Last updated by What’s worse than breaking your budget with build-your-own salad bars or fast food drive-thrus? Or not having lunch at all? Knowing that you could’ve packed your own lunch with a little time, and not very much money.
We’ve picked eight delicious and frugal lunch ideas we found on Pinterest. Need it cheap? Need it fast? We’ve got you covered.
1. Wrap it Up: Chorizo and Fried Egg Wrap
This flavor-packed wrap is great for a lunch or a light supper: Chorizo and Fried Egg Wrap.
2. Gluten-Free Grab n Go: Mediterranean Quinoa Salad in a Jar
What’s better than a healthy, vegan, gluten-free salad? A healthy, vegan, gluten-free salad in a jar! You can make it a few days in advance for a truly grab and go lunch.
3. Frugal Lunch For Kids: Bento Box on a Budget
Get creative with your kids’ lunches with a bento-style lunch. Fill with yogurt, chopped fruit, granola and crackers for a kid-friendly take on a bento box.
4. Skip the Food Cart: Chili Rubbed Skirt Steak Tacos
These street-style tacos look delicious, don’t they? Make a skirt steak for dinner and put together these spicy tacos for lunch tomorrow.
5. 80 Cents Per Serving: Tuna and Avocado Sandwich
Who wants to be the guy who’s eating a tuna sandwich at the office? At only 80 cents, with a meaty tuna salad and sliced avocado, I do!
6. Feeling Fancy: Shrimp Feta Cobb Salsa
Take the salad in a jar to a new, fancy level with shrimp and feta cheese in this recipe.
7. For Those Chilly Days: 5 Ingredient Potato Soup
For those chilly, windy days when you’d rather just stay inside with a hot bowl of soup. Vegetarian, and yummy as leftovers, try this super-simple potato soup tomorrow.
8. Fresh and Light: Banh Mi Bites
As fresh as a salad and as light as the bread it sits on, skip the Vietnamese restaurant and make these Banh Mi bites yourself.
Lunch doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive, or a budget-busting affair. Instead of swiping your plastic for fast food, or not eating at all, try a few of these frugal lunch ideas today.
Brenda Harjala is a personal finance writer at SuperMoney. She specializes in personal finance topics such as budgeting, debt settlement and money management. Brenda has a B.A. in Scientific and Technical Communication from Michigan Technical University.
