My office has an onsite cafeteria and convenience store. The store is open 7-4 and the cafeteria serves breakfast and lunch. The company that operates both has a program called Dining Express that puts a scannable bar code on your security badge that can be used instead of cash or check. The bar code is tied to your employee ID and the amount is deducted from your paycheck. It's incredibly convenient. Most new employees get the brochure for it as part of their "welcome to the company" mass of paperwork. The food in the cafeteria is good quality, if a touch expensive (on par with equivalent fast food), with plenty of variety. Two years ago, when I got a raise, I signed up. Without needing to have the cash on hand like I had in the past, I began to get lunch from the cafeteria every day. I got a 20oz Mountain Dew from the convenience store every morning. The server at one station had my order memorized and would talk football with me. My raise made it so that I wasn't living from paycheck to paycheck any longer and could afford to start saving and occasionally buy things. All things combined, I stopped bringing my own lunch and drinks and didn't really bother myself with how much I was spending. It was good food, I told myself, far healthier than a cup of Easy Mac.
Recently I took a glance at my final paycheck for 2009. Since Dining Express is automatically deducted from your paycheck, it *appears* on your paycheck. I glanced at the YTD Dining Express amount and my jaw dropped. Holy crap, I'd spent how much on lunch and Mountain Dew?!
Over the weekend, I went to Target. I bought a 6 pack of 24oz bottles of Mountain Dew for the price of 2 and a half of those 20oz bottles. I bought probably 3 weeks worth of various lunches for the price of what I'd usually spend in a week. I had a cup of Easy Mac today for lunch, four dollars cheaper than my usual pasta. It may not be healthier but by God, it's cheaper.
So true. I saved a ton of money in January by not eating out for lunch. It's insane how much cheaper it is to bring things from home. Of course, how often have I gone out in February? Almost every day. I really need to stop sleeping so late in the morning - or I need to make my lunch the night before.
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