Staying Put at Lunch

[eldub]

I live only 4km (2.5mi) from work. I got in the habit lately of going home for lunch. Yes, I would drive (facepunch!). I justified it a bit to myself because while home, I could also get in a bit of housework - throw on a load of laundry, unload the dishwasher, clean up the kids' toys, etc. As a mom of two young toddlers, it actually was a huge help. BUT, I also tended to eat more than I would if I just brought lunch and ate at work. I'd have my regular lunch, plus something else, usually unhealthy ("oh look! granola bars/cookies/whatever!).

This week I ran some numbers and figure that the 8km round-trip probably costs me $200+ a year in extra gas. No telling the cost in extra calories. So that's it, no more! Bringing lunch to work and staying there!

[KulshanGirl]

I drive home for lunch every day, I live 2 miles away.  (punch self in the face, etc.)  I just need that hour in my day to get stuff done, I'm also a mom to a toddler and my husboyfriend isn't home until 7PM.   I think that I definitely produce more value in that hour than I spend on the gas to get there.  Time is money ... if I spend that hour noodling around work and not getting stuff done at home, that to me is more of a waste.   Among other things like laundry and chores, I load the food dehydrator and/or the thermal cooker, weed and water the garden that provides much of our produce, and photograph and upload my Craigslist items. 

As unmustachian as it seems, driving home for lunch works for me.  I keep thinking of ways and justifications to NOT do it, and so far I haven't come up with a better way to use my resources on that front. 

[lauren_knows]

Wouldn't it work better to just eat your lunch at your desk, and then get home earlier in the evening from the saved time?

[eldub]

Wouldn't it work better to just eat your lunch at your desk, and then get home earlier in the evening from the saved time?

Not really, if you have the toddlers around. I see from your pic that you have one, so you know. The value for me was that I was there alone. I could blitz the house in 15 minutes, whereas the same tasks could take forever with the twins nipping at my heels.

[Jack]

Wouldn't it work better to just eat your lunch at your desk, and then get home earlier in the evening from the saved time?

Some of the more authoritarian employers insist you take your legally-mandated 1-hour break, but they won't let you take it at the beginning or end of your shift. (I'm a salaried engineer, but the client site I work at 2 days a week is like that.)

[KulshanGirl]

My lunch is mandatory and at a set time.  I wouldn't get to leave early.   I've thought of using my lunch hour to go for a long walk and get some fresh air and feed my spirit, but I think I'd just be wishing I was at home getting stuff done.  As it is, I'm busy (happily, mind) at home well into the night and I'm lucky to sit down with my book for a bit before I fall into bed.  I just cannot imagine skipping my hour at home.  That hour at home means we get a hot healthy dinner AND lots of playtime before bed.   As much as some people say there's no excuse for driving, I say yes, yes there is. 

[Jamesqf]

Being that close to work, couldn't you just bike home for lunch in about the same amount of time?

[eldub]

Being that close to work, couldn't you just bike home for lunch in about the same amount of time?

Good point, yes I almost could. I currently have the car because of kid drop-off/pick-up, and because I'm not at the point yet of being set up to bike them and their stuff where they need to go, then myself to work, then the reverse at the end of the day.

Guess I could keep the bike at work just for this very reason? Sad to say (I almost dare not say it here!) I haven't been on my bike since I had the twins almost 2 years ago.

[CB]

I live only 4km (2.5mi) from work.

So do I.  I've biked to and from every single day for the last six months, sometimes making two round trips if I go home for lunch.  Into work is a serious uphill, home is pretty much all downhill.  I even quit buying parking permits (work on a university campus) so that I'm not tempted to drive.  Last year I pulled my four-year-old to daycare in a Schwinn trailer 2-3 days a week.  They even let me store the trailer inside so I didn't have to haul it all the way.

Get out your bike and go for it!

[KulshanGirl]

I am not a great candidate for biking so much.  I have daycare dropoff and pickup, and also I have bone issues in my ankles that prevent impact type activities like running and biking on hills.  Which we have a ton of.  (By issues, I mean real ones, as in I wore casts on both legs for most of my toddlerhood and cannot to this day run to save my life.  Not bedpan type imaginary wah wah problems.)   I can walk forever or bike all day on flat roads and trails though, and love to, and I could get from home to within about 5 blocks of work.  But daycare is all hills.  Also, if I did bike home for lunch and back, I'd eat up more than half of my lunch hour to do so. 

