

If you aren&#;t already packing your lunch, what&#;s holding you back?  Before we talk about practical tips and ideas, we first need to address whatever it is that&#;s keeping you from bringing a sack lunch to work or sending one with your spouse and kids.

Are the mornings too rushed?

Do you not have anything to put in lunches?

Do PBJs make you cringe?

Are you worried about what your co-workers will think?

Have you thought of the obstacle or concern that is preventing you from bringing your lunch or &#;forcing&#; you to eat out?  Is it a bigger deal than your goal?  Unless your boss subsidizes all of your lunches out, I&#;m pretty certain that bringing your lunch will bring you closer to achieving your goal than the alternative.  And hey, if it turns out to be terrible, you can go back to buying lunch after you reach your goal.

Plan Ahead to Pack a Lunch

Packing lunches is not my most favorite way to be frugal. When my kids were younger I dreaded waking up to pack their lunches if I hadn&#;t planned ahead.

When I was on top of my game, I&#;d have lunches packed for Mike and three school-aged kids the night before. Unfortunately I&#;m not always that organized.  I still send lunches with them every day (I can&#;t stomach paying $2.75 for a school lunch), it just means mornings are rushed if I don&#;t plan ahead.

Now, Mike and the kids pack their own lunches.  In fact Mike does the whole morning routine including taking the kids to school while I stay home with the three little ones.

Just like we talked about with cooking at home on Day 5, planning ahead is the key to success in packing lunches.  When you&#;re in a hurry to rush out the door in the morning is not the time to plan.  Here are some tips to help with planning lunches:

• Make sandwiches ahead of time and freeze them!  By lunch time they&#;ll be thawed and ready to eat. Don&#;t freeze lettuce or other greens, but PBJs, meat, and cheese freeze really well.
• Make a list of possible lunch foods and incorporate them into your grocery list.
• Have fresh fruit on hand like bananas, apples, grapes, and oranges (or Cuties).  They&#;re so easy to toss into a lunch and are good for you too!
• Plan to make enough dinner to have leftovers to put in lunches.  We made pizza for dinner last night.  Each person got to make their own and eat right off their pan at dinner (the kids love this).  Everyone gets their leftover pizza for lunch for the next two days.
• Last week someone mentioned mason jar salads, which got me thinking.  My husband would love a salad in his lunch, but I&#;m too lazy to make one every day.  Mason jar salads can be made for the whole week.  Just put a jar in each day&#;s lunch and you can dump it in a bowl at lunchtime.  And they&#;re so pretty too (search &#;mason jar salad&#; on Google or Pinterest if you don&#;t know what I&#;m talking about).
• Divvy up a week&#;s worth of lunch snacks at a time (see first bullet of next section).  This is especially helpful if you&#;re making lunch for several people.

Maximize Savings with a Sack Lunch

By packing just about anything, you&#;ll be saving money over going out to eat, but there are ways to save even more money on your sack lunch.  Here are some tips:

• Instead of buying individually packaged items that are marketed for lunches, buy a normal (or extra large) sized package and divvy it up into individual packages yourself. Think pretzels, carrots, cookies, mini muffins, etc. They&#;ll cost less than the prepackaged counterpart but still be easy to grab when you&#;re putting together your lunch. You can divvy up a week&#;s worth of lunch snacks at a time, which is especially helpful if you&#;re making lunch for several people.
• Reuse sandwich bags.  My husband and kids bring home their sandwich bags if they aren&#;t dirty and I use them again.  Each bag only costs a penny, but when there are 4-5 in each lunch, it adds up.  It&#;s also less waste and one more thing I don&#;t have to remember to buy as frequently.
• Use reusable containers instead of sandwich bags.  You may have seen cute Bento box ideas on Pinterest.  You don&#;t have to be all cutesy, but you can still use those great containers.  We have some similar to these that work great (though they&#;re not leakproof at all).
• Yogurt is one of the most marked up prices in the grocery store.  We make our own yogurt, which saves so much money.  These containers work perfect for yogurt (or anything else that might leak, even soup)!
• Stores with closeouts and clearances like Grocery Outlet often have great deals on granola bars and other lunch snacks that are near the &#;sell by&#; date, but are usually just fine.
• Individual string cheese can be expensive per ounce (unless I find it at Grocery Outlet), but sometimes I&#;ll cut cheese sticks from a block of cheese instead.
• Instead of juice boxes or buying a ridiculously priced 1/2 pint of milk, pack a water bottle.  I send my kids with water in a reusable water bottle every day.  My husband keeps a water bottle at his desk and in his car.  Drinking water not only saves money, it&#;s better for you than pretty much anything else you&#;re drinking and most of us don&#;t drink enough of it!

Now Eat It!

Reading the comments in some other Frugal Fresh Start posts, I learned that even when you bring your lunch with you, there is still a temptation to go out to eat instead of eating the lunch you packed.  Your co-workers, who haven&#;t committed to being more frugal to achieve their goals, want company when they take their lunch break.  I loved that Samantha shared that her husband will go out with his co-workers, but will bring and eat his own packed lunch.  I thought that was a great example of someone who sticks to his guns and enjoys the best of both worlds.

