food for work

thejungles

Hello all

Im trying to become debt free and one quite big bill i have at the end of the month is from the sandwich shop next to where i work, they allow tabs and we pay on payday, my tab ranges from £80 to £160 a month depending on the amount of weeks between payday and the food i get.

im planning on knocking this on the head and preparing my own meals/lunches at home and im looking for some nice cheap alternatives and tips.

i know i can cook up larger portions on a night and take the remains into work but to be honest im not clued up on how long certain foods last once cooked so im wondering on what you guys do to save money.

GothicStirling

I always just make a sandwich to take to work, and buy a box of shredded wheat/cornflakes which I put a handful into a tupperware box, than pay 95p for an small box at my work canteen.

What you can do is batch cook things like soup on your days off. Separate into portions and freeze. Defrost them in the fridge the night before you take them to work. If you have a microwave at work, pre-cook a jacket potato at home, reheat the next day. The only issue with reheating is meat, which should only be cooked twice.

thejungles

how long would a soup last in the freezer, call me an idiot but it should be months shouldnt it? haha

Mee

Hi newbie,

Good luck in you endeavour. Would recommend reading some of the good websites/pages which can be found via Google.

Pasta goes a long way, and investing in a good flask to bring in your own hot soup may be worth considering.
I tend to buy discounted fruit for my lunch, or discounted baked rolls from supermarkets (Waitrose; M&S and Asda are often the cheapest) on my way home for the next day.

I also try to eat a hearty breakfast so I'm not tempted to buy for lunch.

GwylimT

thejungles wrote: »

how long would a soup last in the freezer, call me an idiot but it should be months shouldnt it? haha

Things in the freezer are essentially frozen in time, most things will last years if in an air tight container.

barbarawright

If you don't want to make sandwiches every morning and have a fridge at work then just buy a loaf, butter, cheese/ham/cucumber/whatever you like and some fruit maybe a package of crisps from the Poundshop and you can make lunch every day as you fancy it for about £1 a day

elsien

thejungles wrote: »

how long would a soup last in the freezer, call me an idiot but it should be months shouldnt it? haha

I've just eaten a soup I made and froze 12 months ago and I've not poisoned myself. When you see on frozen food packets the recommendation to use within a month (or whatever) it doesn't mean that you can't eat it after that, just that sometimes after a while in the freezer the texture might change.
If you do a search, there was a similar query not long back which might give you more ideas. Have a look on the oldstyle bit of the forum.

Edit - here you go for a start

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5617322

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5726482

tallyhoh

I used to make my sons sandwiches every Sunday & freeze them. Pop some in a box everything morning with bag crisps (out of multipack) & a piece of fruit. Nicely defrosted by lunchtime

Dobbibill

This suggestion added to pasta or chicken (which I've done today).
Evening meal and lunch in one.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=73441523&postcount=21

Freeze the rest for other meals.

-taff

Have a look on the old style board, plenty of replies there if you post the same query

System

thejungles wrote: »

, my tab ranges from £80 to £160 a month depending on the amount of weeks between payday and the food i get.
.

I take a packup with a sandwich, some grapes, a banana, sometimes a scotch egg and a bag of crisps and it costs me less than a quid. Without the scotch egg its 68p. Sometimes I'll take a tin of the beef soup from Lidl which is OTTOMH around 60-70p.

Spending over £1000 a year on work lunches is madness. ONS figures have household expenditure for food shopping in the UK at £56 a week for a family, you're spending between 40-80% of that just on work lunches just for yourself. No wonder they run a tab.