-->
An Illustrated Frugal Lunch
Welcome to Clever Dude! If you like what you see, subscribe to our RSS feed & stay in the loop.
Almost 1 year ago, I posted Frugal Lunch by my Registered Dietitian wife, Stacie. She put together a sample menu of frugal, yet nutritious, lunches including peanutbutter and jelly (PBJ) sandwiches. Well, since beginning my new job, I’ve been trapped at work and getting out for lunch is just too much of a pain.
Now that I’m stuck in the office during lunchtime, I have begun to rely on a staple diet of PBJ sandwiches (and side dishes) for lunch. In fact, I’ve developed a way to make a work-month’s worth of sandwiches in 25 minutes! I’ll even give you a near-exact price per sandwich for your own budgeting AND step-by-step photos! I’ve even gotten my boss and a classmate to try it just by mentioning my method and they’re hooked!
The Idea
When I worked in PA for 5 months and lived there by myself, I didn’t want to take time to make lunches every morning, and there were no restaurants near our office building. Being the lazy yet resourceful guy that I am, I developed a method where I made a week’s worth of lunch on Sunday night. I just made a whole bunch of PBJ sandwiches at one time and froze them. I would grab 1-2 sandwiches out of the freezer each morning and by lunch they would thaw and still taste perfectly fine.
In the last article, so many people complained that it took too long every morning to make lunch and it’s just not worth it. Well how about taking an average of 2-3 minutes per day for the central part of your lunch instead? At the time, I would only make 1 loaf at a time, but now I make 2 loaves of sandwiches at once. And not counting the time I took to take pictures, this time only took 25 minutes from setup to cleanup.
The Cost
So how much does it cost to make 2 loaves of PBJ sandwiches. In my example, I was able to make 23 sandwiches. I was cheated out of a slice of bread, so I couldn’t make an even 2 dozen. For the jellies, I used a standard Welch’s grape as well as a fancier strawberry jam (for a change of pace).
So here’s the per-sandwich cost roundup using my example:
- Bread: $0.09. I got 2 loaves of wheat bread for $2. It’s the cheap store brand so the slices are smaller, but you should easily find wheat bread at this price in your local grocery chain.
- Peanutbutter: $0.12. I used half of a 40oz jar of JIF creamy peanutbutter (so 20oz). I bought it in bulk at Sam’s club ($0.11/oz), but I’ll use the regular price of $0.14 per ounce. So 20oz divided by 23 sandwiches times $0.14 per ounce is 12 cents.
- Grape Jelly: $0.07. I used 10oz of grape jelly for 12 sandwiches (the other 11 were jam). I also bought the jelly in bulk, but the regular per ounce price for Welch’s is currently 8 cents so I’ll use that.
- Strawberry Jam: $0.12. I got Knott’s Strawberry Preserves in bulk from Sam’s for $0.13 per ounce and used 10 ounces of it across 11 sandwiches.
Total per grape jelly sandwich: 28 cents
Total per strawberry jam sandwich: 33 cents
That’s $6.99 for a full month of sandwiches! Do you know how much Panera charges for a PBJ sandwich? Well I don’t either because they’re too embarrassed to print it on their website, but I know it’s at least $2-3 from experience!
These are real numbers based on my actual grocery bill, and even rounded up since not everyone buys in bulk. This is even cheaper than Stacie’s original prices because I got the cheaper wheat bread. Also, I won’t count the baggies I used since they’re so cheap, but you might want to use reusable plastic containers or wash the baggies and reuse them.
Step-by-Step Illustrations (and some tips)
If you need more than just numbers, I’m going to lay out every step I went through to make 23 sandwiches. Along the way, though, I found some tips such as:
- Wheat bread doesn’t absorb the jelly juices like white bread, so your sandwich isn’t soggy when it thaws
- Knott’s Strawberry Preserves has some giant strawberries in it. It makes spreading difficult, so I’ll probably skip the preserves next time.
- I recommend stirring up the jelly before spooning it out. It makes spreading it MUCH easier.
- The messiest part is trying to stuff 2 sandwiches into a single baggy, not actually making the sandwiches.
Step One: Lay out the bread. Our kitchen island was a perfect spot to make these sandwiches as you can see.
