So last Friday, I... well I forgot my lunch at home. It was a combination of procrastination and running late while getting ready to leave that led to this sad little reality. One that I only realized upon popping up above ground at the subway stop about five minutes from work after a one-ish hour's commute.
Now normally, it really is no big deal. It used to just mean that I'm grabbing a take out dinner at some fast food outlet for the evening and is a big reason why my phone case includes a pocket for my credit card for easy access.
But with me being down to my last $20 for the month and still half a month left to go, suddenly $10 for even the cheap meal at McDonalds seemed like a hefty fine to pay for leaving my large pasta (again with the pasta) dinner at home.
With that said, I had a 10 hour shift ahead of me to deal with and starvation for 10 hours, even though work supplies us with water and free
It's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
And this is where I thank every deity above that a grocery store opened up near my offices at work.
On one hand, having a grocery store near my place of work is not exactly good when one is trying to limit money spent on food you don't need. It may lead you to visiting it one too many times and buying food and stuff that you don't necessarily need.
But in this case, it was pivotal in solving my missing lunch problem and proved invaluable as a solution for my food problem.
It was brilliant. Whereas before I would have had to pay up to $10 for one takeout meal, on that day I was able to get a quick microwaveable meal and two apples as a snack ... for $3.25, a fraction of the costs of a meal on the go.
And it was enough to keep me going.
In some ways, this was valuable in that it forced me to think outside of the lazy box. In the sense that it's so easy to just get takeout when things like me forgetting my lunch or even just me sleeping in or not making a meal for myself at home, when the solution for food can be made much cheaper.
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