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Slowly I am changing that by doing these things:
1) Keeping peanut butter and bread at my desk. I also have access to a fridge and keep jelly and sodas cold. This cuts down on breakfast costs.
2) I keep French press ground coffee at my desk and a tall mug. I got sick of the crappy free coffee at work. One pound of coffee costs $8+ at Starbucks, but it's been a month or more and I still haven't finished the first bag. (I don't drink it every day.) What I do is dump in the grinds, pour the hot water in, stir and let the grinds settle before I drink it. Dump and rinse when I'm done.
3) Try bringing in a few things and supplementing it with something small from the cafeteria. For instance, I brought in a whole container of salad mix with dressing in a bottle and some bread slices. Then I would buy some tuna/macaroni salad from the cafeteria for protein. So instead of paying $6 or 7 for everything in the cafeteria, I pay only $3.
4) Keep snacks at your desk. Sometimes I eat a granola bar for breakfast instead of a yummy egg and cheese sandwich from the cafeteria. That also keeps me from getting a juice or Snapple extra since it's so easy to add that on.
So far it really hasn't made a huge difference month over month in what I spend because of the grocery bill and the fact that I only really started this in April or May, but I figure eventually it will.
Honestly, I don't have a choice in the matter either. My offices are going to move later this year and the cheap and tasty cafeteria will be too far away to tempt me. The new location only has expensive restaurants so I'm trying to pack my lunch now so I get used to doing it.
A couple of tricks I've picked up to keep the costs down: buy a water bottle and fill it up before you head out for lunch- it's healthier and saves you about 2 bucks each day. That and look for smaller mom and pop places that aren't as expensive- a couple slices of pizza fills me up and only costs $4 if I bring my water.
I also try to limit myself to 1 splurge meal a week with my co-workers. Also dividing most meals in half and saving some for dinner/ lunch the next day stretches it out, especially since most places give huge portions.
In addition to the great suggestions above, I highly recommend leftovers from the night before as the easiest, least-time-consuming method. Or bring sandwich fixings for the week to work and assemble your sandwich at your desk. Or organize your friends and do lunch potlucks - everyone brings a dish to share (just keep paper goods from Costco in one of your offices). You might also look into whether hitting the supermarket deli counter or salad bar on the way to work might be cheaper than where you currently buy your lunch. Finally, there's the "cook once, eat several meals" approach - make a large batch of pasta salad, soup, casserole, etc. and then take it for lunch for the week. Good luck!
Before the motivation, here are things I do
- On busy days, I just carry an apple (or two). Get a bag of a couple of dozen red delicious - they are not that expensive and there is nothing to cook - just wash it and enjoy.
- Sometimes I eat a hearty breakfast and just skip lunch. Skipping a lunch is not really a disaster. It feels really good by the time it's dinner-time.
Anways, I don't think that's your problem. Your problem is saying "NO" to your co-workers when they pop the lunch question, isn't it? :)
Now, the motivational part; may be we should threaten to stop reading your blog if you keep eating your lunch outside. ;) j/k
But if you're in the habit of eating with a group of co-workers, I'd second the suggestion made by another commenter that you try arranging a regular potluck. Some people in my office do that, and it can be stuff that could be cooked the night before, so you don't have to prepare it in the morning when you're in a rush.
Fruit, nuts, and peanut butter kept in the office can also help a lot.
It worked for a while but like you, finding time to pack the lunch is my downfall. Rushing around in the morning, forgetting to do it the night before, and before you know it you're back on the regular habits.
In my case it isn't even a social issue, I don't have any co-workers, but the building I work in does have a cafeteria so the good news is I can generally keep my lunches to around 5 bucks while still getting out of my office.
My wife on the other hand, she works in a VERY rural location that would require you to drive over five miles just to find a mcdonalds and that is the closest place to eat. Generally she will have to head out to the next town which is about 15 miles away.
While there is a bit of money being left on the table that could be saved it really comes down being lazy/busy.
I also enjoy the social aspect of eating out with friends and coworkers, so I do that a couple times a week. This is also a great way to network, so indirectly and long term, eating out can be good for the bottom line.
It's important to stick to simple and healthy recipes. People try get motivated by cooking gourmet and get bogged down. At a certain point, you will become efficient in buying your groceries and preparing them. Then packing your lunch would no longer be a struggle.
Maybe that's a way to get social time in without dining out?
