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View Poll Results: For people who still work, do you bring your lunch or buy it?
Bring it 88 64.23%
Buy it 45 32.85%
Lunch? Are you kidding? 4 2.92%
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-02-2007, 08:10 AM   #41
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

I bring both breakfast and lunch, plus fruit and other mid morning/mid afternoon snacks. (I am one of those people who eats small amounts throughout the day.)

As a result, I eat at my desk almost all day.

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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-02-2007, 08:13 AM   #42
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

At most of the places I worked, if you didnt go out for lunch with one of the crowds, you were practically a leper.
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-02-2007, 10:30 AM   #43
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

Quote:
Originally Posted by saluki9
Do you have a Potbelly's sandwich works near you? They have awesome PB&J sandwiches
Nope, not here in NC
TJ
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-02-2007, 02:21 PM   #44
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

I live a half-mile from my office, so I actually go home for lunch nearly every day. I let the dogs out, start a load of dishes/laundry, check on this forum....Tracy
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-02-2007, 04:37 PM   #45
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tracy42
I live a half-mile from my office, so I actually go home for lunch nearly every day. I let the dogs out, start a load of dishes/laundry, check on this forum....Tracy
Like Dude and Tracy, I'm close enough to home to go there most days (probably 90%+ of the time) - friendly change of scenary, heat up some leftovers or whip up something easy, check mail, visit with DW if home, let dog out, eat on deck if weather is nice, etc. Makes for a nice break in the day.

In general, I only do job lunches out when someone wants to meet or on those rare ocassions that I'm doing other lunchtime errands and add a drive-trhough to the loop.
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-02-2007, 06:13 PM   #46
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

I work an hour in the morning and and hour in the afternoon, so I'm home for lunch. I keep it very simple and cheap. For years my husband has packed a lunch. He leaves his office and goes to a local park. He eats his lunch and then walks at the park, about a mile. He keeps an extra pair of shoes with him for this in case it's muddy.

When he does have a reason to go out to lunch he finds that it's way too much food and the expenses really add up.
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-03-2007, 01:47 PM   #47
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

I try and bring lunch twice a week. I do enjoy getting out the office. We do have food brought in quite often along and almost always have frozen dinners available, although I rarely eat the frozen dinners. I've found that I can go out quite cheaply most of the time even if it's fast food, either get some good and pretty healthy Mexican food or get a Vietnamese sandwiches. I never drink soda so the most this costs me is $4 and it's as cheap as $2.50 for the sandwich. Don't understand how people can eat at Subway after eating this!

Friday lunches are almost always $10 because we end up going to a more expensive sit-down place. We definitely spend more on going out for dinners. Sushi and this french restaurant we go to seem to be the most expensive.
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-03-2007, 06:49 PM   #48
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

I only go into the office once per week, but when I do I try to bring my lunch as often as possible or meet my dad for lunch (who usually buys except when I pick up the tab).

So I probably buy lunch at work about once a month or so... maybe less.

If I went everyday, I'd definitely bring lunch at least 4 days a week. I've seen the impact it has on my pocketbook... monthly food costs dropping by as much as $150/month.
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-03-2007, 06:57 PM   #49
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

I buy my lunch (actually, I have two sandwiches made twice a week at a rather upscale supermarket. The sandwiches are made of healthy-to-eat food. I eat 1/2 a sandwich a day for lunch. Before lunch (about 10:00) I eat a banana with a dab?dopple?squirt? of reduced fat peanut butter. Later in the day, I'll have some yogurt and trailmix. I usually bring a thermos of coffee and maybe have about
1 1/2 cups at the office. I still can't figure out what to do on Fridays, since I only get 4 sandwich halves made during the week. I usually just bring whatever we have left over in the fridge for Friday--sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-03-2007, 07:59 PM   #50
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

currently, I have the luxury of a big name gym only a block from my office. I usually hit the gym for lunch maybe 4 times a week. so, naturally, I bring my lunch to take advantage of going to the gym.
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-03-2007, 09:42 PM   #51
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

Before we got married, my wife would bring her lunch and I would buy my lunch. After we got married we decided that "LBYM best practices" dictate that we both bring our lunch.
That was 18 years ago... The rest is history.
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-03-2007, 10:24 PM   #52
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?



I usually bring my lunch... then take a nice walk outside
along my company's greenbelt area. I get to save $$
and get away at the same time



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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-03-2007, 11:28 PM   #53
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

I go out for lunch with my colleagues and sometimes i go to have luch alone. Easy to have lunch around my office and so cheap.
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?
Old 05-04-2007, 08:08 AM   #54
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Re: Bring lunch from home or buy?

Here's the evolution of my decision to eat out twice a week on average and spend ~$50/month:

I started out working and supporting the family on my salary alone, and we were just scraping by after I made my significant 401k contributions. Going out to eat would have taken a chunk out of my 401k contributions at the time. So I would rarely go out to eat - maybe 1 time every month or two.

DW finished school, recovered from having our first child, and then found a good-paying job. She went out to eat frequently with her new coworkers to socialize mostly (she was tired of being socially isolated while stuck at home w/ the kid).

I kinda freaked out that she was going out to eat so much because I was still viewing our budget and spending habits in terms of our old household income when only I was working. After looking at our spending for a few months, I realized that it really wasn't that expensive for her to go out and eat 2-4 times per week relative to what we were saving and investing.

That's when I loosened the purse strings, quit "harboring resentment" towards her for spendthriftly wasting our money on dining out, and started joining my own coworkers for lunch occasionally. It definitely helps break up the work day and make it more tolerable.
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