Brown bag it

I think packing your own lunch and keeping lots of snacks around is one of the keys to being cheap or frugal...depending on how nice you're being. Pre-packaged snack items like granola bars, snack bars, fruit snacks, etc. are some of the easiest things to get for free or nearly free with coupons. I have a crate where I have been stashing boxes of things that will be great for lunch. If they were in the cupboard, I would probably eat them. But since they are in the lunch-stuff crate, I know I won't touch them.

I never know what school I am going to be at so I have to make sure I pack a lunch that doesn't have to be refigerated. Besides, the fridges at schools are usually packed full anyway. I probably don't eat like an average, reasonable person so my lunches might sound weird. It's just kind of evolved out of what's in the cupboards and what I like.

Ace's Lunch of Cheap Champions:

• Packet of instant oatmeal (kept in a tupperware container with a spoon). Bulk oatmeal works great too. I would add a little brown sugar and cinnamon. I use instant because we had like ten boxes of it and for price purposes, it's easier to figure out.
• Fresh carrots
• Fruit (I love apples and pears but I only have them occasionally. It's whatever is on sale and in season that week, dried pears that we made ourselves, or a mini-can of fruit)
• Yogurt cup (It's pricey compared to the rest of the food we buy but I love them. And they don't have to be refrigerated)
• Sometimes a hard-boiled egg or two and they taste just fine not cold.

Then, I always keep a few extra snacks in my bag for during the day or if I'm just extra hungry at lunch. I think dry cereal makes a fantastic snack. Just make sure and keep it in some sort of container rather than a plastic baggie. The baggie rips and you have cereal all over your bag. Plus, if you don't eat it that day, I think the container keeps it fresher. If we have crackers around I will take those. I always keep a snack bar or granola bar in my bag. My guess if I had paid for everything at about full price, it would come out to around $1.50 with snacks. That's not so bad. And, since I didn't pay for the oatmeal or the snack bars, and certainly didn't pay full price for the yogurt, it comes out to around $1 or less.

If you have have access to a fridge, leftovers are fantastic for lunch, too. Remember to bring home your tupperware and containers. Another thing to remember, get creative with your containers. Plastic baggies cost money, try finding reusable containers. I like the individual yogurts that have plastic lids. Those are great for lunch-sized portions.