Now I've joined a lunch pool at work: four of us bring lunch for each other one day per week. My day is Wednesday, so home made lunch is provided for me Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, in exchange for my providing lunch for four on Wednesday. It's saves time and money, is a lot of fun, and helps me push my cooking boundaries.
Here's something you could think about trying: since you know how much extra you're spending on food, put that money in a savings account at the beginning of the month. If you go over your budget, then you have to pull money from your savings account. It might make you realize that if you spend this now you're not saving it for later. I did this with some of my areas of weakness and it worked really well.
Also you might want to consider why it is that you don't pack a lunch, beside the co-worker thing. I found that I don't like the way some food tastes after being reheated, and I also don't like to eat cold food. Now I strategically plan what works well for reheating and I try and bring that in for lunch.
I just did a wrap-up of the experiment here--it was a big success, and I had a lot of fun. Today I brought to work the following:
A yogurt parfait (frozen raspberries, yogurt, granola) for breakfast.
A container of chicken-edamame pasta salad (made on Monday in a big batch) for lunch.
A ham-and-muenster cheese wrap with baby spinach and avocado for dinner (I'm out late tonight).
A cup of applesauce and a string cheese for a snack.
It took me about fifteen minutes this morning to prepare everything (plus the hour or so I spent on Monday making the pasta salad), and my total costs for a day's worth of food are around $8.30. When I buy lunch, I usually spend $10-$12 just for that one meal alone. For me, it's worth it--I've actually found the past couple of weeks really, really fun. But you're certainly right about one thing: it's definitely a matter of motivation.
I've started to get a bit fancy with my cooking, and I've been using alot of fancy ingredients than I used to 2-3 years ago. This has actually made me lookdown on most restaurant food because I make much better meals (and I don't get food poisoning!). This has been gradual. 6 years ago, I thought bottled spaghetti and boxed pasta was a good meal.
Also I have watched food service workers (and worked in the food service industry) and I don't like the way they treat food, keeping that image in my head alot has helped me avoid restaurants more than I used to in the past when I was making way less money!
Also, if you have access to a fridge at work, bring in sandwich fixings at the beginning of the week and make your lunch at lunchtime. I find myself more likely to use up this stuff, as I know that if I don't it will spoil by the end of the week. So, not only would I be wasting money by going out to lunch, I'd be wasting money by letting food spoil...doubling the self-punishment. Also, another thing I've been doing that has really been helpful is to buy a bunch of fruit to take to work. It's so easy to grab an apple and a banana and take them to work with me...not to mention part of a balanced diet ;)
Have you noticed how most recipes make enough dinner for 4? We cook the lot, and freeze the leftovers into lunch-size containers.
Now, preparing lunch means opening the freezer. And I have my choice of curries, soups, maybe a protein-heavy stirfry...
Much more appetizing than the cafeteria, or the closest greasy burger joint.
My method is, while cooking breakfast I make my snacks and lunch for the day at work, potentially dinner too.We built this page to monitor and share the day to I train like a bodybuilder (I merely don't compete) so my diet is very regimented. I bought a 15 liter cooler from a store and I put my food and different supplements in this cooler. I can pack enough food in this thing to last me almost all weekend if I need to. This has a lot of benefit when I travel for work as I can still eat healthy on the road.
The benefits of this are:
1) Health: A trick to eating healthy and not splurging on junk food is preparation. If you have a cooler sitting next to you at work with sandwiches some peanut butter, tuna fish, chicken breasts, an apple, some healthy chips etc, you're much less likely to opt for the burger and fries route.
2) Cost: Obviously this route is far more cost effective than eating out every day. I spent about $66 at the store and I'll be able to make it for about 12 days on that food (I eat alot, but very simply).
3) Motivation: This method increases my motivation every time I do it right. When my friends are going to fast-food joints and spending alot on bigger meals, it makes me feel better about being disciplined and having the ability to stay healthy and save money in areas that are frivolous (I find this area to be one.) When people ask me how I stay both strong and lean, I simply point to my cooler.
For this area of maintain discipline, all in all, preparation is the key I've found.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/dining/18mini...
My dad struggles with packing lunch vs eating eat. It's a guy thing for him sometimes - he doesn't want to seem cheap or frugal among other guys at work. So he eats out once or twice a week for lunch, the rest of the week he'll eat the company's catered lunch and leftovers from those.