Brown Bag It: This Summer for Lunch. June 24, 2009

You can sometimes find Banquet meals for less than $1.

A quick tip to save money is to not go out for lunch. Many execs and middle managers get comfortable going out with clients for lunch because they don’t have to pick up the check, but this can become a bad habit and even when they don’t have meetings they will still go out. It’s not that you have to bring your lunch all the time to work but it will save you money. Get organized and you can buy a frozen dinner for $1 – $3.50 or even bring leftovers for next to nothing. Most of the time you will spend anywhere from $5 – $12 for lunch. That’s 3 times as much! If you bring your lunch and just save that $4 each day, you will save an extra $1,000 each year for your budget. Just imagine, if you were someone that spends $12 on lunch every day, you could save up to $2,750 each year. You could use that money to pay down debt, use it for your next goal or spend that money on an all-inclusive vacation. This is a great way to save money and get out of debt. Watch the newspaper grocery ads for hot buys on frozen meals. Especially, at the first of the year, you can get some really great deals on healthy meals.