According to an analysis by Bravo, an average of 263 euros are spent per month. In the North the advantage is greater, but in the South dining out weighs more on income
“It’s only a few euros a day anyway” and so we eat out for lunch. But this sentence doesn’t hold up. According to an analysis by Bravo, a leading fintech in debt management, bringing lunch from home to work saves on average 263 euros a month, which means 3,200 euros a year. The difference between a lunch out and one prepared at home is impressive: in the North a plate of pasta, water and coffee costs on average 16 euros, in the South 13; cooking at home, however, costs just 1.7 euros. The lunch break outside accounts for up to 20% of the gross monthly income.
Schiscetta: savings of up to 3200 euros per year
The schiscetta is increasingly an economic strategy. Bringing lunch from home allows you to save an average of 263 euros per month. And this is because lunch out has now become a non-marginal expense item. In the North, where restaurant prices are higher, the difference is even more evident; in the South, however, despite lower costs, lunch out continues to have a heavy impact on the monthly budget. At a national level, the average annual savings is close to 3,200 euros, equivalent to almost two salaries. A number which, alone, explains why more and more workers choose to prepare the lunch box the night before or early in the morning, transforming a simple gesture into a real contribution to the domestic economy. According to the Censis-Camst 2025 report, 78% of workers eat a lunch prepared at home and 62% cook it specially
Schiscetta: in the North you save more, in the South it weighs more on your income
The savings map confirms a divided Italy. Lombardy, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Liguria and Trentino-Alto Adige are the regions where the schiscetta allows you to save the most: around 3,500 euros a year. Here, higher restaurant prices, combined with higher average salaries, amplify the advantage of dining from home. On the contrary, in Puglia, Sicily, Sardinia, Molise and Abruzzo, savings fall below 2,800 euros per year.
Among the cities, Milan, Monza-Brianza, Parma, Modena and Bologna lead the ranking with a potential saving of 3,630 euros per year. Milan, with gross monthly salaries of around 2,780 euros, is the emblematic case: even with higher salaries, the cost of dining out remains significant.
Things change if you look at the percentage of income saved: in this case the first places go to the South. In Vibo Valentia carrying the schiscetta means recovering 22.3% of the monthly salary, followed by Grosseto (21.5%) and Imperia (21%). Milan, however, slips to the bottom of the percentage ranking with 10.8%. Here the savings are high in absolute value, but have less impact on the monthly income. A photograph that tells how lunch out, in cities with lower salaries, weighs proportionally much more.
Schiscetta: from birth to social media
The “schiscetta” was born in Milan and the name comes from the dialect verb schisciare, to crush, referring to the gesture of tightly closing the workers’ old metal tin. It was an essential container, filled with simple dishes to face long shifts and almost non-existent canteens. In the 1950s it changed and even became an object of design. Then came social media that transformed the lunch box into an aesthetic object with viral content on TikTok and Instagram. And today the schiscetta is a national, creative, customary, but also economic, strategic phenomenon for family savings.
