Good morning loves. As you know from my post on Monday morning BF and I have had a pretty rough couple of days. His tooth ache turned into emergency dental surgery and he hasn’t eaten anything since last Tuesday. He is currently living on Special K protein shakes. In the midst of this I came down with an awful fever and have been off work since last Thursday. To put it bluntly we are currently a hot mess, literally.
I would like to say thank you to everyone for your kind words over these past couple of days. If you reached out to me on Twitter or sent an email, thank you from the bottom of my heart. My temperature has dropped but I am still very tired, I guess it’s because the fever burned all the energy out of my body.
The silver lining of staying at home
I know I’m sounding a little poor me, but please don’t take it that way. I’m just setting you up for the silver lining I discovered over this past week. Yes that’s right throughout BFs unbearable pain and my extreme high body temperature I learned that being sick is actually saving us a lot of money.
Please don’t get me wrong, I would rather go to work and be healthy than be sick in bed and lying a pool of my own sweat, but I have to say I am pleasantly surprised at how much money I’ve saved by being at home. Last Friday I got paid and today, five days later, the money is still in my account. That was a lovely surprise.
The expenses of having a job
I go to work to make money, but at the same time it’s costing me a lot of money to be there. To start off there’s the cost of transportation to and from work, then there’s the added expense of coffee breaks with co-workers and finally there’s the lazy factor in which I spend $5 to $15 a day on my lunch, depending on how many snacks I bring.
I try to keep my costs between $5 and $7 a day which usually includes breakfast and a sandwich for lunch. However on Thursdays or Fridays I like to go out to a restaurant with my co-workers which can cost close to $20.
How can we avoid the temptation to spend?
If I choose to walk to and from work I usually stop at a pharmacy or grocery store on my way home to pick up items for the house. Needless to say being at home has eliminated all these costs. I know eventually I will get better and I will have to venture outside to stock up on food and other items, because our in house supply won’t last much longer. However for the time being I’m enjoying the cost savings of being sick.
Of course these are expenses that I can live without. I could wake up 15 minutes earlier to eat breakfast at home and I could stay up 15 minutes later to make my lunch for the next day, but I don’t always do it. Especially when I know that nothing I prepare will be as good as my store bought lunch.
So here’s my question to you, how do you avoid the temptation of spending money at work?
Photo from Flickr
Im right there with you! I love the food trucks that come to my job because every day there’s a new truck and there are always old favorites. Right now, as you said it is about spending the extra time to plan ahead. Otherwise, the urge to spend is always overcome by the desire for the tasty lobster roll and lemonade with clam chowder……*burp*
I totally understand how challenging it is to make breakfast and lunch for work. Especially, when your co-workers want to go out to restaurants. What I do to keep costs down it make overnight oats for breakfast. It’s super fast. You just take steel cut oats and your choice of liquid. I’ll usually add peanut butter, cinnamon and honey. Mason jars or a small glass bowl with a lid is great. I’ll treat myself to a breakfast sandwich once a week so I don’t have to do it everyday.
For lunch I buy boxed soups and keep them in my drawer at work and in the fridge once they are open. Usually, I’ll make a big salad and buy fresh bread. I just take my salad and bread to eat with my soup. Once a week I’ll eat with my coworkers and once I’ll get take out. So really I only make my lunch for 3 days and save a lot of money!