Uncharted territory

Today, I've done something that I've only done once before since I started my current job last year.  I brought my lunch to work.  For the first time, it wasn't leftovers from a dinner.

I'm kind of a big, snake-like eater (big meals, but don't eat often).  Thus, it's hard to find easy-to-make bring-to-work lunch options that are appealing.  Usually, a standard bagged/boxed/tupperwared lunch just isnt enough food for me.   Usually, the stuff I see in the grocery store that most people bring as regular lunches would be too expensive in the quantities that I would need to be satisfied.  Especially since I do things like swimming and kickball after work.

Enter Costco.

It took me a long time to figure it out, but all this stuff is much cheaper if you buy it in bulk...at a place like Costco.  You can buy 2-3 pounds of sliced ham for around $8.  2-3 pounds of sliced, deli-quality cheese for even less.   Multi-grain bread at a discount. 

The thing about Costco is, not everything is that much cheaper than in the grocery store.  You have to pick your spots, and you have to comparison-shop.  Bread isn't THAT much cheaper than a grocery store has when they have a sale. 

But then you have to factor in quality.   A little-known fact about Costco is that when it's not selling to businesses, it's catering to yuppies and snobs.  Their stuff -- even their generic, "Kirkland" brand stuff -- tends to be high-end and high-quality.  Which somewhat explains why the discounts aren't as steep as you might expect.  The quality is higher than your average supermarket (but not higher than, say, Trader Joe's).

So on Saturday, I went out and bought the above-mentioned ingredients, plus a bulk mix of thin-sliced Italian meats and deli-style salsa.  I also bought one of their bulk fresh-baked cookies (about 25-35 cookies for $6). 

I'm not sure how much this is costing me per meal.  Normally, I spend between $6.50 and $8.50 at lunch eating out.  Let's do a quick, over-estimated calculation.   I use one cookie per day, and there are about 25 cookies.  That's about 25 cents per cookie.  Let's jack it up to 50 cents, in case I'm wrong.  Let's guess 50 slices of ham per pound package, and I use 2 slices per sandwich - and I carry 2 sandwiches to work.  That's 4 slices per day.  At $8 per package, that's 6 cents per slice!  But, for the sake of argument, let's jack it up to 50 cents.  That's $2 per meal across 2 sandwiches.  Cheese costs less than ham, but let's say it's also $50 per slice, and 2 slices across 2 sandwiches.  The specialty meats are basically garnish, so let's place them at 50 cents per sandwich. 

Anyway, here's my guess per day: ham = $1, meats = $1, bread = $.75, cheese = $.75, cookie = $.50, salsa = $.10.  That adds up to about $4 per day.  Which is at least $1 cheaper than the cheapest meal in the food court, and less than half of what I normally spend.  Of course, this probably a HUGE overestimate.  My guess is that my homemade meal's actual cost is more like $1.50 or $2, even if you include the plastic bag. 

I just hope I'm filled up after lunch.  If so, I'm probably going to keep doing this and never look back -- assuming I don't get sick of my sandwiches in a month of so.  Even if I do, Costco has a ton of alternatives to what I bought this time around that will save me about as much.  Forget about the bulk dinner food: THIS is what I should have been using my membership for.  This is where I can get the real savings.    

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit