The $186,000 lunch

April 2, 2019 | TS Prosperity Group

We’ve all been there.

You get out of the routine of putting together a lunch the night before. Other obligations throw off your meal prep time. A hamburger and fries sounds better than the leftovers you have in the break room fridge. Before you know it, you’ve eaten out for lunch more days in a row than you care to admit.

Packing a lunch versus eating out: Many of us are aware that eating out is more expensive than packing a lunch, but are we aware to what extent? I went to the grocery store to find out.

I planned three lunches and came up with the following prices:

Sandwich, chips, apple - $1.81

Pre-made Salad and apple - $2.10

Pork chop, rice and apple - $2.42

Let’s guess high on this estimate and say that on average, lunch costs $2.50. I have posted the fine print on my grocery math at the bottom if you want to dive into it further.

Now that we’ve covered the packed lunch, let’s go to eating out. I’m also going to estimate low on the average lunch price and say we spend $8 when we eat out. In addition, we also have gas and maintenance on our vehicle. Let’s assume it costs 40 cents per mile and that we drive on average three miles from our place of work (six miles round trip).

All in, our lunch when we eat out adds up to $10.40 per time.

If we pack a lunch instead of eating out five days a week and 50 weeks per year we save $1,975 per year. Instead if we invest this money and compound it at 7% for 10 years, we now have over $27,000. Compound that over a 30 year working career, we now have over $186,000.

I want to be clear, I’m not advocating for never eating out, as a lot of good things can come over lunch - such as networking, business being accomplished, etc.

However, I am a big advocate for considering the long-term effects on our wealth before we make short-term decisions. Sandwich, chips, leftover pork chops, salads - they all sound like the most delicious option when considering the long-term effect.

What other things in our day should we consider that can have a similar impact? Frequency of purchasing clothes or vehicles? That after work beer? I would love to hear your feedback. E-mail me attrisha.beccard@tsprosperity.com.

Estimated lunch Costs:

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