So you'd like to be a tightwad, but you just don't know how to start...
I've been absent from the blog scene, having had very little time at work to think about blogging, but some comments in the lunch room have prompted a new blog series - Andy's Tightwad Tips!
Today you get a twofer...
Tightwad Tip #1 - Pack your lunch. This has multiple benefits, the most unexpected one was weight loss. I actually lost 15 pounds last year when I started packing my lunch. We had a very strict food budget last year (2007) and so paying $4-$8 a day for lunch was out of the question. The savings was immediate - about $100 a month or more, $1200 a year, it's like getting a Bush tax rebate, just not all at once.
The key to packing lunch is to take a serving of each item and put it in a food container as dinner is served. Viola! Lunch! But you say, "Yeah, but you have to pay for the food even if they're leftovers right?" Wrong. I stopped having second helpings at the dinner table, so lunch is essentially free. And the savings go futher than your wallet... if you're eating a healthy dinner you're saving the calories you would have eaten as a second helping... and you're saving the calories you would have eaten at the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at Pizza Hut or the Biggie Fries and Frosty.
Tightwad Tip #2 - Reusable food containers. Amy and all my engineer pals like to see what I (or my wife, as the case may be) packed for lunch every day, but they get a real kick out of my containers.
"Is that a frosting cup?" Greg asked.
"Yup, check out the lid; it's the kind with the sprinkles!" I said.
Zip lock baggies cost money after all; three zip-locks a day, times 23 days in a month, comes to 69 zip lock baggies a month. And nothing ends up in the landfill. OK, sure, I do use some zip lock bags... but maybe only three a week
There are all sorts places to find great reusable containers... frosting, margarine, sour cream, cottage cheese, chip dip, deli meat, etc. Most of them do fine in the microwave, and have no problem in the diswasher.
And besides, if they get ruined, so what, it was trash anyway.