To me, the low hanging fruit of finding additional savings for your emergency fund or financial goals is to bring your own lunch or snacks to work. Even if you only buy off the dollar menu at some fast food places, it can easily add up to over $15 a week, that’s $60 extra dollars a month, or $720 annually. Hello! That’s what I call a money-suck. You’re money just gets sucked away and you can’t figure out where it went.
When brown bagging, always strive to make it fun, so you don’t feel deprived or give up and go back to the drive-through. Make interesting pita sandwiches or wraps from leftovers. I often pack unique snack items like raw almonds or in-the-shell peanuts that you won’t find in a regular vending machine. If you can’t have nut products due to student allergy concerns, try sunflower seed butter or sesame seed spread with apples or crackers, as a tasty alternative.
And remember to reward yourself to keep your motivation strong. Going out to lunch once or twice a month as a treat won’t hurt your long range savings plan, too much. Plus, think of all of that travel time you once spent just racing around to “get” your lunch that you now have to “enjoy” your lunch.
If you have other lunch or snack ideas you use to reduce costs, please post a comment and share them.
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Another reason to bring your own lunch … much healthier. I take leftovers a lot — you know, that little bit of lasagna that won’t feed the family again. It’s the perfect size for lunch. And it’s nice to have a hot lunch, especially in the winter here in the Northeast I like soup too — easy and something hot always helps. I mainly brown bag it to save money, but I’ve found a nice added benefit is the automatic portion control and healthy eating!
Comment by AlysiaClancy — January 8, 2010 @ 11:22 pm
Cut and paste the link(s) below into your browser for some super brown bag recipes:
http://www.neamb.com/home/1214_2880.htm, or
http://www.neamb.com/assets/content/documents/NEA_The_Dish_0809.pdf
Comment by NEAMB Elizabeth — August 26, 2010 @ 11:07 pm