Prep Your Food, Pack a Lunch, and Ditch the Ziploc

It seems as though everyone these days is extremely budget conscious. We live in a world where it is super normal to go out to lunch every day from school or the office because it’s easy, convenient and fun. And why would we want to spend the extra time at home prepping our meals and packing it all up when we don’t have to?

Because doing so will save us a lot of money and help reduce our waste creation more than we might realize. Here are some tips to prepare an environmentally friendly and financially smart lunch.

First things first when preparing our food at home, we have to hit the grocery store. Here you have the choice between dozens of healthy and affordable options. I guarantee you can make a better stir fry than Panda Express full of fresh veggies. Picking up fresh produce often involves those non-reusable non-eco-friendly plastic bags that you find in grocery stores. But it doesn’t have to. Try these reusable produce bags from The Container Store next time you head to the market. And maybe head to a local farmers market or somewhere like Trader Joe’s that has healthy and affordable options while you’re at it.

Let’s start by bringing our coffee from home in the morning rather than swinging through the Dunkin Donuts drive through line. Sure, a medium iced coffee only costs about $3, but when they start to add up, that is about $21 a week. Not to mention, seven plastic cups, seven plastic lids and seven plastic straws you could save. Instead, make your coffee at home and bring it along with you in a cute travel cup like this one from Amazon. It’s a great way to save money, reduce waste and look good doing it.

So get to cooking in your kitchen. You can make a week’s worth of food easily and have it ready to go in your fridge to take to work or school with you the next day. Maybe give one of these awesome recipes a shot. You may find something new that you love. Store it in these stylish and practical containers that are microwave safe and sleek to pack from the Container Store. And if you have any produce or chopped veggies leftover, you can pop them in these cute homemade food covers on Etsy and ditch your old Ziplocs.

And there you have it, a money saving, eco-friendly way to eat lunch. I try to make at least one thing a week that I can have ready in advance to take with me to school whether its a snack or a meal. It saves me so much money and I feel good about using reusable containers instead of wasting Ziplocs or packaging. I challenge you to try out one of the linked products, or if you already have something like them in the cupboard, pull them out, give it a go and let me know what you think!