I started a new job recently and at around 11am an office wide thread goes around where nearly everyone’s placing orders for food. Then everyone packs into a conference room and enjoys their lunch, which is probably costing them $15-20/day.
I, on the other hand, bring my lunch. Leftovers, maybe a sandwich, whatever. It probably costs between $1.50-$4 per lunch. Today was the first day I sat in the office and had my lunch instead of heading outside. Probably why it’s on my mind.
Is it a status thing? Peer pressure? Or do folks genuinely just not mind spending $100/week on lunches!?
I will say, they have relatively healthy snacks available for anyone to enjoy which is pretty great. Just one more thing I don’t have to spend money on!
New job and everyone orders takeout for lunch. Mind blown!
byu/radiatingwithlight inFrugal
Posted by radiatingwithlight
37 Comments
You don’t mention the type of job, what you make, or the age of these people.
A highly paid job full of young people, they probably don’t mind spending the money and it’s worth saving the time.
I too find it mind boggling.
Probably something they all enjoy doing together. I was in the same situation, felt weird/left out at first, but after about a week I started joining them with my home lunch, and they were glad the “new guy” was joining them.
In my experience it’s peer pressure, and credit cards.
When it’s low effort and everyone is already doing it, why not do the same?
Good job on not giving in, but it will be a tough road, hopefully you’ll turn this into 12 angry men.
My husband and I always packed our lunches. We also took early retirements and have still not needed to tap into our 401K’s ( I’m being forced to this year). We live very comfortably on an income of between 200K-325K simply by tapping earnings. We’ve not yet touched principal.
Oh, and we weren’t fancy car folks either. I’m still driving my 1997 Jeep I bought as a repo with 100 miles and my husband has a 2006 Volvo picked up on a lease return. Be thrifty. You will be rewarded down the line.
The important part of the lunchtime ritual is “packs into a conference room and enjoys their lunch”… it’s a social activity, which you may be missing out on. You may want to take into account who is doing this and whether it might benefit your career/work life in any way to occasionally join them, even with your brown bag lunch
Most people that I work with go out, pick up take out, or order delivery every day.
Very few people bring from home.
I don’t eat lunch at all, so I say no 99% of the time.
Sometimes team lunches are unavoidable.
One can always mention special dietary issues and bring the brown bag along to socialize
Ironically, even if you can afford it, ordering food is almost always more unhealthy than making at home. You are paying a premium to be unhealthy.
But, time is more valuable than money, so if they are rich, they are investing in themselves in a way.
My department is all WFH. I have coworkers who go out for lunch every day. Blows my mind. Aside from the cost and health impact, I can make lunch in less time than it takes them to go somewhere and place an order.
I would find it difficult to eat a packed lunch when others were eating delicious Thai or something. I’m impressed with people who consistently bring lunch! I WFH a lot of the time and lost the will/habit to pack a lunch. Probably worth it to join the coworkers with your packed lunch and join them in ordering on occasion for the social aspect.
Yeah, it’s ridiculous how much money people waste on food they could easily make themselves for a fraction of the cost. Problem is, if you point it out to them, you are likely to get tons of sh1t in reply. You do you, and ignore any peer pressure.
You should definitely join them in the conference room with your homemade lunch. Join in but eat your own lunch.
Same thing with coffee.
Same! All my old coworkers use to go and eat together in the cafeteria and charge up a storm on their ID badge. It simply deducts from your paystub. You don’t even know how much is being deducted each time you swipe. It’s just a lovely surprise every pay period (that I couldn’t afford)
I can’t imagine spending $20 a day on lunch, I definitely make enough to afford it but would not. I find it feels much healthier to make stuff at home and bring it in if you can
This is common from my experience. I worked at Home Depot and everyone was making 11 dollars per hour in like 2019. You would be amazed at how many ate out every day. I honestly remember people buying Starbucks and other stuff out daily in high school too. My old Postmaster would outright state that she does not cook.
Most people have both poor money management *and* time management skills. That’s all.
I’ve observed it pretty much everywhere I’ve worked, which amounts to the people in lower paying positions spending the equivalent of 1-2 hours of their own labor on fast food for lunch every day…but somehow they never see it that way.
I suspect many of them have never thought about it at all. Many would claim they ‘don’t have time’ to fix themselves a lunch (while essentially stealing their own time by throwing away the money they spent precious time earning). Some probably just want to fit in/don’t want to look ‘poor’, so they feel some pressure to do what everyone else is doing. And a lot of them absolutely feel like they ‘deserve’ to ‘treat themselves’ (daily) just for bothering to show up to work.
People are fascinating.
