How to save money on lunches (school and work)

Whether we are going to work or going to school we are going to need to find some time in the day to eat lunch. The biggest thing that we run into when it comes to eating lunch is that we tend to do whatever is the easiest for us that won't cost us a lot of time or effort. And that can be having our significant other pack a lunch for us or a parent in the case of children or buying lunch at the nearest fast food restaurant or even a sit down restaurant. Regardless of if you need lunch for work or for school the most important thing is knowing how you can save money on your lunches each week.

Here are some great tips that you can follow to save money on your lunch during the week.

Tip one:
The best thing that you can do to save money on your lunch throughout the work or school week is to make sure that you bring a lunch from home. This is also a good thing to do because it is also a very tasty way to enjoy lunch and you always have the option to pack something that is different from your fast food choices. Not to mention the fact that there are a variety of ways that you can go about getting the food for your lunches.

One thing that you can do is whatever you are cooking for dinner you need to learn how to cook just enough extra so that you can bring your left over dinner into work the next day. Or you can even reheat it for your kids at home or yourself. The key to doing this is that you are going to need to have some way to reheat the food for your lunch so this is not a good idea for people who do not have access to a microwave.

Something else that you can do is to go to the grocery store when things are on sale and buy a variety of lunch meats that you enjoy. But you can also stock up on fruits and other snack items that can help make your lunch more filling. The reason that this is so much cheaper is because you are buying in bulk. For example you can go to a restaurant and easily spend $10 on one meal but you can go to the store and pick up a loaf of bread for $3.00 and some meat for $3.00 and you have enough to make one sandwich a day for one week. And this is less than what it cost you to eat out just once.

Tip two:
Buy frozen foods that you can cook in the microwave at lunch. You can also look into the frozen food meals that are currently popular in grocery stores. These meals sell for like $5.00 a piece on the high end, on the low end you can get them for about $2.50 a piece. And each of these meals is a full meal in one sitting. They also don't taste that bad as far as frozen meals go. But you can also buy fresh produce and other things that you can keep at work to use for your lunches.

Tip three:
You can also get together with a group of people that you work with and agree to spilt lunch with each other. This can be you buy lunch once a week or you cook and bring in a lunch from home once a week. You can offer to go out and get the lunches and hope that your co-workers are not worried about the little bit of change that they would get back to help pay for your lunch. Or you guys can cook for each other once a week. So what you do is cook a large portion of something cheap and yummy like spaghetti or meatloaf and then bring it into work on your assigned day. This works out great because you only have to spend money on lunch once a week and the rest of the days you get to eat what they have cooked. But this can be bad because if they cook something that you don't care for you are stuck eating it, going hungry or buying lunch on your own.

Tip four:
If you have clients that you meet with on a monthly or even a weekly basis you can arrange to meet them over lunch. These face to face meetings are actually really important for your business if you have clients because it helps build the relationships between you and your clients. Not to mention the fact that some clients are so pleased that you were willing to travel all the way across the city to come see them for lunch that they will volunteer to pay for your lunch. But this isn't something that you should expect or even rely on. But what you can rely on is if you pay for the lunch you can put that expense down as a company expense and get reimbursed for it for the most part or you can claim it on your taxes because it is a working lunch. So while you might not see the savings immediately it will be there in the end.

Tip five:
Make sure that you eat a healthy breakfast. In fact experts say that this is the most important meal of the day. And many people have found that if they eat a breakfast that is filling they can make it through most of the day before they start getting hungry. And more often than not they can skip lunch if they eat fruit and veggies throughout the day after the filling breakfast. And the best part is that they don't ever feel hungry or tired from doing that and they get to boost the amount of fruits and veggies that they are eating, which it is recommended that you eat at least 5 of them each day.

Tip six:
If you are going to be going out to eat try to carpool with other workers so that you can save money on fuel. But this will also give you the chance to save expenses on your meal by sharing the entire meal or at least an appetizer with your co-workers. Or you can even get a doggie bag and bring your leftovers into work later on in the week.

Tip seven:
Keep healthy snacks at work so that you can snack on them whenever you get hungry. Not to mention that being able to snack during the day can help you control your appetite this helps you from ordering too much food when you go out to eat at lunch. But it also saves money from buying snacks in a vending machine or at the local gas station. You can also bring your own drinks rather than buying them at the vending machine. This expense can add up rather quickly.

Tip eight:
Rather than everybody going there separate ways at lunch and buying 5 meals from the local fast food place you should think about combining your money together and purchasing something like a pizza or other large meal that can feed a big group. If everybody goes in on it together the amount of money each person pays is smaller than what you would normally pay for one large meal for yourself.

Tip nine:
You can also have mini potlucks at work. Each day assign somebody to bring something or even each week. The best part is that with this there will be plenty of choices to pick from and enough food to probably last at least two or three days. And all you have to do is bring one dish that is big enough to share with everybody.

Tip ten:
The one that most people have the hard time following is setting a budget for lunch each week. People find this hard because they tend to not stick to it and find themselves failing to follow the budget that they have given themselves. The best way to do this is to give yourself a certain amount of cash at the beginning of each week and that is all you get to spend on eating out. To help keep it different don't eat out two days in a row rather do it at the beginning and the end of the week so you can enjoy the changes of bringing your own lunch.

Tip eleven:
If you are going to be bringing your own lunch you can use plastic containers to bring your food in because it is more cost efficient than using Ziploc bags. When it comes to filling these containers use homemade items like cookies or pudding rather than buying prepackaged food because it is cheaper to make the stuff at home and bring it with you.