Save money on lunch at work

Eating lunch at work does not have to be expensive, even if you are eating out. People spend on average $10 for lunch each day at work, which adds up to $50 a week. By taking, a few simple steps you can cut costs on lunch at work, in some cases you can cut costs by as much as 75%.

Here is what you can do to cut costs on lunch at work so that you can save up to 75%.

Step one:
Bring your lunch from home. You can spend $10 at the grocery store and buy a loaf of bread, a package of lunch meat, some snack crackers, and some fruit to last you four or five days. Doing this will save you around $40 each week, this can be put towards your savings.

Step two:
You can purchase frozen food meals, which you can also find on sale at the grocery store every couple of weeks. The frozen food meals can cost around $1.00 to $5.00 depending on if they are on sale and how much food they contain. Most people find the smaller frozen food meals work for lunch. If you buy the smaller meals that only cost $1.00, you would be spending $5.00 on lunch for the entire workweek. Going this route would save you $45 each week on lunch costs.

Step three:
You can also cook enough food each night at dinner that you have leftovers to take with you to work the next day. This is only going to work out for you if your place of employment has a refrigerator and microwave because in most cases you will have to reheat the food. When bringing your lunch from home you will want to use reusable containers rather than sandwich bags to help save even more money.

Step four:
If you really do want to eat out rather than going to lunch by yourself you can get together with a group of people at work and order a pizza or something similar that allows you to pool your money together to cut down on the costs. For example, a large pizza costs around $20, if there are 5 of you eating lunch together that would be $4 per person.

Step five:
Plan a potluck at work; this can be done once a week or more if desired. This will save you money because you will only have to provide one dish, such as pasta salad or a veggie tray. For example, a pasta salad is relatively cheap to make you can most likely make it at home with stuff you have laying around the house. If you buy it at the grocery store pre-made you can spend about $6 for one container.

Step six:
Meet with your clients over lunch. If you pay for the meal, the money that you spend on lunch is business expense so your company can reimburse you for lunch or claim it on your taxes because it is a working lunch. In some cases, your clients might offer to pay for lunch because you are taking the time to meet with them from across town or without charging them a fee for your time.

Step seven:
Bring fruits and veggies to work from home so that you can snack on them throughout the day. Doing this can prevent your from becoming overly hungry at lunch time. In addition to the fruits and veggies, you should also eat a filling breakfast to help curb your appetite. Most people who eat a filling breakfast and snack on veggies and fruits through the day find that come lunchtime they are not very hungry. This can help cut costs on lunch because you are not spending the extra money going out to eat at lunch.