Step Two: Plop the peanutbutter onto the bread. Of course you want to only put it on half the slices of bread. I put a generous amount on each slice because I really like peanutbutter. You’ll spread out the PB in the next step.
Step Three: Spread the peanutbutter. I do each step for all slices first in a true assembly line fashion. If I spent time making each sandwich in its entirety, I’d get tired of it and probably stop after one loaf.
Step Four: Lay out the jelly. I just dropped a glob of jelly on top of the PB, not the empty slice, because it’s easier to close up the sandwiches when one slice is plain.
Step Five: Spread the jelly. Sounding familiar?
Step Six: Close up the sandwiches. This is the best part because it’s the fastest. just place the lids on each sandwich. A tip is to match up the shape of the top with the bottom so you don’t have unneeded overhang. Oh, and yes I use the crusts.
Step Seven: Bag them up. This is my least favorite part because I cram 2 sandwiches into a single baggy. I used one baggy because it’s less wasteful.
Seriously, it took me 25 minutes, not counting the picture times, to get out all my materials, make them, bag them, put them in the freezer and clean up the counter (watch out for all the crumbs). Now stop complaining that it takes too long to make your lunch. Also, since you’re freezing them, you don’t HAVE to eat PBJ every day, but at least they’re there to grab if you’re in a hurry or know you won’t get out for lunch.
TweetLike this article? Subscribe to our emails & stay in the loop.
Other possibly related posts:
- A Lesson on Money and Frugality: Festival of Frugality #113
- I finally got my work badge!
- Not So Frugal Lunch
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Clever Dude and his bride started with $113,000 in consumer debt and in just 3 short years, it's gone!
Wow, that’s great that you have lunch for less than $7/a month! I think I’m going to do a bulk PB& J lunch pack. I can use them for days I have no leftovers.
I just moved and to help off-set some of the moving costs I have been eating PBJ for the past month or so. It didn’t occur to me to make them all at once. Plus, I knew it was cheap but I hadn’t run the numbers. Now I’m even more inspired to keep this up. Thanks!
The PB&J assembly line you had going there was quite impressive!
I’ve been eating just PB sandwiches for lunch since I started my new job back in July. Yes that’s a lot of PB sandwiches. No, I’m not really tired of them yet
I’ve always wanted to know what PBJ stood for. Gross. Americans eat the weirdest things.
Well done though, it’s very frugal.
Plonkee, if we deep-fried it, would you, as a Brit, eat it then?
Don’t knock it till you tried it!
I’m also a big fan of the PBJ. Two things: 1) You must have a huge freezer and 2) nothing gets soggy or funky at all???
My question is:
How many calories is two PBJ sandwiches and can they really be all that healthy for you? I mean, I know they aren’t horrible, but I’m kinda surprised that your Nutritionist wife allows this. My wife is far from a registered nutritionist (although she acts like it), but she would freak if I ate like this. No bagged carrots? No apple? No orange? I can almost hear my wifes sympathetic arteries clogging.
Rob, I’ll ask my wife about the calorie content (actually, I can do it myself), but I didn’t say this was my whole lunch. I also bring in a giant orange plus a vegetable/pasta dish.
Man, I need to go out and buy some PB&J and bread and start making sandwiches!
Very frugal, contained calories, and easy to deal with once ready to go…too bad I hate PBJ
Nice. I look forward to doing this when my daughter is old enough to take lunch to school. But you did not include the cost of the baggie in your calculation which leads me to ask whether or not you re-use the bags? Please do let us know!
Lay Judge: I have a regular freezer and the sandwiches don’t take up much room at all. And no, they don’t get soggy. I use wheat bread (as I said in the article), but I haven’t tried freezing white bread sandwiches. I assume white bread would soak up the thawing jelly. Also, you need to freeze them right after making them.
Kristen: I personally don’t reuse the baggies because I rip them open and use them as a plate at work. I didn’t include the baggy cost because it’s not part of the sandwich and others might choose a different storage method.
A 28 cent PB&J sure beats a $8.00 lunch at Subway. Not to mention I never get too old for PB&Js… they’re great!
ah, but how long does it take to thaw? can i grab one when i’m headed out the door at 7am and have it nice and thawed by the time noon or 1pm rolls around?…
Jennifer, yep they do. I said that in the first paragraph. I get mine out of the freezer at 7am and they’re thawed by about 10am (that’s the earliest I’ve eaten one, so maybe even earlier)
You’re brilliant. I love this. I am going to make a bunch for myself to have as snacks. And some for my son too. I might even invest in that sandwich cutter that removes the crust and seals the edges since he doesn’t eat crust. Thanks!
