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!

To others - I don't mean to offend anyone by mentioning that London has variety. There are literally 30+ places less than a 10 min walk from my desk where I could get a hot or cold lunch from!

I live in a large-ish town (not even a city) a long way from London. When working at home, I have at least 20 places within a 10-min walk where I could get lunch (not counting supermarkets, Boots, etc.). It might be interesting for you to visit another city in the UK some time.

Why is all the food in London "yummy" 🤢

Or make it a challenge to not buy lunch out and put the money aside to give to a food bank at the end of the month if having the money for yourself isn't a motivation

Have you been to literally any other city ever op? This isnt a magical London thing

"There are literally 30+ places less than a 10 min walk from my desk where I could get a hot or cold lunch from!"

Applies to most towns 🙄 no exclamation mark needed

I made this change during the 2008 recession and never went back.

I do agree it's not as much fun as being spontaneous but you can have variety, it just needs to be planned. I have containers of different types to be able to bring in different types of food.

I do still have the odd lunch out for a particular reason e.g. away at a different office so it's not an entirely fun free life. But it does save me £££.

I'm the opposite and hate buying food "on the go". Even the "healthy options" will be nowhere near as healthy as you think they are. Obviously, if you like doing it that's your choice, but leftovers from the night before are always nice, or soups if you've time to make a batch on the weekend, or treat yourself and make a really nice lunch with lovely fresh ingredients.
If you save £50 a week, as a guide, that will save you about £2,500 over the average working year. Obviously some of that will go on ingredients for homemade food, but even if you spent half that, £1,250....that is a REALLY nice holiday. 😂

Can't have your cake and eat it OP.

Literally.

It all depends what you want more, to save or spend?

I love nice food and I am not one of these people who meal prep etc as I never know what I fancy on any given day, and I recognise that I am v.fortunate to be able to go out every day and just buy what what I fancy.

One thing I absolutely will not do however, is buy coffees whilst out. I really object to paying £2-£3 for one drink when I can buy a bag of my fave ground for £3:50 and will last me all week. To me that is a real waste of money.

Ditch the coffee for water and have nice food instead.

Haha I thought the exact same thing-

It's both the suggestion that areas outside of london are limited to digging up our own potatoes for lunch from the fields, maybe with a greggs for an occasional treat, but then also the fact that after bragging about london's infinite variety then the places OP actually goes to are...pret and tesco

Although saying that there is something in it. I used to travel between a few regional offices - outside of London the majority of people used to make their own lunches or maybe get it out, or on the canteen once or twice a week. Rarely saw anyone walking in with breakfast or a coffee.

The London office was the only one where everyone seemed to eat out/buy in for lunch and breakfast, and buy multiple coffees daily.

Not sure if it was just the variety or proximity of places though. I just used to assume it was londoners being crap with money! But to some extent the "we could save as much as well like and will never afford to buy a house etc" might make sense.

If it honestly feels like a treat to you to buy all your meals out a few times a week then why not? The difference to me was that spending a fiver for a soggy sandwich and crisps or mediocre supermarket salad or coffee that I could have made just as easily and often nicer didn't feel like a treat at all. If you've got some really nice fresh deli places that like you say are things you wouldn't make at home it might be worth the money...a tescos meal deal maybe not!

Isn't it Pretty that does the coffee subscription? Up to five drinks a day?

Then get lunch once or twice.

(I say it was a city centre thing. Around here I could get lunch from 1 cafe, co-op or the chippy. Pizza shop might be open too. The last two only open at lunch as there's a college nearby! No chains like Costa or pret, or sandwich shop. There is an ice cream shop, but not exactly a nutritious lunch)

You can do treat packed lunch, so you can do a pick and mix of things every day. It could be any combination of fruits, salads, veg., breads, wraps, yoghurt, cold meats, cheese etc. Just make sure you do it in a different combo. all the time. Other times take leftovers.

The only way to break the habit of picking up coffee and lunch out is to have a plan to do something different at lunchtime, such as walking somewhere specific to achieve say a number of steps or walk further than you normally do at lunchtime, going to a library, museum or gym or biking somewhere. In London I get that it is very hard not to walk past coffee and food places, but at least try a route that has the least appetising places.

