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?

We haven't "changed our ways" as we have always been a picnic family.
Partly from habit / not really thinking that there might be any other way - as that is what we did growing up.
Partly from being skint when the dc were little.
Now we (financially) have a choice, we are still a picnic family, as it give so much more flexibility over where and when you eat. It means you aren't queuing for over priced and often poor quality food when out. It means you have "emergency rations" should you get stuck on a motorway closure or non-moving train. It means everyone's tastes / allergies / choices are catered for.

I love eating out but I see that as an evening out on it's own (or lunch), so that part of the budget fills another day, IYSWIM.

Don’t you get fed up of making the damn things? Just another bloody chore. Mine are teens now so I have spent flipping years making picnics 🙄 am SO OVER IT. If we are going somewhere rural and it’s warm fair enough but if it’s wintry or we are in a town or city it’s cafes / restaurants/ street food all the way and no apology for it. Train station there’s surely food you can buy from Leon or something? Caveat fair enough if you have no choice and can’t afford it but otherwise why? life’s too short.

Someone is going to have emmentalandfarmshopham as their user name

You called? Sorry, I was doing my shop at Waitrose.

Most of our days out revolve around the food, honestly. We are a family of such different tastes in entertainment (always were) that the only way I can get everyone on the same day out is by dangling street food, pub lunch, or interesting cuisine, like Thai or Lebanese, in front of them. I am not one of those people who like my own cooking better than anything I can get in a restaurant. Also I've never really liked sandwiches... I know you can pack other things but they are the easiest.

I am imagining the Emmental and farm shop ham baguettes ( or rolls-who knows, but from the artisan bakery obviously) would be wrapped in beeswax paper, definitely no sandwich bags. They could have jollied it up with a bag of Monster Munch or Frazzles though.

You've pushed me over the edge. I'm imagining that reusable beeswax paper with the little bees on. Or perhaps mini dachshunds?

Picked onion monster munch would have definitely brightened it up for me. Although not sure they do such exotic treats in farm shops? Probably just plain salted cardboard slices or dried parsnip ends.

@Emmentalandfarmshopham !!!! You exist!!! I am curtseying to you

😂

This thread.

Has ‘naice ham’ now become ‘farm shop ham’?

I will admit this thread has been MN gold.

The verbs used by the OP - ‘scoffing’ the ham and cheese rolls and then the furious rebuttal of ‘spiffing’ money in restaurants. Happy days <sigh>

We noticed similar during lockdown when everything was closed.....up until then we always ate out but we saved a load of money and lost weight just by eating at home and not getting meals in cafes and restaurants. We missed it though!

Now we do bit of both. If going for a day out I make a really simple picnic....some sausage rolls and fruit, or a cheese sandwich and crisps. Then we buy an ice cream or coffee and cake out if we want to. I still like eating out and happy to spend money on a little treat when out but with DDs getting bigger and wanting bigger meals it's just no longer practical to spend £50 just getting lunch out.

It depends. We take them a fair bit, nothing to do with covid but we go to a particular seaside place a lot and we just didn't want fish and chips every week. I'd say it depends on the offering, some attractions food options tend to be a bit naff, like theme parks and stuff.

i do a mix of both, always have. It’s a mix of cost and ease. we do some National trust etc days and might take a packed lunch but buy a cake or hot drink in the cafe or if we’re out all day might take pack lunch and get a chippy or something on the way home. We prefer that to going out, waiting for a table etc over lunch & rushing but sometimes if its like the zoo and theres a cafe we will just grab something when we are out. I tend to plan it depending on what we’re doing but as my kids eat constantly a pack lunch can be easier as they can eat it in the car on the way. I have no shame in taking food out with me.

For a day out we have always taken our own lunch. Just easier with kids to have stuff you know they like.

Yep places like theme parks, zoos etc invariably have shite, overpriced food. In that scenario I'd take a packed lunch and probably buy ice creams.

Always eat at a restaurant or pub. It wouldn’t occur to me to take a packed lunch unless I’d deliberately decided on a picnic which would be rare. I don’t though have several children that I need to factor in to the cost.

I’m in Scotland and never heard the word pack up before. It’s always been picnic or packed lunch to us.

We almost always take a packed lunch - always have - unless a nice meal out is part of the day! We certainly always make a conscious choice, based on what the food will be like where we're going.

Food at family day out type places is usually overpriced, horrible, and you have to queue for ages. The few times we rush out without a packed lunch, we usually regret it.

Ha ha, I was just wondering which was superior!

What a magnificently condescending reply 😆

Totally agree, what a horrible post…not everyone that eats picnics is poor! Not every picnic sandwich is soggy (why would it be? We generally use rolls, each one packed separately in a Chinese container. Never had a soggy one). We don’t lug big bags around, we take rucksacks. We will use a cool bag for the beach or to transport picnics in the car when hot. It’s definitely not second rate!

We have generally taken our own food with us not because we couldn’t afford to eat out (we can and do) but because it is nicer to eat home made food than try and find somewhere to eat (esp when in an unfamiliar area of the country or at remote beaches). We also shock horror have a caravan and occasionally camp!

We used the money saved from not buying extortionate food, to pay for hotel breaks and holidays when kids were younger and that continues today. I would rather eat picnics and use our money to pay for extra days out, holidays etc.

do Calm down, no one thinks youre poor, I was the one who was poor and no one is under the impression the op is poor, in fact on another thread she’s regaling folks of how her husband earns over 750k a year as a partner with a magic law firm but she could never be a sahm.

Which clearly is admirable levels of parsimony, when she’s unsure if she can afford a Christmas market in Europe , using vouchers in her weekly albeit Waitrose shop and eating , albeit delicious, farm shop ham and emmental pack ups in train stations as she resents paying.

admirable I tell you. But poor, nope.

Scoffing
Spaffing
Farm shop
Pack up

And a "cute" law firm

This thread is comedy gold

Eat out.

Although DS and I used to go somewhere whuch had a very expensive cafe that basically sold sandwiches, which DS(SN) won't eat, so I once took a picnic. It started raining and I have a car with a big hatchback so we sat in there on a blanket (wirh the tailgate open) which he loved and keeps asking to do again!!

Re Pack up v Packed Lunch v Pack Lunch v Picnic

When I was a kid and my mother used to make the food for my father to take to work she called it "Packin' Up". "Need to get some bread for your Dad's packin' up"

Him - I am off to work

Her - Have you got your packin' up?

But, whenever we went out for the day it was referred to as a picnic, and she would always go the extra mile! Personally I call it "lunch" as in 'Have you got your lunch?' and the same if we are out for the day 'Need to get some rolls for lunch'....and I too go a bit special

West/East Midlands border here....geographically West but culturally more East due to location.

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

How are the cheese and ham rolls from your kitchen healthier than cheese and ham rolls from elsewhere? If that’s healthy food, what would you call unhealthy food?

Probably because they’re emmental cheese and farm shop ham @BigChesterDraws , not just basic cheddar and value pack ham 🤣

I never take a packed lunch anywhere but dh takes one to work sometimes