WHAT'S THE STORY WITH MAKING YOUR OWN LUNCH?:SOME TIME BACK, when Pricewatch suggested on Today FM's Last Word that people could make substantial savings by making their own sandwiches instead of shelling out €25 a week on pre-packaged or deli-made alternatives, the notion was met with much hilarity. The general consensus from Matt Cooper and most of his listeners was that things weren't quite that bad.

Fast-forward two years and things are, now, unquestionably, that bad and getting worse with each passing week. More and more people are looking at the high cost of their daily bread and wondering if it is wise to spend money on the sweaty sandwiches sitting in plastic coffins under harsh fluorescent lights in their local convenience stores.

Meanwhile, the high-priced cafe society that mushroomed during the boom is wilting and owners are wondering what they’re going to do now that their bread-and-butter business is being spread so thin.

While there are no up-to-date statistics available for the Republic, according to recent research carried out in Britain, just under 20 per cent more office workers are bringing a packed lunch to work compared to this time last year, with financial considerations being cited as the main reason for the shift.

The savings can be substantial. If you spend a fiver a day on your lunchtime sandwich, over the course of a working year, after factoring in time off for holidays and the odd sick day, it will cost you at least €1,200 – then add another €800 for muffins and coffee and the like.

A year’s supply of bread – 10 cent a slice in Lidl – and admittedly cheap fillings, such as sliced ham and blocks of cheese, to make your own sandwiches will cost €300, while the seasonal vegetables needed to make home-made soup (which can be frozen and occasionally brought into work) will cost no more than €150.

But just because we’re going all old-school doesn’t mean a packed lunch has to be as bad as it was when we were in school, at which time, if Pricewatch’s recollections are anything to go by, rubbery slices of cheese and ham were the order of the day, every day.

Mix chicken left over from your Sunday roast with a jar of Aldi pesto and a 20-cent tomato and you have yourself a gourmet Italian sandwich. Toss some cold pasta in olive oil and tuna, a couple of tomatoes and a few olives and you have a perfectly pleasant, pleasantly cheap salad.

THE GROWING NUMBER of people turning to the DIY lunch has led many Irish coffee shops to offer deals in recent weeks in an attempt to draw suddenly frugal office workers through their doors. Many well-known chains have been throwing in a free coffee or tea with their lunchtime sandwiches, reducing the spend by around 30 per cent.

O’Briens recently launched a High Tea deal in some if its 120 outlets. Pots of tea for two will be served along with finger sandwiches and pastries, also for two, for €9.99. As the biggest sandwich chain in the State, O’Briens is feeling the pain acutely and, according to founder Brody Sweeney, “a lot of people are more budget-conscious, particularly those who are concerned about losing their jobs or those who are working in the public service”. Sweeney says such concern has led to “a substantial contraction” in O’Briens’ business, with the downward trend being more noticeable in its takeaway stores than in its larger cafes.

He told Pricewatch that many cafes were struggling to pay high rents and pointed out that in a downturn it was possible to cut almost all overheads except rent.

“Rent is the big cost and it is not falling,” he says. “In some of our stores business is down 40 per cent, but the rents have stayed the same. It’s killing us.”

He adds that the downturn in business is not all the fault of the recession. “There has been an over-supply in the market. The barriers to entry have been very low.” Even so, he feels that the sandwich bars are still offering good value.

“Food has never been cheaper relative to disposable income,” he says, pointing out that a sandwich costs less than an hour’s minimum wage. “People are trading down, shopping in Lidl and Aldi and eating in McDonald’s, and it is the mid-market guys likes ourselves who are really suffering.”

He is unhappy with the way the sandwich bars and coffee shops have been targeted by a media suddenly falling over itself to offer people recession-busting tips.

“It is easy to pick on us, but there is a lot more to discretionary spending than coffee and sandwiches,” he says. “Why not, say, give your Friday night pints a skip instead?”

One sandwich bar which doesn’t seem to have any problem attracting customers is McCabe’s Deli on Dublin’s Tara Street, in the shadow of the Irish Times building. Every day, fast-moving queues form from midday as hungry office workers line up to buy sandwiches, home-cooked lasagne and cottage pie and an array of wholesome salads. The deli is owned by Ray McCabe who, unsurprisingly, questions Pricewatch’s make-it-yourself notions and prices.

“The whole sandwich-bar business is based on convenience. No one really wants to make their own sandwiches last thing at night or first thing in the morning,” he says.

He also believes that the savings are not as substantial as we might think. He has priced ingredients such as rocket in Tesco and reckons he sells it for much the same price.

“There are all sorts of things you can call sandwiches, but if they are made on the cheap they won’t be so good,” he says. “You can call a Trabant a car, but we’d be more of an Audi A6 kind of place.”

At the opposite end of the spectrum to McCabes is Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee-shop chain, which has been hit hard by the global downturn. It plans to offer its US customers value meals priced at $3.95 in an attempt to lift morning sales.

Only last July Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz said that he wouldn’t take the “fast-food lane” and bundle meals. He was forced into the U-turn by falling revenue and mounting job losses – Starbucks is facing competition from an unlikely source as McDonald’s expands its coffee drinks. The resurgent fast-food chain saw global sales increase by 7.1 per cent in January as consumers sought less expensive food.

Sandwich chain Subway is also doing well and plans to open 600 new stores in Britain and Ireland, creating more than 7,000 jobs by the end of 2010.

“We are delighted with the success we’ve achieved, and that we are going to be able to provide a further 7,000 jobs,” a Subway spokesman said. The chain already has more than 1,400 stores across Britain and Ireland, employing more than 16,000 people.