Lunch Experiment 2009

Today was the last day for Lunch Experiment, all I can say is thank you to all the pigs, turkeys and fish that sacrificed them selves for the greater good. The final asking price for a sandwich was $4.85 with a remainder of food, total spent on food $63.05.

Food Remaining
1/2 Margarine
Lettuce
2/3 Cucumber
1.75 Cheese
3/4 Tomato
Mustard
50g Salami
50g Turkey

Wastage
1/2 Lettuce
100g Ham

The good stuff
Coles has the cheapest rolls ($0.45)
Coles has the best meat
Fresh sandwiches are awesome

The Bad Stuff
Coles rolls are too sweet, need to buy from the bakery @ $0.70
Buying things on special has ruined the experiment (see cheese)
Lack of knowledge on storing vegetables has lead to excessive wastage
Doing the same thing everyday is boring

Conclusion
Making sandwich at work is 117.73% and 99.31% cheaper than subway or driving home respectivly. In next years experiment my hope is to get it below $4.00 and incorporate some other types of food stuffs.

Sleep

Sleep. I like it a lot. I normally sleep 9 to 10 hours a day for me to feel rested which is a bit higher than the usual 8 but most probably because it takes me 2 plus hours to fall asleep in the first place… The past week I have not been getting enough hours of sleep, due to a number of factors

1. its too hot
2. its too bright

I also like to spend time doing things and you cant do things if you are asleep. Conversely you don’t feel like doing anything the next day when you feel like the living dead., this cycle continues until I end up in the state I am in today. I am awake, but doing any work is very laborious and I feel very irritable.

Getting up early in the morning sounds like a great idea, get some exercise done, never late for work and not have to sleep when its too hot/bright. Going to try it out tonight/tomorrow. Hopefully can stick to the plan for then next 2 weeks and revaluate if it is worth getting up that early (when the sun comes up), or at least before it gets too bright/hot.


Lunch Update: $4.98 | One more day to go.

Real Taste, Zero Sugar

I have some holidays coinciding with Christmas and my main fear is getting bored. So planning things to do is a way to ensure I don’t end up back at work next year with no cool stories to tell. The other reason is that over the past three months I have been very productive in generating ideas, but sadly nothing to show for it. By not doing anything I have nothing to show for my idea (good, bad or mediocre), inspiration is not always going to be there, but while it is, I need to use it and create the things I’m so happy to think about and hopefully anything I do create will inspire me to create something else, thus illuminating the need for outside stimuli. I will be a self combusting ball of awesome reversing the effects of man made climate change (thank me later).

The one thing I don’t want to do is evaluate the year gone by. I have a feeling it would be just plain depressing, so instead I’m going to set myself some goals for the holidays and will be considered a test run for my New Year resolution(s).

I was going to write a list of profound/inspirational goals that could be found in the great big book of inspiring goals, but what I would most like to do is catch up on things I have been putting off during the year that really needed doing, and if I had done them sooner I would not be wallowing in my own self-pity. I have 17 days and at the end of each of those days I want to be able to take a picture of something I have made.

  1. I hate being disorganised; I also hate spending copious amounts of time organising. Obviously parts of the system are not working other wise I would not be disorganised. This will be fixed and will not only improve my state of mind; I should get some professional benefit out of it.
  2. I need a bookshelf. I have some wood, I will turn this wood into a bookshelf (or drive to Ikea and pretend I made it myself)
  3. Coal fired BBQ. Fuck global warming. I want my meat cooked on fuel that requires more than a turning a button to ignite.
  4. Read a book, I have numerous books that I have bought or borrowed but never got around to reading them, same goes for those magazine articles I tagged (not playboy).
  5. There are number of new developments in the world of accounting, generally there is only a change in the wording, but you still got to read it to make sure there is nothing fundamental (and pickup the new words to put in your documentation), should probably blog about it. But there is always the fear your are wrong on the Internet and someday, someone, somewhere will use it against you.
  6. Trebunchent – The wood that could be used to make a bookshelf could also be turned into a siege weapon
  7. Make/get a frame for my flaming lips lithograph
  8. HTPC/Server – Watching a movie on the TV is significantly better than watching at my desk
  9. VM’s for everything. Also need to delete the old ones taking up a crap load of space
  10. Complete the organisation of my tax notes, cheat sheets, flow charts & guides
  11. Make a sunjar, these look much cooler than the crappy plastic light sticks you put in the ground
  12. Learn to play the keyboard – I have a keyboard that is collecting dust, time to turn that dust into magical space dust. Find out what that strange instrument in the garage is and make it do musics.
  13. Build a new website – less magic, more collate. Hopefully blogger can still help, if not going to switch to wordpress because it has pages
  14. New food stuffs, pizza, pie, quiche, potato bake, jelly,
  15. Have fun, regain some confidence, fuck shit up (lolz couldn’t resist).

