Spending habits

[Rasputin]

I'd guess 2 or 3.
I live near a supermarket and aren't the richest or most trusting of people so generally just buy what I need.

It's not possible but it makes people feel productive to reallocate the timing of their spend to create the illusion of a savings.

[Rasputin]

Let me know how that works for you. I fail to see how your packing your lunch saves money once you've factored in the value of your own time and your own energy costs. The restaraunt has economies of scale that don't exist in your kitchen.

Further, I posit that you are more likely to binge spend if you try to refrain and deny yourself than if you always have walking money you know is available for spontaneous use.

Working so far. Today's lunch and snacks totalled around £2. A canteen lunch, crisps, pop, chocolate etc. is usually around £5.

Did you factor in the cost of your time and also the costs of maintaining a kitchen?

This is an illusion - my time does not cost me anything - I already own it.

And I am going to maintain a kitchen whether I bring lunch or not.

Opportunity cost! I may own the farm but if I chose not to grow anything and play in the fields it has cost me a lot to play.

[garbon]

Let me know how that works for you. I fail to see how your packing your lunch saves money once you've factored in the value of your own time and your own energy costs. The restaraunt has economies of scale that don't exist in your kitchen.

We've just met, but it sounds like you lack common sense.

[Neil]

I fail to see how your packing your lunch saves money once you've factored in the value of your own time and your own energy costs. The restaraunt has economies of scale that don't exist in your kitchen.

Bread is about $1 per week.  Lunch meat is about $2-3 a week.  Cheese is roughly $2 a week, at most.  Margarine is about 10 cents a week.  Vegetables will run you $3 a week.  Add a granola bar or something for about $3 a week.  That runs you at most $12 a week for lunches.  Eating the cheapest food around for lunch, you'll end up spending at least $5 a day, which works out to $25 a week, at the absolute minimum.

Clearly, there are great savings to be made by making your own lunch, even if you factor in the five minutes it takes to prepare one.

You chose not to run?

What?

[Caliga]

We've just met, but it sounds like you lack common sense.

He will make a great addition to the Languish family.

[BuddhaRhubarb]

one or two days most weeks. Always a weekday though. If I bought groceries on Monday I likely won't spend any money til wed at the earliest.

[Ed Anger]

We've just met, but it sounds like you lack common sense.

He will make a great addition to the Languish family.

If it is who I think it is, then no.

[The Brain]

I prefer the Boney M song.

[crazy canuck]

To make people aware of just how easy it is to spend money arbitrarily on unplanned and unnecessary stuff every single day.

Independent of this day, which I solely included as an illustrative phenomenon, I was just trying to think when I'd last gone a day without buying odd bits and bobs. Thought I had one and remembered the Coke. Reminded me someone thought it was important enough to have a day for. Simple as.

If you include spending money on lunch, then I spend money every working day.  If you dont then the only days I spend money is on the weekends when I am out and about with my family.

[Rasputin]

We've just met, but it sounds like you lack common sense.

He will make a great addition to the Languish family.

If it is who I think it is, then no.

Bite me ...or at least send me some pr0n.

[Rasputin]

Let me know how that works for you. I fail to see how your packing your lunch saves money once you've factored in the value of your own time and your own energy costs. The restaraunt has economies of scale that don't exist in your kitchen.

We've just met, but it sounds like you lack common sense.

I cannot help it that this forum is teeming with those who view their time as having no value. I ought to send you a tuition bill.

[Rasputin]

We've just met, but it sounds like you lack common sense.

He will make a great addition to the Languish family.

[Rasputin]

Let me know how that works for you. I fail to see how your packing your lunch saves money once you've factored in the value of your own time and your own energy costs. The restaraunt has economies of scale that don't exist in your kitchen.

We've just met, but it sounds like you lack common sense.

I cannot help it that this forum is teeming with those who view their time as having no value. I ought to send you a tuition bill.

You're assuming time can only be valued in monetary terms. 

No; one can value time however one wants. I am instead assuming (correctly I might add) that a person's time has an intrinsic monetary value and that there is therefore an inherent opportunity cost to any non money making pursuit. That cost may be worth it for some reason subjective to the person spending the time, but it is still an objective opportunity cost to anyone capable of productive labor.

[Josquius]

I'd guess 2 or 3.
I live near a supermarket and aren't the richest or most trusting of people so generally just buy what I need.

It's not possible but it makes people feel productive to reallocate the timing of their spend to create the illusion of a savings.

Nah, its not that. Its just what I feel like eating varies.
I don't decide a week in advance 'next Thursday I shall eat pizza', I just get to Thursday and my body tells me 'pizza....nom nom nom'. It gets me out of the house a bit too, I'm hardly lacking for free time right now.

[Berkut]

Let me know how that works for you. I fail to see how your packing your lunch saves money once you've factored in the value of your own time and your own energy costs. The restaraunt has economies of scale that don't exist in your kitchen.

We've just met, but it sounds like you lack common sense.

I cannot help it that this forum is teeming with those who view their time as having no value. I ought to send you a tuition bill.

You're assuming time can only be valued in monetary terms. 

No; one can value time however one wants. I am instead assuming (correctly I might add) that a person's time has an intrinsic monetary value and that there is therefore an inherent opportunity cost to any non money making pursuit. That cost may be worth it for some reason subjective to the person spending the time, but it is still an objective opportunity cost to anyone capable of productive labor.

This assumes that most people have the ability to transalte random moments of free time directly into income. I know I do not, and I don't think too many other people do either.

Therefore, the "opportunity" cost is likely very mininal - so minimal that it cannot outweigh the actual monetary cost of going out to lunch.

This is an argument people make to justify blowing a lot of money on eating out to lunch every day, and considering that eating out to lunch probably takes a LOT more time than making lunch, it is utterly spurious.