Publix had a larger selection than Bi-Lo, and the menus are more complex. I didn’t intend to get into menus, but on the subject the Bi-Lo menus were easier to read, in part due to fewer choices. Also, the Bi-Lo menu seemed to focus on selling a meal.The Publix menus (there were several) required more reading, looking around and comparing to get the best value. There were meals and by-the-pound prices for many food items.

Here’s the Bi-Lo lunch description from the Bi-Lo post for comparison:

Bi-Lo (and other grocery stores) sell hot lunch entrees like fried chicken, meat loaf and chicken tenders. Plus you get a choice of side items & veggies like mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, rice, carrots and the like depending on the day’s menu. Add your favorite 20-24 oz. beverage of choice and you are looking at about $7-$8.00 with tax.

Publix similarly sells hot entrees with a choices of two sides, and as seen above I got the 3 Chicken Tender meal with western fries and collard greens. I also added a honey mustard sauce and got a 20 oz Lipton Diet Citrus Green Tea (on sale $0.99).

The food was as good as Bi-Lo’s and maybe a little better, although I’ve never had collard greens at Bi-Lo. The whole deal set me back about $9.00, and I’m not convinced Publix tastes better or is any healthier to justify the extra cost.

For today’s lunch I packed a sandwich, grabbed some Maruchan Yakisoba Roasted Chicken noodles, and packed them away in a bag. That just left a drink to add, which could be a bottle of water or, in my case, diet coke. Today’s lunch was probably under $4, and that’s pretty good.  The added benefits of a healthy, fresh and tasty meal only add to the cost and time savings!

Maybe you wanted something more out-of-the-ordinary, or you were looking for a recipe. Try these Crunchy Spicy Hummus Wraps from HuffingtonPost Food. Want more lunch-time reading? Try The Brown Bag Brigade: Your One-Stop Shop for Work Lunch Ideas for good brown bagging tips and idea sources!

So, the meal was $1 for the Yakisoba, about $0.49 for the Ritz Crackers, and maybe $0.45 for the diet green tea. Total is about $1.94 plus cost of the various condiments I used which probably brings the grand total to maybe $2.10 at the most.

Time spent? Most of the time was trying different combinations on the crackers as I ate, so I’d say 5 minutes preparation (since the tea was prepared the day before) plus eating time.

Here’s another idea though, Bi-Lo (and other grocery stores) sell hot lunch entrees like fried chicken, meat loaf and chicken tenders. Plus you get a choice of side items & veggies like mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, rice, carrots and the like depending on the day’s menu. Add your favorite 20-24 oz. beverage of choice and you are looking at about $7-$8.00 with tax.

So here’s the trade off …you want to save the cash, but you want something healthier without going to a sit-down restaurant. The sit-down restaurants (Red Lobster, Applebees, Captain D’s and others in price ranges in between) will blowing your budget (lunch at a sit-down restaurant is about $9-$20.00, ranging from lunch specials and regular fare) and your lunch time may run late waiting for your meal to arrive, then eating and paying for it. Hot lunch at a local grocery store may be just what you need, so why not shop around the places you lunch and see who’s got a good mix of good food and prices and give it a shot?

On to the business of this post …

Pizza special – 2 (huge) slices for $5.00
Drink fo $0.99
TOTAL: $6.53 with tax

Mount Pleasant/Charleston, SC Weekly Specials (Jul 20-26)

Here is the list of the 15 brown bag lunches plus other great ideas… just click the link to go to their site for more details. Their article is broken into 3 pages, and clicking the page link below will take you to the right one:

PAGE 1 – WebMD Bag Lunch Ideas
Pasta Lover’s Lunch Salad
Mediterranean Pita Pocket
Fruit and Cheese Plate
Peanut Butter Fun Pack
Everything Is Better on a Mini Bagel

PAGE 2 – WebMD Bag Lunch Ideas
Celebrate Lunch Salads
It’s a Wrap!
Noodle Soup Cups
Veggie Sushi
Fun Fried Rice
Talk About Taquitos
BBQ Chicken Sandwich

PAGE 3 – WebMD Bag Lunch Ideas
Muffin Mania
Tasty Spanakopita Triangles
Soy Much for Sandwiches

Thank you WebMD, I’ll sure be trying some of these great lunch ideas!

More lunch ideas

That’s the same cheap, quick meal as last week with the same frozen entree and a different choice of granola bar and generic soda – but I got the the same savings. Plus (it bear repeating) that the whole thing took about 8 minutes including walking back and forth from my desk to the refrigerator and microwave (2X).

Oh, and don’t get me started on their milk that actually costs less than a gallon of gas!

$1.99 Jade Dragon Mandarin Orange Chicken
$0.25 (est.) Diet Dr. Pop
$0.40 (est.) Nature Valley Oats ‘n Honey granola bars

$2.64 Total, plus tax

Today’s lunch, however, was a 12 oz Diet Dr Pop (yep, a generic diet Dr Pepper drink), a Jade Dragon General Tso’s Chicken entree (Save A Lot to the rescue again), and Nature Valley Oats ‘n Honey granola bars – because the Jade Dragon microwaved meal isn’t especially filling for a guy like me. but it saves me money and is lower in sugar than what I might otherwise eat.

Recently while trying to make more time in my life I decided to find time to get things done during lunch. I also decided to try and mix savings in.

Another quick lunch idea for my busy day, really on the upper end of inexpensive lunches.

IDEA: About $5.50 – Taco Bell $5

I grabbed one of these today, the Cheesy Gordita $5 Box (aka Cheesy Gordita Crunch Box): and it was great, and just a little less expensive than their regular meals. Comes with  a Cheesy Gordita Crunch, a Burrito Supreme®, soft or crunchy Taco, Cinnamon Twists and a medium drink.