Is buying lunch really that expensive? $15 a day for 5 days for about 40 working weeks is only $3k. Changing my perspective right now on “saving money”

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3k is a lot though. You could put that towards a nice vacation or medical bills, or whatever else you need. Or think about bringing lunch for half the week and saving 1.5k.

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Definitely take into account the cost of preparation too. Google estimates it costs $4-5 per home cooked meal vs $15 for commercial meal, so the savings difference is $2K or $10 per meal.

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EY and Lunch 🤦‍♂️

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$3k feels like a lot of money to me and I imagine to other people...I supposed you have to compare it to what you personally would spend on groceries to bring your own lunch, plus the time value of money for the time it takes you to prep it.

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that $2k or so you might save by packing lunch, in your 401k over the course of 30 years, could end up being $20k. that’s what you’ll hear. or that people just want to spend that $2k on something else.

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well, OP, consider this:
$2k/yr savings on lunch for 5 years (assuming you’re going to save up for 5 years for a house), that’s 10k. market returns on all of that, compounded, let’s say gets us closer to about $12-13k over those 5 years. that’s a not-insignificant portion of a down payment, or money you could use to redo the kitchen, or buy some furniture for your place.

fwiw i buy lunch all the time, but i’d think twice if it wasn’t reimbursed.

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Like most things, it’s about the value of the time/energy you save by buying your lunch rather than making/bringing it.

Could I save money by discontinuing my cleaning service? Sure. But it’s worth it to me to have more free time and less stress (and a clean home).

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Expensive is relative and subjective. Spending 10$ a day for 5 days over ~40wks is 2k. If that 1k can be deployed elsewhere w/ more utility, all else held constant, then sure it may be expensive.

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Ive thought about this many times but I consider it to be an operating expense at this point 🤷🏻

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OP do not listen to these people, 3k is nothing. I am all about convenience, just make sure you are saving after all of this

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It isn’t that expensive. I’d use closer to 46 working weeks though.

It just depends on what’s important to you. Look at your current budget and decide what you can cut with low impact to your life. I eat out a lot but I can’t be arsed to cook, so I’d never go through that effort even for 3k in savings. On the other hand, I used to buy way too many technical gadgets I didn’t use, so I cut those out entirely.

Hilarious that this post is by EY

I normally bring my own lunch regardless since I do have lots of leftovers. Just thought about how people are generally told to bring > buying because it will save them money —- how much this has saved someone is what I’m curious about.

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