Lunch at work

MyRealNameToo

QrizB said:

olb81 said:

Hi griz can you itemise the purchases and prices which works out at £1 a day. That sounds really good.

OK, here's some ideas from Tesco (simply because their website worksfor me). Lidl or Aldi might be cheaper.

• Bread: basic wholemeal loaf, 55p, 20 slices (enough for 5 days at 2 rounds/day). 11p/day
• Cheese: basic cheddar, £2.79 for 400g (enough for 10 days at 40g/day). 28p/day.
• Spread: "buttery spread", £1.90 for 500g (should last you 20 days). £10p/day.

That's your sandwiches, two rounds for 49p/day.

Then add:

• Crisps: 6-pack in a choice of flavours, £1 (enough for 6 days). 17p/day.
• Biscuit: own-brand biscuit bar, £1.55 for 8 (8 days). 20p/day.
• Fruit: bananas, 16p each. 16p/day.

The extras come to 53p/day.

Grand total: £1.02 per day.

This doesn't include a drink; ingredients to make your own tea or instant coffee work out as about 5p/cup. If you have access to a kettle at work that's simple enough, otherwise you might want to invest £10 in a flask.

Getting slightly more advanced, I've got one of these wide neck food flasks that lets me take hot soup, or stew, or curry, or whatever to work with me for lunch, if I fancy a hot meal and I'm going to be away from the office microwave.

Thats an extremely mean sandwich with 20g of cheese per sandwich given you are saying 40g per day and making two rounds of sandwiches. I'd be at least doubling that if not more if the sandwich is only going to contain cheese and no salad, tomato, mayo, onion or anything else at all. 

The other point is that whilst is possible to eat a sandwich every day that is 80% bread and a few scrapings of cheese thats a hard life day in day out. If you want to be able to have tuna mayo one day, cheese and ham the next, maybe a roast chicken sandwich the next day so you actually have variety and possibly some actual nutrition, your costs go up a lot as you can't bulk buy to give variety

Murphybear

avidusmortis said:

I used to bring in my own. Would cook a whole chicken on Sunday and then use that for sandwiches throughout the week. 

Didn’t you get fed up with chicken sandwiches every day?

CapricornLass

I used to take in my own every day - because food allergies meant that I had a really restricted choice - if anything.  However, if you have space  in your freezer, its worth remembering that some fillings are freezable.  One of the bugbears is the length of time it took (I was a working mum.  Time was in short supply!).  I used to make up a pile of cheese, pastrami and ham sandwiches, and I think tinned tuna as well, put them into portions, enough to do a month  and then freeze.  I did the same with cake as well.  It was easy to grab a portion of each too, pack it up and take it to work.  It was defrosted by lunch time.  I supplimented this with a plastic tub of salad bits, some pieces of fruit and a cuppa soup.

Worked well for me.

Rosa_Damascena

elsien said:

ButterCheese said:

olb81 said:

Let me know what you do for work lunches?

Funny story - I used to always work in the office before Covid and often took in a ready meal for lunch or breakfast because it was easier than making sandwiches and sometimes cheaper.  One day I took in a curry, was hungry so microwaved it for breakfast (at about 8am).  A rather old fashioned spinster woman walked in, proclaimed that "I can smell curry", looked at me eating it and said "unbelievable" and stormed off

Not seeing the relevance of anyone’s marital status to their dislike of the smell of curry first thing in the morning. Strong smelling food in the work kitchen can be antisocial at any time of day.

Worse still is people eating smelly food at their desk - so inconsiderate!

silverwhistle

QrizB said:

singhini said:

I would try to avoid buying food from supermarkets because many products are highly processed and packed with ingredients that aren’t necessarily good for our health.
To keep costs low and shelf life long, manufacturers often add excess sugar, salt, artificial flavourings, and preservatives. These extra additives push items like breads and cakes into the category of ultra-processed foods (UPFs).

Try not to fall for the UPF scaremongering, folks. On the whole it's just another excuse to sell newspapers / clicks / adverts.

