So as you know, we’re living off of one income now as my wife took off from her education job to stay home to raise the kids. We’ve been looking for all sorts of ways to cut expenses to make my salary stretch a little farther.
One thing I’ve started to do is bring lunch to work a few days a week.
I work in NYC. I don’t tend to go too crazy on lunches in general. I tend to stay away from the expensive restaurants. This was a habit before we were on one income. But the costs of eating in Manhattan do add up anyway. A sandwich is easily $5 at least if I go to a small deli. More if I go to a bigger establishment. Salads cost at least $7. One thing to note is that I don’t eat at fast food places such as McDonald’s, Subway, or Wendy’s. I could get cheaper lunched there but I gave up that food long ago. I try to keep my eating healthy. It could cost more at times but I think the payoff to my health is much greater in the long run!
So now my wife has been making lunch for me around three times a week. If I would have spent $5 on lunch then that saves me $15/week. That’s around $60/month or $720/year! And that’s if I only spent $5. I’m saving more if my lunches were more expensive on those days.
I also don’t buy any beverages for lunch. We have a coffee machine and water cooler at work which I use instead. This also goes back to eating healthy since I wouldn’t buy soda or sugar drinks anyway.
So there’s one way we’re making our money stretch. I’ll be telling you about others ways in future articles.
How do you stretch your money?
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photo credit: the prodigal untitled13