Samwich

Well I got my roll from the bakery, much better, not as sweet and tastes like bread... but it did cost $0.80. I also went on a bit of a shopping spree so ended up buying cheese, turkey, tomato and salami... Average cost is still $5.21 which is not bad. I now have cheese to last me to the end of January (will most likely take it home). Will restart the spreadsheet come the new year. My lettuce has also died, but I won't get another as tomorrow is Friday, still got tomato and cucumber.

$4.66

Well I did try and get a roll from a bakery, but it has actually closed down. So I went to Woolworth which is in the same complex and get a roll from there and its 60 cents! Coles sell the same type of loose rolls for 45 cents and they come in little individual bags. Anyway got another bakery lined up for tomorrow, is likely to cost more than Coles, but I'm sure it will be worth it.

$6.75

The average cost of sandwiches this week is $6.75, I did buy some extra ham today, along with the vegies, will be coming home with me over the weekend and used in sandwich making. I have not decided if I want to continue the lunch experiment over weekends as I use other ingredients that are already at home and it would contaminate. But I guess the stuff I take home could be classed as wastage. I'm not going to waste the food for the sake of the experiment. It could survive over the weekend, I just like fresh food as it tends to taste better... So best to use it up.

I think the cost of the margarine at $8.90 kinds ruined any cost savings, but you don't all have to buy proactive, sometimes its on special. So get it then, in anycase it will last a long time.

I have been buying the big hamburger rolls daily from coles which are nice, but I am thinking of going to a bakery for something different. Might cost a bit more, but should be worth it. I also need to get some plastic containers to put my tomato and cheese in to stop them from drying out.

Summary of things learned
  • Food costs money
  • Fresh tastes good
  • Healthy
  • Save time not having to pack lunch
Summary of things to implement next week

  • Containers for tomato and cheese
  • Learn how to save lettuce
  • Try different breads

Tuesday Sandwich

Today I had to buy margarine and a roll totaling $8.95, Butter is ok, just takes too long to spread if its been in the fridge. I have been, or so I thought, uploading pics of my receipts and sandwiches to picassa from my phone, but for whatever reason its not working.Not that it realy matters. The average is not $14.72, tomorrow should bring it down. The Cost of ham might be a problem come Thursday, could just crack open a tin of tuna (I won't cheat and if I do I will just add the cost into the spreadsheet as if I had purchased it).

Need to get containers for my tomato and cheese so they don't dry out.

Lunch Experiment

I have discussed in the past my love afair with lunch. Today in the spirit of the change experiment we embark on a bold new wave of absurd spreadsheets to minutely anaylise the best way to have lunch. Some questions that I would like answered (If you have any questions send them in).

  • Will I save money if I pack my Lunch
  • What are the time savings of eating out
  • Will I feel like a dork if I make my lunch at work
  • Nutritional/value for money
  • Health benefits
  • Best way to pack lunch
  • Am I able to eat something other than sandwiches for lunch
For the past two weeks I have been lazy and ended up going to subway, which can get quite expensive when you add on the ice tea which retails for $3.50+. Unless you get the cheapy $7 subs probably not worth it as the ingredients arent all they are crackup to be. Before I go on a rant about subway I will explain the rest of the experiment.

I have in the past pack my lunch either in the morning or the night before and taken it to work. This has resulted in soggy bread which is unacceptable to a sandwich conosiuer such as my self. You can seperate the tomato and wrap the bread loosely, but none of these solutions come close to a freshly made sandwich.

Occasionaly I go home for lunch, but since this takes up 30 mins out of my lunch break in driving its becoming increasingly obvious that its too expensive in time and money (petrol) to continue.

So I am now going to bring the ingredients into work and make it at the time of eating. I hypothosise it will cost more initialy because of the cheese and margarine.

Today I got some ingredients at a cost of $20.48, which is a bit on the high side for a sandwich, however the only thing I will need tomorrow is a roll ($0.45) and margarine ($5+). I will average it out over the next few weeks, it also included cake.

The Spreadsheet

Sleep

Sleep. I like it a lot. I normally sleep 9 to 10 hours a day for me to feel rested which is a bit higher than the usual 8 but most probably because it takes me 2 plus hours to fall asleep in the first place… The past week I have not been getting enough hours of sleep, due to a number of factors

1. its too hot
2. its too bright

I also like to spend time doing things and you cant do things if you are asleep. Conversely you don’t feel like doing anything the next day when you feel like the living dead., this cycle continues until I end up in the state I am in today. I am awake, but doing any work is very laborious and I feel very irritable.

Getting up early in the morning sounds like a great idea, get some exercise done, never late for work and not have to sleep when its too hot/bright. Going to try it out tonight/tomorrow. Hopefully can stick to the plan for then next 2 weeks and revaluate if it is worth getting up that early (when the sun comes up), or atleast before it gets too bright/hot.