Letdown at Lunch

One of the most frugal things Donnie and I do is bring our own lunches to school and work every day. We rarely struggle when it comes to this aspect of frugal living. After all, our fridge and freezer are always well-stocked with leftovers (or the occasional frozen meal, purchased on sale). Yes, do-it-ourselves lunchtime has been a rock of frugal stability in our otherwise topsy-turvy financial lives.

Until today.

Today, the leftover chicken, noodles, and peas we packed turned out to be just plain wrong. Everything smelled and tasted rotten. In short, the food was completely inedible. Of course, we didn’t realize this until we were already at work.

I was perplexed, to say the least. I made this dinner not long ago, using fresh ingredients. I don’t recall cooking with anything that was about to expire. Nothing else in our refrigerator looks, smells, or tastes the slightest bit funny.

We ended up getting takeout from a Cosí near work. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Cosí. It’s one of my favorite places to eat, actually. But I don’t love being forced to spend money there because my food is rotten.

I guess that’s what I get for becoming self-satisfied with our “perfect” record of packing our own lunches. Oh well. It just goes to show—there is no such thing as flawless frugality. Mistakes happen. Life goes on. The best we can do is continually strive to make smarter choices, and to be better prepared for the challenges we face.