I pack this little cooler for my husband before he goes to work. It is pretty much the same thing every day -
2 servings of fruit
2 servings of fruit
1 serving of nuts
1 string cheese
A sandwich on a homemade bun with a few chips and pickles
Coffee and a bottle of water, an ice pack and a cloth napkin
I like these Ziploc 3 compartment containers as they keep the sandwich and chips from getting squashed.
The nuts are in a reused baby food container.
I try not to use many sandwich bags -they only cost 2 cents at Aldi though.
All of his coworkers but 1 buy their breakfast and lunch at nearby fast food restaurants everyday. Those coworkers also complain about being broke too. They think my husband is spoiled because I pack his lunch too. Silly men!
Packing a lunch like this is not really any trouble, it just takes a little planning.
When I was younger and living at home, I packed my dad's lunch pail. He did not care what was in it, he was just happy if I would fix it. He liked fruit and homemade cookies and crackers spread with peanut butter. I remember one time that we needed to buy groceries and all I could come up with for dad's entree was a stale hotdog bun with cheese and pickles. When he got home from work, he told me it was a delicious sandwich.
When I was just a baby, my dad and his uncle worked at a petroleum refinery in west Texas. All the men took lunches. One man, a real creature of habit, always had the exact same lunch- a bologna sandwich, a banana and a Hershey bar. The men at this plant were jokesters, especially Uncle Jesse. One day, he convinced all the men to bring that same lunch and to eat it at the same time as the creature of habit man. Dad said all the men had a great time doing it but the guy did not realize he was being pranked until all the men were eating Hershey bars at the same time.
The contents of my husband's cooler costs less than $2.
If he ate fastfood, I am sure it would cost at least $10-$15 every day.