Homemade lunches at 1/15th the cost of eating out

In my post, “a fulfilling frugal life” I referred to an article in the Globe and Mail. The name of the article was “As consumer confidence dips, embrace frugality.” And of course the article discussed recent trends towards cutting back, and the author revealed her own guilty pleasures that she was unable to give up. On the globe’s website, readers can post responses.  One of the comments was this:

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Elisabeth Roejskjaer from Sudbury, On, Canada writes: When I was working, here’s how i could afford to visit family in Europe quite often, on a $10.00 pr hr job. One Co-worker spent roughly $10.00 pr day on Morning coffee, Lunch and afternoon snack in our Cafeteria – I made my Lunch at home and walked outside on breaks. 25 working days x $10.00 = $250.00 x 6 months = $1500.00 and they actually thought I was secretly wealthy – it’s the small amounts that adds up – and my own lunch was healthier too. I never thought that I was missing out on anything.

A response to her comment:

mark stephenson from Canada writes: I understand bringing lunch from home, I try for 3 days a week and usually drink the office coffee. However, even left overs or lunch from home isnt free, so you can subtract 1/3 of your $1500 for that cost, especially if you try to eat healthy with fruit and veg etc.

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Above, Mark assumes that taking your lunch from home is 1/3rd of the cost of buying out.  I will disprove this theory by price comparing my lunches last week.  I added up the unit cost of everything I ate, divided by the portion I consumed, and came up with a number.

Monday: Ate out with colleages at a typical lunch joint near work.  Cost of one cheese sandwich and lemonade: $11.50.  Standard fare and cost for downtown Toronto (I work at University and Dundas).

Tuesday: PC dried healthy blue menu vegetable and lentil soup (80¢ – I stocked up when they were on sale) with a few whole grain melba toast crackers (20¢) and chunk of goat cheese (40¢) and an apple (10¢). Water to drink from the water cooler at work.  Total cost: $1.50

Wednesday: Butternut Squash Soup (Free sample). Four whole wheat melbas (16¢). English muffin with peanut butter (37¢) and one apple (10¢). Water. Total cost: 63¢.

Thursday: Homemade Chili (60¢) with English Muffin (33¢). Water. Total cost: 93¢

Friday: Leftovers (Free.)  While technically Mark says that leftovers cost money, I would have to disagree, at least in this instance, because it is food that otherwise would have been thrown out at the restaurant (I ordered a standard meal and was served a big portion – I took it home and put it into tupperware and into the fridge immediately.) Thus, I consider it free. 

Total cost of eating out on Monday: $11.50

Total cost of brown-bagged lunch on all four other days of the week combined: $3.06

If I had eaten out and purchased the same average lunch all four days, I would have spent $46.  That means that bringing my lunch is less than 1/15 the cost - not 1/3rd. 

Not to mention that the lunches I brought were incredibly easy (I just grabbed what was around the house) and reasonably healthy.

See what a difference it makes?  Might be enough to visit the family in Europe after all, Mark!