You're spending about $2000 a year on buying your lunch. Here's how to save that cash.

I’ve reached a new milestone in life. I’ve started packing a grown-up lunchbox.

It’s a big step for me because I used to be very against the packed lunch idea. Bad lunchboxes throughout high school left me rather scarred for life, and also meant that I existed pretty much solely off apples for about five schooling years. (Hope you’re not reading this, mum. All those sandwiches got donated to good homes. Not bins. Cough.)

But then I realised that I was wasting about $10 a day on buying lunches. Add that up and you’ve got about thousands of dollars spent just on lunch in one year. In fact, a Workonomix Survey conducted by Accounting Principals in 2012 found that workers are spending an average of $2,000 per year – just on buying their lunch.

And that’s a lot of money that can be spent on things that aren’t just boring sandwiches.

Here are my tips on how to build up your healthy, filling and tasty adult lunchbox for work/uni/assorted other adventures…

1. Get an awesome lunchbox

Lunchbox technology has really advanced since the days of my primary school purple-and-pink, eternally broken plastic container. Get yourself a lunchbox that you love so that you actually want to pack it. There are about a million options out there but I like the ones with a lot of compartments so I can throw in a bunch of things without them all mixing together. Go for something that’s BPA-free if you’re worried about plastic mixing with your foodstuffs.

Here are some of the MANY options available:

From left to right:

– Happy Jackson Lunch Box from Asos, $11.67 BUY HERE 

– Black + Blum Lunch Pot from Hard to Find (good for fruit salads, noodles, etc) $49.95 BUY HERE

– Goodbyn Hero Lunch Box (so many compartments and BPA free!) $21.95 BUY HERE

– Black + Blum Bento Box (BPA free and includes a glass slide, a sauce dipping area and an inner dish that pulls out so you can heat up your lunch separately to other parts) $39.95 BUY HERE

2. Plan ahead

Failing to plan is planning to fail, right? I find that I’m much more likely to eat healthy if I plan out everything for the week ahead – my meals, my snacks and even my drinks. If I don’t plan, I find myself standing in front of the pantry two minutes before I’m supposed to leave the house, just throwing things into my bag at random.

Make sure you set aside some time over your weekend to plan out your meals for the week ahead. Figure out what you’re going to have for dinner and then work out how you can use it for lunch leftovers the next day. Do a big grocery shop once you’ve got your list and then, if you’re feeling REALLY organised, portion up your food in advance so that you can just grab and go.

3. Think carefully about lunch

We want to avoid the kind of lunch day where you finish what’s in your lunchbox and then you’re sad because you’re still super hungry. Nobody likes those days.

In order to fill up properly, you need some protein and you need some good fats (think avocados, nuts and olive oil). So a plain salad with lettuce and tomato, as healthy as it might sound, won’t leave you feeling full at all – and you’ll end up eating your way through an entire pack of biscuits at 3pm.

Dietitan Amy Vero has some suggestions for lunches that are tasty, filling and good for your insides:

– Sushi (most supermarkets sell the ingredients and kits that you need to make your own sushi and it’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it)

– Pita bread stuffed with salad

– Vegetables and lean, cold roast meat or chicken

 – Salads made from cous cous, quinoa or pasta (incorporating plenty of vegetables and a protein source to make a full meal. Meat, cheese, eggs, beans and nuts are all good sources of protein) 

I like making my own rice paper rolls and packing them for lunch with a little container of dipping sauce; I also do a vermicelli noodle bowl (vermicelli, beef, carrot, lettuce, peanuts and mint), mini quiches with pumpkin and goat’s cheese, homemade soup with noodles or burritos wrapped up in lettuce leaves.

Yum. And not a sandwich in sight.

4. Stock up on snacks

How great are snacks! You want a nice variety of healthy, tasty options that you can throw into your lunch box compartments and go.

Some suggestions for those of you who are stuck on snack ideas…

– Unsalted nuts

– Plain popcorn

– Vegetable sticks with hummus

– Fresh fruit

 – Yoghurt

– A slice of wholegrain toast with natural nut butter

– A healthy cookie or muffin – here‘s a good recipe

– A green smoothie (go here for tips on how to make them)

– A hardboiled egg

– Rice cakes topped with a slice of ham or turkey as well as some veggies

– A can of tuna

 5. Drink up

It’s crazy how much hydration can affect everything from your skin to your appetite. But don’t go for soft drinks or endless cups of tea and coffee to get you through the day. Pack a water bottle and mark it so that you can make sure you’re actually drinking it throughout the day.

If you’re not big on plain water, try flavouring your water by infusing it with fruit. Just pick the fruit you’d like and mash-up a bit of it in the bottom of a water bottle to release the flavours – then add water and leave it all in the fridge overnight for best results.

Bananas are not a good choice for this exercise but anything else – including watermelon, berries, lemon, pineapple and even cucumber and mint – works really well. Experiment until you find the one that you love.

If you really, really must get your sparkly soft drink fix, look for options that are better for you than traditional soft drinks. I like lightly flavoured mineral water and also a new brand of soft drinks, made by a brand called Capi, that are free of preservatives, GMOs, artificial sweeteners and any synthetic or artificial ingredients.

Do you pack a lunch box for work? What do you usually have for lunch?