To hate packing food to take to work

[waitingforautumn]

I live just outside and work in central London. Cost of living rising means I'm starting to feel guilty about the money spent on coffee, breakfast and lunch at work. I do somewhat 'budget' for this (i.e. am single, no kids, don't care for designer stuff etc, walk where I can rather than train or bus). However I do realise how much I could save if I were really disciplined about going to the supermarkets and stocking up for a week of homemade lunches and prepped breakfasts, which do sound appealing in theory..

Only issue is, I REALLY tend to miss buying things out - esp lunch. Just being able to pick something new each day, made with ingredients I wouldn't usually buy. I just feel like I eat more healthily/get more variety when I allow myself this. There's the option of sandwiches and baguettes (Pret/Paul/Leon type thing) plus lots of hot options where I work. I also love a good old Tesco meal deal so often have that for lunch too (love the mix and matching element).

Can cheapen breakfast by stopping at a supermarket bakery on way (£1 for a pastry rather than say £2.50). And it's still lovely (am a sucker for pastries and now associate office days with getting one). In the past I've made overnight oats and did keep that up for a while but got out of the habit after the pandemic return to work, and also loathe the washing up part at the office sink.😆

Is it me or is there something nice about strolling to work with a coffee you didn't have to make yourself, a fresh pastry and picking up a lunch you didn't have to plan way in adv or prep?!

I do wonder if this is quite a London thing with all the variety around. Have to be up around 6.30 to get around without the trains/tubes being busy so it feels to early to eat something before leaving home - and I'm always hungry when I sit down having had to walk past upteen bakeries to get in! I feel stopping for coffee/food helps make the working day nicer, I can pick something I fancy there and then. Few colleagues bring anything to eat from home and get all their meals/drinks out for the day so this really feels like the norm. We must all be spending anywhere from £5-£15 a day on all this. 🤔

Nobody single from my generation can afford to get on the housing ladder here anyway, even with decent savings. Some of my friends easily spend £35 a pop getting nails done every 3 weeks, which is outrageous to me. So I'm inclined to say whatever treats get you through life?!

AIBU? Am I lazy? Do I need to find another source of joy in my life? Writing this on the train on the way to work obvs and I have absolutely nothing on me for the day ahead!

Me too. I wonder why this is.

Maybe it's because you 'break the seal' when you have breakfast! 🤪

@cooolio

They have greggs too I suppose

I work in a small town, we don't have take away lunch options except Greggs and Waitrose in walking distance (subway is 20 mins away, dominos doesn't open until 4pm)

My DC wouldn't eat defrosted sandwiches anyway. Being cursed with a fussy eater (which is the reason we don't do school meals atm), everything has to be just so and fresh or it's just left to throw in the bin 😫. Nothing worse than chucking out a whole packed lunch.

Excellent point

Ignore the derailing of your thread about your London comment, anyone can tell it wasn’t meant to offend.

I second buying a good coffee machine and travel coffee cup. That alone will save you money.

Tbh though I’ve been to most cities in the U.K. and the range and volume of food selection is not the same as London. Only the biggest cities come anywhere close.

lots of towns or even bigger villages have multiple and varied food options

If you think that that is comparable to what OP is referring to, then you haven’t really understood.

Something just occurred to me OP

I'm sure you don't work in an office all of your own, maybe start a 'Jacob's join' one day a week where everyone brings in something from home and you all have a nice meal.

I'm a bit of a feeder so when I was working often took things in for colleagues.

Same!! Everyone talks about it being much healthier to eat a good breakfast, it fills you up until lunch etc but if I have breakfast before I leave for work in the morning I’m hunting down the biscuits or pastries by 10am.

I don't need this kind of negativity in my (fantasy) life!

That sounds delicious - I wasn't having a go at the idea of bringing in a sandwich, just querying the idea that a sandwich made in Pret's kitchen at 10am will have lost loads of nutrients and require lots of preservatives while a sandwich made in your own kitchen the evening before or first thing in the morning won't.

Their bread is made from dough that could be up to a year old. Do you honestly think Pret's kitchen is in anyway comparable to your own? It relies on global food supply chains and lax label regulations.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/12/pret-a-manger-marketing

Also:

www.lovefood.com/news/59182/the-truth-about-pret-a-manger-sandwiches

"If you look through Pret’s nutritional information, most of the sandwiches contain between 0.5g and 1.5g of sodium. The amount of sodium in a product does not tell the whole story. Sodium is the “good” mineral we take from salt, but the volume of salt in any given item will be about 2.5 times the sodium.
Therefore, while most of Pret’s sandwiches come in at between 0.5g and 1.5g of sodium, the salt content is much higher."

I'm as chuffed as you 😄

If you look at the back of a bread bag ingredients are similar - they have to break down the ingredients of each component of the sandwich

Rather than a Pret or similar can you get a £3 Tesco meal deal instead? It can include a costa coffee so it should only cost you around £3 a day, it’s all the fun of picking what you fancy for lunch but at a fraction of the cost.

Goals :)

We had better tone down our love of London lunches so some of the others don't kick off 😂

Definitely a gap in the market for some scientific research here! It's true 😂

Wow this defo does make me feel better! 😁

This. You only need to save if you need to save. If you don't then .... enjoy your purchasing power. Money is ultimately for spending 😊

If you can afford it and it gives you joy then just keep on doing it.

Only issue is your health, as you’ll be eating a fair bit of ultra processed food and pastries every day isn’t a great idea. You might not feel it now (especially if you’re slim) but UPFs cause all sorts of hidden health issues down the line.

Just sayin’.

I'm a healthcare worker (stop clapping, that's so 2020) and barely get a 30 minute break in a shift, so I am a Aldi version of MugShot girl, followed by a piece of fruit.

If money (and time) wasn't an issue then I would definitely get a coffee and croissant on the way to work, then pick something delightfully expensive and exquisitely tasty for lunch. Sounds delightful and also slightly unreal in my world

You go OP. Life is too short to make a packed lunch when you don't need to.

If you have bought sandwiches you have almost certainly eaten pre frozen sandwiches or sandwiches made with frozen ingredients - be that bread, chicken, fish etc. with the perishable items only being added on the day.

You clearly don't understand the Op's perspective if you're using "Tesco meal deal" and "fun" in the same sentence.

"If you have bought sandwiches you have almost certainly eaten pre frozen sandwiches or sandwiches made with frozen ingredients - be that bread, chicken, fish etc. with the perishable items only being added on the day."

Well yeah. But the pp is freezing the whole sandwich.

She was adding the perishable items eg cucumber into the sandwich in the morning. That is what some chains/sandwich shops do - ship in part made sandwiches to fully assemble on prem.