You can be open with your co-workers about making changes so you can reach your financial goals.  You could even challenge them to bring their own lunch.  Maybe they&#;ve never thought about how much money bringing their lunch would save them.  If you&#;ve been in the habit of eating out, you could cut back to once or twice a month.  Let your friends know that you&#;ll take a raincheck for a lunch date until then.

Whatever you decide, remember that attitude is everything.  This is a choice you are making, not a restriction being imposed on you.  It&#;s not that you can&#;t afford to eat out, it&#;s that you are choosing to spend your money in a different way.  You&#;re not a victim; you&#;re being proactive by making a choice and sticking to it.

Challenge&#; Day 10

Start packing your lunch!  Challenge yourself with a personal goal for how often you will brown bag it, whether it&#;s for you, your spouse, or your children.

In the comments, I&#;d love to hear your tips for making lunches work for you!

  Note: This post contains affiliate links.  For more information, see my disclosure policy.

Five ways to save money on your packed lunch

BBC

Many of us are starting the new year with plans for healthy eating and mindful spending, so where better to start than the packed lunch?

Usually it's cheaper to make lunch at home instead of buying food out and about. But over the last year, staple lunchtime ingredients have gone up in price at the supermarket.

We've gathered some top tips on how to keep costs down when making a packed lunch for work, school or a day trip.

1. Shop around

Caroline Job launched blog and YouTube channel Lunchbox World when coming up with different ideas for her three kids' packed lunches. She enters an identical list of items into different supermarkets' online shopping apps to see which one comes up cheapest, and looks for discount codes.

Although it might take a bit of extra time, Caroline says it has made a big difference as she has noticed the prices going up for different products like cucumbers or eggs.

If you buy your food from town centre convenience stores they might charge more - so you could save money by going to a large supermarket to stock up.

You could also consider swapping your favourite branded snacks for own-label versions.

Link to SANNE

2. Plan ahead

Caroline also suggests taking a look at what is in the cupboards, fridge or freezer before doing the food shop to make sure you're not doubling up.

"Have a plan as to what meals you're going to prep and what you might want to eat that week for your lunch," she says.

Caroline Job

Caroline says with the cost of living going up, it's key to try and cut down on food waste

She adds that one "game changer" for her was working with best before dates to ensure that food was not being wasted.

"I now rejig my menu for the week as it progresses - if the ham is going off, then I'll use that up today and have a chicken sandwich tomorrow."

Ritesh, a father of two from Hounslow, adds that prepping different items has helped him manage a squeezed budget.

"Our kids love rice pancakes, so we will often prep the mixture the night before and we'll have them for breakfast and combine them with something different for lunch," he says.

3. The freezer is your friend

It can be frustrating when a lunchbox comes back from school at the end of the day completely untouched.

But the freezer can be a big help when it comes to getting a greater variety of food on the menu for the week.

The NHS Better Health website recommends keeping a small selection of different types of bread in the freezer like bagels, pittas and wraps, granary or multigrain. If you pop a piece of greaseproof paper in between each, it's easier to get just one out when it's frozen, Caroline suggests.

And if you're looking for a snack option, frozen fruit is typically cheaper than fresh, especially out of season.

Frozen fruits count towards your five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. There is less waste and you can choose the exact amount you want to use.

4. Make - or grow - your own

With food prices rising at their fastest rate for 45 years, Dr Charlotte Evans - an associate professor at the University of Leeds, specialising in nutritional epidemiology and public health - is concerned the nutritional value of packed lunches might decline as budgets are squeezed.

She argues: "Replacing homemade items with the cheapest, pre-packed snacks like crisps or chocolate biscuits might be the first place people look to make savings."

Although it can be tempting to reach for something that saves on time, pre-prepared options can often be a lot more expensive at the shops and less nutritious.

Dr Evans suggests making up your own a Japanese-inspired, compartmentalised bento box to use up leftover items in the fridge or cupboard.

Getty Images

"It's a great way to use up lots of little bits - a wrap, some lettuce or carrots, a little bit of bean chilli from the night before."

The British Nutrition Foundation suggests putting a small handful of mixed dried fruits or nuts into reusable food bags or sealed containers to store in the cupboard to make your own easy snack.

And if you have some spare time, growing your own cress for your egg sandwiches could also be a fun project for the family - as well as cheaper than buying it from the supermarket.

5. Bulk up

Batch-cooking is a great way to save on money and time in the long-run, says personal finance expert Rachel Wait.

She says that pasta dishes are easy to make in bulk, along with stews with beans, soups or muffins.

You could just make a little extra for your evening meal and use the leftovers the day after for your lunchbox.

"Cooking with pulses like beans and lentils can be a cheaper alternative to meat and can also help bulk out meals," she points out.

Dr Evans adds that adding extra salad items like lettuce or cucumber to a sandwich could help bring costs down too.

"It can make a sandwich look much more appetising - different textures, colours... It makes it look like a proper sandwich and bulking up on the veg means you're using perhaps a little bit less of the expensive stuff like cheese and ham."

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