I use a 6-pack size cooler bag. Inside it, I pack whatever I can find in the kitchen, like an unhinged raccoon foraging the trash. Maybe something normal like a sandwich. More commonly, like half a green pepper, leftover corn chip crumbs, and a tablespoon of cream cheese, or some such. Then I open the lunch bag and wonder who packed my lunch.

I use a lunch box with a good size freezer pack that lasts all day (or at least long enough to survive summer heat past lunchtime). I have a few extras ready to go incase I forget to take it home one day or refreeze it. I also put it in a ziplock bag so when it inevitability leaks it won't make a mess.

Paper bags in the long run are costing you more than buying a lunch box. I used to have one of those packit freezable lunch bags. It was only a bit larger than paper one but it didn't condecne as well. The paper bags are great for when going somewhere you don't want worry about leaving anything behind.

Sandwiches I put in a container to prevent them from getting smushed. I also bring a small reusable bottle water so I have fresh cold water at lunch instead relying on my full size one.

I have a soft insulated old Hello Kitty lunchbox.

Bring leftovers, usually, just put away half of supper for lunch. In a 2 cup glass Tupperware so about 2 cups I guess. And if there is any fruit, will bring some. And if I have made bread, a slice of sourdough for breakfast.

ETA if I don't have supper or if there is not any left over, there is a cafeteria at work that has hot meals, sandwiches, and a salad bar. Also a Panera fast food across the street. But that ends up around $16 usually so not a daily sort of thing.

I have an insulated lunchbox. All I bring is a cheap frozen thing, a breakfast bar, and a drink (usually something like Gatorade, Body Armor, or Crisp Ice).

I simply dont eat lunch, like a cool guy

5 identical glass Tupperware. Usually it's a can of refried beans, 2 chopped green peppers, chopped sweet onion, small bag of frozen corn, and brown rice with a packet of taco seasoning mixed in. All divided roughly equal between the 5 containers.

Been doing this for like a decade. Used to have broccoli, chicken, pork, mushrooms, and other stuff but more or less the same idea. Been trying to go more vegetarian/vegan over the years.

I love it. I love spending 1 hour on Sunday to make all my lunches for the week.

My job has a canteen, so I spent several years eating there.

This year, they increased their prices at the same time as my rent went up, so I've started bringing in my own lunch. Every couple of Sundays, I make a huge pot of brown rice and beans and parcel it out into takeaway containers. Those things are airtight and hold enough for a sensible meal.

I always pack two meals. I can’t eat much in the mornings, so I pack a breakfast and a lunch. Before work I usually just have something really small, either a small bowl of cereal or a single slice of toast or maybe a small muffin or something. Then I pack a wrap of some kind for my first real meal. I’ve been a big fan of Buffalo wraps the last 6 months or so, but I’ll mix it up sometimes with something else. Today was more of a citrus marinade with chicken thighs and rice. Then for my second meal, usually leftovers from whatever I had for supper the night before. In the odd chance I don’t have anything left over, I’ll make something the night before that resembles a typical supper meal, or maybe buy something but that’s pretty rare.

I have it in an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack as my lunch usually hangs out in my car the whole day.

I live in an 18-wheeler for most of the week; I keep a mini-fridge behind my passenger seat. It's mostly there for drinks, but I save some shelf space for sandwich supplies. Deli meats, cheeses, etc., plus some occasional treats in the freezer. I generally just slap a sandwich together, maybe pop it in the toaster oven for a bit, and then I'm off again.

My microwave gets some occasional action, and every now and then I'll use my coffee maker to boil some ramen. I'm also thinking about hooking up a crockpot for this winter, have soups or stews going while I'm driving all day. Just depends on what food I bring onto the truck; convenience store and vending machine prices hurt my wallet, so I try to stay away from those.

I usually do a smoothie in the morning that works as a brunch of sorts that includes:

Oats, chia seeds, benefiber, magnesium, frozen berries, maybe a banana, nut-butter, maybe a scoop of protein powder.

I work in sales (ironic, I’m anti-capitalist) barely take breaks and like to not die from colon cancer so it fits my lifestyle.

One sandwich with 3 pieces of ham rolled up and a single slice of cheese under the meat. With that I bring a string cheese and a 12 ounce soda.

I've been using the same cooler for years, just a simple Coleman one with an icepack in it.

Small insulated lunch bag (cheap) - and almost always some kind of sandwich. Leftovers from the weekend dinners too. I eat in my car as the lunch room is an awkward silence

Two rye bread sandwiches wrapped in paper towel and put inside a minigrip bag.
Coffee in a thermos with a wool sock around it and a plastic bag around that for insulation.
A small jug of milk.
Water.

I've been eating the same thing every single day for well over 5 years.

I bring 3 oranges, a sandwich (surprising, I know), a yogurt, water and generally a gatorade.

