Several of you have asked (or perhaps wanted to ask) how we have time and afford to eat a big meal at lunchtime as well as dinnertime.
If you look at my menus…you’ll notice that often our lunches are just as big as our dinners. There are several reasons for that:
- Matt works all day putting on new roofs, tearing out and rebuilding bathrooms, working on people’s yards, you name it. The guy is hungry when he comes home for lunch. (and dirty…but that has nothing to do with this post)
- Our four boys are….hungry….always.
- I’ve found that it actually costs more to feed my family sandwiches and chips for lunch than it does to fix them a cooked meal…and it doesn’t take much more time to prepare.
Here’s a little research and number crunching I did to see how much it costs to feed my family of six a meal of sandwiches:
100% whole wheat bread…$2.00 on sale if I’m lucky
Two packages of Hormel Naturals Deli meat (the only kind easily available to us that I sort of feel okay about eating)…$2.98 each…$5.96 total
Mayo and mustard…50¢ (just a conservative guess…we go through a lot of it on a whole loaf of bread)
Total…$8.46
And that’s just the sandwiches.
We do, without a doubt, finish the entire loaf of bread and the entire contents of both packages of deli meat. Add fruit and carrots to that…and milk to drink…it can really add up!
Now, could I buy the cheaper bread and a package of bologna and save money? Sure. But…blech. (and I mean that in the kindest way possible)
And…I usually make my own 100% whole wheat bread…which is less expensive (and WAY better for us) than store bought…but…I’m just trying to make a point here. ;)
A typical lunch at our house might be something that uses a package of SmartChicken (which I buy on sale for $2.49ish/pound)…or a pound of hamburger meat (which costs me $4.35/pound because it’s from cows that are allowed to graze on organic grass and have college degrees). But look at that! Even my “expensive” high quality hamburger meat is less money than the mediocre-quality lunch meat.
Wow…I’m getting worked up here. I’ve never actually added it up before today. I knew I was saving money…but wow. This is exciting.
I have just succeeded in making myself very happy. I’m glad I did the math on that. It’s exciting to know that I’m feeding us good, filling lunches for much less than sandwich lunches.
Oh, and does it really take much extra time to fix a lunch, compared to the time it takes to make sandwiches? Maybe a little. But not much. Our lunches are often a High Five Recipe, which are quick to make, or something I’ve made ahead of time to throw into the oven.
Because many of you have asked about good lunchtime recipes and options…I’ll continue to share ideas as I can. Be watching for more High Five Recipes that are great quick and healthy lunches…plus…look through my menu plans for ideas on what we eat for lunch.
What do you usually eat for lunches? What works best at your house?
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We eat pretty much the same as you guys and I’ve been wondering as well if all my cooking from scratch to make hot meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner were paying off and they clearly are! Thanks for sharing this. It’s something I’m passionate about as well!
Ever since I found your website I have been trying to cook breakfast and lunch as well as dinner. Usually I cook enough to make breakfast and lunch last two meals. So, if we have pancakes on Monday I make enough for Wednesday. If we have homemade chicken nuggets on Tuesday then we have them again on Thursday. The time I spend cooking those meals is not wasted because then I don’t hear “I’m hungry” every fifteen minutes all day. When we did cereal for breakfast I spent all morning fixing healthy snacks to fill them up because they were STARVING!
I stopped buying packaged lunch meat a while back. I wondered one day why someone else had to cook meat and slice it up for me to be able to put it on a sandwich. I just buy chicken from the meat dept., cook it, and tear it up. We eat some on sandwiches, and I freeze some to use in recipes. The cost is much less, and it tastes better, too.
I’ve started eating hummus with crackers or as a dip to veggies. I currently buy my no preservative, junky stuff free hummus from Costco but I’m sure you’d save a ton if you made it yourself. Its super good for you and its beans so it is chock full of protein. Put it with some tabouli and some pita and its fabulous as well.
And actually it’s better on your digestion to eat your “heavy” meals for breakfast and lunch.
We have our “dinners” for lunches as well. My hubby gets an hour for lunch from where he works, and it’s close by so he can drop by.
