To eat lunch at work or bring my own?
By Virgie60
@Virgie60 (556)
United States
January 24, 2009 10:54pm CST
I am a waitress at a restaurant and we can get our lunch for half price. So usually my lunch is under $2.00. Now my question - is this frugal enough or would it be better to bring my own? I feel as if I should eat there being it is a restaurant and they are being nice enough to offer it to us at half the cost. And you do get a really nice meal for $2.00 - meat, potatoes, vegetable & bread, or a taco salad, or soup and fruit, etc. I feel it is a good price for what I get and that is usually my big meal of the day. But I still wonder if I could save more by bringing something.
What do you all think?
3 people like this
25 responses
@wiccania (3360)
• United States
25 Jan 09
If your lunch turns out to be your largest meal, and you eat less dinner because of it (assuming that your dinner doesn't then go to waste), I'd say it's more frugal to buy your lunch at work. Especially if you try to keep it under $2 a day. You don't pay much less than that for a packed lunch.
In my son's lunch everyday, he gets 2 juice boxes, 1 PB&J, 1 bag of something salty (pretzels or popcorn) and 1 something sweet (usually a granola bar or raisins).
That's a 10-pack of juice boxes every week ($2), a loaf of bread every week ($2) about 1/3 of a jar of peanut butter ($1) and 1/3 of a jar of jelly every week ($1) then the popcorn is $2 and the pretzels are another $1 (the packages generally last 2 weeks, so I'm cutting the price in half). Granola bars is another $2 and the raisins are another $2. So I spend about $13 on the food for my son's lunch every week... that's over $2 a day for his packed lunch. Do I try to buy as much as possible on sale? Absolutely. But when you need it, you need it. You can't wait for a sale if you're out of bread and he needs a sandwich to take to school the next day.
I work at a grocery store, and I've found that for me it's not only easier, but cheaper for me to buy a drink and something to eat at the asian buffet or salad bar we have.
1 person likes this
@Virgie60 (556)
• United States
25 Jan 09
Yes you are right - when you need it you need it. I always try to buy stuff for hubbys lunch on sale but sometimes you just can't. For me it is nice to not to have to think about bringing a lunch. I might supplement it once in awhile with a piece of fruit or yogurt but not too often. Maybe more in the summertime. We'll see.
1 person likes this
@annjilena (5618)
• United States
25 Jan 09
it.s cheaper to bring your lunch rather then buying your lunch after you total up how much money you are spending for a whole week you will save by bring your lunch.and probably be a lot happier and healthy as well.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
26 Jan 09
$2 a day for a meal is not that much a difference in money - trust me,.. I am as frugal as they get - I can stretch George Washington till he grins - but at the same time, sometimes you just need a little outlet to "splurge" to keep your sanity from going haywire cause all you do is save save save.
Bringing left overs or whatever from home - you are going to run into nearly $2 a day for a healthy meal. I mean, okay if you can just eat Ramon noodles every day and be happy about it and healthy about, but that just ins't a good healthy meal for every day. Somtimes you just need to splurge and enjoy something and to spend $2 a day on a good, healthy meal is just the ticket to keeping your sanity of saving in line. Save your left overs for dinner the next night for the whole family - you will save more money as you are feeding more people. And then too...I took my lunch every day until I was crazy - I hated anything that went into my lunch bag cause even with a frige and microwave, there are limitations. sandwiches every day, soups, salads... they get so old I ended up just not eating cause I was so tired of it. But I couldnt get a meal anywhere for $2. I had no choice. We didn't even get to eat out for dinner once a month! It just got to run-of-the-mill.
So spend the $2 a day for a good meal, enjoy it and then feel better when you get home and not dread having to put together yet another sack lunch... plus the time you use for that, can be used for something else.
One can pick up pennies in the parking lot, but you don't have to crawl the gutter for them.
@GemmaR (8517)
•
25 Jan 09
I would get tired of eating the same food over and over again every day, so I think I would end up taking my own.
You can make your own sandwiches at a much lower cost than this, so you might as well do that instead!
Whats the point in being in your place of work and spending your wages while you're trying to earn them?
I'd take my own :)
Although, I worked in a chinese once, and it was an all you can eat place, and we were all allowed an all you can eat meal per shift absolutely free! So that was quite good, as there was so much stuff on the menu I never had to eat the same thing two days on the run.
@Paula1966 (1102)
• United States
25 Jan 09
I suppose it depends on what you would bring. A sandwich and some chips can be pretty cheap, but does not sounds as good as what you are having. If you end up eating light when you get home, you might end up saving more the way you are doing.
1 person likes this
@uicbear (1900)
• United States
25 Jan 09
Wow, $2 is a really decent price. I don't know if you would be able to prepare a bagged lunch for under that, unless you were bringing leftovers. I mean even most frozen dinners ore 2 or 3 dollars, and then you'd have to waste your break time heating it up. And since you said, this is usually your big meal for the day, you probably don't do big enough cooking at home to have leftovers to bring with you. So, after much consideration I say buy your lunch at work and enjoy your break.
