Thursday, July 10, 2008

I Spent $900 on Gyros?!!

You always know it's officially summer when the food carts start rolling up to the office. Where I work, in a downtown consisting mostly of office and government buildings, every day at lunchtime feels like a county fair. Not so much the fun and games, but the FOOD. Food food everywhere, anything you want from pizza to chinese.

When I first started working here, I discovered the Gyro Truck. Isn't America great? I can step outside of my office at any time I want and get a wonderful Greek delicacy? Out of a truck! Sometimes I'd eat at the Fancy Salad Truck. But mostly it was Gyros.

Two whole summers went by and I frequented the Gyro Truck just about four times a week. And no, sadly I didn't brown bag it on the fifth day. I probably went to the Pizza Truck.

And how much do these wonderful meals cost?

$6 plus one bottle of Snapple = $7.50

At five days a week for three months each year, I am just now realizing that I spent $900, a whole Emergency Fund's worth of George Washington's on very thinly cut lamb rolled in pita bread with some tomatoes and onions!

God, I do love gyros though.

But how many have I had since I finally decided to live within my means?

Zero. Zip. Zilch. No gyros for me. I walk four blocks home, play with my cat and have a sandwich or some leftovers.

What I've learned from walking past all those happy lunchtime workers is that lunch trucks will always be there but my dollars won't, so in the meantime it's better to save!

5 comments:

Savings not Shoes said...

Good job for passing by the truck! My weakness is sushi. I can't even imagine how much money I've spent on sushi in the last few years. That said, I would suggest buying (or making?) some of the sauces that you would get. Then you can put the sauce on your sandwich sometimes and it can satisfy the urge. Or at least I think that when I cook some rice at home and douse it with soy sauce and wasabi.

Anonymous said...

Instead of completely giving up the gyros, calculate how much it would cost to make your own at home (find a recipe online). That way you can have your beloved gyros and cut back on the spending. I have a weakness for fried wontons but instead of quitting cold turkey I make my own, they are not exactly the same but man are they still delicious.

Oh by the way.... YOU HAVE BEEN DOING AN EXCELLENT JOB......

Anonymous said...

Good work on being the master of your stomach! Seriously, brown bagging a lunch is probably one of the simplest way of getting some snowflake money, so congratulations. Good job.

Anonymous said...

Last year-about this same time-I bought myself a very nice onyx/diamond cocktail ring with the money I had saved from Jan-May by bringing my own lunch 3/4 times a week!

undercover vixen said...

o lucky you live close to home!!