Cheap lunch doesn’t have to equate to a peanut butter sandwich or a pack of ramen noodles. Many tasty nourishing foods can be enjoyed for the lunch meal with a little planning ahead. Eating out every day can put a pinch on the budget. To break this habit and reduce the money spent for the noon time meal, it is best to learn how to make cheap lunches. Cheap lunch meals will require packing a lunch each day. Lunch items can be transported in plastic containers, zipper type sandwich bags, or wrapped in foil. Reusable packaging items are more environmentally friendly as well as more economical so consider this when determining what is needed for taking the lunch each day.

Before making a cheap lunch meal plan, determine what resources are available. Is there a refrigerator available for storage? Is there a microwave available for reheating items? These questions determine the limits of what you can make for a cheap lunch meal.

If refrigerators are not available, purchase a small cooler which can be used for keeping cold items at the correct temperature. If a microwave is not available, plan on cold meals or purchase a thermos to keep hot liquid meals like soups. Once you have made these determinations, consider the following steps for preparing cheap lunches.

Spending some time on the weekend preparing freezer meals divided into lunch meal portions will help in having meals to choose from each day. This option assumes you will have a means to heat the meal at lunch time. Casserole choices allow for a healthy cheap lunch option. Prepare a variety of low cost casseroles and divide them into freezer containers of single meal sizes. Label each container with what is in it, and the date frozen so older items can be eaten first.

Consider preparing a casserole which has the same base but can be divided several ways for additional ingredients so the choices are more varied. If only one person is eating, prepare smaller casseroles so there are only 4 to 6 servings frozen each time. With an average of 20 work days a month, three casseroles with four servings each allows freezer meals to be enjoyed three times each week. The remaining two days can be filled using one of the ideas shown below.

Sandwiches can be a cheap meal for lunch if you avoid the high priced deli meats. Consider slicing your own beef from a dinner roast, making your own chicken salad from left over chicken, or making your own tuna or egg salad. Sandwiches can be done as wraps instead of using bread, or can be prepared on a bagel or English muffin. A good quality bread makes the lunch a bit more expensive but is worth it for taste. When preparing a sandwich as the cheap lunch of the day, consider what items can be eaten with it to make the meal more filing. A bowl of soup, stew, or other hot food item in small quantity can supplement the sandwich choice.

Planning a cheap menu for dinner can mean that extra amounts can be prepared for main course items. Dinner meals should be different from the casseroles frozen ahead for lunches. By making extra for the dinner meals, leftovers can provide a cheap lunch for the following day. If there are to many leftovers for the next day’s lunch, or next night’s dinner, consider freezing them to prevent any waste. Leftovers from cheap Mexican meals like tacos can be taken for lunch and eaten as nachos, taco rice or taco salad. Another option for use of dinner leftovers as a cheap lunch is soup. Using a chicken broth base, add left over vegetables and meats to make a soup to enjoy for lunch.

This guide page follows the assumption the lunch meal is eaten away from home. However, the steps shared can be used by a stay at home or work at home mom for feeding the family for lunch also. Homemade meals are typically less expensive than packaged items and can help reduce the weekly grocery cost for a family.