Dinners… is usually just salads, or something light.
Nice to know we aren’t the only ones in the world!
We don’t eat packaged deli meat—YUCK. I do only buy boarshead… all natural, no preservatives turkey, and cheese. It’s expensive, but we love it.
The packaged stuff has WAY too much salt in them for my family’s taste.
We usually have a mish-mash of leftovers for lunch. Sometimes cereal, yogurt, fruit, salad, soup. The kids (ages 2 and 5) tend to eat the most at breakfast and just don’t usually want a lot of lunch.
we’re pretty much out on the sandwiches too — usually we have leftovers, and an occasional sandwich here or there (on homemade whole wheat bread). thanks for showing how cost-effective that is!!
Perfect timing Laura! I have been striving to cook all of our meals at home from scratch and just yesterday was wondering if I should go back to having sandwiches for lunch to save on our grocery budget. It is good to know that I am saving money as well as giving my family good food.
I WANT to have more quality stuff for lunch, and as my almost 1 year old gets older and can eat the same as his brother, I just might start doing more. Unfortunately, I’m embarrassed to say, handing my 4 year old a plate with applesauce, tortilla, meat and cheese is too easy when he asks for it. But when I made skillet beef with lentils today and he said, “mom, this is my favorite!” Well, maybe it would be worth it. I really enjoy incorporating more of your meals into my family’s diet. But a question: Does your husband ever balk at not having meat at some of your meals? (I notice mostly at lunch.) Mine does, or I would have more meatless meals from time to time.
I’ve been curious about your lunches as well. I buy deli meat to use for lunches at home and school (2 days a week the kids go to a school for homeschoolers & I work there as well). I want to stop buying it because of:
1. cost (Boarshead $8.79/lb turkey & $7.99/lb chicken) and
2. some ingredients I’m not happy serving my family.
Two things are stopping me:
1. the ease of pulling together a sandwich “meal” in a short amount of time and
2. my DH likes a deli sandwich every now and then.
Maybe it is time for me to menu plan “big” lunches. We will be done with school in 9 days – but who’s counting :) -so this might be the perfect time for me to get use to larger lunches over the summer time. Another thing to add to my summer to do list – which keeps growing by the hour.
It’s always fun to find out you’re saving money! We mostly have leftovers for lunch…I figure that’s a money-saver too ;) But my boys are still little. By the time they’re your boys’ ages, there probably won’t be any leftovers!!
On Sunday’s, I prepare a dinner-type lunch because we are all home. Often I will do a crock pot meal and it will be ready after church. Otherwise, sometimes we do sandwiches, sometimes leftovers.
Same here with the deli meat. I will buy Boar’s Head if it is in the budget for the week. Most of the time I buy a large ham, turkey breast or chicken on sale and slice it up for sandwiches — more filling and no preservatives!
On Sunday’s, I prepare a dinner-type lunch because we are all home. Often I will do a crock pot meal and it will be ready after church. Otherwise, sometimes we do sandwiches, sometimes leftovers.
Same here with the deli meat. I will buy Boar’s Head if it is in the budget for the week. Most of the time I buy a large ham, turkey breast or chicken on sale and slice it up for sandwiches — more filling and no preservatives!
On Sunday’s, I prepare a dinner-type lunch because we are all home. Often I will do a crock pot meal and it will be ready after church. Otherwise, sometimes we do sandwiches, sometimes leftovers.
Same here with the deli meat. I will buy Boar’s Head if it is in the budget for the week. Most of the time I buy a large ham, turkey breast or chicken on sale and slice it up for sandwiches — more filling and no preservatives!
Lunch is “grap and growl” arounf here. soemtimes we cook but most of the times it is leftovers.
The math makes sense, Oh Brother.
I try to cook all our meals as much as possible. Sometimes it’s just cheese crisps on spouted tortillas (or whole wheat). alot of time I just scrounge the fridge for leftovers…my question…how do you keep your kitchen clean. I have the hardest time with this.
My kids are ages 5, 3, almost 2, and 9 months (and expecting!). Is it just this time in my life that makes it so?
Neat! Where do you get the SmartChicken?
We actually make our own deli meat!