My husband works in a very large warehouse/distribution center. Just up the street there are 2 truck stops, one of which has an Arby’s attached. Everyday at their lunch time, both truck stops (and the drive thru for Arby’s) are slammed with people buying lunch. This is in addition to the sandwiches and chips that are sold inside their multiple break rooms.
My husband’s friend spends around $10 every single day on getting food, then will complain about being broke until payday…
I always make sure I have enough leftovers for hubby to take, or we always have stuff to make sandwiches, etc because we also have kids that sometimes take lunch to school (our district has free lunch for all).
Me too. Always being my lunch, always have. When colleagues ask me if I want anything I shrug and say, “Nah, I brought my boring leftovers.” Whenever I cook an entree like chicken, lasagne, whatever, I make extra and put them in individual sized containers and put them in the freezer. Then when I pack my lunch it’s fast: an entree, a soda, a yogurt, a string cheese and a hard boiled egg, or maybe fruit. Have saved enough over 40 years to buy a house, and it’s always a slightly different meal!
It has always astounded me. I’m guessing these are people who don’t keep track of daily spending. I’ve always told my kids, you can get poor $20 at a time!
I was exposed to this phenomenon when I moved from manufacturing to the corporate office. Our office had a partially subsidized cafeteria that had a hot lunch,burgers,pizza and salad (plus a few premade sandwiches). Almost our entire business unit ate together downstairs each day. Anyone who talked about work had to buy ice cream for the table (our group spanned the hierarchy of the business and this was a way to keep us “equal). I pretty quickly gained 10 lbs because not only was I eating too much I was no longer walking at work and I was too tired to work out. After a few months I switched to bringing my lunch. No one really batted an eye.
I have known people to order lunch every single day. I saw a door dash delivery of $35……for a subway sandwich.
In the 8 years my husband has been with his job, I can count the number of times on one hand he did not pack lunch, and that is only because he was told ahead of time that lunch would be provided by the company. Otherwise, he always packs lunch and snacks.
I had been a substitute teacher, and lunch is barely 25 minutes, so I of course packed lunch. I am starting a new job soon and will pack lunch every day unless my boss says “We are providing lunch tomorrow, come hungry.”
I think it’s a combination of not being prepared, not preparing early enough, not getting up early enough to make lunch and snacks, etc….
I know people in my town that go out to eat for lunch every day. Besides the cost I don’t know how they do it considering we have few choices. Think McDonald’s, Subway. Taco Bell, and the local cafe. Yuck! I’m lucky I live close and can go home for lunch.
My son worked for a customer service company with very rich clients. Employees did lunch like that. He swore his coworkers were confusing themselves with the clients.
We do Takeout Tuesdays at my job, but every day of the week would absolutely bankrupt me
I have learned that the majority of people spend every they make. Most people I know don’t contribute to retirement or investments. Some people think I’m insane for owning stocks.
Definitely join in and I wouldn’t act embarrassed about brown bagging it. (Make it look as GOOD as you can! 😄). Doubt they’d care.
My cousin just about single-handedly keeps Chik-Fil-A in business. Every day, at least once. Then possibly something else for lunch, also takeout. And she never eats leftovers. I honestly don’t know how she has any money left.
Politically I would order at least once/week and eat with them every day.
I would probably allude to the fact that I’m following a keto, high protein, or some other random diet to explain why I’m bringing my lunch.
I used to do that a lot it’s just a chance to get out of the office and be social to be honest. Being frugal elsewhere is what allows people to do that.
I’ve wondered that too. I love bringing leftovers for lunch or a sandwich etc. Even had Banquet Pot Pies as a backup if I didn’t have anything.
Got tired of the cafeteria and most fast food places.
I work at home now, but my wife’s office still takes turns buying lunch. $50 – $70 a week adds up.
This was one of the fastest ways I started saving during covid/wfh. I was the type who ordered lunch 3-5x a week at 10-20$ a lunch. I justified it at the time but now I’m happy to eat something simple at home and save that $
Just join them while you eat your home cooked lunch.
That’s most people at my job. We picked up a cheap fixer upper a few years ago. We pay less per day for a 3 bedroom house than they do lunch. I try to bring down all fixed bills. I meal prep, drive cheap cars, do as much maintenance as I can, we have a cheap house. Almost every job I had closed or moved. Being careful during the good times helps get me though the bad
There are lots of employees who order food/go out for lunch where I work as well.
Just like you, I always meal prep and have my lunch
I guess people are lazy to meal prep or have too much money haha
I will never feel bad for having my lunch, I prefer to save the 20$ of uber order to go to the restaurant with my husband during the weekend
More than likely it’s a psychology thing.
1 person does it, so the others follow like sheep.
I would just bring your lunch and hang with them!