For me, I am not "OH MY GOD, KILLER BEES, HAIR ON FIRE" type of situation financially.  I have no consumer debt, a small mortgage, and the stache is growing.  I spend about $20 - $25 per week on my commute and those dollars ARE hard at work for me, to earn 5 hours of free time in the evenings with my kid, or in relaxation.  For me, biking just isn't a good alternative and I really don't feel guilty about it.  I am a conscious and careful user of my gas these days.  I am finding lots of other, better-for-me ways to save.

I just wanted the OP to know that they're not the only one who drives home for lunch.  :)

[eldub]

Ok, I'm having a major brainwave. I've been trying like hell to get up at 5am and workout for 30 min before the kids get up. It's not my idea of fun, but I realize it just needs to be done.

However, if I rip out my catheter, get off my bedpan and get myself and my kids kitted out for wet winter riding, I could cycle them to daycare and myself to work in about the same amount of time as it takes to drive. PLUS no more $95 monthly parking pass (fuuuuck, I know). 

I need to get on this one. Please, facepunch me in the right direction.

Home-daycare-work-daycare-home is just over 17km or just under 11mi. Daycare literally backs onto awesome paved urban commuter trail that leads straight to work.

Ugh, can't believe it's taken me this long to realize how utterly unmustachian driving to work is. 

[eldub]

CB: thank you

[skyrefuge]

I have bone issues in my ankles that prevent impact type activities like running and biking on hills.  Which we have a ton of.  (By issues, I mean real ones, as in I wore casts on both legs for most of my toddlerhood and cannot to this day run to save my life.  Not bedpan type imaginary wah wah problems.)   I can walk forever or bike all day on flat roads and trails though, and love to

I'm not writing to tell you "YOU MUST RIDE YOUR BIKE TO WORK"; it sounds like you're happy enough with your situation there.  But I'm curious about how biking on hills is different for you than biking on flat roads, and am wondering if there's a way to allow you to love riding over any terrain (and apparently I feel like threadjacking, sorry!)  Does your bike have multiple gears?  The idea behind multiple-gear bicycles is that your legs put out a constant amount of effort regardless of the terrain, and your gear selection simply translates that effort into a slower forward speed as the incline increases.  In other words, if you use your gears correctly, your ankles should have no idea that you're climbing a hill.  You wouldn't be putting any more pressure on the pedals, so unless there's something about your condition I don't understand, the only way your ankles would be able to tell is if they're freakishly sensitive to the slower wind-currents as you cut through the air.

I guess the other possibility is that the hills around you are so steep that you "run out of gears", and your lowest gear isn't low enough to allow you to spin without extra effort, though that can be solved with a bike with a lower gear range (or new gears on the same bike).

[mm1970]

Being that close to work, couldn't you just bike home for lunch in about the same amount of time?

Good point, yes I almost could. I currently have the car because of kid drop-off/pick-up, and because I'm not at the point yet of being set up to bike them and their stuff where they need to go, then myself to work, then the reverse at the end of the day.

Guess I could keep the bike at work just for this very reason? Sad to say (I almost dare not say it here!) I haven't been on my bike since I had the twins almost 2 years ago.

I'm not so sure if I'd beat myself up too much.  I used to bike to work.  Then I took about 2 to 3 years off because of kid.  Then biked again for 2 years.  Now I have an infant again.  I can't see myself biking with dropoff/pickup.  I could technically do it...spouse and I work near each other, so I could bike in, he could do dropoff, drive in and leave the car, and switch.  But I'm in "sherpa" mode.  When I get home I have to bring in the baby, diaper bag, my computer bag, lunch bag, and breast pump.  (All while lassoing two first graders, mine and the neighbor's).  I can't see myself hauling the computer, lunch, clothing, and breast pump to work in the morning on my bike.

As he gets older, it will be easier.  This I know.  After I say bye bye to the breastpump.

[MMMdude]

I go home most lunches too and it is about a 12 minute drive one way.  I worked out how much it cost and it was a few bucks each day- don't remember exactly now.  My rationale for still doing it is 1) I want to get away at lunch - sitting for 9 straight hours minimum just is not good for the body and if i'm not gone, I would have coworkers barging into my office for something which happens 15+ times a day and 2) I can make a decent hot lunch at home thereby saving me $ versus buying one every day. Yes I could take a lunch but some of the stuff I like to eat at lunch can't easily be made at work.   I also work where parking is free so the cost isn't too bad versus people who work downtown. 

[TomTX]

When I'm "at lunch" at my desk, that generally means that the door's locked and my light's turned off.

Frequently I'll eat at my desk while working, then take a 30-min walk during my notional "lunch" break.

