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The Frugal Lunch Salad

A whole heck of a lot of people eat a salad for lunch, whether it is their entire lunch or just a side. (I am one of those that eats a salad on the side - but then, I also front-load my calories early in the day and eat less in the evening.) The cost of the lunch salad can be broken down as follows:

Most Expensive: The Super-Duper Convenient Salad - $4.00

Buy this from the salad bar at your local grocery or restaurant. You are paying for the ability to say “hey I want a salad today.” Then presto - there it is! This salad will run you anywhere from $4-$10 per day for a total of $20-$50 for a 5-day workweek.

Medium Price: Salad in a Bag - $2.00

This is more work than the salad bar choice and you have to do some pre-planning. But it is so much cheaper!

2 bags of mixed-green salad greens = $3-$4 or ~1.60 per serving

Dressing = $4 per bottle or ~20 cents per serving

Croutons = $2 or ~20 cents per serving

Total cost per salad: $2.00, total cost per week: $10.00

Even though the salad is “pre-washed” you’ll want to wash it again at home (remember that spinach scare a few years ago?), then use your salad spinner to dry it or just lay it out on some paper towels for a while. Divide into 5 servings using plastic containers, then divide the dressing into 5 smaller containers (or just take the whole bottle to work). Put croutons in baggies. Put in the fridge and you are set for the week.

Least Expensive: Chop the Greens Yourself - $1.01

Prep your ingredients on a Sunday and have them ready to go for the week. If you buy a head of lettuce (1 head of green leaf lettuce is about $1.50) plus 1/2 pound of mesclun mix (about 60 cents) you’ll have enough greens for 2 weeks of salad. They might go bad after a week, though, so that is one downside. If you have a spouse or someone to share it with then this is a good option. Shred some carrots ($1.80) and 1 cup of cheese ($2.00); hard-boil 3 eggs ($1.20); add croutons ($2) and dressing ($4). This comes to about $1.65 or $8.25 for the whole week. Keep in mind that you’ve added cheese and eggs to this salad whereas you didn’t for the medium-priced salad. If you omitted the cheese and eggs then your total cost would be $5.05 for the week or $1.01 per day.

All these figures are based on my local Safeway prices.