Your Monday-Friday routine is often when many of us make money slip ups. We’re not spending money on meaningful experiences, but on mindless convenience, office peer pressure, and general oh-fuck-I-forgot-my-lunch-again laziness.
Add these five staples to your work drawer arsenal to stop spending extra cash during the work week – and free up more fun money for the weekend!
1. Box of cereal
Cereal is one of the most underrated of foods. It can be breakfast, lunch, dinner or just a tasty snack, so equipping your desk drawer with a box of your fave cereal could save you tons in the long run. Whether you’ve got your period and you’re hankering for a mid morning croissant run, or your lunch has leaked in your bag and you don’t fancy licking up soup a la dirty receipt, your trusty box of cereal has your back. It won’t go off (if you seal it properly), and it’s the perfect amount of ‘nice to eat but not so tasty that you’ll scoff it all in one day’. Assuming your office has milk, you’re good to go.
2. A loaf of bread
If you have access to a freezer, grabbing a basic loaf of bread and stashing that bad boy for future hunger attacks will save all those overpriced snack runs. Another ultra-versatile almost-meal, your bread will see you through hunger pangs from the morning meeting, and a late night snack when you’ve got stuck at the office after dark and your money’s practically climbed out your wallet and got half way towards McDonald’s.
3. A jar of peanut butter
Your toast needs a buddy, and having a jar of PB (or spread of your choice) to hand can be all it takes to keep that couple of bucks safely in your bank account. Whether you’re smothering it on toast or pimping up a banana, peanut butter is satiating, calorically dense, and has super powers when it comes to out-of-control money sucking appetites.
4. $20 in mixed cash
Having a mini work fund for unplanned purchases can help you control your impulse spends (especially when it’s a coworker saying “I’m going out, anyone want anything!?”) The ease of tap-and-go payments nowadays means we can send a coworker off with our debit card and instructions to buy coffees/toasties/bubble teas without even leaving our desks, so having a bit of petty cash for when you really DO want something can be the difference between spending big and spending smart.
Keeping it mixed in coins and small notes also forgives you the “oh I’ve only got a twenty” blunder that almost always results in you shouting everyone’s Mars bar (including Roland from accounts who can totally afford his own).
5. A bumper pack of muesli bars
Buying anything in bulk instantly gets you extra grown up points, but when its muesli bars for your desk drawer, you get double adulting power ups. Catch.com.au sells commercial sized packs of muesli bars and protein bars at bargain prices, so stock up and get these hot mummas sent straight to your office. They’ll work out to less than $1 per bar (about 75% less than the average price in the local convenience store), and they’ll curb your hunger in a flash. Perfect for when you left your lunch on the kitchen bench.
Best bargain picks:
12 x Blue Dinosaur Sour Cherry Bars $17.95
$1.49 per bar. RRP $4.95 per bar.
16 x Slim Secrets Vanilla Almond Bars $4
$0.25 per bar. RRP $3.20 per bar
30 x Dark Choc Cranberry Carmens Bars $29.95
$0.99 per bar. RRP $2.99 per bar.
$2 per bar. RRP $4 per bar.
60 x Healtheries No Added Sugar Bars $21
$0.35 per bar. RRP $2.50 per bar
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