Making your Wallet Happy!

I ALWAYSSSSS try, no matter how tired or stressed I get, to pack my lunch for the following day so avoid that oh so easy trip to Subway, Panera, etc. where it burns $3-$10 in my pocket each time... Of course I fail from time to time, we're only human, but there are more benefits than just cost savings to packing your lunch -- there are also great health benefits.  

When you make something, whether to bring to work or school the next day, you control the ingredients, the portion size, everything! This was was exemplified to me very well a couple weeks ago!

My lunch made and packaged the night before:

 Pesto Primavera Spaghetti with a Spring Mix Salad with Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette!... All homemade!

I choose certain sizes of tupperware to make sure I'm not taking 3-4 servings of pasta for lunch, but rather a small 1-2 servings with a light salad on the side, and being the preparer, I knew exactly what ingredients where in what, how much, and by bringing my dressing separately, I controlled the next day how much I would use in my salad so it's not under or over dressed.  

Another day later in the week, I just could not bring myself to make my lunch the night before and knew going to bed Panera had free Wi-Fi and was just next door and so coughed it up that this would be my "free day" to go out for lunch.  The Wi-Fi took forever to load that I wasn't able to get my work done, I ended up spending $10 on soup/salad lunch combo that was extremely salty and overdressed. I also looked up the nutritional data for my meal when I got home that evening and holy-moly.... that was NOT healthy! I still love Panera, don't get me wrong...

In a nutshell, lesson learned! **Pack your lunch Katie** :)

HAPPY LUNCHING!