These are some things I’ve learned or thought about and found helpful during my own effort to bring my lunch to work. The tips are all fairly obvious, but seeing a collection of tips like this all in one place sometimes helps to force the issue and actually make a change. In this case, that would be to break out of the habit of going out to lunch everyday — spending more money than you should and eating more than you should — and start brown-bagging it, thereby saving some money and eating healthier. Here are the tips — please leave a comment with your bring your lunch to work ideas!
Pack it up the night before. The biggest downfall in terms of actually bringing a lunch to work is that you don’t have enough time in the morning to pack one up.
When you make your meals, plan extra portions so that you can bring them in for lunch the next day(s).
When you go shopping, make sure your shopping list includes items that you’d like to bring for lunch — sandwich meats, fruit, crackers, dried fruits, nuts, etc.
Not so great soup from the deli can cost $5 or more. A semi-decent can of soup from the store that cost $2 to $3 can be easily placed in a plastic container and brought to work. A quick zap in the microwave and you are good to go.
When all else fails, readymade frozen meals brought to work and heated up in the microwave will be cheaper than going out to lunch. They’re easy to pack, easy to prepare, and some can be quite tasty.
When you go out to eat, make sure you have the food left on your plate packed up — that’s right — leftovers, leftovers, leftovers. The food often tastes better the next day (or maybe it’s just because you’re having a not-uncommon bad day at work, and the taste of the leftovers triggers that happy feeling you had the night before when you were out on the town with friends, family or your significant other eating a meal at a nice restaurant).
Invest in good, easy to clean, compact containers that can be used over and over again.
Not just big containers, but little ones that you can put things like mustard or dressings in. That way, you can add these extras on at the right time, instead of doing it earlier and soggifying your lunch.
Use the tops of your containers as plates, instead of using wasteful paper plates.
Get a spork — a spoon, fork and knife in one handy, reusable eating utensil, so that you don’t need to bring in multiple utensils or use wasteful plastic forks, knives and spoons. (Thanks for that tip Heather Menicucci.)
If you have a sweet tooth, make sure to pack some healthy sweets (like raisons or dried apricots, things like that), so that you are not tempted to run out and get a donut or candy from the vending machines.
Give up soda completely — commit to drinking water. Not drinking soda really cuts down on the calories AND the cost of lunch. Plus, a can(s) of soda is a heavy item to lug all the way to work.
Don’t ONLY bring your lunch — treat yourself to a nice lunch at your favorite lunch place, or somewhere that you’ve been wanting to try, at least one day a week. Just like you can get tired of eating out all the time, you can also get tired of brown-bagging it day after day.
Wednesday is the optimal day to go out to lunch — breaks up the monotony of bringing your lunch right smack in the middle of the work week.
Make a point of not just eating your packed lunch sitting at your desk. On nice weather days, find a nice place outside to eat, and invite co-workers to join you. On bad weather days, eat in the community dining area, or order a coffee at a nice cafe and eat your lunch there. Donut shops are also a nice option, that is, if you can hold your order to just coffee and avoid feasting on all those glorious, delicious donuts treats.
Fruit is all-purpose lunch magic — easy to pack, no container necessary, and affordable. Plus, the sweetness of the various fruits — and there are so many to choose from — can serve as a desert, keeping you from giving in to your sweet tooth cravings or need for a soda. And one more thing: fruit works as an excellent, healthy, fulfilling snack — it can be eaten before lunch if your stomach is growling, or after lunch, during that long stretch between the lunch break and quitting time that is usually marred by a trip down to the vending machine or to the corner store for a candy bar or a (stale) cookie or something really awful like cardboard with frosting and sprinkles on top, otherwise known as Pop Tarts (yes, I admit it, I love those things — even when they’re untoasted and I am stone cold sober).
Use the community fridge in your office to store items that can help zest up your lunches — things like good mustard or salad dressing or salsa/hot sauce or even pita bread and hummus.
Keep a jar of peanut butter in your desk drawer for those days when you forget your lunch or just didn’t have time to pack up a good one. You can easily pick up some bread at any deli for not much money at all. The peanut butter can also come in handy if you need an (almost the) end of the day snack.
Have a cool bag to bring your lunch in — an extra non-essential (but not really) fashion incentive to bring your lunch to work.
If you’ve got bringing your lunch to work ideas/incentives, please leave a comment!
Think about joining the Brought My Lunch Flickr Group as an incentive to bring your lunch to work.
We got into the bring our lunch habit about 2 years ago and have kept it up. (Go, us!) These tips are excellent — we learned most of them the hard way, so excellent work putting them all together here!
One thing that we’ve recently started doing is to cut up all of our fruits and veggies for the week at once. Say, on Sunday night.
It’s much easier to do all of the cutting at one time and there’s no, “Aw… but I don’t want to cut up veggies…” excuse when it comes time to pack lunches!
These are great tips! I’m amazed sometimes at how many people eat out every single day and then wonder where their money went.
Your only suggestion that I have a problem with is “order a coffee at a nice cafe and eat your lunch there” — first of all, the cost of buying coffee at a cafe every day can add up quickly; maybe it should be a special treat like buying lunch. More importantly, though, when you *do* buy a drink at the cafe, it’s actually rather rude to get out your lunch and eat it there. Most cafes sell a variety of foods as well as coffee and tea, and using their table (and forks, napkins, etc) to eat your own lunch is pretty inconsiderate.
Kelly — thanks for the excellent tip on the fruit and vegetable cutting.
Angela — yes, you are right that the cost of coffee can add up… I am a major coffee drinker, so that would really be a feat for me to cut back on that… a challenge for another day. And it is true that you have to be respectful about breaking out your lunch at certain cafes and delis, and donut shops, absolutely. Laying out a whole table of plastic containers of your own food is not the way to go… You have to gauge the place, whether it’s appropriate to eat your own sandwich or whatever. Some places really don’t mind and some places it would totally be out of line. Thanks for pointing that out.
Great tips! I’ve been bringing my lunch 80% of the time or so for the past few years – and it really does help the bottom line in the bank and on the scale.
We live in an apartment and can’t buy in bulk (no storage) but I do buy regular size bags of pretzels, snacks, etc. and put them into single serving Ziploc bags so they’re always ready to be packed away. I also keep a couple of cans of the heat-and-serve soup at my desk for emergencies.
Your comment re a nice bag not really being a non-essential hit home for me. I have found that having a variety of containers and a couple of fun bags makes me more likely to bring a lunch. I drink a lot of water but would add that you can have iced tea almost as easily. I fill a 32 ounce wide-mouth bottle with water and put in a tea bag (if you like your tea stronger you might want to use two) and put it in the communal fridge in the morning. By lunch it is ready to sip.
I also keep items in my desk that just take hot water — Thai House Rice noodle soup is a favorite, I usually add some peanut butter or a small can of salmon to make it more substantial.
Thanks for the great tips.