For those that work and have a lunch or dinner hour, do you bring from home or buy?

If we have anything leftover, I will bring from home and reheat in the microwave at work. I don't especially like sandwiches and will only bring them when I am broke. I do buy lunch out more than I bring but I have found a way to make it as frugal as I can. Me and one of the bosses always split lunch and we both prefer veggies. There is a tiny little diner near our office and for $2 each we can get swiss steak, mashed potatoes, navy beans and 2 pieces of corn bread. This is what they put on 1 plate and we just bring it back to the office and separate it onto 2 plates. Plenty for both of us. The place changes the menu daily so there is always something we like. Some days it's just a cup of green beans and some cornbread. Sure it's not as frugal as bringing from home but it beats both of us paying full price for more food than we need.

I usually bring my lunch, soup or leftovers. I will go to subway perhaps once a week.

I only work two days a week, and generally eat out with my friends at lunch on those days. We usually eat fast food, but we also purchase meals made at the facility (nursing home) for only $2.50-- and believe it or not, their food is usually really good.

I almost always take mine (with the exception of holidays and my birthday when the hospital provides us with a free meal).

We only get 30 minutes for lunch (unpaid), and by the time I run to the cafeteria, wait in line to get served, wait in line to pay- my time is up. LIttle or no time to eat.

I keep some cheap TV dinners in the freezer for those rare times when I don't have leftovers to take.

I try to take mine as much as possible. My hospital is just like Denise's, we only have 30 mins for lunch and by the time I go from the 7th floor to the basement and stand in line for poor quality overpriced food and then stand in line to throw my money away my lunch time is over. We subcontract out and the company that we have now is horrid, their quality is bottom of the barrel and the prices are astronomical, I literally could go to a regular sit down restaraunt and eat for less than they charge.

I try to always keep some .90c TV dinners in the freezer for lunches when I don't have anything else to take.

I'm frugal with lunch! Everyone has to take one duty per week (before school, morning break and bus duty) so for our trouble we each get a free lunch. It can be a salad, the meal of the day, a sandwich, whatever the cafeteria has on offer. In addition to that, I do two lunchtime duties, for which I get paid and fed, so that's another meal out of the cafeteria. The other two days I brown bag it, usually some soup I've made, a sandwich, or leftovers from the night before.

I also have access to the hospital cafeteria, and only have 30 minutes for lunch. I find I am inhaling my food. My co worker and I take our bagged lunches to the cafeteria to eat just to escape from the office for a few minutes.

Once a week, we walk across the street to McDonalds.

I've been trying to bring my lunch, as the cafeteria has changed hands again and is getting all fancy, which is fine, but the prices are getting fancy too. It was costing me $20.00 per week for lunch.

I buy a half gallon of Wawa iced tea once a week for $1.49. It lasts me all week.

This week I brought homemade soup, and next week I plan on chicken salad.

I 99% of the time bring my lunch the 2 days I work. Alot of times I only have a few minutes to scarf it down so it needs to be handy.

I work 2nd shift and dh works 1st so I make a meal while I'm home and I eat it before going into work and dh eats his after he gets home.

Sometimes I take a ziploc bag full of pretzels to snack on if I get hungry or I wait till I get home and then have a snack while surfing the net or watching tv

When I worked, I never bought my lunch. I have always been to "cheap" for that!!! Matthew and I do not even buy soda's out of the machine, cause a 12 pk or a case is much cheaper!!! Right now, Matthew gets to come home for lunch, which is great! The new job he will be taking his lunch, like he has any other job where he didn't get to come home!!!

I get to come home for lunch Mon. - Wed., I get an hour. Thurs. and Fri. I take a lunch, only get half hour on those two days. Usually I come home, let out the dog, do the dishes or vacuum. Usually eat leftovers.

Bring everday...both Rob and I. I only get 20 minutes for lunch, so it would take too long to buy, first of all. Second of all, it just saves us so much money. If I bring, Rob brings, and he is where the lunch money would be spent, so I bring to motivate him to bring. We either have leftovers or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

We take our lunch....either leftovers, sandwiches or frozen dinners. Sometimes I do get lunch from the school cafeteria if it is really good!

I bring my lunch probably 9 days out of 10. Usually its leftovers or TV dinners - I buy them when they're on sale just to take to work. Once in a while I'll order out or, since we have an hour for lunch, I'll go out with a co-worker.

I tend to buy lunch out once a week atleast (sometimes up to 4 days/week) and it costs a bundle. It runs an average of $13 for each lunch out. My goal now is to stop eatting out so much and bring my lunch everyday and hopefully save some $

If I have to take pop corn I bring. I don't like the school lunch program and this is my silent protest.
Ususally I take leftovers.

