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!

I hear you, OP. And what you described is making me nostalgic for the days when I used to do the same. I still occasionally think about the Pret crayfish and rocket sandwich with longing.
You sound quite frugal / careful in other areas of your life so I would definitely say to go with what makes you happy.

I love buying coffee and lunch out

I love buying lunch out. I'm a community nurse so out and about and the little town where I'm based has loads of options. But if I bought lunch and a drink everyday that would be minimum £25-£30 a week! Can't afford that sadly. Not when I do a decent weekly shop with ingredients to make things. I either take leftovers from the previous nights dinner, or make home made soups, sandwiches, salads, pasta bowls. I always take something tasty for lunch because it still is the highlight of my day despite not buying it. I've got really into my lunch prep now and take it really seriously and the odd occasion where I don't take anything I get cross with myself that I've got to stop, waste time and spend the money. Not to mention the calorie content even for the healthier options is definitely higher than what I make myself.

However, I'm on the move constantly at work and might feel differently if I was office based because I imagine the walk to get lunch is a nice break. And if I was on a better salary I might think differently about the cost issue So if you love it and you can afford it why not OP?

I said I would have to stay up late making a packed lunch. Not that it’s a London thing 🙄

I do wonder if this is quite a London thing with all the variety around

Must be. All us non Londoners slurp down our pottage on the back of a cart after a hard morning working the land.

Seriously though, buy the food if you enjoy it and your not going without elsewhere to afford it.

I don't live in London, I commute, so I have to leave the house before 7am and get back usually around 8.30pm. I must admit I don't really feel like knocking up a quick round of sushi in the spare 1.5hrs I have before going to bed. If I'm bringing lunch from home it'll be leftover pasta from the previous night or a hastily made cheese sandwich, neither of which particularly appeal. Each to their own eh?!

I was like this when I worked in the office. Since wfh I’ve realised I was spending about £150-£160 a month on coffees, lunches and cakes which was more than I was comfortable with but when I do go to the office now I still ‘treat’ myself to it all! Could you eat breakfast at home rather than buy it on the way?

Well if you enjoy it and can afford to,why not. Everyone has their own special luxury. For your friends their nails for me a paper/chocolate bar and so on .I think you would have to forgo a lot of avocado on toast to save enough for a house deposit or even rental atm!
Ug

I'm pretty well travelled and think I probably should have asked if it was a city thing - rather than a London thing! I can imagine all city workers everywhere have similar food choices 😁

So yes, I agree this problem is not unique to London

I think the questions for yourself are: Can I afford it? Do I enjoy it? How much does it cost? How much could I save if I made lunch etc at home? What could I spend that on if I wasn't buying lunch/breakfast each day?

A helpful way of framing it, thank you

Just look at the list of ingredients in a pre-prepared sandwich from Pret or a fast food pastry, it's grim. Much healthier and environmentally sustainable to make your own, never mind the cost savings. I make salad bowls, have a thermos for soups, bolognese etc. or bring leftovers from the previous evenings meal.

Thank you! A good reminder that the savings can be visible if I make the effort to put them aside and watch them build up

Have you ever been in a Pret?? What are the “grim” ingredients in a pret sandwich?

Thank you for sharing your xp and I like the comment about things can taste nicer when you know the money is still in your account. As mentioned above am noting down the most helpful comments to look back on and plan the next few months!

I would just do a compromise OP. Either take in your own breakfast and buy lunch, or do 2 days meals out and 3 from home or whatever.

I used to buy the granola slices from the M&S bakery which are delicious, but 4 in a pack so would do me breakfast for most of the week for a lot less money than buying a bakery croissant every day. Or the porridge pots from the supermarket that I'd make up with hot water once I got to work.

My work has a really nice coffee machine which they got after the pandemic in an attempt to tempt people back to the office. That has ended the daily trip to Pret for a coffee before work that I'd been doing beforehand.

For lunches I try to do 2 out, we have a lovely deli that does amazing baguettes and sourdough rolls about a 5 minute walk from my office so I go there as a treat on a Wednesday and a Friday to mix the week up a bit. The other times I take lunch in but almost never make a sandwich to take in..... it's usually soup or a nice cous cous salad with olives/feta/sun-dried tomatoes in it that keeps a couple of days in the fridge.

You have access to MOSS on a ROCK @Noviembre?! Show off!
Up here in the wilds of Scotland we have to fight the sheep and cows for mud and sticks for our meals!

People are really hunting out reasons to be offended here with all the "WE HAVE CAFÉS WHERE I LIVE TOO, YOU KNOW!" comments.

I know what you mean, OP, in London (or indeed any other highly urbanised area, for the easily upset) there are a lot more options than I have in the semi rural location where my office is, so I take lunch with me. If I had the option to go to lots of different cafés or supermarkets and get plenty of variety then the temptation to buy breakfast and lunch out and about would be much higher.

Only you can decide if the expenditure is at a level you're happy with. Personally, it would be too high for me and I would prefer to save money, or spend it on more permanent things, instead. I'd try to do what others have suggested - bringing a nice coffee and a pastry from home and just buying food a few times a week for lunch, as breakfast is the one you can most easily substitute without noticing any difference, in my mind.

Life's simple pleasures. I loved popping out for lunch and yes a takeaway coffee is lovely. We should be enjoying every single day, isn't that what we go to work to be able to do?

I can’t relate. I am always disappointed by stuff that I buy out. If I make it is is far tastier and healthier. My coffee is freshly ground and made fresh with soy milk. So much nicer than what I can buy.

I can make a delicious smoothie with frozen fruit which is tastier than any bought out and about and a fraction of the price.

Just replicate the ones that you like? Make a soup and that will last you a couple of days. Make yourself tasty wraps, baguettes, onigiri. Use leftovers.

Chop fruit up and have nice fruit to eat throughout the day. Portion out nuts and other snacks.

You can be more lavish if you make it yourself, so don’t stint.

The non-Londoners getting offended is funny.

I’ve lived/worked in London for years, now moved away and live in gorgeous city with a buzzing city centre. Still have to commute to London office sometimes. OP is right, nothing compares to the variety and sheer volume of food places in central London. It’s overwhelming and really hard not to spend on lunch/drinks when you’re there. It’s a different culture.

Have you ever been in a Pret?? What are the “grim” ingredients in a pret sandwich?

Yes thanks. They're all searchable online if you want to look. It's pre-prepped, packaged food so they have to use artificial preservatives to keep it looking good long after it's lost it's nutritional value.

I don’t think it’s a London thing, so much as a ‘you’ thing. I live in zone 2 and work in zone 1, so I’m pretty much always surrounded by stuff. And I’ve always made my own lunch and taken it in because:

• It’s nicer (I’m a good cook).
• It’s healthier (I get to control what goes into my food).
• It’s cheaper (I can afford to buy lunch every day, but in the context of this and the first two bullets, it seems silly).

Also, not to offend, but in my experience people from the suburbs (or further) the only people who actually LIKE Pret, Leon, et al, as opposed to tolerating them as a necessary evil. Nobody who actually lives in London ‘treats’ themselves to a Pret. We treat ourselves to nice, non-chain things.

@toastfiend you've got a funny understanding of what it means to be offended.

We're taking the piss. OP - like many who live in that there London - seems to think nothing works outside of it. Then goes on to name the one lunch you can get literally everywhere, the Tesco meal deal 🤣

Yeah you had my sympathies up until this point. How ignorant. I live in north Scotland and have the choice of various supermarkets, an independent bakery and several cute coffee shops on my way into town. We even have electricity and roads too!!