Five Pricey Lunchtime Meals To Avoid - And Five To Adopt | HuffPost Life

Save money and still make it through those tough afternoon hours

Written by Ruth D'Alessandro

It’s lunchtime. Yet popping out to buy pre-packed salads, sandwiches and snacks every day instead of making your own is costing you a substantial wedge of your hard-earned salary. Enough, in fact, to pay for a decent family holiday.

According to research conducted by vouchercloud.com, 62% of British employees spend an average of £1,840 each year buying lunches, while those who bring lunch in from home spend around £552 – saving a whopping £1,300 a year.

Matthew Wood, director of vouchercloud.com. says: “It’s very easy to slip into a routine of popping to the shop to grab a sandwich rather than planning your weekly or monthly shops to incorporate the components of a home-made lunch, then taking the time to prepare it on top. It seems bonkers not to try and get into a routine of making your own. Think of what the surplus could be spent on instead!”

So here are five avoidable lunchtime habits costing you the same as your family holiday, and five to save you up to £1,300 a year.

Five Pricey Lunchtime Meals To Avoid And Five To Adopt

Pricey: sushi(01 of10)

When Japanese cuisine first arrived in the UK, sushi was a rare treat. Now, you can pick up a lunchtime sushi pack in nearly every supermarket. While it’s cheaper than in a restaurant, takeaway fish-based sushi is still expensive at about £4/5 a pack, and, as it often features cooked tuna and smoked salmon, is a far cry from its fresh, raw origins. If you love fish and strong salty flavours, make your own salad niçoise instead – tuna, hard-boiled eggs, anchovies, green beans, cooked cooled new potatoes, lettuce and tomatoes with a garlicky French dressing. (credit:Boris Ryzhkov via Getty Images)

Alternative: love your leftovers(02 of10)

Last night’s dinner leftovers can be reworked as a delicious al desko lunch that takes very little time to prepare. When you’re cooking, make a bit extra for next day’s lunch. Chicken, fish, roast veg and salad can be wrapped in flour tortillas or stuffed into pitta bread, with your favourite dips or hummus. If your office has a microwave you can even bring in dishes to reheat, such as lasagne or filled baked potatoes. (credit:Yvonne Duivenvoorden via Getty Images)

Pricey - meal deals(03 of10)

You may feel that around £3-5 for lunch seems reasonable until you multiply it by five and realise you’re paying up to £25 a week just for sarnies, crisps, fruit and individual drinks. By making your own salads and sandwiches, buying multi-pack crisps, loose fruit and decanting fruit juice into smaller bottles you can make substantial savings. (credit:David Burton via Getty Images)

Alternative: lunch fit for a ploughman(04 of10)

Forget soggy, cling film-wrapped sandwiches and embrace a classic British ploughman’s. Put together a hunk of rough brown bread, a chunk of mature cheese (according to Tom Naylor “a rich, lavishly savoury cheddar and a dry, sharp crumbly Lancashire" works best) - tomatoes, cucumber, celery, an apple, chutney and, depending on how closely you work with your colleagues, pickled onions. (credit:Tornadoflight via Getty Images)

Pricey: pre-prepared fruit(05 of10)

At first glance, 75p for a little bag of apple slices to go with your lunchtime sarnie looks affordable, and one of your five-a-day too. But when you look at the label, you’re only getting 80g of fruit, which is about half an apple. You could buy a bag of 6 whole apples for £2.70 – 45p each. So you’re paying three times the price for chopped fruit. Pre-packaged fruit salads can be even more expensive, so make friends with your greengrocer and chop your own. (credit:John Lawson, Belhaven via Getty Images)

Alternative: toaster bruschetta(06 of10)

If you’ve got a toaster at work, make some classic Italian bruschetta. Before lunchtime, chop up some ripe tomatoes, red onion, a clove of garlic and fresh basil and leave it all to marinate in a mug with a little olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar. Toast some sourdough bread, spoon over the juicy tomato mixture and maybe top with crumbly cheese. (credit:Radu Sebastian via Getty Images)

Pricey - takeaway soup(07 of10)

A tomato soup to go can set you back up to £3.50 and that’s before you have bought anything to go with it. It’s much cheaper to bring a can from home to heat in the office microwave and add some chopped herbs, spring onions or croutons to liven it up. Even better, make a big batch of soup at the weekend and bring it to work during the week in a vacuum flask, with your favourite bread roll. “Making your own tasty tomato soup is so easy! Give it your own spin with extra herbs and spices,”
attests Jamie Oliver. (credit:Hero Images via Getty Images)

Alternative - go continental(08 of10)

The French and Italians have the right idea about a stylish lunch - fresh crusty bread picked up on the way into work, a couple of cheeses, salami or Parma ham, olives and a small jar of tapenade, with a bit of quality olive oil on the side. If you like balsamic vinegar, drip some into your olive oil too. And if you can find a beautiful, juicy peach for dessert - perfetto. (credit:fcafotodigital via Getty Images)

Pricey - pasta salads(09 of10)

One simple takeaway pasta salad can cost upwards of £2. Yet pasta is one of the cheapest store cupboard items you can buy. If you love tuna and sweetcorn pasta salads, you can buy all the ingredients for a week’s worth of lunches for around £2. You can even splash out on pricier ingredients such as prawns, crab or oak-smoked salmon and it’s still cheaper than buying a pasta salad every day. (credit:eskymaks via Getty Images)

Alternative - kettle noodles(10 of10)

Commandeer the office kettle and make your own healthy instant noodles. Put some fresh egg noodles, thinly-pared carrot and courgette, finely-chopped spring onion, coriander, some mange-touts and a teaspoon of miso paste in a large mug. Pour over boiling water and in a couple of minutes you have some pretty authentic – and cheap - soup noodles. (credit:Digni via Getty Images)

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