I always bring lunch with me. I hate to think of those strange fingers touching my food. :eek:

Today I have a 2 litle bottle of filtered water from my home tap, a peach, a banana and a piece of cheddar cheese. I don't have a real lunch time as I'm working in our store. I just eat when I feel like it.

Subway has a footlong special on Tuesday's and it's double stamp day. So for the price of a 6inch combo I get a footlong and a large drink (w/ refills all day long) along with 4 stamps. Then after 2 Tuesday's of this I get a free 6inch with the purch of a drink. So yes, I do eat lunch at work....at least on Tuesday's.

When I get enough stamps for the free 6 inch I usually use it on Saturday's when I am there by myself from 9-5 and can't really drive to get anything else.

I always bring lunch...it can't afford the cafeteria!!

I have been bringing either left-overs or a sandwich and chips for my lunch at work. I also bring a can of soda from home. The food at the nursing home really isn't too tasty (and I can usually eat almost anything without complaint! :eek: ) I also barely have time for a lunch break, so it's faster this way, too.

I always bring my breakfast, lunch, coffee, tea and snacks to work. When DH and I go grocery shopping each week I usually get yogurt and bananas for breakfast, sometimes I bring hot cereal. For lunch it's usually leftover homeade soup (we eat a different homeade soup almost everyday), vegetarian chili or anything else we may have leftover. Snacks are varied, but usually air popped popcorn (made at home), crackers, fruit, banana bread, pumpkin bread or toast with butter.

I try to bring my lunch as much as possible, but sometimes it is less possible than others. I'm hoping to bring it 90% of the time. I do meet a good friend for lunch at a cafe once a week and bring back my left overs for lunch for the next day. Meeting her is a special treat and we've done if for several years -- its an extravagance, but its cheaper than therapy!

When I do bring lunch it is usually left overs or a sandwich or a salad -- something I can wolf down and then go out and hit flea markets.

DH usually gets out LO's. I an lucky enough to work for a company that provides a free breakfast and free lunch. For lunch we have an entree and @5 or 6 sides, soup, salad bar, sandwich bar, grill for burgers and such, so it is not difficult to find something you like.

I don't have long enough shifts most of the time to eat a lunch but when I do I will usually buy and only sometimes bring.

I almost always bring my lunch. I plan my meals so there is enough to bring the next day. If for some reason I dont' have leftovers, I grab a can of soup and some crackers. Plus our company orders lunches alot so I will grab some and then save my lunch for the next day.
It costs to much to eat out here (around $7-$8) and while it's tasty, I just can't afford it.

I haven't worked outside of home since 1999, but I used to work in an upscale department store that is in a mall. I would occasionally bring lunch, but more often I would buy it. Every restaurant (fast food and otherwise) both inside and outside within a block from the mall offered discounts to mall employees. A bunch of us who were young moms with limited money, would most often go to Jack In The Box that was in the mall parking lot--they gave free drinks to mall employees with any purchase, and we would get like a .99 salad, or a burger, chicken sandwich, etc. We had an hour for lunch which was nice, and $1-$2 for lunch wasn't too terrible. Even better if we had managed to get customers to sign up for a credit card--if they got instant credit approval, we got $5 in cash! So lots of times we got to eat for free:)

That job wasn't ALL frugal, however...the dress code killed me with the cost of clothes and shoes. I saved a TON of money when I quit.

I take my own food at least 99% of the time. Rare exceptions are when something happns during the day and I don't get a chance to make food, but I rarely have cash, so I will usually throw together SOMETHING, no matter how pathetic it is, and when we have an "event" planned at work that involves food. Even then, I usually take something anyway in case I don't like the food- I don't eat any meat but chicken and it is hard to come by decent food sometimes.

I think in the 4.5 years I have been at this hospital, I have only purchased foor in the cafeteria a total of 4-5 times. It just isn't food I like- even the salad bar is yucky, because the croutons have seeded rye (yuck!) mixed in. Which is fine, because my own food is cheaper and better.

We get 30 min. for lunch so I bring 4 days a week and we order out, some place that delivers once a week for a treat. cau

I'm lucky to live only a few miles from work so I go home to eat. I usually have leftovers or yogurt and fruit. The only place to eat out here is a small local bar and grill and it would cost about $7 a day for lunch (dinner). Still a lot of people go there, lots of dinner time socializing. ;)

I bring, it was one of my first cost cutting measures...I can't believe how much I saved the first month. DH and I both bring.