I make a good sandwich
It occurs to me that I’ve never discussed how I make lunches like this on a shoestring budget and that it might be good information to share since most of us aren’t exactly rolling in Benjamins. I’m sick of seeing those posts shaming people for buying fast food and proposing “healthier alternatives” with wildly inaccurate prices and no instruction on what to DO with the ingredients.
So, here’s how I make a week’s worth of lunches for less than $10, featuring real, current, 2015 prices and nothing more complicated than slicing a tomato.
- Get a big loaf of French or Italian bread from the day-old section of your local grocery or Wal-Mart. Most groceries discount their day-old items significantly. You can get a huge loaf of bread, enough for 4 – 5 sandwiches, for 70¢ at Wal-Mart (and the normal price is only $1.00).
- Get some cheap deli meat. I go for the Buddig meats, which are 68¢ a pack. They have turkey, ham, roast beef, corned beef, chicken, et cetera. Each pack comes with about 10 thin slices (2 oz), so however much mileage you can get from one pack is up to you. I get 1 – 2 sandwiches out of a pack usually.
- Get a tomato or two. Tomatoes run about 90¢ – $1.50 a pound. They’re 97¢/lb here presently. I usually get about four sandwiches from one tomato, so two can span a week easily.
- Get a head of green leaf lettuce. It runs about $1.00 – $2.00 a head (it’s about $1.49 here right now). Iceberg lettuce costs even less. Don’t buy bags of pre-cut or shredded lettuce; you’ll be paying WAY, way more something you can easily do at home.
- Finally, the most expensive item to get is store-brand deli cheese. I prefer provolone, which is $2.47 for 12 slices – that’ll last more than a week, so you can often use it for two weeks in a row.. Some types of cheese (cheddar, for instance) are even cheaper
- When you get home, slice your loaf of bread into three or four pieces. If you;re going for a full seven days’ worth of lunches, you’ll probably want to get two loaves of bread and slice seven pieces exactly. Then cut each of those in half so you can make the sandwiches.
- Assemble your sandwiches! Add the meat; wash the lettuce and pull off the leaves; wash and slice the tomatoes, et cetera. You probably have some condiments in your fridge already; if not, you can get store brand mustards and such for as low as $1.00.
- Wrap the sandwiches (use store-brand fold-over sandwich bags, which are 100 for $1.00…that’s 3 or 4 months’ worth of sandwiches!) and store them in the fridge. Eat one per day.
- That’s a whole week of meals for about $9.49 before tax – and they’re damn good-looking sandwiches, as you can see in the above photo! I usually spend even less than that because I eat dinner leftovers from lunch a few days a week. Preparation takes like 20 minutes, if that, and isn’t strenuous. I just do it all at once on Sunday evening.
These are the actual prices I pay (I shop predominantly at Safeway and Wal-Mart), but local prices vary, of course. However, since I live in one of the most expensive metropolitan areas in the country (Washington, D.C.), there’s a good chance much of the produce is cheaper wherever you might be.
I hope this is helpful to someone! It’s sure kept me from starving.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1Cgff7k