See for example:

https://thecritic.co.uk/whos-afraid-of-upfs-part-1/

https://www.thelancet.com/series-do/ultra-processed-food

The Lancet is a respected journal..

Edit: Published yesterday.

Slowdown

The problem with meal deals for me (aside from the upf) is the packaging. Packs with often non recyclable plastic windows, fruit in plastic tubs or packs. Crisp packets. Waste of money for the food depends on your tastebuds. Waste of money for the planet? Definitely. Bananas, apples and oranges all come with their own packages designed by nature. Much healthier all round! 

thriftylass

olb81 said:

Is it cheaper to make your own or do a supermarket meal deal?
I am happy with cheese sandwich basic type things and maybe a coffee or can o drink
Let me know what you do for work lunches?

Your own will always be cheaper, more nutritious and filling. Especially a lot cheaper if you include a coffee.
I personally make my own 90% of the time. It can be leftovers from dinner (often cook extra anyway), HM sandwiches, a salad etc. We have a fancy coffee machine in work so I bring my own ground coffee and milk in for the week and we get free water in work too.

shandyclover

I'm vegan so meal deals are pretty limited, M&S used to do a vegan NY sandwich which I treated myself to occasionally, and Boots have a few options, but I only get them now for convenience if I haven't managed to pack something up as I realise they are not great nutritionally. Hubby and I when we cook in the evening always cook extra and put portions aside especially of soups, chilli, curry, dal etc. pair that with pitta breach or toasted sourdough, or leftover jacket potato, a piece of fruit, and handful of nuts (we buy in bulk from Grapetree) and a herbal tea and we are done. I also chop up extra salad in the evening during summer and carry it in to work with dressing and seeds. It helps that both our workplaces have microwave, toasters and kettles. Doing the weekly shop we'll pick up cans of soup, instant porridge for just in case and keep them at work. Also invest in clip lock containers so you can carry leftover pasta and sauce with confidence knowing it's not going to escape! 

General_Grant

Looking back on my working life - started in 1964 - I realise that I generally didn't take in food from home.

Back in 1964 there was a "canteen" with what must have been subsidised cooked meals.

Then I moved to a small employer where I might be the only member of staff on the premises at lunchtime and then I could use the kitchen  for simple things.

By 1969, with a different employer in a big city, I received 3/- or 15p per day luncheon vouchers.  That was the tax free value - higher value would have been taxable.  I think that bought me a simple salad at J Lyons.

Other workplaces have been near shops where I wouldn't buy the "meal deal" which never seemed good value but did buy fruit and other food rather than take it in from home.  In some places there was a microwave which was useful.

My last job (2017) was at a Nursing Home where staff could buy subsidised meals from the kitchen.

I think now I would still buy food (not drinks) from a local shop rather than take things in from home.

MyRealNameToo

thriftylass said:

olb81 said:

Is it cheaper to make your own or do a supermarket meal deal?
I am happy with cheese sandwich basic type things and maybe a coffee or can o drink
Let me know what you do for work lunches?

Your own will always be cheaper, more nutritious and filling. Especially a lot cheaper if you include a coffee.
I personally make my own 90% of the time. It can be leftovers from dinner (often cook extra anyway), HM sandwiches, a salad etc. We have a fancy coffee machine in work so I bring my own ground coffee and milk in for the week and we get free water in work too.

Not if you take QrizB's approach, would be cheaper but neither more filling nor nutritious especially if it's the same thing you eat 5 days a week every week. 

I move around a lot work wise and can't remember the last place that didnt provide free tea, coffee and water. Almost all have provided fruit too. Current client also provides cereal at breakfast (wheetabix, coco pops, muesli and something that looks half way between cornflakes and bran flakes) and cereal/protien bars at lunch. They are fairly relaxed with people ordering food for meetings and inevitably there is a load of left over sandwiches and cake at the end thats brought into the office for anyone that wants it. Obviously a bit of a gamble if you are hoping for a free lunch though.