Brown Bagging It

My limited funds and persnickety taste buds are conspiring to make me cook all the time. Now that I've graduated from school and am back to a steady work schedule, I have (gasp!) started to cook again. I cook for the kids, get their lunches ready for school and neglect to feed myself in the mornings - or pack my own lunch. The situaton came to a head yesterday when I went to the hospital cafeteria for breakfast. I got the same breakfast I had made for the children that morning (1 egg, 1 sausage patty, 1 orange juice, and a slice of bread). With my employee discount, it cost $5+. That doesn't even include the lunch I had to get - another $5. A loop of Chris Rock's early bit - "Good Lord that's a lot of money" is playing in my head at this point. Since eating at home is not an option in the a.m., what do I do? How can I carry my breakfast and lunch to work in style?

Cool hunting had a very nice grown up countdown of lunch-toting equipment. I especially like the nesting lunch pails, but metal cannot be put in the microwave. The plastica Bento box looks neat too, but what happens to it when leftover ziti is brought to work and heated?

The best solution seems to be the Mr. Bento stainless steel lunch jar. I'm going to read some reviews and see about ordering one tonight.

The conspiracy to make me cook continues.

Daycare or...

I came across a Yahoo News article on the economy's effect on daycare today. I found this article to be especially striking because it is so real - I have talked with clients, friends, and even felt the squeeze myself about the cost of childcare and the hard choices parents must make to keep their families together.

Personally, it is my fondest wish to have a job that would both pay enough for me to sustain my family and allow me to be home for my twins. LOL! Realistically, I had to give up the direct service/social service social worker career path so that I can sustain my family financially and emotionally.

My situation is slightly different from the people profiled in the article because it focused on low income families. This is not an issue that only affects "low income" families, or "under-educated" parents, or similarly stigmatizing, derogatory labels. I am a well-educated homeowner with a federally recognized middle-class income - and I still struggle with daycare costs. While I commend the AP writer on highlighting the issue, I believe that it is much more pervasive and class-crossing than the profiles would have us believe.