@Jennifer – I’m sure it would be thawed by then. And the beauty of it is that these don’t need refrigeration at all.
We’ve been doing this for quite some time now. When you have four kids, you need to save time wherever possible. We’ve actually branched out to hot school lunches, as well, but making sandwiches by the load and then freezing them was the only way we could make it through the mornings before we discovered the joys of the school lunch program.
Well, I must say Peanut butter and jam does sound a little odd but I’ll try it before I knock it.
So, what else could we do this with and freeze? I’m mulling about ham and mustard, but I like lettice in my ham sangers and that wont freeze well.
Same with Marmite and cucumber, cucumber doesn’t freeze well…
Any thoughts anyone?
Healthy Recommendation: For just a bit more $ you could turn this from a quite unhealthy meal to a very healthy meal.
JIF is BAD for you (hydrogenated oil – don’t ever put this in your body! also lots of added sugar and other junk). Switch to a natural peanut butter (ingredients: peanuts, or peanuts and salt). “Jelly” is bad (tons of sugar) – switch to “all fruit preserves” which is plenty sweet. Cheap “whole wheat” bread is probably only a fraction “whole wheat” and a lot of white flour. Switch to a true whole wheat that you like.
Sure it will cost a lot more, but you’ll still be getting a cheap lunch, probably like $0.60 a sandwich, and it’s a much higher quality sandwich as well.
Matty, I agree with you about the healthiness of the sandwiches, but I’ve found that natural peanut butter dries out quickly. Also, I did use preserves in this example (only slightly costlier than jelly), but I didn’t get the right texture.
And you’re right about the cheapo wheat bread. You can more than double the bread cost if you go for read wheat bread because they usually include less slices per loaf (but they’re a bigger diameter slice) and loaves start at $2. However, we have a bread store near us that sells older loaves from the grocery stores. The bread is a little drier, but half the original price if not less.
Great idea with one small suggestion. If you split up the peanut butter (1/2 the amount on both slices) it will keep the jelly from making the bread soggy if you have that problem. My wife and I do LOTS of bicycling trips, so the PB&J is a diet staple. Making them this way, they stay ‘drier’ even in the hot summer.
Many toasters have a bagel setting that only toasts one side of the bread. Just a light toast on the wet side helps keep any condiment from making the bread soggy during storage.
A more solid bread loaf costs more but is often a better food per cost value. Check the nutritional label & weight on most generic bread and you’ll find it’s half air.
Hi, CleverDude. This is a pretty clever and inexpensive lunch. Well, I love PBJ, but I don’t think I could stand to eat it everyday. I do another thing, though, that is pretty frugal and also nutritious. I buy meat at the store, like chicken breasts, chicken legs, etc. and bake enough for 5 days of lunches. I sometimes include rice in the baking dish. If I can buy a package of chicken for about $2-3 and a box of long grain rice (at Big Lots for $1.00), the per meal cost is only about $.60. I do usually bring along an apple or orange and a bottle of tea, also.
I do this with turkey & cheese sandwiches as well. A very light layer of mayo on each slice of bread. Or no mayo, I got mayo packets (you can get ketchup, pickle relish, mustard packets too) at the restaurant supply store. Then I pack the sandwiches dry and add a packet to be added later. You can also do lettuce/tomato slices in a separate baggy (make one for each day) and keep in the fridge to toss into lunch with the frozen sandwich. Just add it before eating.
I thought you’d appreciate the “Ideal Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich” article, with the bread-to-fixins ratio
http://food.yahoo.com/blog/edlevineeats/2957/building-the-perfect-pbj-sandwich
Wow, that is quite an operation! I may have to try this. I am with commenter Aaron above– based on my mom’s example, I’ve always put PB on both slices of bread to keep the jelly from making it soggy. Only problem is that it makes it easier for the jelly to squirt out.
Madame X-
You can fine tune the jelly to prevent this. We do a circle in the middle of the sandwich. Once you squish it together, it spreads almost perfectly. It takes a few sandwiches for practice, but I bet you can nail it.