If I'm sleepy, I'll eat at my desk while working, then lock the door, turn off the lights and take a 30-min nap.

I'm a little dubious that someone can't make or take a lunch to work. Between a microwave and a toaster in the break room, I can do a lot of stuff at work. Maybe you don't have those appliances available - when I was in college, I made noodles, soups, etc in an electric hot pot. Or bring in a nice hearty salad (veggies, cheese, nuts/seeds, chicken/tuna) Or sandwiches. Or hard-boiled eggs. Or whatever leftovers you had this week.

[sheepstache]

I go home most lunches too and it is about a 12 minute drive one way.

sitting for 9 straight hours minimum just is not good for the body

Hear me out here, arithmetic's not my strongpoint, nor do I drive a car, but doesn't driving 12 minutes each way _guarantee_ that you'll be sitting for at least 24 minutes, or over a third, of your lunch hour?  I don't even have a driver's license so I may be unclear on the mechanics of the whole driving thing.

[mm1970]

I go home most lunches too and it is about a 12 minute drive one way.  I worked out how much it cost and it was a few bucks each day- don't remember exactly now.  My rationale for still doing it is 1) I want to get away at lunch - sitting for 9 straight hours minimum just is not good for the body and if i'm not gone, I would have coworkers barging into my office for something which happens 15+ times a day and 2) I can make a decent hot lunch at home thereby saving me $ versus buying one every day. Yes I could take a lunch but some of the stuff I like to eat at lunch can't easily be made at work.   I also work where parking is free so the cost isn't too bad versus people who work downtown.

Wow, that's 24 minutes a day.
2 hours a week.

I'd rather lock my office door (I have a cubicle, so it's not an option for me) to eat my lunch and go for a walk instead.  Or do almost anything else but spend 2 extra hours in my car.

[jwystup]

This was my new year's resolution for 2012. Last year, I ended my true "commuting" days once we moved into our house 2 miles from my work (I lived an hour drive away when I first got the job and commuted during the house hunting, ick). That summer I rode a couple of times to work, but really got to enjoy the fact that I could go home for lunch now. It was very nice after 4 years of driving 30 minutes to my old job (or sometimes an hour in the snow). It was like I had 2 3.5-hour shifts instead of a full day of work (also, boyfriend was home for lunch a lot of the time back then).

After getting on the mustache bus, I decided I needed to actually start riding my bike to work. January 1st (or 2nd I guess) I started bringing lunch every day again, but still driving. I knew if I tried to get myself to start riding in January it wouldn't last long, so I started with lunch. I'm no stranger to microwave lunches as my old job was in the middle of nowhere. Now I'm on a soup kick, but leftovers are always a good lunch option. I immediately noticed that I was paying 1/2 of what I was for gas - since we don't take my car anywhere, lunch was 1/2 of my driving! That was a huge motivation for when I started riding mid-March. Since then I've only driven to work 5 times (3 were last week, mostly because of the big bad hurricane, which we just got some crazy wind/rain from). I'm pretty determined to ride as much as possible in Buffalo winter and now lunch isn't even an option for me, I just bring it!

[eldub]

Progress on the bike-to-work plan:

Have decided that I will implement this easier plan to start: will drive the boys to daycare, leave car there and hop on the commuter bike trail to work. Reverse at the end of the day.

Had originally planned to kit us all out with a trailer but both boys screamed bloody murder when I tried to put them into the trailer we were checking out at the store. Realized that getting bike/trailer, both boys and all of our stuff in and out twice a day would be pretty brutal. Then my Mr. reminded me that there's no easy way to store bike and trailer at home (we have just converted basement to a rental suite - we kept space for bikes to hang, but not sure how we could store a double trailer).

My new modified plan allows me to get the bike in and out of the car without having to worry about two toddlers making a run for the street while I'm occupied. I think this new plan works very well, solves the issues associated with the full-on bike to daycare and work plan, and means I won't give up out of frustration over logistics.

And to boot, bought a brand-new super-duper cycling jacket for half-price on craigslist over the weekend. Score!

[eldub]

As for lunch, mostly leftovers, totally fine. That was never my reason for going home anyway.

[PJ]

Progress on the bike-to-work plan:

Have decided that I will implement this easier plan to start: will drive the boys to daycare, leave car there and hop on the commuter bike trail to work. Reverse at the end of the day.

 

That sounds like a great plan, eldub!  A good balance between convenience and badassity :-)

[meadow lark]

Excellent - as they say, don't let perfect be the enemy of good (enough.)  After you've done it a few days you will love the bike to work - finally a time to relax and unwind!
Lark