I really like oranges, and this way I have fresh fruit every day. Bananas check a lot of the same boxes for portability and convenience, but I mainly only like them when they're still green so it's not always easy to have them consistently through a work week.

The sandwich can be almost anything, since I tend to swap sandwich ingredients weekly, but I really like sourdough so that's my staple bread most of the time.

no job so I just grab or make stuff whenever. when I work in an office I mostly pick up something local unless there are leftovers or such that are easy to bring which happens once in awhile. sometimes I would fast cuz it was easier to do at an office away from temptations.

Trader Joe's salad and a fruit. any heavier and I'm sluggish all afternoon. And the vitamins seem to give me energy instead.

I pack my spouse's lunch every morning. One of our prepped meals, a small dish of almonds, 2 cookies, 2 peanut mini butter cups, a nalgene of lemon water, and a spork.

As for lunch bag, she has a collection of different dino or space themed bags that we cycle through depending on her mood.

I have stainless containers with silicone lids. Turkey sandwich with cranberry goat cheese on ciabatta and a side of cheese crackers, and something like a rice krispie treat for a late afternoon snack.

I can't remember how long I've been eating that, but it's simple and I haven't grown tired of it. My wife makes it for me, and I make her a nice fancy coffee every morning in exchange.

Whatever I put in the fridge. I work from home, and I enjoy cooking, so the cantina at work is great.

Brown rice, jalapeno, red onion, Sriracha, any other veg I have kicking around, and some protein in a glass container. Heat up, and add freshly-shredded cheese (shredded that morning and kept in another small container with an ice pack) and enjoy.

Salad (usually shredded cabbage), homemade balsamic vinaigrette, carrot, red onion, bell pepper, shredded cheese, gluten free knekkebrød (Kindy seedy crackers/flatbreads) for crunch. Sometimes I'd add chicken or salmon.

Leftover dinner in a plastic box. Reheated in the microwave at work. Carried by hand to and from my car.

Usually whatever leftovers from dinner. In a glass pyrex container in a lunchbox that fits in my saddlebag on my motorcycle. If there are no leftovers, usually a sandwich of some kind with chips and fruit.

I don't.

Don't eat until dinner time.

OP I'm curious what your reasoning is behind using a paper bag. I put my lunches (usually just dinner leftovers) in a reusable bag or lunch bag, and that is mostly to keep things clean if there's leaks.

I can't imagine that a paper bag would do much if something leaked, and they're more difficult to carry (though I guess not if you have handles). Plus you can't reuse them forever. No judgment, just genuinely curious if there's some benefit I'm not seeing.

I usually just wrap a bocata with aluminium foil.

I usually do a sandwich and some nuts in an insulated lunch box with an ice pack to keep it cold

Whatever hubs feels like throwing in a bag for me. He's done everything from box frozen dinner to meal prepped frozen dinner, restaurant leftovers, a sandwich meal from the shop he's a part timer at, fresh cooked food, and one time he custom wrapped Philly roll style rice balls for me. Then some weeks it's nothing and I eat pistachios out of the vending machine (although work added a refrigerated machine with heatable meals so that'll be an upgrade).

TLDR; I eat and get fucked really well when my husband is manic. He's kind of an asshole though and I have to hide my credit card, so it's not really worth leaving him like that.

Usually it’s dinner leftovers in a plastic lunch box with a fruit. At work there is a microwave and some cutlery and plates, so I can even plate my food.

Seems like we're pretty similar.

When I used to pack a lunch it was always a sandwich, a piece of fruit and usually something chocolate like a KitKat or a Twix (or some off-brand equivalent).

Sandwich often had some kind of lettuce, meat slice and maybe some other salad vegetable. Bread varied. Wholemeal some days, white others, depending on what loaf I was working through at home.

Fruit was generally apple, Gala preferred, although the rare ones that tasted amazing got more and more rare towards when I eventually gave up apples due to digestive issues. Occasionally easy-peel oranges of some variety. Satsumas or tangerines.

The sandwich went in a plastic, self-sealing sandwich bag to stop it falling apart. Everything then went into a plastic sandwich box to prevent things getting squashed in my backpack.

If I was going somewhere without drink making facilities, which was almost never, I would pack a flask of tea. Hot with milk pre-added. Can't remember when I sweetened it, it's been so long.

When this was for work, I already had my own tea-bags and sugar at my desk because the company-provided stuff was always terrible and/or contaminated somehow. Some filthy animal always put their tea or coffee-soaked spoon into the sugar bowl, because f--k everyone else, I guess. Anyway, I mention this because it might count as part of the packed lunch, since I brought it, even if it wasn't strictly brought every day along with the main items.

Edit to add: I sometimes used to pack a re-used 500ml plastic pop bottle with diluted squash in it as an alternative to tea. That would have been during summer.

Additional #2: I went through a phase of buying lunch at a local shop every day to save time preparing food in a morning, and realised with horror that it was costing me a four figure sum per year to do that. That gave me more impetus to make my own darn lunch!