So I started another semester of school on Monday and realized that my food expenses will murder my weekly budget if I keep up my current pace since I literally eat every meal while I am out and about. On an average day I was spending about $30 on food!

* $5 breakfast
* $8 - $10 lunch
* $8 - $10 dinner
* $3 - $5 snacks/coffee/etc

The bummer is I have a totally hectic schedule so cooking isn't always feasible for me, so I've always ended up not bringing food from home. But my tune has quickly changed and I am astounded (although intuitively I knew bringing lunch was cheaper) by the savings. With less than $75, I have ample supplies to keep me well fed for 2 weeks! Not to mention that I am eating a lot healthier since I can check the nutritional contents of what I am eating.

I'm curious for 20+ b/c by now you start to pull away from the safety of parental sponsorship (even if you still live at home) and it was crazy to me that I was scrimping and saving everywhere but the food area. Lunch time is always a social time for me to get out of the office and relax with coworkers and dinner is a hurried fast-food meal before class/church or another social time to hang with class mates/church family. That's all well and good, but this year has been chock full of long hours and it started to show in pounds and an emptier wallet. The deeper I get into my 20s the more critically I study where I allocate my funds and this year I resolved how wasted an investment food is.

So what's your food expense philosophy at the ripe old age of 20 something? Are you a ballin' or a frugal foodie?

My boss pays for my lunch. My bf pays for my dinner. I only brown bag it if I have good left-overs IF I cooked the night before. Also, my patients bring me lotsa treats. It's nice to be surrounded by kind people.

I totally realized that too but I haven't taken any big steps towards changing... I packed lunches a lot this summer but only because I had no time to eat in between my lab... I almost always pack water and pb&j =_=;; I made a legitimately packed lunch (rice with banchan) only once lol.

I pack the Starbucks food that my gf brings home, and once a week a team lunch with steak. Used to spend quite a lot on lunches before, but cut back because the money could go to something more worthwhile.

Well I when I'm not going to school I just munch off my parents food ,but when it's during school and its around lumch time and I go to an eat in restaurant or anything that has large portions I usally eat half and save the rest for dinner so I don't have to spend more money and plus why would i get waste money when I still got something to eat.

I don't think spending money on food is a waste... I eat out to reward myself ^__^.. but I do limit myself.hehehe

I brown bag my crappy cooking from home.

Then I recycle the brown bag by using it to throw up.

I eat out with co-workers.

if im not too tired and if i have time then i pack a cute little lunch lols.. forreals.. i still pack it in those little japanese lunch bentos =].. wow.. and im 20 lol.. i try not to snack and i usually eat once a day so my lunch box is sufficient enough to last me.. i only go out to eat if friends wanna go or if i dont pack.. but man, i cant afford to do that anymore O_o

I invest in networking at lunch.. no brown bagging

I brown bag it, eating out is expensive and gets old, I like to make my own food

when i use to work a lot i would go out and eat cuz i was never home. and what made it worse was eating with my girlfriend cuz i would always pay for everything, and making 1600 dollars a month started to deplete pretty quickly,

school is where the food is the most expensive, i just had a small bowl of pasta which is about the size of a rice bowl and it cost me 4 dollars.

I brown paper bag it and am a lunch time baller, lol. I normally would just have a limit of $50/week to get at restaurants. Even that got expensive, so I went to the super market for microwavable foods. That also was expensive.....and unhealthy. I later just started cooking for myself and only $100 can last me for a whole month. From time to time, I do eat out with my friends.

i use to eat out all the time last semester.
but i learned my lesson. i wasted money and gained weight (sigh).
so i've been trying to cut back on that.
i actually have more free time this semester, so i'm cooking a lot more nowadays.

imma lunch time baller!! LOL Dinner time too

on an average day I spend maybe 5$, else 0. I make staff meal so I eat off of that. I eat while I work, and if Im really hungry then I take some staff meal home with me. All free, comes out of my paycheck at 10$/week =D

I'm lucky. My mom still makes my food for me. I go home every weekend and bring back about 2 weeks worth of food (for lunch only).

