Saving Money–With Lunch!

Until last week, I always bought my meals at work. After all, Hy-Vee’s kitchen is basically a built in restaurant, and employees get a discount, so I figured I might as well take advantage of it. For the most part I haven’t been getting that many hours, so I usually was only buying a meal once a week, sometimes twice, but the last couple of weeks, I have been getting almost all the hours that I have requested, and that means I would be buying three meals a week. Five dollars isn’t a whole lot when that’s all you spend in a week, but I would end up spending 15 dollars a week if I did that every day I worked. So I decided to get a lunch cooler and a new water bottle.

I love this water bottle. :D It’s Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb. :)

     

I also love that they didn’t just put his face on the front, they also put his tail on the back. :D

Another great thing about this cooler is that it has a separate compartment for a container, which it came with. The only thing I didn’t like about this was that when I put the salad into the container I realized how cheap it was. This is no Rubbermaid or Tupperware. I don’t expect it to last very long. The lid doesn’t even stay on well. Ziplock and Gladware make better containers. But I didn’t buy this for the container, so I still love the cooler. :)

This cooler will also now allow me to take something more than just granola bars to school, so it’s going to come in really handy this year.
This cooler will help me to start eating healthier too. Just about everything that Hy-Vee serves is fried, plus you get pop with the meal, so you’re talking quite a lot of calories per meal. This way, I’m drinking water, I can bring fresh fruit, and whatever else I bring is very unlikely to have as many calories as a hamburger or fried chicken.
I thought it was going to be an annoying hassle, but it’s fun to figure out what to bring and then make the food. If you don’t bring your own lunch to work, I highly recommend you start! :)