JUNO Investing magazine’s research suggests Kiwis spend between $8 and $20 a day on buying lunches from restaurants, cafes and takeaway joints instead of taking leftovers to work.

If they used leftovers or home-made lunches, and invested the money they saved, instead of being worse off by $174 to $435 a month, they could be thousands of dollars better off.

A Kiwi spending $20 a weekday on food and drink could earn $55,842 if they took leftovers to work and instead saved that money in an investment fund.

JUNO’s projections were run on www.thecalculatorsite.com’s compounding interest calculator and adjusted for 2% inflation per year. They assume an average return of 4% per year, say in a balanced managed fund.

Even if you only spent $8 a weekday on food, that would still add up to $174 a month. Invested, with compound interest, that would earn you a healthy $22,863 over 10 years.

Statistics New Zealand data shows that in 2019 the average Kiwi household spent $67.70 a week on restaurant meals and ready to eat meals.

Of that, meals bought at restaurants added up to $26.50, and ready-to-eat meals were $39 a week.

If you struggle to have food left over, or don’t have a microwave at work, you could buy supermarket lunches for just $3 a day per person:

Here’s an example:

· Instore Bakery wholemeal bread rolls, 6-pack $4

· Farmland Just Cut Ham 100g $4

· Anchor Cheese Slices Processed Colby $3.80

· Iceberg lettuce $3

That’s just $14.80 for a week’s home-made lunches for one: $2.96 per person per day.

* Supermarket prices from Countdown online shopping.