For lunch, I usually pack rice, meat, soupy vegetable thing, fruit, small dessert (candy or chocolate), and water.

I'll usually snack on something small for dinner.

Breakfast is only $3.50/week for me. Cereal & milk.

Weekends are when my meals get fancy. That's when I actually cook for my boyfriend and myself.

like sonny, i get part of the staff meals.. so lunches are free and delicious.

I guess I am lucky, I have a lunch card where I pay a certain amount each month, about $50, and I eat can eat as much as I want from the cafeteria, from the daily warm lunchmeal to soups, sandwiches and the saladbar. After lunch I usually bring a yogurt with me to the office fridge and keep it for breakfast the next morning, I don't have time to eat my breakfast at home . So I don't spend that much money on food actually, but when I was in Uni I usually ate out a lot for lunch and the occasional dinner and stuff.

I wish that I had the time to make my own lunch... I've been wanting to do so for a while, but I'd have to get up at 4am to do that...

Lunch isn't cheap here... and I usually treat who I'm with, so it's a shade under $20 a day; such a waste. I'm just going to start having one of those bento delivery shops bring me lunch... it'd keep it under $4.

I just eat fruits and vegetables carried in glad plastic bags. Freshness. Also, I eat cheap...like a carton of milk, a sandwich (maybe), and yogurt. That is, in addition to the fruits and vegetables. Meat is usually where I go the extra mile on and that's only like three times per week.

Sometimes I just JustBento. my lunch with healthy snacks like fruits. I'm trying to find heathlier and cheaper alternatives like this because I don't make enough money at work

I eat what I want. Baiscally I "try" to eat healthy.

Breakfast - Yogurt and Banana or Beagle with Creame Cheese
Lunch usually 6-12 dollars for me and the wife (panda express, soup and sandwhich, qdoba, mcdonalds, burger king)
Dinner usually make something at home which I estimate to be aorund 8-15 dollars per night

Yeah I give ourselves 350 bucks a month on food.

Back when I was in Japan I'd spend about $500 a month on food... I was always eating out or bringing something microwaveable. As a military aircraft mechanic, we don't typically get lunchbreaks at all. Quite a few times we'll launch an aircraft out with a blueberry muffin in one hand. Also, I was living in the dorms so we didn't have a kitchen or a large fridge. I spent many nights eating a sandwich with a grease/fuel covered hand while working underneath a jet.

But now I'm trying to brown bag it as much as I can, since we often don't have the time to run and get food. A bit cheaper too. I probably spend about $150 a month on food now.

I usually go buy something for lunch and on some days when I feel super cheap I just don't get anything and make a dash to the kitchen when I get home. I have no time to make anything in the morning or even breakfast. I have a small appetite so it works fine for me since I make it up at dinner and late night snack.

LOL...sorry, for some reason I thought you wrote down that you launched blueberry muffins at aircrafts and was like o_O why waste good food? I salute you on the drastic drop from $500 to $150/month.

Oh, I bring my meals every opportunity I can. My major requires me to drive to a lot of hospitals and clinics (nursing major), so all my money goes to gas. I also prefer bringing my own food anyway since I'm mainly a fruit/veggies person. I don't usually eat a lot of fast food/greasy stuff for lunch. Also, I make time to ensure that I bring a good meal for myself. Cooking isn't that tough.

Well, I've been known to do that too.

I head out for pretty much every meal (except breakfast) most of the time. The trick is to order enough food for dinner such that you can have leftovers for lunch if necessary. There's just too many choices of restaurants to head out to where I'm from. I'm trying to eat healthier these days though. I agree with you, making food at home is much cheaper, although it's time consuming.

What i want, i get. There's no substitute for me :/

I bento my lunch and use that saved up money for shopping! 5~7$x 5 days = it adds up in a month!

I'm a lazy single guy living on my own. Nobody cooks for me and I'm not willing to do it either. I usually wake up last minute so I don't have time for breakfast. I buy my lunch and it's usually a pretty big serving. Dinner I cook on rare occasions meaning I usually eat out or bring something on my way back from work home.

