When I first started working, I would buy my lunches.  Then I realized that $5 a day on lunch would add up to roughly $100 a month.  I was only earning $8 per hour then and after taxes, paying rent, sending my kid to daycare and shelling out cash for other monthly expenses, I really couldn’t afford to eat out, even if eating out meant eating at a fast food food joint or buying a soggy sandwich at the office cafeteria (yuck).

Needless to say, I started including bread and sandwich meats to my grocery list and started bringing sandwiches for lunch.  Then I found that if I cooked a bit more for dinner, I could bring the leftovers the next day to work.  I liked those a bit better than a cold sandwich.  Today I earn more than $8 per hour but I still believe that buying lunch daily is an extravagance.  Most offices now have refrigerators and microwave ovens so why not use them?

Got a sweet tooth?  Or do you like to snack on junk food from the vending machine?  Like your coffee in the afternoons?  You can bring all these with you, too.  Just like buying a lunch daily, these items, even if they cost only around a buck each, add up to roughly $60-70 per month.  So, buy your candy and chips in bulk if you can and include them in your lunch kit.  Bring our coffee in a thermos or if you have access to a coffee pot at work, use it!