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Make extra salad the night before instead of spending money on the salad bar.
Ah, lunch.
If you’re an adult who works, it’s all too easy to be tempted by convenient but costly and often calorie-laden options such as takeout food and restaurant meals.
If you have kids, despite efforts to improve school lunches, the cafeteria can still be a place to spend money on less healthy items.
As part of our new frugal food series, we sought out some expert tips on brown-bag (or reusable lunch bag) meals that are low-cost and healthy.
FOR ADULTS
Two for one: Marilyn Townsend, a nutrition education specialist with University of California at Davis, says the easiest way to prepare a brown-bag lunch for the next day is just to cook extra at dinner the night before.
“If you’re going to all the work of making the stew or casserole or the rice whatever it is, make extra,” she said.
The same is true for salads – make a little extra and you can throw it in a container for the next day.
To save more money, make a separate container of dressing with oil and vinegar instead of buying a pricier bottle from the store.
That will also keep the calories down.
“People don’t attribute … calories to dressing, so they put a huge scoop of, say, guacamole on a salad, or sour cream,” Townsend said. “I’d lump all those under the category of dressings (and they’re) pretty much 90 to 100 percent fat.”
Make it from scratch: Generally speaking, Townsend notes, the more processed a food is the more it’s going to cost. Avoid high costs by making your lunch items from scratch. Resources such as the federal Expanded Food and Nutrition Education program can help low-income families learn to cook healthy meals.
Hoard containers: You don’t have to spend money on reusable containers for your lunch. Townsend recommends saving a little money by simply reusing deli containers, yogurt tubs and other items.
Save on sandwiches: Instead of buying pricier deli meats, mix up tuna or egg salad.
Free drinks: After the initial investment of a reusable water bottle, you and your kids can keep your drink budget down by filling up on water rather than juice or soda.
FOR KIDS
Townsend notes that kids may feel a lot of peer pressure to eat school lunches, so you want to make sure what you are giving them is fun as well as nutritious.
Yogurt cups can be yummy and also provide good nutrition.
Fruits and vegetables: You can get pretty good deals on fruits and veggies if you buy locally and in-season. To make it a little more appealing, this may be where it’s worth splurging on a little container of dressing for dipping.
Buy in bulk: If you do find a food that your child likes and is nutritious, look for bulk buys to save money.
Readers, what are your tips for healthy and cheap brown-bag lunches?
Leave a Comment:
If you want to see great brown-bag savings, watch a bunch of school teachers eating lunch. Plastic containers fill the faculty refrigerator and those who do buy processed foods are bringing things like the cheap 59 cent store brand condensed soups or the less-than-$1-each frozen foods from Costco, etc. like Marie Callander's Chicken Pot Pie.
We like hard boiled eggs, bananas, apples, mixed nuts and yogurts. Even buying the more expensive lunch meats save money in the long run. We noticed a long time ago how much cheaper and healthier a lunch cooler has been.
It's amazing that this has to be taught...but whatever, I'm glad people are still trying to be smart about food. Bringing from home is good on so many levels. My adult sons have been taking leftovers since...forever. And, when you bring lasagne or stew or potroast...people are jealous! My husband (executive, I might add) brings a brown bag lunch every day.
Or how about my wife, fickle & pernickety just doesn't cut it!
We portion things out for the week on Sundays so it's grab 'n go. For things like cookies, chips, crackers, etc., look at the nutrition label to see the portion size, and stick to it.
Lately, we've been making lunches the night before, as it reduces the amount of work in the morning as we're getting the kids out the door for school. On our blog, we also have ideas for freezing sandwiches in advance (a great time saver), and also a write-up of EasyLunchboxes, our favorite go-to lunchbox for school, skiing, and any other time we're out of the house. The compartments help think about packing a variety of things, and they are really simple to wash!
I try to bring my lunch to work every day, usually by making enough dinner the night before so that both my husband and I have enough for a next day meal. Also, my 20 y/o daughter tries to pack a lunch for work and healthy snacks for in between classes at school, because she is equally concerned about eating healthy and saving money!
Make time on Sunday for a week of brown-bagging: Make a big batch of soup or stew and freeze in 5 meal size containers. Fill snack-bags with healthy portions of nuts or celery or radishes or carrots or cheese (whatever will remain fresh for 5 days). Grab a frozen meal, a few snacks and a tub of yogurt and you're good for an entire day.
I dislike when writers make broad assumptions, such as saying that "People don’t attribute … calories to dressing." Come on, we haven't been in a cave for the past 25 years.
And blanket statements such as making egg or tuna salad is cheaper than lunch meats may not be true if you buy and prepare the ingredients and then compare cost. What may be jacking up the price of sandwiches is the trend towards Subway or gourmet-style monstrosities that weigh more and have lots more calories than the brown bag sandwiches we brought to school as children.
I work in a hospital. I bring my lunch for the same reasons no one raves about hospital food... It sucks!
I will admit, I should be far better than I am about about actually making everything from scratch. I may pack it in, but I frequently settle for a pop-top can of soup, cup of noodles, frozen Budget Gormet meal...quick heat and eat kind of stuff that I don't actually prepare myself. I know I would save a fortune.
You don’t have to spend money on reusable containers for your lunch. Townsend recommends saving a little money by simply reusing deli containers, yogurt tubs and other items
Not true if you want to microwave. Many of these containers will melt.
...Or, they'll pop open in your bag. :(
You are also not supposed to microwave food in plastic containers as they leach toxic chemicals into the food. I keep a ceramic plate and bowl at work and empty my meal into one of those before heating.
I also use ceramic - Also If I'm worried about the integrity of the container, I put it in a plastic grocery bag so it wont make a mess. Old screw top jars make good liquid and soup containers as well and I trust them more then anything.
Like others, we have a Sunday afternoon assembly line in our kitchen. We package, portion and prepare lunches and snacks for the next week so we can grab and go. We almost never buy individually packaged stuff--it's better for this kids (and us!) to read the package, find out what the portion size is, and dole out just that much into a snack-sized ziptop bag or container. Then, each night, we pack our lunch bags for the next day, and stash them in the fridge. Come morning, we just stick in a bar of blue ice, and we're out the door.
I agree on all of the ideas stated however, don't neglect the mental health aspect of stepping away at lunch. This can mean a walk around the block, lunch in a park or throw a blanket on a bit of lawn and enjoy a picnic. May even start a trend. Working at a computer all day (such as a lot of us do), it is very healthy to stretch, take a deep breath and enjoy some time (brief as it may be) away from the keyboard.
I know! I def. eat out more when I just need to get away for a half hour.
RAMEN!! Enough said. Lunch for less than a quarter. The article is about saving money not being healthy.
Ramen is basically starch and salt and doesn't even taste good. I'd rather buy a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter for work then to eat ramen every day since it's almost as cheap and tastes better and I don't feel like I've just eaten a salt lick.
You can do Ramen if you buy a good bag of frozen veggies with it. Many supermarkets have generic label mixed veggie bags in the freezer aisle. Steep 1/3 of a standard bag along with the noodles and you've just added fiber and vitamins (and color!) to an otherwise bland salty lunch of Ramen.
They said frugal... not poor. I wouldn't eat Ramen unless I was really destitute.