I know it’s cheaper and better for me. I know that bringing my lunch makes me (financially and healthfully) smarter that my fellow classmates. Yet I have trouble bringing myself to do it, except for my morning coffee, because I have a snazzy travel mug.
I’d feel like a dork bringing a lunchbox/cooler. I tried to bring my lunch last week, and 1) I bought a salad from a grocery store with the intention of reusing the plastic container so it would look like I’d purchased my lunch rather than made it myself and 2) I left the cooler in my car when I was finally ready to eat.
Seriously, why? I’m getting ready for school now, and I’m going to be there for 10 hours so I really need to bring food. I even bought snack-sized bags of chips and pretzels (more expensive and something I never do!) because I didn’t want the dreaded I-brought-this-plastic-baggie-from-home. And now I’m wondering if I bring a tuna sandwich on a wheat bun, will it look like I bought it from the Subway on campus?
Help me! The campus I attend school has mostly young (18-24) students and a lot of residential students, and I feel out of place anyway being older and not living on (or even in the same city as the) campus.
Have you ever gotten any indication from others that you look like a dork? Has anyone ever called you a dork? I guess what I’m asking is whether there is any external evidence for your feelings.
If it’s mostly residential, than the people you see eating at the cafeteria aren’t rich cool kids, they are kids with a meal plan that live in a dorm room without decent kitchen facilities. The kids who can’t afford/didn’t spring for the meal plan are eating PB&J in their dorm room because their’s no point in packing a lunch when you can walk back to your room in 5 minutes.
No one is paying attention to what you eat. They really aren’t. They don’t care.
No one’s called me a dork. I think I’m projecting feelings from high school (forever ago!) when the cool kids ate at the cafeteria and the dorks brought their lunch.
Exactly. It took me a long time to realize that I was paying waaay more attention to insignificant details about myself than anyone else on the planet was. I guarantee you that other students are thinking about their chemistry exam, the hot girl they met at Dylan’s party, how gross the pizza on campus is, etc.-- not about your PB&J. And I also guarantee that you’re not the only student on a budget who brown-bags it.
If it helps, you could try bringing especially delicious meals from home. The other students will probably think wistfully, “RedRoses’ lunch looks awesome. Stupid Subway.” I know that I think that abut my co-workers when they bring in tasty-looking stuff from home.
47 years old and I still bring my lunch every day. Brew my own coffee in my office as well.
Couldn’t imagine paying $15 or so per day for coffee and lunch. And it never crossed my mind to care what - if anything - anyone else thought about it. One of the true benefits of aging - you really don’t give a crap what other people think about decisions you know are best for you.
Of course, I remember in HS when I used to bring a nice sandwich or a thermos of soup, most of my friends were intelligent enough to envy me for not having to eat the lunchroom slop they were buying. Not to mention not having to wait in the line or bus a tray.
If you really think this is just a residual fear of geekery left over from long ago you need to do something to make your lunch seem more appealing. Perhaps bringing “cool” food would make you feel better about bringing your lunch. Make sushi or some other food you love but can’t get at the cafeteria. Everyone will be jealous of you instead of the other way around when they see you digging into your lasagna and garlic bread!
Other than that I have to say just let it go. No one cares what you are eating and even if they did, so what? Does the opinion of some strangers in a cafeteria really matter so much you would fret over food choices?
I’m part of an invasion of 6-20 Spaniards (varies by weekday and who’s on vacation) in some Scottish offices.
On one hand, I hate that my countryfolk insist in eating damn late by local standards and that our lunches take so long due to people preparing salads and generally eating salad, one dish and dessert (fruit or yoghurt). On the other, it’s nice that by the time the Spanish marabunta goes down to the “canteen,” the Scotts have already vacated the premises.
Everybody brings his own lunch, as the other option is buying a sad, limp sandwich from a machine. So maybe we’re all a bunch of dorks. Would you like some dorky, mixed-leaf salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing, followed by some pasta bolognese and a yoghurt?
I just wish I knew where to find a microwave so I could bring some really great stuff. I have no idea where the cafeteria is, I usually attend classes at my own campus here in the 'burg where the students are mostly my age or older and I feel much more comfortable about bringing lunch (or am close enough to bike home between classes).
My roommates are going to the grocery store right now, so I think I’ll take your advice and get some really good food to take along. Maybe some hummus and pita chips… Mmmm…
Now I just need to get over myself long enough to hit the gym between classes.
It doesn’t matter why you feel that way. Don’t even bother to investigate it. Just start taking lunch with you, eat it, suffer the feeling embarrassed and in a week or so, regardless of what happens in between, you will suddenly, one day, wonder what the hell was it I was worried about last week?
This hints at another benefit of BYOL - if you are at all concerned with your health/diet, it is generally much easier to know control ingredients and serving sizes of what you bring from home compared to what you get at a restaurant.
One more advantage - I tend to “graze” throughout the day. I prefer eating small helpings throughout the day instead of one larger meal at one time. Just finished my cookies within my 1st hour at work. Funny how they always seem to go first! Will probably hit the carrot sticks next. Or maybe the yogurt…
Try to sit with other brown-baggers. Maybe you can swap recipes for good brown-baggable foods.
All the kids in my jr high thought I was a dork for carrying my lunch, too. 95% of my friends bought their lunch. It screams poverty to the mean kids. It was sensible family budgeting to my folks.
I take my lunch nearly every day, though once in a while, I’ll splurge and buy something for lunch.
A lot of the people I work with buy their lunch out every single day; it’s the nature of the job. We’re out on the road all day, and stopping for a sub or burger is easy.
For me, it’s a matter of finances. I don’t have the money to spend $5 or more on lunch out. Some people go to places like Five Guys or Panera every day, and I’ll bet they spend close to $10 each time. A lot of people I work with bring little coolers with sodas, but fail to see how easy it would be to pack a lunch in there also.
I don’t mind stopping somewhere for my partner to get lunch, while I eat what I brought. In fact, it’s easier that way - rather then the interminable discussion of, “What do you want?” “I don’t care, what do you want?” my partner just says, “I want Subway/McDonalds/Burger King” and off we go.
I’m trying to think of ways to make me feel cooler for bringing my lunch. I’ve got a cute leather purse that looks like a bowling ball bag, my lunch and an ice pack should fit in there, and I can bring my lunch with me instead of leaving it in my car (which will probably help it keep better). That way, when I get hungry and feel like a snack, I can munch on whatever I bring. And I can snack on some pretzels in my European Society in Film class, because a dark room and a movie on a big screen makes me wanna snack. (It would be nice if my professor could get the popcorn machine he keeps joking about).
At my school we all ate in the cafeteria, rich and poor, side by side. Some bought, some brought, and I actually don’t know if we had lunch vouchers back then. By the time I was in high school, my brother and I got a dollar a day for lunch.
I lived on Kit Kats and chocolate shakes for 4 years.
This is really true. For example, a run in my pantyhose at work that no one noticed, because Person A was obsessing over a cold sore she had that I didn’t notice, Person B was way too caught up in a project, Person C was thinking about what she was doing after work, Person D…
Really, people are far more interested or concerned about themselves. Make great lunches, and enjoy your tasty food.
