I took my lunch 3 times a week, and ate fast food the other days.
We worked in the field, and we tracked which locations were food friendly.

Young person here :)

I am a millennial :)

I do BOTH take my own food to lunch and I buy also my own food…. It just depends :)

I am super healthy and health conscious so sometimes I’ll prepare an awesome and amazing lunch to bring with me…......... sometime’s I’ll bring fruits as well like bananas and apples because you can eat them anywhere, it’s healthy and already prepared :)

but sometimes I like going to cool new hip restaurants too or going to the local coffee house

So it just depends

I think it’s smart to bring your own lunch and it’s fun to do both

It’s much funner to actually make your own food

It would depend if the people are too embarrassed to bring their own lunch as well

Another cool thing I do and a lot of my young friends do also is make salads in mason jars :)

it is so yummy and looks cool as well…....

here is a random pic

https://www.google.com/search?q=salad+in+mason+jar&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijqZGbxPbMAhUfFVIKHeA0AgYQ_AUICCgC&biw=1366&bih=643

A lot of people where I am from actually do this more

As long as I worked, I took something to eat to work with me.
I could never bring myself to pay 10 times the price for ½ as much food that was 1/10 as palatable to me.

Coincidentally, my factory job of 20 years ended over me defending the sanctity of the employee lunches from a lunch bag mooch.

I bring my lunch 90% of the time because I work in a remote office essentially alone (or work from home). But when I used to work in an office, eating out for lunch wasn’t about consuming lunch necessarily. It was about socializing and building up relationships with coworkers. It was almost an unspoken requirement. There was also some informal work-related talk that went on during lunch.

I suspect that your wife’s younger coworkers are engaging in some job/career-related networking and socializing in the form of “lunch”.

At my last job I and most of my coworkers bought lunch. We got food trucks right outside our building and holy fuck was there some awesome food. I’m trying to gain weight and my salary was good so I prioritized food yumminess (to encourage eating more) over cost effectiveness.

I bring lunch almost every day. Cheaper and healthier.

I make my husband lunch every day. I’ll take it to him on nice days and we sit in our car, otherwise I just send it with him in the morning and he eats in his office. Most of the others bring their lunch and sit in their cars, but there are several who leave to grab something from Hardees or Casey’s.

Something she has noted is that it seems that it is the two extreme end of the pay spectrum that seem to purchase food rather than bring it from home; those who are high on the pay scale and those who are on the low end and can least afford it. Those who are somewhere in the middle and can better afford to spend the $5 to $10 a day for lunch are much more likely to be frugal and bring something from home.
Anyone else notice something similar?

I have, @rojo.
Eating out can be sort of a status/social affair for the higher paid. Then again, they may have enough responsibility that their ‘time is money’.
The lower end of the pay scale is likely to be eating according to the change in their pocket. The kids likely live on Happy Meals. It’s a lot easier to come up with $5–10 here and there than it is to spend $100 at the grocery.

@ibstubro that is something I had not considered. A big food bill all at one time might be a little hard to come by. By the same token though, if you weren’t spending upwards of $50.00 a week on fast food it might not be as difficult.

If you’re in a position to be considering a “Payday Loan”, @rojo, you’re living on what’s in your pocket, as the need arises. It’s not like you can stop eating for a week until you have $50 to spend at the grocery.

I’m just beginning to understand how this cycle of poverty plays out myself.
I’m not broke, I’m objectively trying to understand how this develops.

I often did. it was much cheaper and usually better food.

I always have. I am frugal and I only have a half hour for lunch, so there’s no time to go anywhere, but even if I did have time, I prefer to make my own lunch. It makes it easier for me to eat more healthfully. I portion out my meals the night before and try to make sure to get the nutrients that I need. That’s much easier to do when I make my own lunch than if I were to eat at a restaurant.