We all know that, just as recess was often the best part of school, lunch can be the best part of the workday. Eating out can be smart sometimes - it’s a great networking opportunity, for instance - but it’s deadly to your bottom line…and to your bottom line, if you get my drift.

Packing a lunch…or perhaps convincing your darling pre-fiance to pack you a lunch…isn’t much work at all, and it’s amazingly cheap. It’s also a great chance to pack yourself a little reward to make it through the day, a trick my mother taught me long ago. (All of my elementary school lunches contained something like stickers, pencils, surprise cookies, or tiny toys, each carefully chosen to ensure that I would keep my spoiled little self at school for the full day). The pre-chosen rewards will at least be cheaper - and healthier - than something from the vending machine….

For instance, today I brought a peanut butter and fridge-cleanout sandwich (not an exemplary day, but at least it’s all organic and on sprouted, multigrain, high-protein bread), some delicious flaxseed tortilla chips, some blueberries that pre-fiance and I picked a couple of weeks ago, and a square of Santander dark chocolate. I also managed to skip Starbucks by packing some coffee in my superduper no-leak travel mug. For 10 minutes of work and about $3, I have something I can really look forward t0. I know what the nutritional information is like, I know where the food came from, and I have strong personal connections to every step - a great way to bring some extra fulfillment to the lunch hour.

I’m hardly the first person to extoll the virtues of bringing your own lunch along, though. Here’s some more inspiration from blogs that I frequent:
The Simple Dollar’s How I Made Brown Bag Lunches Work For Me
Zen Habits‘ Simple Way to save $3,000 a Year - Brown Bag It
The Vegan Lunchbox - you don’t have to be vegan (or have kids) to appreciate her adorable, innovative creations (in fact, I’ve linked to her book below - it’s a great resource when you feel stuck about what to pack!)
Bento TV is adorable, and be sure to check our her Ebay store for adorable lunchbox accessories (tiny containers are cute and much better than zip-locs for your wallet and the environment)

I’ve got a lot more to say about lunch, but in the meantime, here are some of my current favorites: