BLOOMINGTON - Jennifer McCarron couldn't cram one more frozen dinner into the small work fridge at Business Builders' downtown office, so the company vice-president replaced the dorm-sized model with a bigger fridge. | VIDEO: The secret life of the refrigerator

Following the same trend, office refrigerators stuffed with leftovers, sandwiches and diet meals are more and more common in Central Illinois as workers tote their lunches in tight financial times instead of dining out.

"It saves a lot of money, and gives people flexibility," said McCarron. "People still eat lunch out together, but it is more of a treat now."

Another Business Builders employee, Molly Nichols, frequently makes a hot sandwich on her own griller at work. As the result of a New Year's resolution, she began bringing a healthy lunch before the economy choked, and now she's happy she's saving money, too.

She estimates she saves between $20 and $30 weekly bringing lunch four days a week instead of eating out "most days" as in the past.

"I think ahead - not where I'll go (for lunch) but what I'll bring," she said. Even though Monday's lunch was Thanksgiving leftovers, planning ahead while shopping helps Nichols have variety.

At another downtown Bloomington business, Heritage Enterprises, account clerk Cindy Anderson also combines healthy noshing with saving money by bringing her lunch.

"I usually bring Weight Watchers (food)," she said, pulling out her lunch of a low calorie frozen dinner, applesauce and Slimfast. Her new habits helped her lose 12 pounds.

Often the frozen dinners she buys cost about $3 compared to about $7 she spent for lunch out.

Scattered around various locations of the Heritage's four floors of offices are five refrigerators of various sizes serving about 75 employees.

"A lot of us eat in," said Office Manager Julie Wolf, noting that more people started bringing food in recent months.

"I can easily spend $9 or $10 on lunch out," she said, calculating the cost of a salad and drink downtown. She hasn't changed her eating-out habits recently and still has lunch out once or twice a week.

Others' habits have changed more considerably, including those of Christian Silva, a Heritage network administrator. He and wife, Laurie, bring leftovers or make sandwiches more often these days.

"We cut back on a lot of things," Silva said.

The refrigerator in the Bloomington Public Library staff lounge is also used more by its 75 employees.

"It does get quite full," said Latney Brooks, the library's operations manager. Often it includes everything from soup to nuts, salad to spaghetti. "There are a lot of different tastes here - literally," Latney said.

But the eat-in trend hasn't taken hold everywhere.

Lunch bags are rare in the fridge at Martin Brothers Outdoor Power. Employees still like to get out of the office for a quick lunch, said General Manager Jason Denham. The business is near a McDonald's where they can still get a meal for little more than $3, he said.

The fridge is fuller in the summer when it holds barbecue fixings for employees who are avid grillers.

Organizations where employees have access to economical cafeteria food also haven't seen a big change. BroMenn Regional Medical Center employees have good options for low-cost meals at the Normal hospital cafeterias, said spokesman Eric Alvin.