|
Saving money at lunch time
by Tash Hughes of
Word
Constructions
Making lunches to take to school,
work or play can become a chore, especially if you want
something more than a vegemite sandwich everyday.
One option is to go to the
supermarket and stock up on small food serves that are
easy to pack. Of course, hat can become an expensive
option, and not everyone is happy with the additives in
many convenient lunch items.
So how can you have convenience, low
cost and interesting packed lunches?
To start with, you need to set
yourself up to make it possible:
-
Invest in some small containers
that can be washed and reused over and over
-
Find some containers that snugly
fit a sandwich – it saves on using cling wrap every
day
-
Have lunch boxes available that
are tall enough to hold an orange
-
Label all containers likely to be
used for lunches – ok, maybe not so necessary for
work lunches unless you share workspaces, but very
important for school lunches!
Then, start thinking about what lunch
ingredients suit you and your family and try out the
following ideas:
-
Buy bulk dried fruit, such a 2kg
of sultanas or mixed fruit, and place in a large
container you keep somewhere handy. Each day, fill a
small container with fruit and you’ll save a fortune
compared to buying those small boxes of fruit. You
can do the same with large packets of biscuits and
chips, too
-
Divide a large tin of fruit or a
bowl of home-made fruit salad into small containers
– again, his is much cheaper than buying the single
serve fruit packs
-
Spend a few hours once a month
doing a lot of baking. Make muffins, slices,
mini-quiches, mini pies, sausage rolls and even
toasted sandwiches, then wrap/pack then ready for
lunches and place them in the freezer. Then you
simply pull out something to pack each day
-
Buy heaps of fruit and add a
couple of different fruits to each lunch box
-
If you eat a lot of dried fruit,
consider getting a system for drying fruit yourself
– not only will it be cheaper than buying the
packets, you will avoid the additives in
commercially dried fruit and will save the planet
from more packaging
-
When cooking each night, make
enough to fill containers for lunches – left overs
often taste better anyway! You can also freeze lunch
size serves if you make a really big batch of soup,
bolognaise sauce or similar
-
Grab packets of cup-soup when
they’re on special if you can boil water to make
your lunch. Add a fresh roll from a bakery for a
cheap, warming lunch
-
Put salad vegetables into a
container and take bread separately so you can have
a fresh salad sandwich (because who wants a salad
sandwich hours after it’s made?)
-
An easy to carry lunch is a hard
boiled egg and slices of bread. If this appeals,
boil up a few eggs at once to cover a couple of
lunches
-
Buy big containers of dips and
spoon some into smaller containers to take for lunch
with some dried biscuits, carrot sticks, bread, etc.
Even better – make up your own dips at home! Add
interest by adding home-grilled capsicum and
eggplant, along with some sliced cheese and tomatoes
-
Instead of packet cheese and
biscuits, buy larger sizes and prepare your own
snack serves
Tash Hughes is
the owner of
Word Constructions and is available to solve all
your business writing problems! From letters to
policies, newsletters to web content, Word Constructions
writes all business documents to your style and
satisfaction.
|
