Tips on saving money

Have you ever wanted to shave dollars from your budget without sacrificing your time? A great, simple way to carve anywhere from $20 to $40 a week or more from your monthly budget is to start brown bagging your lunch.

You might have avoided brown bagging in the past, because you thought making your lunch the night before was too time-consuming. Once you get into a rhythm, though, lunch prep will only take you about five minutes a night - and probably save you fifteen minutes of your lunch hour in driving to a fast-food joint! Here are some ways to get your kitchen routines organized, and make brown bagging a breeze.

Invest in reusable plastic-ware. $10, or about the cost of one lunch out at a sit-down restaurant, will buy you a couple sets of reusable plastic containers at Target or Wal-Mart. Look for stackable containers that can go in the dishwasher and microwave, and are labeled BPA-free. If you can, buy at least two five-count container sets, which means you will not have to wash them out each night.

Store your dinner leftovers in individual portions. This is the fastest, most economical way to brown-bag your work lunches - just get in the habit of portioning out any dinner leftovers as soon as you clear the table. You might not want to have last night's lasagna less than twelve hours later, but two or three days down the line, it will look pretty appetizing for a quick workday lunch. All you will have to do is snag it from the freezer! Most dinner entrees and soup freeze well and will hold for a month or two. Fruits and salads are more delicate, and should be stored in the fridge and eaten in the next couple of days.

Dedicate a desk drawer to snacks. Brown bagging can get boring when you feel like you are locked into the same sandwich/chips/apple combo every day. Use one of your desk drawers to stash several of your favorite shelf-stable treats, like granola bars or individually packaged trail mix. That way, you can mix up your add-ons in the moment, which goes a long way to staving off lunch boredom. It is also a lot cheaper per serving than hitting up the vending machine mid-afternoon.

These quick tips are easy to implement, and the savings add up fast. If you used to grab a fast-food value meal every day for lunch, you will be saving a minimum of $100 a month!