When you have a day out, do you eat out or take a pack-up?

[TwoMagnificentLabradors]

Until a couple of years ago, we used to think nothing of dropping into a low- key restaurant ( Pizza Express, Giraffe etc.) on a day out. Then three things happened:

All hospitality shut for months and we got used to taking a packed lunch on our barely-legal day-long hikes.

The kids got enormous and started ordering from adult menus. No more humous, carrots, breadsticks and a teeny pizza for £4.99.

Restaurants and cafes put their prices up to cover rising costs.

I have become the proud queen of the pack-up. We were the family shamelessly scoffing our cheese and ham rolls on the forecourt of Liverpool Street Station today. Our new ways mean healthier food, saving 80-100 pounds on a day out and everyone getting what they like to eat.

We still eat out. But save those outings for special occasions and decent (not food pinged from a microwave) venues (or street food markets, I love those!)

Anyone else changed their ways of late?

What an obnoxious post. Cute law firm? 🙄

Tbf I think the 'cute law firm' was being used tongue in cheek to match the tone of post it was responding to - which I agree was a little condescending

I didn’t read it as condescending at all, it was just acknowledging that eating out was a privilege. It wasn’t specific to the OP either.

I did have a skim of the OPs other posts though and was put in mind of a certain hotel bedroom: if you know, you know.

There are now healthy relatively cheap fast food options though. If I were in a city with teens on a day out no flipping way would I have bothered making my own sandwiches - Leon or Itsu all the way.

Not only the effort of buying it / making it / lugging it about but if you’ve got posh ingredient’s you’ve probably saved yourself about £5.50 overall 🙄 nothing to be smug about! One of the joys of getting older and earning more (same job as op) is NOT making flipping sandwiches!

But it makes no sense. How can a law firm be ‘cute’?

Oh and I have worked in every type of law firm over my long career high street / mid level and City and NONE are cute!

I'm coeliac so generally always take food with me. I'd love to buy food out and about but too many past experiences of finding there's absolutely zero food options that are suitable.

What's cute is the OP thinking that Emmentaler cheese is fancy!

@Boneweary 😂the hotel bedroom!

I think she is trying to brag that it’s a big, prestigious law firm ££££££££

Depends - theme park def packed lunch.
stately home/castle - heritage type thing prob but if both, packed lunch and a visit to the tea rooms.

I always packed a lunch but save eating out for something special like u say even streetfood . Although I am cynical when stuff is carb laden with a little sauce. Even my favourite place to eat as in lovely surroundings have the plates loaded with potatoes to bulk the plate out. I think since Covid lockdowns rising costs its hard to get what your paying for foodwise . My mother paid £8 for a slice of cake the other month in Wandsworth area they were charging 20% service charge anyway unsurprisingly the place has closed down .
So if I can its packed nibbles or lunch but lugging stuff is annoying as we don’t use the car

I think what you do is so much better. Alas I’m to lazy, wasteful and unorganised to ever achieve this.

Very much depends on what we’re doing.

Last time we went to London for a day trip I took a backpack with lunch and we ate it sitting on a bench in the British museum. But we were back by teatime and so food wasn’t so much of an issue.

In the next half term my son wants to (attempt) to go on each tube line…. Honestly don’t fancy dragging a backpack around on that trip.
So I’ve said we’ll have lunch somewhere (maybe even tea too) - we’ll see. But I’ve planned for this.

It does depend on the purpose of the trip/visit and to where. If going to and NT or EH property, I’d generally take something.

Always a packed lunch here - can’t afford to eat out. My DC has never expected meals or treats out as standard so when they happen they’re appreciative and grateful. No ‘I want’ or foot stamping demands to contend with.

I’m wondering the same
started prepping packed lunches once ds was fully weaned because partner and I could probably go without eating if we had a late breakfast and only popping out for a few hours, so save loads by avoiding restaurants. Nothing to do with covid, just learnt from my mum that eating out wasn’t a necessary expense. I ate out loads though before ds!

We generally take lunch. Mostly because hardly anywhere caters for gluten free and about 80% of the ones that say they do cross contaminate it anyway.

Its annoying af tbh. I had a change of plan on Saturday so popped into sainsbury. Not one of the meal deal options was gluten free nor any of the other lunch options.

I ended up buying a pack of gf rolls and some ham to make myself a butchered slightly dry sandwich 🙄

If we are going out for the day and don't have time / cba making sandwiches, we just pop into Lidl and get crisps and hummus, cherry tomatoes, sausage rolls / scotch eggs / pork pies, pasta salad, packet of biscuits and some apples. We take our cheap plastic plates and cheap cutlery from the likes of poundstretcher which are reserved for picnics, and go in a plastic bag after eating and then in the dishwasher. It comes to about a tenner and goes in the cool box in the car. Unless you are going somewhere where the car park is miles away you can usually pop back to the car to collect food and picnic blanket in 10 minutes to save carrying it around all day.

I make my own sourdough bread. Makes the best sandwiches ever, so good. I batch cook cakes and flapjacks too, they de-frost in the lunch box. So good.

We used to eat out but now like you can’t really afford the hike in prices. We now call into Tesco and eat choose a meal deal when we go out, everyone can have what they want and it’s affordable.

If it’s a whole day out both! Normally take snacks but it’s never enough for kids

Always eat out for us because we are a foodie family and meals out are a big part of days out/travelling. We won't pay for any old rubbish from a chain though. We decide beforehand where to find the good spots.

@Boneweary crumbs, I think you might be right

The only thing I’m wondering is where are the tables in Liverpool St station?? I know there tables outside McDonald’s and a few for coffee shop customers I think. On the ground floor I can only recall these not too comfy looking wood slat seats.

We've pretty much always taken packed lunches. For many years it was the only way we could afford days out. It means we all eat what we enjoy, no waste an a hell of a lot cheaper. I will buy ice cream/a bag of hot donuts to share if we're somewhere that sells them - and additional drinks if needed as water and juice are too heavy to carry many of.