Anyone who saw last night’s Dispatches on Channel 4 may be understandably put off buying a sandwich from the high street again. Several al desko favourites Pret, Subway, and good old M&S were lined up against the wall by C4’s Alex Thomson and given a thorough dressing down. A sarnie has got to be pretty bad if it equates to two Big Macs and a bag of McDonalds fries in terms of saturated fats.

To be honest, at times the whole doc had a faint whiff of finding out what the bears get up to in the woods – everyone ought to know by now that pre-prepared food, and sandwiches bought from petrol station forecourts in particular, isn’t the healthiest option on the menu and nor is it the most cost effective.

The great British sandwich industry is reportedly worth a hefty £5bn, and it’s easy to see why. Say your average lunchtime sandwich bought from a high street vendor costs £2.50. If you were to eat out for lunch every working day of the week, then this equates to £50 a month alone in sandwiches, or £600 a year. And this is even before you take crisps and smoothies into consideration. The solution? Read on…

Though it’s time consuming and considered old hat, making your own sandwiches before you go to work is not only much much healthier for your body, it’s also a whole lot healthier for your finances.

It may not be as convenient and refreshing as getting out of the office at lunchtime and grabbing a bite to eat, but you can eat healthy for less and be the envy of your workmates by crafting some pretty creative sandwiches. You can easily siphon £50 into your monthly shopping budget and get everything you need to make lunch at home that is not only better for you, but is also better for your wallet.

A loaf of luxury Burgen Wholegrain & Granary bread costs £1.49 from Tesco, and
500g of Flora Light Vegetable Low Fat Spread costs the same. Similarly, an 800g loaf of Kingsmill Gold Seeds & Oats Wholesome & Nutty costs £1.16, and a 500g tub of Bertolli spread sets you back £1.00 from the Sainsbury’s online shop. So, for just a little more than £2.50, you already have the basic ingredients required to start making enough sandwiches to see you through two working weeks.

Be as creative as you like with your fillings, and don’t just stick to the time honoured cheese and pickle combo. Try something like tinned salmon and sliced tomato, Wensleydale cheese with beef and sliced spring onion, chicken lettuce and Marmite… OK, so I’m not Lloyd Grossman, Delia Smith or (thankfully) Gordon Ramsay, and I’m certainly not going to make your lunch for you.

If you’re stuck for ideas, it might be worth checking out pre-made sandwich fillers for inspiration. You should avoid shelling out for sandwich fillers, because not only are these pretty fatty in themselves, you can also make your own fillings by buying the main components separately.

For example, a 200g tub of tuna and sweetcorn filler from Sainsbury’s costs £1.05 and will see you filling up roughly 6 to 8 sarnies, depending on how thickly you like your spread. For £3.63, you can get four 185g tins of tuna in brine and 1kg of frozen sweetcorn – enough for plenty more sandwiches and anything else you could care to use tuna and sweetcorn for – part of a pasta sauce, a salad or an accompaniment to a main meal. Frozen sweetcorn and tinned fish also keeps for ages, whereas sandwich fillers typically have ‘once opened consume within X days’ on the label, and can really only be used for sandwiches…

Making your own sandwiches at home also means you decide what goes into it, and you can personally ensure that what you eat has been made in more sanitary conditions than those seen in Dispatches: Sandwiches Unwrapped, unless of course your kitchen is worthy of a visit from the How Clean Is Your House team.

Also, it needent be said, but shopping for sandwich ingredients online means you can rack up on the old points cards with your Tesco Clubcard or Nectar card, which you can’t necessarily do in the high street - who pays for a sandwich with a credit card?

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 8:48 am and is filed under Budgeting, Money Saving Tips, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.