Food Tip: How To Save $300 A Month By Brown Bagging It For Lunch
We all have to eat lunch. The question is... What do we eat? And where do we eat it?
On average, I spend $8 for lunch if I eat out. If I brown bag it and take my lunch to work, it costs about $1.10. That's a savings of $6.90 per day.
If I factor in my spouse, we're actually saving $13.80 per day or approximately $300 per month simply by bringing our lunch rather than eating out!
Let's look at how to calculate your personalized brown bag savings using an easy online calculation tool.
Eating out is a matter or convenience. No one likes to get up in the morning and spend time working to make a lunch before we even go into work.
An easy way to avoid this is to prepare your lunch the night before.
If $300 per month doesn't convince you to consider brown bagging your lunch, check out this link to a calculator that shows you how much your real cost difference would be if you were to save the difference in an investment account (earning interest).
Check out the Lunch Saver Online Calculator.
Just to give you a quick calculation for my family...
If my spouse and I were to brown bag it for the next 30 years until we retire, the additional money in our pocket is about $767,000.00. Yes, you read correctly - almost three quarters of a million dollars!
Now I am a realist, I am not going to take my lunch to work every day for the next 30 years. However, it is important to understand the opportunity cost of the decisions that we make. Realistically, you can strike a nice balance that is sensible for your specific situation.
If you have any good ideas of how to save money on your monthly budget please post a comment for everyone to see.
I like your article and it's so true. The following information was taken from the book "The Insider's Guide To Saving Money" by Michael Ellenbogen. "Cutting back does not necessarily mean giving something up all together, but rather finding a less expensive way to do it. Let us say, for example, that each morning you stop by your favorite coffee shop and buy a cafe latte. It costs $3.00, or $15.00 per week. Another option is that you could stop by a local convenience store and buy your coffee for $1.00. You would save $10.00 per week or $520.00 per year. Not bad for a minor adjustment. If you took the $10.00 savings each week and invested it at a 5 percent return, after 20 years you would have over $17,600.00. Not bad for altering one buying habit. Most people have more than one cup of coffee a day. Just think of those savings. You could even make your own coffee at work, which would save you even more."
This book was a real eye opener, on the amount of money I have been wasting on cigarettes and so many other things. The savings added up quickly. I will be saving over $86,000.00, over 20 years because I stopped smoking 1 1/2 packs per day.