I saved over $1,500 this year brown-bagging my lunch, but the benefits go beyond money

• Kate Powers (not her real name) works at a manufacturing company in Connecticut and blogs as “Salty Old Lady.”
• Throughout 2018, she brought her lunch to work four days a week to limit the stress of deciding last minute.
• She ended up saving $1,500 this year, but she still buys lunch on Fridays so she can socialize with coworkers.
• She doesn’t see brown-bagging as “giving up” lunches out anymore – it’s freed up her lunch hour and strengthened her relationship with her husband.

I’m 44 years old and I live in Connecticut with my significant other, PhotoGuy. Connecticut is a fairly high-cost state, and we both have large families nearby, so we’re here for the long haul.

I work for a manufacturing company and he is an independent business owner. My salary is in the $60,000+ range, so I’m not a super high earner. The household expenses are fairly evenly divided and we keep our finances separate, which may not work for everyone, but it suits us perfectly.

I realized during 2017 that I was naturally inclined to bring my lunch more days than not, and it was becoming stressful to make the last-minute decision every morning. So I decided to make it official and bring my lunch everyday. It quickly became an automatic routine, so no more stress. Fridays were the exception to the rule – I make the engineers socialize with me.

In the first half of 2018, I was managing to save approximately 27% to 34% of my take home pay per month.

Unfortunately, during the summer, both our dogs developed different health conditions that require expensive food, tons of medication, and relatively frequent visits to the vet. Those recurring expenses wiped out a lot of my savings momentum, but I'm still managing to put away 8% to 13% each month. One of the dogs is 14, and the other is 12, and obviously I hope to have them as long as they are comfortable and happy. But when they are no longer with us, those savings will skyrocket again.

How the Brown Bag Challenge saved me over $1,500 in 2018

My savings calculations are based on the following:

• Average lunch in my town costs $7.25 per day.
• Assumption of 4 days per week, and 50 weeks for the year. (Because vacation, right?)
• Average distance from office is 1.5 miles each way, so 3 miles total.
• IRS mileage rate for 2018 is $0.545.

Let's not forget Bonus Mileage Friday! My coworkers LOVE to drive their cars (by the way, they all have car payments, probably because they're eating out every day), so I usually manage to catch a free ride. I only drove two Fridays in all of 2018, despite occasionally volunteering.

So:

Now that big number is really exciting, but I still needed to eat lunch Monday thru Thursday. PhotoGuy deserves all the credit here. He does all the cooking at home, and he is AMAZING. He can make a gourmet meal out of thin air.

Luckily we eat more than air. He gets fresh food and produce from a local market, so we know we are eating quality ingredients and healthy food. He plans ahead and makes extra because leftovers are one of my favorite things for lunch. Especially sandwiches made from leftovers! It doesn't get any better than that. He also does all the food shopping, so I have todefer="defer"to him to estimate the cost of each lunch meal.

Foto: sourceBusiness Insider

The bags - yes, they are actual brown paper bags - are free. My mom gets these great bags with handles from somewhere. They are very sturdy and she knows I like them, so she hoards them until we get together.