Packing your lunch...saving or just not spending?

Sometimes I get annoyed by all the lists of ways to save money. They always have dumb ideas like pack your lunch and you'll save $40 a week. Well yeah...if currently you buy your lunch 5 days a week, and then stopped buying your lunch and put that money into savings, then yeah...you could save $40 a week! What if you don't buy your lunch every day? I had a little survey up for a while and even though there weren't many votes, most of the voters only ate out once or twice a week. So if you packed your lunch every single day, you'd save maybe $5-15. So then what if you're dining out budget is small because you'd rather spend money on other things? You're not really saving, you're just choose not to spend money on lunch. Right? I fall more into that category. I'd rather spend money on clothes than lunch!

Packing lunch every day isn't easy. It's not even possible for me! My guess is a lot of folks are like me and have all kinds of excuses for not packing lunch. My excuses are usually related to feeling like there's no food to pack OR sleeping in too late. The only time we don't have bread in the house is when someone (usually me) forgets to put the bread back in the oven. I hate bread that's been in the refrigerator, so the oven is literally the only other place that Baxter can't get the bread. When I lived alone, I would put it on top of the fridge, but Jack the cat would knock it off the fridge and Baxter would eat it. So anyway, as long as Baxter hasn't eaten the bread, I can always make a peanut butter sandwich. Feeling like there's no food to pack is a lame excuse.

Considering I'm generally lacking in sleep, sleeping in too late happens more regularly than I'd like. It's a legitimate excuse for not having time to pack a lunch. So what's a girl (or guy) to do? Stock the office! I keep a couple of cans of soup with the pop-top in my desk. I also keep Ritz crackers and a jar of peanut butter.  That way I'm not so tempted to go buy lunch. Sad to say, it's happened twice this week. Tomorrow will probably be peanut butter and jelly, grapes, and baby carrots. Reminds me of elementary school. Although, I'm not sure baby carrots existed back then. Friday I get free lunch in the Union. That's one whole week with no eating out for lunch. Not too shabby! I don't consider that saved money since my dining out budget is pretty tiny, but at least I didn't spend money.