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!

Very wise - regular exposure to plague, cholera etc builds up your immunity.

What about getting yourself a Pret coffee subscription - then you can have the takeaway coffee experience every day for less money?

Or get those premade Starbucks (or whatever brand) iced coffee drinks - they still feel special but they're cheaper esp when you buy in bulk.

And maybe you could give yourself a spending limit on the lunch, or bring lunch in 2/3 days per week and eat out the rest.

Amen to that. Appreciate you keeping it real and adding that insight for certain others here!

Another vote for Too Good to Go. With a bit of organisation - you might need to freeze some stuff or do a share/swap with an office mate, you could get a lot of this food for about a quarter/third of the price of just getting it day to day.

Something else you could try, if you're open to taking lunch sometimes, is prepping for 2-3 days, as that's a time saver. I have this book, there's one or two similar ones by the same author, which gives recipes and tips to get you started. Same for overnight oats, it's fine for at least a couple of days, possibly more, although I'll join in with the crowd of northerners aghast at the ten quid jam jar. I've saved a couple of salad jars from bought lunches and reuse them for stuff like this. Or get a suitably sized clippy tub.

Also, if you get crisps, cans, choc bars etc, these are far cheaper to buy from the supermarket.

But some meal deals are quite good value, if you want a nice salad, interesting side thing, and smoothie or coffee. Not so much if you're getting a plain cheese sandwich, standard crisps and water/coke. You can make it for a lot less if that's what you're getting.

Finally, when I'm in the office, I take my washing up home and put it in the dishwasher. Not so bad post covid when far fewer people are in, but before that you'd always have to queue up and it used so much water with loads of people washing their stuff up individually under a running tap.

Great comment and appreciate how well balanced this is. Thank you.

Do what feels right for you.
Don't 20% of Britons eat the same lunch which they may well buy out in a cafe every day of their working lives? So those ones do not do it for variety. Here we are www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/03/eating-the-same-thing-lunch-meal/584347/

I think our late Queen ate a jam sandwich every day of her life!

I make my packed lunch the night before

It sometimes includes leftovers from a meal

I get lots of yellow sticker bargain price food

I would rather spend my money on other things

I’m opposite never understood appeal of buying stuff. But i’m a lot older. A coffee and lunch could be £10 a day. £50 a week on not much. I’d rather take my own, know what’s in it and less calories too. It’s not a treat if it’s daily.

Totally agree @Tsort

I'm also a joyless snob. I'm crying into my Prufrock coffee with despair at my miserable predicament. 😂

(Pret and Leon are where you go at the airport when there's nothing else open)

Commute from zone 2 and get very excited about my morning meetings catered by Pret I’ll have you know.
An almond croissant and a mango pot with lime does down a treat.

Do I get the ‘Londoner’ title stripped from me now?

I couldn't believe the amount I used to spend working in London! Probably £15 a day, without realising. If I worked there now I definitely would be taking packed lunches in.

I completely agree, and it's so hard to break the habit when you don't even want to 😂 I used to take lunch in and just get something out on Fridays, but as soon as I started earning more I must confess nice Pret/Itsu/Leon/nearby yummy market lunches were my treat and I also felt like I was eating more healthily.

Now I'm only in once a week at most I feel I can easily justify it! I do only get one coffee a day though, at the station on my way in - it feels excessive to get more than that. Though if I were in the office full time I would be tempted by the Pret subscription...

Haha I could've written this post! I don't know why but I find it just wonderful going to buy a coffee and walking around with it 😂 I have calmed down a bit now, after I realised I was bankrupting myself buying lunch from M&S Foodhall everyday. I work in London so I sort of get what you mean about the "London" thing, though I do this everywhere.
As long as it's within your budget then I say enjoy yourself! Or you could cut back if you're still feeling guilty, maybe have one or two days where you bring your lunch in, or bring your lunch in but still buy coffee, that sort of thing.

Yanbu. I have never managed to give up buying lunches. Choosing a lunch is sometimes the only good thing in my work day!

Also, if I take my lunch, I’ll eat it by 10am… 😳

You are banished to zone 6 forever!!! 😂

Thanks for your balanced response :) lucky you re Christmas! Have you ever been to The Ivy Tower Bridge? (Yes I know there are Ivy branches outside London!) but the setting and view is particularly gorgeous.

The Breakfast Club by London Bridge also a hit

it doesn't seem worth the stress of spending 1.5-2 hours a week preparing packed lunches when you get so much more enjoyment from eating something different every day prepared by someone else

I can't see how it takes that long to make lunch. Going out and buying stuff each day takes time too. You'd have to be right next to the place you buy it and no queue for it to be quicker than making it at home, especially if you do it in batches.

I also hate fridge cold food and having to choose when I'm hungry and being jostled at a crowded fridge or counter, so while I do enjoy a bought lunch, it's not always a better experience than a home made one, plus unless you're going to expensive places, the quality is often dreadful.

Out to a commuter belt town with no tube I go!
Life is no more!!

Well summarised, thanks. It's not about "London" but it is about being a person who has to commute and loses a lot of other time, so looks to economise on that.

Hi OP

Can I ask what your favourite breakfast, lunch, drinks etc are to buy?
I'm feeling hungry just reading through the first few pages of this thread! I don't really have any useful advice but am enjoying hearing about food!! So favourite pastry etc, sandwich etc. and where you buy them 😀

Actually this is quite a reasonable suggestion. Also try Lakeland.

We got some nice circular plastic bowls for salad that had a separate pot for the dressing that fitted neatly in the lid and came with a neoprene sleeve to keep them cool. (They looked cool too, IMO) For ages I used this book Salad Love for inspiration, eventually making up lots of combinations of my own. I would genuinely look forward to my lunch every day and I could usually prepare it while cooking my evening meal so it didn't take up too much time.

I also bought a Bento box and got a lot of ideas from here Just Bento

I still would occasionally go out to buy something but as I worked in a small rather boring town the choices were somewhat limited.

However, having said all that, it is your money so your choice and if this is what you enjoy spending money on then crack on. We go out for lunch every Saturday. We could make something at home and save £££ but we can afford to do it and enjoy doing it so we do. I don't think that is any different to you buying lunches and breakfasts for work so no criticism from me.

Surely a sandwich that you've made the evening before (or even at 7am that morning) and hauled into work is going to have lost much more of its nutritional value than something that Pret made at 10am for you to eat at lunchtime.

Hello thank you for the solidarity so nice to know I'm not alone and that others have found workarounds/best of both worlds!

Why do homemade lunches always demand to be eaten before their time?!😂😂😂 definitely relate

😂😂😂

sobs gently and wonders what shall become of her