We bought a meat slicer – a bit of an initial investment and since then, we buy pork loin, roast beef etc. on sale, roast it and slice it or shave it. Very healthy and the big thing – CHEAP! It costs us less than half to do it that way and depending on the sale sometimes it is even 25% of the cost of buying it from the deli!!
Hmmmm…this gets me thinking. We LOVE sandwiches and aren’t big “hot” meal eaters for lunch. I haven’t bought lunch meat in a while b/c of cost and all the junk that is in the pre-packaged stuff. We’ve been eating PB&Js and grilled cheese. Sometimes it’s a salad and the occassional leftovers. I’ll have more time this summer to cook so maybe I’ll buy some extra chicken and cook it up for sandwiches/tortillas, etc. Thanks for inspiring. :)
Josette, clean as you are cooking. Or clean as the kids are napping.
Pam… not all boarshead lunch meat have preservatives in it.
Let us know what you make for your “bean day”. I would like to know the bean recipe you chose.
Eek! Did you hear that? The sound of CONVICTION whacking me in the side of the head. I’ve honestly never broken down the cost of sandwichey lunch vs. real lunch, and to see that in black and white… wow! My kids don’t really like sandwiches anyways, and as school is wrapping up in just a few weeks, I can tell you exactly what we’ll be doing.
I think I’ll let my kids have a say, and we’ll put together a months worth of lunch menu, just like what the school sends out. I had been planning that anyway, but I really thought I would end up spending more, not less!
Thank you for this post.
I am new to the whole cooking from scratch thing. I totally agree that so much healthier, and tastes infinitely better. My problem is that I haven’t quite figured out how it’s more cost effective. I am willing to spend more money to eat healthy of course. Maybe someone can help me figure out where I am missing it on this one??
Reminds me of the time one of our church leaders decided we would have just cheese and bread for our bring and share meal instead of the usual fare, because it was frugal. We all ended up spending far more money that we usually do!
This post is spot on!
I loathe luncheon meats…eck!
I agree that sandwiches can be just as expensive, if not more, than making a regular meal. I try to make enough extra that we can eat dinner leftovers for lunch the next day, and I definitely think it works out cheaper! If I don’t have leftovers, then I do simple things like fried rice or salmon melts or yogurt and fruit parfaits. We enjoy the variety, and find it easy to include vegetables in our lunch (through the leftovers) as well, which is a great bonus! :)
Lunch is soup. lentil leek and tarragon, black bean pumpkin, enchilada, potato, salmon chowder, clam chowder, roasted red pepper and fennel with red lentils, white bean minestrone,yellow split peas in coconut milk, egg drop and asparagus, ummmmm. Yes we love soup. or oven fries with something- egg salad sammies(made with my ww sd bread) ohhh leftovers- lots of leftovers, fresh fruit, kefir smoothies, fresh veggies, lots of finger food. Lots of your high five recipes too:)
Where in the world are you getting SmartChicken at $2.49/lb? It’s always $9.54/lb here and I’ve never seen it on sale. I can only get local chicken a few months out of the year so we only have chicken a few times a month b/c SmartChicken is so expensive. Btw I live in Indiana and have only seen SmartChicken at Schnucks.
Our local grocery store occasionally puts in on sale for that low. I haven’t seen a sale like that in months though. :(
Another option is to get the regular ham and have the butcher slice it to whatever thickness you want, either as slices or paper-thin deli. They’ll repackage it all for you & no extra charge, so you pay the same price per pound for lunch meat as your other meat.
Hi, After reading this post and sitting down with my husband I also have come to the conclusion that feeding my family sandwiches for lunch is really expensive! Not to mention I know they are unhealthy. They typically have whole wheat bread store bought and Skippy peanut butter(I know that this is bad) and organic strawberry jam. I buy these at Costco but they are still costing us a lot! I have done really well with breakfast and dinner all being from scratch and whole foods but lunch is my struggle. I have 3 children (ages 17, 15, and 12. They all go to public school and dont have access anything to reheat leftovers. What can I do? I am willing to make their bread from scratch. Its really been bugging me that they are eating this every day! Any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks Beth