The Cost Benefit of Bringing Your Own Lunch

Whether starting your career or being at it for years, becoming rich is all about money management. Bring your own lunch and you’ll fatten your wallet, and get your body in shape!

It’s often the smallest day-to-day changes that bring you one step closer to financial freedom, and this is one of them. Working women living away from home can testify to the magic of ‘maa ke haath ka khana’. Even if you hire a cook, the monthly expense equals eating a Subway a day for the month, and the advantages far outweigh the alternative of shelling out every day.

1. Being finicky isn’t a bad thing! Being finicky about your food choices can, in fact, be a very good thing for your health! When you bring your own lunch to work, you have the option of choosing exactly what you eat and how it’s prepared. Less oil, less masala? You got it. You can indulge your cravings and food preferences easily with just a little planning, and end up saving a whole lot in the process!

2. Enjoy healthy and hearty meals: Whether you’re taking leftovers from the previous night’s dinner or cooking in the morning, your home-cooked food is bound to be a lot healthier and wholesome than ordering in or eating out at lunch. You can also plan your lunches the weekend before so that grocery shopping and meal planning are both more organized.

3. Cut down on unhealthy and overpriced food: Whether you’ve been eating in the office canteen, or ordering in from a nearby restaurant, you’re going to end up spending quite a lot on food that is often unhealthy and overpriced (compare and you’ll find the margin to be at least 3 to 4 times the cost). Restaurant prices will always be higher due to taxes and branding markups. You can choose your own ingredients while maintaining variety at home. Since you buy at least the generic ingredients in bulk you save starting week one! Who said economies of scale are a complex concept?

4. Long-term benefits of bringing your own lunch: The long-term benefits of bringing your own lunch to work might extend much further than you’d imagined. Eating unhealthy food from restaurants over a long period can lead to dietary health problems later on in life such as obesity, cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even certain types of cancer, leading to high medical bills. Take preemptive action; lunch from your own kitchen will pay off manifold in the future.

5. Look for alternatives such as food subscriptions: If you’re really not a fan of cooking, or absolutely can’t find the time to set some time aside for it, there are some alternatives such as food subscriptions, modern-day versions of dabbawalas. You can have your lunch delivered straight to your office every day. While this will still be more expensive than bringing your own lunch, it’s less expensive than eating out.

Keeping track of your day-to-day expenses is of utmost importance, as small expenses can go out of hand and really creep up on you after a while. Bringing your own lunch is a sure-shot way to spend less and eat healthier, all in one go.

These are the benefits of bringing your lunch which also aids you in saving and managing your budget efficiently. This you have more money to save and invest which will further grow and help you achieve your desired goals such as retirement planning, a child’s higher education, a dream vacation, etc. 

You can check out LXME Goal Calculator in order to calculate the amount you need to invest in order to fulfill your financial goals!

You can visit the  INVEST Tab on the LXME app and look out for goal-based portfolios which are diversified, well-researched, and curated by experts.

Let’s take responsibility for our own finances!!!

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