An Exercise in Frugality

One of my weaknesses in our household budget is that I love to eat lunch out. I often meet up with mom or friends and get a bite to eat. I'm known to stick to the same old places--for a few years we went to Davis Kidd's bistro a couple times a week and sat in Suzanne's section. Now we're hooked on Bread & Company. When we're with the kids, I still think B&C is one of the best places to go because they can split the $2 chicken tenders and $.99 fruit. However, it's dern expensive for us grown ups.

One of my favorite salads there is the Montrechat salad. Greens, pulled turkey breast, dried cranberries, walnuts, and goat cheese with a vinaigrette dressing that they make in house. I've been making it at home lately, and it's been really yummy. Today I thought I'd do the math and see how much I'm saving.

The Montrechat is not on their menu online, but I'm pretty sure it was $12.99. Maybe $14.99. Their fruit tea is $2.25 for a large, right? (Again, not on the menu.) So, you're looking at $16.00 for lunch, easily.

I headed to Publix this morning and bought 1 lb of chicken ($6.62), mixed greens ($3.99), dried cranberries ($3.75), walnuts ($3.19), goat cheese ($5.89--there were cheaper options, but I like this brand the best), and salad dressing ($3.29). I also got a small loaf of rosemary olive oil bread ($2.49) to have a slice with the salad; B&C gives you a choice of a piece of bread with your salads. Then, for my drinks I got 1 gallon of Publix orange juice ($4.99), 1 gallon of sweet tea ($2.99--could make your own much cheaper, but I was lazy), and 1 bottle of lemon barley water ($3.99, in the British section).

My total is $41.19. Oh, and I bought everything organic. Except the juice and sweet tea. Everything for the salad--greens, chicken, cranberries, walnuts.

I bake the chicken breasts then chop them up finely and season with salt and pepper. I put them in a tupperware container and put them in the fridge. That way it will be ready when I need it this week.

Other than that, I just have to arrange my salad every day. Greens, pulled chicken, handful of cranberries, handful of walnuts, goat cheese, and dressing. Honestly, I prefer this Marie's dressing to Bread & Company's dressing. But if you like the Bread & Co stuff better they do sell it in bulk quantity. And the rosemary olive-oil bread from Publix was really good and half the price of B&C's pane paesano. Publix also sells a cranberry walnut loaf for $4 that's similar to B&C's $10 loaf of cranberry pecan.

For the fruit tea, I get a cup and put in my ice. Then I pour in the sweet tea to fill the cup halfway.

Then, I add OJ until it's another 2/3 full . . .

and I top it off with the barley water. It has a different flavor from B&C, a little more tart maybe? But it's pretty darn close and easy. Word has it that the B&C recipe is: brew sweet tea over mint leaves, discard leaves and add OJ concentrate, lemon juice, and water. I guess I'm just missing the mint. You could drop one droplet of mint extract if you want. Or add mint leaves to it. Your call.

This will be enough for me to make at least five salads. My cost is $5.84 per salad. The fruit tea makes a little more than two gallons, and the cost is $11.97. One gallon of fruit tea at Bread & Co is $9.95. A large glass with your order is $2.25, so you're saving lots by making it at home.

Of course, I left out the tax at the grocery and at the restaurant, so I guess it probably evens out.