Have a posh packed lunch on a budget!

by Rachel Wait on 17 August 2010  |  12 comments
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Need to tighten the purse-strings but don’t fancy the idea of ham sandwiches every day? Here’s how to have a posh lunch without blowing your budget!

Here at lovemoney.com, we recently helped to launch a campaign called Bring Back Britain's Lunch Hour. With the recession having hit hard, tightening the purse-strings is something many of us are still trying to do. Luckily, there are loads of ways to use your lunch hour to make yourself better off financially.

One very easy way to save money is to bring a packed lunch to work instead of buying your lunch from Pret/Starbucks/M&S/the local pub etc, each day. However, packed lunches are often associated with kids at school, and the idea of bringing in the same boring sandwiches every day can be far from tempting.

However, packed lunches really don’t have to be dull. In fact, I’m going to show you how you can have a posh packed lunch on a budget!

Posh it up!

Recent research from mySupermarket.co.uk has revealed that in a bid to save money, increasing numbers of adults are starting to bring their own packed lunches into work - but with a more sophisticated twist on the traditional lunch of a homemade sandwich and chocolate bar.

In fact, over the past year, sales of traditional sandwich fillers such as cheddar and ham have actually declined by as much as 16%, and sales of sliced white bread have dropped by 4%.

Meanwhile, sales of ciabatta are up 40% compared to last year, sales of fresh soups have risen by 60%, and sales of pre-cut fruit have jumped by 41%.

Make your own

So if you’re contemplating bringing your own lunch into work to save yourself a few pennies, how can you make your lunch a little more exotic without breaking the bank?

The tables below highlight a couple of different options from the four major supermarkets – Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, ASDA and Tesco.

Lunch #1: Chicken, avocado and rocket ciabatta, fruit, muffin and smoothie

Source: mySupermarket.co.uk

Lunch#2: Falafel, houmous and salad pitta bread, vegetable crisps, yogurt and fruit juice

Source: mySupermarket.co.uk

If you’re having a similar lunch each day, part of the advantage is that you can buy in bulk. So, for example, it’s far cheaper to buy a large bottle of fruit smoothie to last you the week, than to buy a small, individual bottle each day. If you don’t have a fridge in your office where you can store it, invest in a reusable bottle so that you can decant some of your smoothie or fruit juice into it each day.

Similarly, buying a large bag of crisps will work out cheaper than buying individual portion packets - you just may need to keep the large bag in an air-tight container to keep the crisps fresh all week.

What’s more, fresh fruit works out cheaper when you have to cut it up yourself and it’s not pre-cut and packed for you. Admittedly, this means that making your own lunch each day will require more effort, but the amount of money you’ll save will be well worth any extra time spent in the kitchen.

However, if you’re wondering exactly how much you could save by bringing in your own lunch, let’s take a closer look at each of the packed lunches above. To make things easier, we’ll use ASDA prices as this is where both baskets of goods came out cheapest.

For the first basket, to last you the full five days, you would probably need two packets of the ciabatta rolls, two packets of chicken, two melons and two bottles of smoothie, bringing the total to £14.59. Dividing this by five, this means your lunch will cost you £2.92 each day.

I think that’s pretty great value for what’s included in your packed lunch - these are pretty tasty ingredients after all. And if you bought your lunch at Pret, you’d be paying at least £3 just for your sandwich.

Of course, you might get sick of having the same sandwich every day for a week. But you could get around this by sharing your lunch ingredients with your partner or a couple of colleagues - and asking them to do the same for you!

Taking a look at the second example, if you had two packets of pitta bread, two pots of houmous, and five yogurts for the week, the total would come to £12.14. And that means your total cost each day would be £2.43 – so even less than the first basket. The equivalent in a coffee shop would cost you nearer £10 each day, or £50 a week. So you’re saving yourself nearly £38 a week!

How much you ultimately spend on your lunch depends on own personal taste – you may want more in your packed lunch, you may want less. But hopefully the above examples give you some idea about how much you can save and highlight that you can still have a tasty lunch even though you've made it yourself. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for top supermarket bargains in our Frugal Food blog every Friday - so you can save even more money!

Related blog post

• Serena Cowdy writes:

  Frugal Food - 13 August 2010

  Welcome to this week's edition of Frugal Food. We’ve got new and extended restaurant deals from Zizzi, All Bar One, Pizza Express and Domino’s. We also have cut-price alcopops and mixers,2 4 1 on chocolate muffins, free Coke glasses with your food, half-price chocs, and blackberry recipes galore!

  Read this post

Eating out

Of course, even if you are bringing in a packed lunch to work every day, it’s still nice to treat yourself to a meal out every now and then. And there are plenty of ways to do this frugally!

For a start, there are several websites that advertise special offers and big price reductions at a range of restaurants when you book through them. Good websites to check out are TopTable, 5pm and Skiddle.

And if you live in London, also take a look at TasteLondon where you can enjoy 50% off hundreds of restaurants in London and the Home Counties by applying for a Taste London card. What’s more, if you use this I want free membership link, you can sign up to a free one month trial so you can try before you buy. Full annual membership costs £69.95 if you want to continue using your card, but this should easily pay for itself if you eat out regularly. 

Finally, don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for 2-4-1 vouchers and other discounts for restaurants such as Pizza Express, Prezzo, Cafe Rouge, Giraffe, All Bar One and many more! A really easy way to do this is to check out our Frugal Food blog every Friday which highlights all the latest restaurant deals. Taking advantage of these vouchers can be a great way to eat out without feeling guilty!

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