Spendonomics: Lunch

How much do you spend on lunch?

According to a recent survey by Visa, the UK average is £3.69. Every working day.

That seems a little low to me. Look around my work in Central London and the bulk of my colleagues are spending well over £4 at Pret, £5 on ready made sushi or £6 for a spicy burrito. If they head to the nearby food market on a Friday, it could be pushing £8.

It’s a no brainer to say taking a packed lunch will save you money. But of course it’s not always that easy to find the time each morning to prep it. Or you might know your culinary skills aren’t up to producing anything you’d want to eat day after day.

So perhaps you need a little motivation.

Let’s take the average from the survey. If you work Monday to Friday, take 25 days holiday and add on the 6 public holidays, you get 230 days. Buying lunch every day at £3.69 is a whopping £849.

If you can substitute for left overs from last night or an easy salad you could get the price down to £1.50 – probably even less.

But that £2.19 less each day would give you an extra £504 to spend each year!

Think how you could spend that. It could be a couple of amazing Michelin starred meals! Or go towards a holiday eating Italian on the Amalfi coast.

And what if you spend more than the average? Well for every 50p more, that’s £115 a year. So someone who spends an average of £6 a day cutting back to £1.50 would have an extra £1,035 to spend!

My trick is to bring my own food four days a week and grab something a little nicer when meeting with friends or colleagues. What about you? Let us know in the comments section below.