How to Have $3,000 by the End of the Year

I was watching television last night and heard a statistic that just floored me. I imagine it might surprise you, as well. People who eat out for lunch every day spend as much as $3,000 in one year, just on lunch. $3,000.

Think about what you could do if you had an extra $3,000 to spend at the end of the year: 

• Take a vacation
• Pay off debt
• Make a down payment on a vehicle
• Go on a shopping spree
• Make renovations to you home

The list goes on and on. Regardless of how you spend it, or even save it, the point is that you don’t have to do much or give up much to save a significant amount of money.

Most people who eat out do it because they say it’s easier. That’s not necessarily true. If you make dinner every night, why not make enough to pack for lunch the next day? That’s what I do for my husband. He takes leftovers every day and warms them in the microwave at work.

Don’t have a microwave at work? You can still have a warm lunch from home. Just buy hot and cold packs from the grocery store – something that keeps food cold when frozen or warm when heated. When cleaning up from dinner every night, fix your leftovers in a portable bowl or container and refrigerate them. In the morning, microwave them and the hot pack at the same time and stick them both in a thermal bag or lunch kit. Your food will stay warm all day if you need it to.

You can even pack warm lunches for your kids and save the nearly $3 a day charged by the cafeteria. My son loves soft tacos or burritos. I make them with whole grain tortillas, shredded cheese and vegetarian refried beans (which taste exactly like regular refried beans. They just don’t have lard.) Obviously, he can’t heat his lunch at school, so I purchased a thermos for $1 at Wal-Mart. I make the taco at night and refrigerate it. In the morning, when I am making his breakfast, I boil water, poor it in the thermos and let it sit for five minutes while I am fixing the rest of his lunch. When the timer goes off, I microwave his taco or burrito, wrap it in foil, spill out the water from the thermos and stick the food in the thermos. It stays warm, even with an ice pack in his lunch box to keep the other elements of his lunch cold.

To me, that’s a whole lot easier than leaving the office, getting in the car and driving to a restaurant where I either have to wait in line or wait for a seat. It’s even faster than standing in line in the cafeteria at work.

Even if it doesn’t seem easier, it’s a small sacrifice to make for $3,000 a year. Try it. You may like it.