Pack your lunch

You can save hundreds of dollars (not to mention calories) by eating a homemade lunch.

How much cheaper is it to pack your own lunch? Find out how much cheaper it is to pack your own lunch by HowStuffWorks.com.

You’ve heard that bringing your own lunch to work can save you money, but how much does it really save? According to personal finance site Money Crashers, it’s a lot.

This calculator is designed to demonstrate how much you can save by bringing your lunch to work (AKA brown bagging) instead of eating out. Also, it can show how much you can increase this savings by investing it. First provide the average cost of a meal brought from home and the average dollar amount you tend to spend on lunch out. Then enter the number of times you eat out per week at work and the number of years you’d like to calculate your savings for. Finish up by entering an interest rate you could obtain by placing your accrued savings in a savings account.

For years—no, decades—I’ve marveled at the lunch habits of my friends and colleagues. Where did they get the money to eat out every day? And even if they earned decent incomes, why did they choose to spend them this way? I still don’t have answers, but at least I’ve found a soul mate.

If you have a habit of eating out for lunch, grabbing something to eat on the go, or sending your kids with lunch money, then you have lots money-saving potential in packing your lunch. Here are some ideas to get you started!

Would you spend $1,000 on lunch? That’s nearly the amount the average American adult spends annually eating out for the midday meal, according to a Visa lunch-spending survey. The credit card company found that Americans eat out for lunch twice per week for a total annual cost of $936.