Lunch and daily coffee

PLRFD

In my day we took packing up and a flask.

HillStreetBlues

In my day it was a liquid lunch

tiger135

i am cutting my spending i know i could bring it right down but i actually enjoy  buying a coffee to take with me while im working in and out a van. my theory is take care of the pounds and the pennies take care of themselves. the opposite to the taking care of the pennisles. id rather give the pennies to a homeless person or cup of tea machine at work.my next step now im down to coffee and sandwich may be to make my own sandwich.

theoretica

In my experience hot drinks in thermos flasks keep better if they don't have milk in.   So I make a flask of black and carry the milk separately - tea for me usually.

Do you actually like the bought stuff, or is it the excuse to stop and walk briefly?  If you wanted to you could find some other change of activity to introduce to your work life.

tiger135

i like the taste of shop bought latte/flat white. it feels like my treat for the day, and helps get me through the work day for an hour or so .
once ive had one nice coffee i dont need one til the next day. 

Rosa_Damascena

tiger135 said:

i like the taste of shop bought latte/flat white. it feels like my treat for the day, and helps get me through the work day for an hour or so .
once ive had one nice coffee i dont need one til the next day. 

Would you consider resetting your ingestion window? The reason I ask is that if you love your Costa / Starbucks / Cafe Nero etc so much you might be better off buying your coffee towards the end of the day and collecting a TGTG bag at the same time. Dinner, lunch the next day and snacks all sorted. You'll spend slightly less than what you are now but will get at least 3 (possibly light) mains from it. If you have a family the goodies will keep the kids happy.

theoretica

£3.25 coffee for 260 working days a year comes out at £845 a year.  If you can afford it and that is what you choose to spend your money on then there is no problem carrying on.  If you don't have the money or prefer to spend it on something else then you could make changes.

Rosa_Damascena

theoretica said:

£3.25 coffee for 260 working days a year comes out at £845 a year.  If you can afford it and that is what you choose to spend your money on then there is no problem carrying on.  If you don't have the money or prefer to spend it on something else then you could make changes.

It doesn't matter how much I earn, I'll be damned before I spend that kind of money on takeaway coffee. At that price its not a treat, its a financial commitment.

Emmia

Nelliegrace said:

A flask of good coffee, another with a chilled drink, and a cool bag with a home made lunch. Leftovers from dinner perhaps? Good for your pocket and your health.

Who buys a meal deal and doesn’t eat it all because they have paid for it? Far too much food.

It depends on the meal deal you choose, I go for a £3.50 Sainsbury's meal deal for lunch  (pret has become far too expensive) sandwich, pot of fresh fruit and either a dash water, or vita coco drink. I swerve the crisps, chocolate etc. Usually I also get a banana or an apple for a mid afternoon snack, as I do compressed hours so I'm at work later than most... and it avoids the picking at the biscuit tin!

The idea of packed lunches at work depresses me slightly (I had them a lot at school as I had dietary issues), dinners at the moment tend to be gousto meals, so there are no left overs.

I do sometimes take home made porridge to cook for breakfast using microwave at work. But, mostly I don't bother with breakfast. 2 or 3 days a week, I'll get a coffee from the independent cafe near work on my way in - cafe's employ people, and I like to support a small business. 

I'm fortunate that I can afford this (we have a mortgage,  but didn't go crazy with the amount borrowed). But there are other areas where I spend less than others, for example,  I don't smoke, have a car, children or pets to pay for.

Ultimately, all of us have choices in how we spend our money. 

Longwalker

You could of course do what I did, buy a decent expresso machine and grinder - and make your own

Or an aeropress if a flat white is your preference, get some decent ground coffee and you wouldn't go back to a costa every again