1 person likes this
@dpk262006 (58678)
• Delhi, India
27 Jan 09
I always prefer taking home cooked lunch to my office. My better half prepares meals for me in the morning and at lunch time it is re-heated. I do not like to take stuff from outside and donot relish it much. There is no susbstitute for home cooked food.
@mssnow (9484)
• United States
29 Jan 09
You could always eat lunch at that restaraunt one day and then bring your lunch the next. That way you get to eat out some days too. I would say that is a great lunch for around $2 a day. Usually lunches that you bring from home cost anywhere between $1 to $3 with whatever you bring. A tuna sandwich (tuna on sale)would be about 30 cents, piece of fruit about 10 to 30 cents. (on sale) Potaot chips are about 30 cents per serving or less. So I think either way you would be doing well.
@3cardmonte (5098)
•
26 Jan 09
wow, thats a bargain for that kind of stuff! thats a niec meal for very little money, if you bought your own, you would be saving but would you be as full up or satisfied?
When I used to work in a big complex of shops, I would always go to the cafe as I had a huge crush on one of the women that worked there, I knew she was spoken for, but I just liked chatting to her. I spent a freaking fortune! 
@puddytat101 (657)
• United States
25 Jan 09
Howdy!
You can't hardly beat $2 a day for lunch at work! That's a steal!
Of course, you could opt for Ramen noodles, a bottle of hot sauce and water for weeks. A lot of Italian pasta dishes could be made up for lunch.
Come to think of it, there are a ton of cuisines that you could spread out over days. But then again, this would require more work on your part at home when you really just want to relax after a long day waitressing.
I say kick off the heels and buy lunch at work! You'll always have a fresh variety of choices to experiment with! Now I'm really hungry!
meow & ciao!
@xcolossalx (18)
• United States
26 Jan 09
Ok this is what i would do... if you really like the restaurant that you work at then i would for sure buy there, also if they have a wide variety of food they serve there so you won't get bored with that mean you eat there. If they don't have the things that i suggested, then i would not eat lunch at the restaurant. I would periodically bring in my own lunch just to remind yourself what a lunch from home tastes like.
@hermione_569 (3)
• India
25 Jan 09
i think u try getting ur own cuz ot saves a lot of money for a months consideration and it is lots of fun to do ur own lunch and take it. u always have the satisfaction for eating wat uve done eat the hotel food whenever u feel like that wont be any problem
@gobbo980 (13)
• Canada
26 Jan 09
I persenly would eat at the restaurant because it is cheap and you will get good food. To me it would be saving money because you dodnt have to go and get the stuff and spend like 5 dollars on a lunch when you can get a good lunch for 2 dolars. So i persenly would eat at work.
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
25 Jan 09
I guess it really would depend on what you'd bring for lunch. However, it seems to me that you're getting a rather large meal when you eat during your break for that price and I'd prefer eating a half priced meal at work than bringing a boring old sandwich and chips to work each and every day.
@fluffysue (1482)
• United States
25 Jan 09
Two dollars is a very good price for lunch. You need to weigh that against the cost of preparing your own lunch. When I work, I often end up bringing frozen meals for lunch, which often cost $2 or more. Of course sandwiches, soup, leftovers, etc. could cost less. But I think if the food is decent and you are making it your big meal of the day, it's well worth it.
@Shellyann36 (11384)
• United States
25 Jan 09
I would probably switch it up. I have to say that I have always made lunch for my Fiance for work. I know he gets tired of sandwiches and such. He does work construction so there are times when he is not able to go and heat things up in a microwave and such. So a majority of the time, sandwiches are the means of his lunch. I know he gets very tired of it but hey he has got to eat. I don't know if I could handle it every day 5 days a week. I would say switch it up off and on. If you get so much from one meal and you make it your "meal of the day" then it might be cheaper for you to actually eat at work than to bring your own. Consider what you would want to carry for lunch and figure out how much each item would cost. I think $2.00 a day for a hearty meal is reasonably cheap.
@mermaidivy (15394)
• United States
26 Jan 09
I like to bring my own lunch box. First, it saves me little money and I don't like to eat food with MSG everydaywhich makes me very thirsty.
@MichellinaGem (164)
• United States
26 Jan 09
First of all I think that to make even basic sanwiches and chips for lunch would come close to $2 a day considering the price of bread, meat and cheese these days. You certainly could not get nearly as good of a meal for that price to take without a lot of extra work. My husband is a waiter and has always eaten at work. Thankfully he now gets his meals for free, however we decided that even when they were a lot more than $2 a night it was better to buy them so we would have our food at home for at home. Any leftovers are eaten by me and the kids at night when he is at work. That way I do not have extensive cooking to do when at home alone with the children and can pay more attention to them. It is always nice to get to have a good meal you don't have to fix and at $2 a meal is a good deal too.
