{"id":13,"date":"2009-02-01T17:45:31","date_gmt":"2009-02-02T01:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeonthecheap.com\/?p=13"},"modified":"2009-02-01T17:47:40","modified_gmt":"2009-02-02T01:47:40","slug":"know-your-surroundings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/?p=13","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Surroundings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since the new year, I&#8217;ve been making a concerted effort to prepare lunch at home on a daily basis and avoid eating out.\u00a0 My friend Tash pointed out, however, that if you&#8217;re willing to look for a deal, it&#8217;s not hard to find a wallet friendly lunch.\u00a0 I thought about it all week and tried to figure out the hidden deals that are available within walking distance of my own office.\u00a0 I have found that if I leave my immediate area I am much more likely to spend more money.\u00a0 In some strange way it makes the inconvenience of losing my parking space and dealing with traffic worth it.<\/p>\n<p>The best deals are often the ones closest to us.\u00a0 Perhaps we overlook them because they aren&#8217;t trendy or are known for less than stellar service.\u00a0 Just a few buildings away from me is a cafe where you can get a number of items for less than five dollars.\u00a0 The lines can be long if you don&#8217;t get there at twelve on the dot, and depending on what you order, you may spend more time waiting than eating, but the price point can&#8217;t be beat.\u00a0 On Thursday, I ordered one of my favorites&#8211;grilled chicken served in a pita with tzatziki sauce and hummus served with a choice of brown rice, french fries, or salad.\u00a0 I also got a diet coke, and my total came in at $5.77.\u00a0 Another standby favorite is Wendy&#8217;s chili for less than $2.\u00a0 It may be a bit high in sodium, but it&#8217;s not bad for the price and considering it&#8217;s from a fast food joint.\u00a0 It&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nutritiondata.com\/facts\/foods-from-wendys\/6821\/2\">high in protein and fiber<\/a>, plus the long lines move swiftly and the food is easy to transport away from the food court to a nice sunny bench overlooking the water.<\/p>\n<p>Work day lunch hours are not known for being gourmet, but remember that even a Lean Cuisine microwave meal can be all the more palatable if you take a walk, read your new book, or chat with a coworker you don&#8217;t get to see often.\u00a0 All of those things are free.\u00a0 Get out of the office, find your hidden deals, and utilize them when you&#8217;re in a pinch&#8230;like those days you oversleep and packing a lunch is so not possible.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"r\"><a class=\"l\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=U&amp;start=1&amp;q=http:\/\/allrecipes.com\/Recipe\/Tzatziki-Sauce\/Detail.aspx&amp;ei=EE2GSfDXJZCCNc2WjdED&amp;usg=AFQjCNH2KuEVV-BURjpb_8GCF_bAvV-m1w\"><em><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since the new year, I&#8217;ve been making a concerted effort to prepare lunch at home on a daily basis and avoid eating out.\u00a0 My friend Tash pointed out, however, that if you&#8217;re willing to look for a deal, it&#8217;s not &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/?p=13\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5QMTt-d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15,"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeonthecheap.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}