I guess I would save quite a bit of money if I pack my lunches and cook my own dinners properly. I know I won't do it anyways...

I try and make my own food, but sometimes if I crave something I can't really make at home for lunch like Gyros, Pizza and cheese steak sandwiches then I just grad something for lunch. I usually don't eat lunch and cook my own dinner at night when I get home. So sometimes I just use maybe $5-15 a week for lunch only. But if I don't my food budget is like $100/Mo.

Hmmm Now this makes me want to see how much I really spend on food. time to keep track xD

Eating out is just a waste of money...I brown bag it for school all of the time. I eat out only occasionally.

im really lazy so when i am at school i don't bring a lunch and would buy food. i hate carrying the extra weight and most of the time i only carry 1 binder with me. I am also lazy making food so i wouldn't wake up early just to prepare food for school and i usually wake up 30min before leaving the house. When i am i work i eat there since food is easily accessible. =). if i wasn't so lazy and know how to cook i would make my own food.

Let us know what the results are. I'm always curious to see how much we are willing to invest in eating.

I don't think money is wasted when you have a fulfilling meal, but it totally irked me that I was spending so much on junk that wasn't hearty or satisfying.

I pack, but sometimes I don't have the time to cook so I gotta pay for convenience

Meals are the best times to network with colleagues and associates. Everyone is busy with meetings and work loads during the day to get any real conversation going during other times. Hence, I don't ever pack lunch and often go out for dinner with colleagues and vendors to catch up on both business and personal matters.

wow...the father of Soompi replied to my thread - celebrity status

i've actualy considered doing some lunchtime and afterwork networking events, but the few that i've been to have been more like a happy hour than an actual networking event. do you really find them to be fruitful in developing useful connections?

Ugh. You all make me feel bad. I must spend at LEAST 500 a month on eating out with friends or grabbing food somewhere on my way to somewhere else or at work.

I really should cut down haha.

i use to waste very litle money on food but i see it now as a time to catch up with friends / network than actual food.
i try to brownbag my lunches at work but i'd go out to eat dinner / catchup with friends 3-4/week. What better way to catchup than having a delicious meal, yeh?

i eat lunch and dinner out every day.. no time to pack food. I wish I could though

I can't even brown bag it. I have to reuse plastic grocery bags. Although I do have a little sandwich box shaped like bread. I try not to spend more than $40 a week on food.

Unless my lunch/dinner time baller friend is with me because he always pays and I order whatever I want.

I live 5 minutes away from my university campus so I just go home for lunch.. I do spend about $1-2 on coffee or a cookie when I'm there for a long time.

i spent way too much once i started university, the reason why? there is a food court at my school.
2-3$ for coffee or drinks in the morning
at least 5-10$ on lunch

x 5 days a week

also i realized after eating, i started to gain weight.
as for now, i started bringing my own sandwiches to school. sometimes i do buy a soup at school or drinks to accompany my lunches. the money still comes out of my own pocket, but i feel like i saved a bit of money?

oh, and i use plastic boxes, no paper bag

i'm going to start tracking what I spend next Monday because that's when classes start... great 19 units this quarter. It'll prolly be a lot different than year's cause all I did was eat out and I wasn't watching what I was eating at all xD, but now I am =D

Last fall I prolly spend prolly 20-45 dollars a week for lunch/breaktime alone. and I just munch on parent's food when I'm not at school.

I plan on bringing my own stuff xD let's see how long that goes. I'll track how much I spend on that too...

I've been pb&jing for the past 4 weeks. I don't think its that healthy of a lunch. hhaha

I bring my own lunch to school--saves waay more money that way. Plus it can be nice to chill alone and get some downtime... or just eat w/ friends but bring your own lunch.

i eat once a day and thats dinner...
and dinner is at home, so on an average weekday, i spend 0 dollars on food

I bring my own food. I have no time in between classes for food, plus it's expensive to buy food at school...