Make packing lunch more fun

The one money-saving habit I've been able to consistently stick to since I started working a full time job after college three years ago was packing my lunch. I fall off the wagon occasionally when I have my spurts where I don't feel like cooking, but most days, unless I'm meeting someone for lunch, I pack my own. In an effort to make my lunches more interesting, I've decided to try packing bento-style lunches. A bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. But many Americans make bento-style meals and from the abundance of bento cookbooks for children I've found online, parents make bentos for their children to take for school lunch. I recently bought this bento container from Amazon and will start planning my meals before shopping (which I almost never do). Perhaps even creating a nicer presentation of my homecooked food will make it taste better? Well, I don't know about that, but the money savings makes up for the effort.

Images from here and here

Cheap Eats - Dessert Idea I - Chocolate Croissants

Here is a fast, simple, inexpensive recipe for Chocolate Croissants I found while thumbing through the May 2008 issue of Real Simple Magazine:
Time: 20 minutes
Amount: Makes 8 croissants
Materials: One 8-count tube of refrigerated cresent rolls; 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips; baking sheet
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F;
2. Unroll the dough and separate it into 8 triangles;
3. Place about 10 chocolate chips on the bottom third of each triangle and roll the dough up around the chocolate;
4. Transfer the croissants to a baking sheet;
5. Bake until golden brown(about 12-14 minutes).