a group of brown paper bags

Brown Bag Challenge

Buying lunch every day at $10-$15 a pop adds up. It amounts to around $250 a month, and close to $3,000 a year! This is an easy area to cut back if you're looking to find savings in your budget. Of course, everyone has to eat, so you can't cut this expense out altogether. However, just cutting it in half would save around $1,500 a year. That's definitely worth a shot!

So, I challenge you to brown bag it for at least 4 days per week through the next month. I think you'll be surprised at how easy it can be, once you make it a habit. Here's how one week of my own challenge went last month, to give you a few ideas.

Monday

Ham and cheese roll ups
Broccoli Salad (leftover from the weekend)

Tuesday

Salad with leftover grilled chicken from the night before.

Wednesday

Lunch out. I ordered hibachi, which was a huge portion. I put aside half to bring for Thursday's lunch.

Thursday

"Stretch" lunch of leftovers from yesterday's lunch out. This is a good tip if you do buy lunch out one day per week. It can usually be stretched to two days.

Friday

Leftover taco filling from last night's dinner, over salad.

Will you try the "Brown Bag Lunch Challenge"? Good luck!