#55. Bring lunch to work every day for 1 month

Today is June 30th, better known to me as,  Last Day of Bring My Own Lunch (BMOL) to Work Month!  Woo hoo!  I made it.  I went 22 whole work days without going out to lunch!  I brown bagged it every single day this month (except for June 17th, when we had an office lunch from Typhoon, for no special reason other than we had a company gift card to spend).  I feel like this should still count, because I didn't pay for it out of my own pocket, and I was originally only planning to go 20 days without buying lunch (4 weeks x 5 days a week), but I went the whole month of June, and it ended up being 22 days, or 21 if no one else wants to count Typhoon lunch day.

When I worked downtown, I bought Starbucks coffee and lunch out every single day, simply because I I could walk to Starbucks, and a TON of different lunch places.  But I figure, I probably spent about $12 - $15 on my coffee and lunch alone... okay I just did the math on how much I must have spent each month, and all I can say is YIKES!  What was I thinking?!

Getting married has been good for my wallet I guess, since Dan makes my coffee for me every morning before work, saving us $4 or more a day (I say, "or more" because I can't resist a breakfast sandwich every now and then).  I've also gotten a lot better about bringing my lunch to work, but I'm still not that great at it.  I'm not a morning person, so any lunch prep has to be done the night before, and often times, I... a) forget, b) purposely don't do it, thinking, "I'll get up earlier in the morning and do it then" (HELLO!  Did I forget I'm not a morning person?) or c) say, "Eh, I'll just buy something!"

So this little challenge has definitely taught me to prepare a little bit more, and by prepare, I mean grab all the things I need to make a lunch, take it to work, and make lunch at work! Ha!  Seriously, I now keep stacks of tuna fish cans, crackers, granola bars, chips, oatmeal, raisins in my bottom drawer... didn't really need that for files anyway... and yogurt, apples, salsa and a variety of condiments and more in the work fridge, so I have lots of lunch items for my choosing.  And who can resist leftovers?!  When we make dinner, we purposely make extra, so I can take it for lunch the next day.

Anyway, I figure that if I had bought lunch every day this month, I would have spent $6 - $8 a day.  So 22 days of BMOL has resulted in a savings of $132 to $176.  This is probably the key to achieving #64, Save $5000 in a Rainy Day savings account... if I took that $6 - $8 and put it in my Rainy Day account, I'd be checking #64 off in no time. 

I have to say the hardest part of this has been giving up my weekly visit to Chipotle (I wonder if they've noticed I've been MIA?).  I used to go there every Friday to treat myself... and sometimes other days too.  It's now been over a month since I've had lunch there (cause I started the BMOL challenge shortly after being home sick with a Spring cold) and I can't wait to go back!  I know they miss me too... or rather, they've been missing my $5.70.