My first thought is to stock up like crazy on peanut butter, and be done with the question of what kind of sandwiches to have available for summer. But I do want to know, could there be less expensive lunch-time offerings?
Other sandwich possibilities include cheese (at about $2 per pound), luncheon meat (best price for me -- on markdown for about $1.76 per pound), bean spreads at about 50-75 cents per pound (can be the most frugal) and eggs (right now about 64 - 72 cents per pound).
There was a time when peanut butter was always the most frugal lunch choice. That's just not the case, any longer. So, I have to weigh this out for myself, and find some alternatives that are easy and welcomed by my family.
I will certainly be making some bean-based spreads for summer lunches. But also want some quick and easy options (bean spread requires soaking and cooking the beans first). The luncheon meat, I think, is best reserved for too-busy evenings, when making sandwiches is about all I have time for. And cheese is kinda pricey for use more than once per week for sandwich fillings, but I do use frequently in preparing dinners.
That leaves me with eggs. Eggs are priced per dozen. That does make it difficult to compare the price of eggs by weight, to other foods. However, I use a nice little calculation shortcut, when comparing eggs to other ingredients. Mostly, I buy large eggs. Large eggs are the size that are typically on sale at Walgreen's, Target and other grocery stores, so most often the best buy for me.
A dozen large eggs weigh about 24 ounces, each egg weighing 2 ounces. So, 8 large eggs weigh 1 pound. My price per egg is about 8-9 cents, these days. (I carry that tidbit of info in my head, as I comparison shop or figure the cost of making any recipe.) So, at 8-9 cents per egg, multiplied by 8 eggs to make a pound -- my price per pound, on large eggs, is currently between 64 and 72 cents for one pound.
The price of using eggs in lunches is not quite half that of using peanut butter. So, while I'll buy some peanut butter this week (maybe 3 or 4 large jars, to last through October), for summer lunches, I will also be planning ahead to make more egg salad. My plan with the peanut butter is to ration it out for the summer, and encourage family members to use the alternatives that I provide.
In case you wish to compare the prices of eggs per pound to other food items, here's my list of how many eggs it takes to equal 1 pound.
Eggs are "sized" by how much a dozen eggs weigh. So, the eggs that you buy in the store "must" meet a minimum net weight to qualify to be labeled a specific size. Knowing this makes calculating our price per pound on eggs, reliable, without having to get out the scale at home and weigh each carton.
To figure your price per pound on eggs:
Figure your price per egg, based on your current egg prices. Multiply that price per egg by how many eggs are in a pound (using the info below), for whichever size of eggs you've purchased. It's that simple. I like that it's the large eggs that go on sale most often AND are the only size of eggs that have a nice, even, round number to make my calculations with.
- jumbo eggs --- 6.4 eggs per pound
- extra-large eggs --- 7.11 eggs per pound
- large eggs --- 8 eggs per pound
- medium eggs --- 9.14 eggs per pound
- small eggs --- 10.66 eggs per pound
- peewee eggs --- 12.8 eggs per pound
What will be going into summer brown bag lunches at your place?