Also I would pay yourself the money you save so transfer the cash you save each day to a savings account, so you can see it build up and then after 12 months you will see something that you can do something with.

If you pick up something on your way to work, try cycling to make it harder.

I'm exactly the same OP, my day is long and tedious enough without having to eat my own sodding cooking for lunch as well. 😂 I can't bear to have my own boring leftovers or crappy sandwich from home when I could be having sushi, or maki rolls, or a poke bowl or katsu or an amazing curry! I look forward to lunch all morning.

Luckily I'm only in the office three days a week and I don't buy coffee/breakfast so I can just about get away with it for now.

It’s a lot nicer to buy out than stay up late making a packed lunch. And it’s obviously much easier to get lunch out in a busy city centre compared to an office on an industrial park.

I try to limit my costs by working from home a day or two a week.
Then another day or two I buy the big pot of fresh soup you can get in a metro supermarket and a fresh roll. The soup lasts 2 days, I heat it up in work and buy a bakery roll each day. It’s a nice warm lunch, cheap but I haven’t had to lug a packed lunch in or worry about dirty Tupperware.

Then I can eat out the other day from the food market near the office and feel less bad about it.

I also buy a box of the quick porridge for breakfast at the office or occasionally get a pastry on the way but from sainsburys rather than pret.

I used to do the Boots meal deal thing, around a fiver. Now we do the Gousto box thing and I find myself having leftovers from lunch a lot as the portions are so huge.

I sort of see what you mean, I used to enjoy my M&S mozarella balls and tomato in oil, with a cold coffee when I worked in London. But only because they paid for the first £5 for a lunch allowance. I'd never be getting that if I had to pay for it myself.

But then again I've been in quite financial sticky situations where I was buying a bag of onions and peppers on pay day and eeking them out for the month by chopping and freezing them all and making sure I had enough to last the month.

So if you can afford it and like it then do it. But is there anything else you'd rather spend the £ on, putting things into savings for a house, holiday or to retire early is worth its weight in gold in my eyes, aving retired 12 years earlier than the government would let me. Home made coffee and food can taste really good when you know the money you would have spent is still in your account.

When I am in the office, going out for lunch is the way I break up the day and stretch my legs plus it is nice to eat food you haven't made yourself!
If you're doing it to cut cost, maybe reduce the days you buy food out rather than stop altogether?

I went to London once, the streets were actually paved with maki rolls and almond croissants.

I'd do alternate days taking in a packed or take your own lunch but buy breakfast/coffee.

I work in retail and I get a free lunch every shift
only problem is-I can’t stand the food-it’s foul
i buy a meal deal from sainsburys (if I’m walking) ,Tesco (if I’m getting a lift)or Asda once a fortnight with my food shop
i could do without it and make my own but it’s my treat-I couldn’t make it exactly like they do (and I can’t be arsed)
It’s my one treat-I don’t get it on non working days

I used make the kids packed lunches but always bought lunch out.
Reason to get out of the office
I saw it as a treat
If I made lunch I ate it by 9.30
I'm now only in the office twice a week but there's a nice little Waitrose opposite. Lovely!

Why would £35 every month on nails shock you when you spend between £100 and £300 getting lunches in a month?

£35 is actually quite cheap for well done gels.

I live in London and took breakfast and lunch everyday from home (low salary). I just cook double dinner and take the leftovers.

But your spending is up to you. Do what gives you joy within your budget like others do with their nails. Maybe set an amount each week you're able to spend on food out and after it's gone cook at home.

Make your own sushi or poke bowl?

feel stopping for coffee/food helps make the working day nicer,
I agree ,
a pret membership is £25 a month, that’s less than £1 for a couple of hot drinks during the week. and most supermarkets offer good pastries for around £1.15, that’s less than than £2 on breakfast a day.

I want someone else to make it for me! I'm sick of catering! I don't really have the time or skills required to make complicated but delicious salads!

No theydon't. NOTHING exists outside London, there was a memo about it.

"Make your own sushi or poke bowl?"

She can't. In London you have to "stay up late" to make your own lunch apparently 🤣