Have any of you figured out how to NOT spend $7-$10 a day on lunch, without weighing 350lbs, in under 1/2 hour, and not eat soggy sandwiches?

I just went through my electronic bank statement and sorted by "amount" in the minus column. Let me tell you that I spend a BOAT LOAD on food every week. Not to mention all the service charges and other fees... but I won't get into that.

I'm coming to the conclusion that we are doomed to go through life fat, poor, and behind schedule!


Andy

PowerBar, Bottled Water, Fruit = $3.00

Have you seen SuperSize Me the movie. That will make you rethink your lunch menu. I thought going to BP for a chicken wrap would be affordable. I had to CHARGE IT!

Bag it!

Saves $ on the drive to the food place....

Wait a minute here...I pull wire and hang plasmas and program remotes with sandwiches in hand!

Wife: What do want for lunches this week?

Install guy: Well I will be in Boston on Monday so I can swing by Mary Chungs for some Chinese, then on Wed I will be in Portsmouth so I can get some seafood then on Friday I am in Nashua and they have a Hooters and they have a great special for only $9.95.

Wife: Your having balogna with fruit and you will like it!

Install guy: OK Sweetie Pie!

So on the next Sunday she took my Garman GPS to go shopping and saw on the "recent find" list that I had keyed in Hooters, Nashua NH.

BUSTED! True story and wicked funny with the both of us!

I pack a cooler of sandwiches or cut up veggies...carrotes, cukes, and fruit and plenty of water. I pack for two meals as we all know that we might not be home in time. If you pack for healthy munchie types of food you can eat and work at the same time and still have time for rest and pee time...and you will will have energy all day long.

Bagging really saves money!

I bag it alot. There is no question that it saves money but it also saves me lot of time. Yet sometimes you just need a good hot lunch. I have considered a 12V microwave though...

Always manage to take a client to lunch.

Eat great, write off.....

I keep a sandwich grille in the van. Got it at Target for $19 and it presses and cooks any cold sandwich into a sort of pocket. It really takes a cold sanwich to the next level! Hot lunch in about 10 mins. Best money I ever spent!

I bag mine everyday. Its inexpensive and you get more for your money

Usually its:
Ham, turkey, roast beef sandwich...with Mayo, mustard, cheese, lettuce
Few cookies
Bag of chips...Buy a few big bags and put a hand full in a sandwich bag
Gatorade bottle of ice water
String chese
Apple or orange

And a stop at the market on the way to work for a bottle of soda or sobe drink

Only takes a few minutes to make in the morning and keep it in a insulated lunch box

We do have a customer that owns a restraunt and makes us go down for lunch when we are working at his house up the road...nice waitresses too!..all we pay there is the tip

Here in Southern California I have seen home-made burritos wrapped in foil heated atop the block of the diesel engine running the cement pump, and over the heat lamps on a silkscreen (onto metal) in a factory.

How low a wattage microwave can you get? I have a 12v - 120V converter that puts out 300 watts, but I think all micros are more than that. And 300 watts from 12 volts is 25 amps, so you'd better have separate wiring to it!

Isn't lunch for Saturdays, seems like it lately.

Slim-Fast... Solves both your problems...

I saw the guys from the brick layers or landscaper one day take a left over fireplace tube and a piece of aluminum or steel and cook burritoes and tacos on the sucker usine the propane torch for cooking...
The piece of steel was nasty but you get a hot meal.....

I always get offered old microwaves so grabbing one and plugging it in is always nice for soup, hot sandwich or just warming some leftovers.
and you can throw them away since you didnt have to buy them.

CI

I have always liked stopping at grocery store deli counters for lunch. Pick up a 1/4 pound of whatever looks good, a slice of cheese and a roll, chips or fruit and something to drink. If you want hot food most bigger grocery stores have a hot deli section and usually the food is decent.
You get the economy of brown bagging it but with more options and without having to deal with soggy sandwiches.

AAAHHEEMN...

Ok. This is one next trick I came up with on the mother of all torture rough ins on a so cold you layered up your sox and all other appropriate undergarments. Where civilization was so far you couldn't just drive out and get something hot. Where for some stupid reason the chimney isn't bricked in, the walk out basement windows are absent. and the noise from the ill placed plastic wrap screaming in the wind is just a reminder that it's a TWELVE hour day of this sh?$.... It's also Friday....

Anyhow... I was having a flashback...

On a day when a hot soup would go so well with your other hot home lunch items... Just turn to your ALWAY available 7.99 yellow 250W Halogen work light... How many do you have?

Ok, so you take the one in the worst condition, and remove it's protective wire guard (replace after use). And tilt it back all the way so the glass is flat like a frying pan... Or you could call it the worlds most inexpensive tempered glass top stove.

Go ahead. put anything on it. The simple starts with a good can of stew... it's will bubble over in 10 minutes or so(not cracking the tempered glass!) , but if you keep a roll of aluminum foil and a can opener, and get a metal bowl for homemade chili etc... you can cook it all.... HOT subs are always good...

Anyhow... It's worked for me and a few others for quite awhile... Give it a try if nothing else... The smell that permeates a house... It's kinda funny....

share any recipes?

Great place. Fresh food.

I've never had a problem with weight because I rarely go for the toxic waste dumps like Jack in the dung Box. Fries and potato chips make my eyes glaze over, hamburgers taste ok going down but who doesn't feel like they just swallowed a cannon ball? In a Phoenix, Arizona summer, a big gulp or chocolate bar will raise your blood temperature and kill you in an attic.

Soft drinks increase your kidney stone production and the suger and caffiene do no good either.

Lots of water and fresh food. No burgers/fries

I'll have to try that "I'm going to Hooters for lunch, honey" thing. It'd be great to save a buck.