Save Money: Pack Your Lunch

Packing your lunch takes a few minutes, but does not have to be difficult. You don't need a gourmet lunch. You don't need a fancy lunch box, but I'll admit, I really like having one! I had a teacher in high school who was probably one of the most frugal people on the planet. Mostly, because he had to be. Anyway, he brought his lunch in a bread bag every single day. Perfect example of re-purposing something useful! My apologies for ever making fun of him out loud or in my head for that. It does help to have some leak proof containers on hand though. Baggies are fine for sandwiches, but let's face it....they are expensive and wasteful and I don't like eating sandwiches every day! Here's what I'm loving right now.

Zip-lock divided rectangle containers. About $2.00 in stores now!

Here's my partially eaten lunch from the other day. Nothing fancy: peanut butter and jelly, a few cheese cubes, carrots and hummus, and cherries. Today I forgot to take a picture, but I had watermelon chunks in the big section, cheese cubes in the smallest section, and baked ham chunks in the medium sections. Yum! Now I want more ham.

The best part is that the lid seals each section in a way so that if you have liquidy stuff, it won't run from one section to another! The other thing you have to be careful about it microwaving. If you're going to microwave your lunch, all 3 sections are getting nuked! It's all got to be cold or it's all got to be hot. So far, I've gone all cold. My friend, Dana, had a hot lunch today in one of these containers. We're both loving the container situation!

Here's my lunch container for tomorrow. It's a microwavable omelet pot made by Jo!e.

Basically, you put in 2 eggs, a tad bit of butter or oil (not sure if this is really needed), and whatever else you want in you omelet. Whisk (a fork is fine) inside the pot, and nuke for 1:30 and bingo! You have a little omelet! I confess that I bought this at TJ Maxx a long time ago and have never used it, but today is that day. I have 2 raw eggs wrapped in a paper towel to prevent breaking and some chopped up veggies and a little cheese in the pot already. I think it will be a nice, super cheap, easy lunch. Of course it would be an easy breakfast too, but I'm more worried about lunches right now.

Here's the picture off the website with a finished omelet.

It also says, "only available in Canada." Obviously that's a lie, because I got mine right here in Indiana at TJ Maxx! This company makes all kinds of pseudo unnecessary, but very cute kitchen stuff. I bet anyone who has been to TJ Maxx has seen this brand in the kitchen section.

I hope that the beginning of the school year is a good excuse to make a resolution to pack your lunch and save some cash! Or, as I'm fond of saying...not spend cash.