Cutting Costs

This month I decided to do something I haven't done in several years. I decided to start bringing my lunch to work.

Now, I know this is mostly a no brainer for many of you super budgeters out there, but for me this was a tough one. I figure I cut a lot of corners in life, and having a fresh cooked meal for lunch was a reasonbly splurge. However, when you start having two ATM withdrawals for $40 in a single week, you realize that it's gotten out of hand.

So, I did something about it. I bought some new plastic dishes to store my food in, and hit up the grocery store to buy lunch type items. My dishes cost me about $10, but they have cool compartments in them to separate my food so I don't go through ziploc bags all the time. I also reuse the plastic bags my groceries come in to tote my food to work and back.

I've only been doing this for about two weeks, but I've already noticed a difference in my checking account. Mainly, it stopped going down for no reason at all! Unfortunately, I'm not quite disciplined enough to track the success of my change down to the dollar, but I estimate that I'm saving upwards of $30 per week.