Oh, and to all the posters who mentioned grilling them; you’re RIGHT ON! Grilled PB&Js are delicious.
I don’t get it – these aren’t healthy. Your packaged bread is full of processed flour and preservatives, and your JIF pb is full of sugar and trans fat. And grape jelly? Is that even a food? Who turns grapes into jelly? I really like the idea, but how about an example with whole foods? It might be a little more expensive, but this is your health we’re talking about here.
loved the pictures well done
Marmite and cucumber
one word describes that GROSS!!!!
I found this solution when I searched for alternatives ways to make P B & J when I became completely frustrated with my teen kids loading sticky knives and spoons into a clean utensil basket in the dishwasher. Yes, as you can imagine, having 2 teen boys with ADHD wears me down! Here is my spin on premaking PB & J, which most likely wins me the award for being a little less frugal and a whole lot more lazy. I buy the Strawberry (Knotts) preserves at my $.99 store. Sometimes they have them 2 for .99 which is awesome! Same goes for the peanut butter- I buy a 1 or 2 lb. Bag of peanuts, I choose unsalted with skins for texture- toss them into my blender and make peanut butter- her goes my genius…. Pour both into separate freezer bags, lay out the bread, snip off a tiny ½” section of the freezer bags and squeeze out on to bread in zig zags- toss bags- NO STICKY KNIVES- put soap water into blender and turn it on high while you microwave soap water in your jam jar, rinse both. All done, gained a jar, wasted 2 bags.
Will toasting the bread beforehand affect the thaw time or absorption postively or negatively? I prefer a toasted pb&j sandwhich, which may be a bit of a moot point since the sandwich will then be frozen, but more for the bread constinensy.
JoJo, if you’re looking for the crunchiness of the toasted bread to still be there after thawing, you’ll probably be disappointed. I haven’t tried it myself, but I can only assume that it won’t be crunchy anymore.
Awesome. I would buy better bread and natural peanut butter, and then spread the peanut butter on both slices of bread, but otherwise it’s a great idea. I bring my sandwiches in reusable containers, so maybe I could put the sandwiches back in the bread bag to freeze, then take out as needed?
Great idea! I linked to you from my blog, I liked it so much.
This is fun to read about – I did this too as a college student and may have to start again…
There is a trick to avoiding soggy sandwhiches–put a thin layer of peanut butter on the jam side too. It helps seal in the bread so the jam doesn’t soak through. Once you do this, its more slippery inside and the jam could slide out; so be careful when you eat it.
My fiance and I have been doing this for two weeks and it is great. We both love PB&J’s and this is saving us around $100 a week. This is great for us because we are saving for a wedding. Thanks for the tip!!!
One final thing, if you take the sandwichs out of the freezer make sure you eat them or put them back in freezer. Do not attempt to leave it in your office refrigerator for the next day because the bread will be hard as a rock.
You need to compute the cost of your time to do a true cost analysis…
@Flaime, I could, but doing it in batch mode would still come out on top because I’ve removed all but one prep and one cleanup step. If I made my sandwiches one per day (or even 2 per day), I have a setup/cleanup every time.
Very detailed. Thanks.
I wonder if you might improve your least favorite step by wrapping the sandwiches in plastic wrap instead of baggies? You could tear the 26 sheets first or lay the bread on long sheets of plastic wrap, which you snip and wrap after all the sandwiches are made. Not sure how it would affect the freezing.
@daretoeatapeach: good idea. I have a 5 mile long roll of cling wrap from Sam’s Club that we’ll never get through. That’s much cheaper than each baggie. I’ll try it next time, but I am worried about its protection against the freezer as it’s thinner than the ziploc baggies.
@cleverdude, Just double wrap it. Might even keep more out that way.
We love PB and J at our house! I actually mix the PB and J together in a big bowl and then I only have to spread one slice of bread. Using this method, we have not yet leaked jelly through our bread. They freeze great too!
My husband is 55 and has been eating 1 or 2 peanut butter sandwiches daily since we married 20 years ago for Lunch! A few years ago his doctor told him that he has arteries of someone in their 20′s! He cholesterol and blood pressure are normal as well. Just thought i would give you some food for thought on the subject.
