Food/drinks on days out or holidays.

[ColinRobinsonsfamiliar]

I was wondering, when on days out or on holiday with the family, do you prefer to take your own supplies in the interest of being frugal or do you just not bother and pay for food/drinks?

I much prefer to take my own, maybe pay for a round of hot drinks for us and the kids but find it a waste of money and just too much really.
DH is completely opposite and will think nothing of paying a small fortune for rubbish food and drinks at venues.

Which camp are you in?

Oh, though this thread has just reminded me of a big whinge I had earlier this month... Hanging out with a "foodie" friend.

Every meal and drink on a girl's weekend had to be somewhere recommended. Even just for a sodding coffee.

Me and the other woman there always just freewheel it on meet ups, picking where we want to drink, and just as happy with supermarket picnic and a can as we are in a bar.

But noooooo, we had to go to half a dozen instawanker hotspots. So expensive and needless. Never again.

It totally depends on where we're going, although I'd always take water bottles as a minimum.
If it's a theme park, I'd bring everything we need for the day because the food is awful and expensive, plus a packed lunch means you can eat it in the queue for a ride. I would likely have bought a selection of ready-made picnic bits in addition to sandwiches etc though. The most we'd buy in that type of place is a round of ice creams.
A trip to the woods would be a homemade picnic with a bought hot chocolate or ice cream at the end.
A day out somewhere else, I might just bring water bottles for everyone and a few snacks for the kids. If we weren't otherwise spending a lot or there was somewhere particularly nice to eat, we'd eat at a restaurant. Otherwise we'd have (for example) chips on the seafront, or get a sandwich from M&S.

Not for us. I'm much more likely to take the easier route of paying for everything while we are out. If we ever take a picnic somewhere it's because DH has thought to source and prepare it.

I hate wasting money so usually take my own. If I don't spend ridiculous amounts on rubbish food and drinks I can have more days out!

Depends, on holiday days at the beach I take packed lunches home or abroad.
If going to theme parks tend to buy on site despite the prices.
On city days out, eat out.
Country walks, packed lunches.

I'll take a drink and some snacks for my DS but "meal food" I'll buy out and about xx

I'm definitely in your DH's camp and it adds to the overall experience for me.
I had too many years as a child eating warm and soggy sandwiches on days out- I really hated my mums lunches and got a paper round aged 12 as soon as I could do that I could have an alternative to packed lunches at school.
I digress but you get the gist!

Totally depends. If there is somewhere with really good or unusual food we definitely buy it there. Things like country shows with lots of different catering options with lovely food then it's definitely worth buying it. Also things like nice independent coffee shops with home made cakes, that's all part of a good day out. On the other hand if it's an attraction with poor catering options, that costs a fortune, I'm thinking dodgy hotdogs, burger vans, Costa coffee or sad looking cheese sandwiches then I always try to plan ahead. I must admit though I'm often swayed by how much stuff you need to lug around all day. If it's somewhere you can nip back to the car for the picnic, great. If it's another thing to carry, I'm less enthusiastic.
On holiday, it's almost always eat out. I might take a few snacks but unlikely to do much more.

I only take a bottle of water as I begrudge paying for one.
Everything else I'm happy to buy as long as the choice isn't just burgers or chicken nuggets.
So lunch, coffees, cakes, soft drinks, afternoon tea etc.
It's part of the day out and keeps businesses going.

When our children were young , we'd sometimes take a picnic but more often than not, we'd get something from near the venue.

Keeping the picnic in the boot of a car for a few hours in the heat, never appealed. Primarily as you'd have to walk miles back to the car park then double back again to get back to where you were.

Dragging a picnic with us while we explored also never appealed.

It really depended on the day trip.
A ploughman's or a fresh sandwich using ingredients and bread that you wouldn't ordinarily use was always a treat.

To be honest though, a National Trust cafe is always a disappointment as are many cafes at many venues .

If it's warm enough to eat outside I'd take a picnic. I usually only take one or two drinks per person due to the weight of carrying them, so I do end up buying additional drinks while we're out. Mind you some places (eg Chessington where we go often as have Merlin passes) have lockers you can store stuff in - great for additional drinks. If the weather is very cold or it's rainy, I'd plan to eat in wherever we're going.

If there is somewhere nice I'm happy to eat out but the quality of food is usually shit so I do take picnics quite often. I don't mind paying lots for good food but I really resent paying for crap. Our home food is just better.

We tend to bring our own food. We have a high income so it's not so much about being frugal, but I resent paying for rubbish food. We were a bit disorganised recently and had to buy lunch at a venue and the choice was really uninspiring - cheap bread half-filled with poor quality chicken mayo. We tend to drink just water out of choice, so I begrudge paying £1-2 for bottles of still water when we're perfectly happy with tap water in a reusable bottle. Neither DH nor I are really into hot drinks so we don't buy them when we're out, but we get ice creams for DCs. Also, my DCs are far more interested in playing/doing fun rides than sitting in a cafe so it's just a better use of our time to just sit and eat our prepared lunch than queue and wait for an order. If we're travelling from a main rail station and we know there are good sandwich shops we'll buy one instead of having home made (but still bring our own water/fruit/packaged snacks).

We take picnics even through the winter and on rainy days - we live in London and we know all the museums and other public buildings where you can sit and eat your own food.

It can be a bit of a pain to carry it about as we're non drivers, but we usually hang a picnic bag off the buggy.

If it’s cold/ raining we always get food there.
most of the time we take a picnic not because we can’t afford to eat out but I know my kids will eat what I make, it will be healthy and when it comes to uk theme parks the food is often yuck.
We all have chilli bottles so no lukewarm water for us.

We always pay for food out, but then again we don’t need to be frugal so don’t see the point in acting poor when we don’t need to

I buy food out. I can't be bothered lugging food and drinks about. When I go on holiday I tend to go all inclusive. I used to take DS to Butlins when he was younger and we did the dining plans.

I'm with you @ColinRobinsonsfamiliar

We are now in a position where we could afford the prices, but it is about vfm.

I agree with this poster Another where it depends on destination. No chance I’m queuing to pay an absolute fortune on disgusting reheated junk food at a theme park - we always pack our own food and snacks then just get ice creams there.

When the dc were small it would just make days out unaffordable. But now it is about choice, and my choice is to take a picnic and drinks. Then, at some point in the day, get icecreams or drinks as well.

It isn't about 'acting poor' it is about not wanting to eat shite food. A lot of the food served at attractions is basically crap. I like good food, so my preference is to take my own if I know I won't be able to buy the type of food I like.

A bit of both really as it depends on where we go but we usually take lunch with us and buy coffee out.

I take our food with us, because I can make better picnics than we can normally buy. And ds hates queuing. I have a thermobox in the car, and good drinks bottles.

The one exception is going to the country show, where the pulled pork seems to be better than anywhere else 😀

Depends entirely on the place. Christmas market for the day - hot food there; beach - chips; cinema - from home; lovely long walk/parks/general outdoor frolicking - picnic and possibly a nice drink from the shop.

We always took everything from home as a child and I was often envious of others, so I do try and buy 'out' food for the DC sometimes. Too bloody skint to pay for me too though, so I much prefer a picnic as then I get food too! 😂