Oh. My. Frakking. Gods.
So, Dr. Faith just posted an excellent blog about food budgeting. This inspired me to take a look at how much I actually spend on food.
My thoughts were this... I'm a HORRIBLE person, and I rarely eat dinner or breakfast (I know. I'll be dead by age 50.) My main expense is lunch at work and what little groceries I buy for at home snackage. My guess is that I would come in a tad over the $125/month that Dr. Faith discussed.
I just scrolled back to my recent Where'd my money go? post for the past two weeks and added up what I spent on food.
$136!
Holy crap. I spent $240 for the two weeks, so I spend 57% of my money on food? Really?? Then again, when I think about it... what else do I buy? Where does the money go REALLY?? ALL of my cash spent the past two weeks was on food ($102). $112 of the food money was spent AT work or ON MY WAY TO work. The rest ($24) was spent on actual groceries. Mind you, my "groceries" for the past two weeks were a box of cereal, 20 bottles of Powerade (this doesn't count Powerade purchased at 7-11 or at work), two boxes of toaster strudel, and things I forget from my trip on the 1st. Oh and a case of Raman Noodles for $2.
I think I could fill a swimming pool with the Powerade that I drink in a month. Shit.
Okay, things I've learned tonight. (1) I spend WAY more money on food than I think I do. (2) I should eat better.
I find myself wondering (and not just tonight) if cooking at home and bringing lunch to work would really be cheaper than buying lunch at work from the carts outside. IF my now famous (or infamous) casserole of death (it has broccoli so it's good for you, despite the fried chicken strips, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, and cheese) costs roughly $25 to make. I pulled that number out of my ass; the major expense here would be the chicken and the veggies. And I get say four lunches out of it, I'd about break even. However, I'd eat a bulk of it at home and not save 100% of casserole for lunches. So, if only half of it went to two lunches... I'd still about break even. This is how I justify it to myself that it's okay to buy lunch every day. I'm going to have to make said casserole of death to get the exact cost, eat dinner once, and divide the rest into lunch-sized portions. See, to me, the "extra" hidden cost is eating the dinner at home. If I didn't make the casserole, planning to bring it to work for lunch, I wouldn't eat anything for dinner (most likely). So, there's no money saved, and the casserole actually has cost me the money I saved on lunch by eating a lunch portion for dinner at home. But I don't know if this is ACTUALLY true, or only what I tell myself to justify my hatred of going to the grocery store.
Hmm. Lots of things to think about here. The other variable here is the dread of having to deal with the endless comments and questions from people at work who would be shocked to see me bringing my lunch to work. I hate that. On the rare (read 5 or 6 times in 3.5 years) occasions that I have brought a lunch to work, it's been a horrid experience, simply because of the comments and conversations that ensue.
Anyway, this has become rambling. (Click "Publish" you jackass!)
Laters.
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I started bringing my lunch to work semi-regularly around January, and let me tell you it took A LOT of restraint initially to do this. I was afraid that I would just eat MORE dinner and then have nothing for lunch, and then I'd spend so much more money on food as before. But so far this hasn't been true. And for only one real reason:
ReplyDeleteAs I'm cooking, I lay out not just my plate for dinner but also the to-go containers for the subsequent meals. Then when I make myself my dish for the evening I simultaneously make the other 2-4 dishes. And I IMMEDIATELY put them in the fridge. That way, by the time I'm finished eating my dinner the rest of the servings are cold. And I'm FAR too lazy to reheat them (also helps that I don't have a microwave at home, so the only way that I CAN reheat them without busting out more dishes is to take it to work).
I have always been skeptical about food cooked at home being cheaper than food bought out. Always. This is why I never brought lunch in grad school (or only rarely). But, as it turns out, it actually is cheaper. But it isn't like "Woah! This is 80% less expensive!" No, it is cheaper in a "well, that cost me $2 less" and then it is the $2 less multiplied by 30 days and 2 meals a day - and BOOM - it is less by $120 over the course of a month.
I kinda like to set a mental line in my head as to how much each meal should cost me. And since I like a budget of $10/day I break that down into $1 for breakfast, $4 for lunch, $4 for dinner and $1 for a snack. And I figure that if I make a dish that costs me $12 and I get 3 meals out of it I'm breaking even. If I make a dish that costs $8 and I get 4 meals out of it then I have extra money to spend on the other categories. So then I can get myself a $2 Rockstar without feeling guilty or a $4 Chai latte.
I dunno... I'm saying this like I know what I'm talking about... but really, I'm still always over budget on food, it is just I noticed that when I started bringing my lunches to work I was LESS over budget (and I don't buy special stuff for lunches, I just bring left overs from dinner... I think if I were to intentionally buy special stuff for lunch like sandwich stuff and chips and a little apple or whatever then I would spend MUCH more than I would if I just went to Chipotle and got a burrito).