That’s one way to save money on lunch. I have to hand it to you — that took some effort, but definitely worth it. I used to do something similar with spaghetti. I’d make a big batch, package them in the resealable containers and eat well for lunch all week long.
I can’t thank you enough for posting this. I would have never thought of freezing PB&Js, but it is so easy to grab out of the freezer to take to work on those days that I don’t have leftovers. They are super tasty with Trader Joe’s Crunchy All Natural Peanut Butter (surprisingly cheap at ~$1.69/16oz = $0.10/oz), Kirkland Whole Grain Bread w/ 5g fiber per slice (raised to $3.99 for 2 loaves), and Smuckers Strawberry Jam from Costco. A bit more expensive than your sandwiches, but 1 and a piece of fruit is enough for a decent-sized lunch. The 10g of fiber per sandwich (plus fiber from the peanut butter) really fills you up.
I love this idea! I fix my daughter’s breakfast every morning and I like the idea of having the sandwich ready to go…plus she can help me assemble! We’ll be making sandwiches tonight.
I hate making PB&J’s for my kids! I am so happy that I found you, Clever Dude! I am making a loaf of PB&Js for the freezer today. What a great idea. You didn’t even mention how helpful it is to put a frozen sandwich in the kids’ backpack in the AM so it is in not hot by lunchtime.
Now, can you help me find a husband like you?
Re: baggies. We used waxed paper bags. We get them at some fancy-schmanzy “Whole Paycheck” store but they can still be ripped apart to use as a plate and/or reused for a future PB&J. They don’t seal, but how about just folding the top over and placing all of the PB&Js in a giant gallon or two-gallon Ziploc freezer bag? Just throwing out ideas. I need to go make 4,000 sandwiches now … luckily I have a chest freezer.
sorry, but Marmite is twelve times weirder than peanut butter a jelly
@beth, the only time I’ve had Marmite was in a Dublin, Ireland hostel when 2 Aussie travelers gave me a cracker and Marmite pack. It’s like our cheese and cracker packs with that little red, rectangular stick spreader, but with Marmite instead. Wasn’t bad, but Marmite and PB&J are two totally different things: one is salty, one is sweet (with salty too).
When we were kids, my dad had custody of all 6 of us (poor guy). Every Sunday evening we’d each have to make up 5 sandwiches of our choosing (PB&J or bologna usually), and put them in the freezer for our lunches for the coming week.
that was great, i have never tried pb/j sandwiches, here in Aussie Land, we eat vegemite sandwiches, i have mine with cheese and lettuce, i’m going to make up some pb/j sandwiches tomorrow morning,maybe have one for breaky,thank’s.
I can eat the same thing for months as I am a serious creature of habit. My hubby however needs variety. But still, even if *I* just did this…$$$.
Thanks Dude, I’m going home to make sammiches tonight!
You should try peanutbutter and pickle. Don’t knock it till you try it
I do this all the time. One of the best parts about freezing sandwiches is that they are less likely to get smashed and gross while on your way to work/school. Best tip ever.
Here’s a pro tip two years later from my genius little niece: don’t make a top or bottom slice. Instead, do one slice, base layer of peanut butter, then jelly or honey or whatever, and fold over. Fits perfectly into one of those “snack-sized” ziplocs, no fuss, no muss.
This is the most retarded thing I have ever seen. I mean really, how lazy can one person be? Making pb & j in advance???? It takes 30 seconds to make a fresh sandwich everyday. Get a life already.
While this is frugal, it is not healthy! Peanut butter is full of saturated fat, and jelly/jam=high fructose corn syrup. No one said eating healthy was cheap, and if you are willing to trade nutrition to save a few bucks I feel sorry for your kids. Take the time to prepare your children a fresh, healthy lunch daily. That in itself is priceless. And “dread simply labeled “wheat” is not healthy! Whole grains are healthy, and are more expensive… but you get what you pay for.
Healthy PB & J substitute:
Whole Wheat Bread, Almond Butter, 1/2 Banana In Slices
Almond Butter contains half the amount of saturated fat than Peanut Butter, so it’s a great choice! The banana stands in for the jelly and adds fiber, as well as cutting down the sugar.
I’ve done it & I love it. And it takes more time to repeatedly pull out all ingredients every morning than it does to do it all in bulk. @lazy is obviously single with no kids & probably has all the time in the world.