To be sad that there will be no £500 vouchers

[benadrylcucumberpatch]

Being able to make a frivolous purchase definitely would have got me back to the shops!

The £500 would have been something I could use. A discount on a meal out is not something I can use, especially as it’s only Mon-Weds. we can’t afford to eat out, even with a discount.

YABU to be so gullible to think it would happen in the first place

I would have liked to have seen something 'real' for keyworkers to be honest (and by 'real' I mean something other than fucking clapping). There's been a lot of support for people furloughed (and rightly so) but there's been fuck in in the way of real thanks for those of us who have been working on the front line putting ourselves at risk for months (and I say that as a very fed up NHS nurse). Many people I know have been better off or no worse off financially being furloughed anyway given they have no childcare / travel costs. And what do we in the NHS frontline get? Oh that's right, reinstatement of car parking fees.

I'm not sure who is meant to be able to go out to eat on a weekday in August. They only people who can afford it will be in work and everyone at home is skint because they've been out of work since March.

I would have gone to the shops with an extra 500 quid. Hell, I would have gone to the shop with an extra 50 quid. But I won't be going to pizza express on a Monday because it's a tenner off.

There are always BOGOF anyway. This is not something that would spark interest for me.
Also it’s Monday to Wednesday? A lot of restaurants are shut those days, they are not days that people normally get their gladrags on for a night out.

YABU. Much better uses for that money.

Starting with the NHS and schools.

Gutted too but never thought it would happen. I can see the logic behind it the VAT cut won't be passed on .
£500 is a lot if they would of said £200/250 I think it might of happened

Very ungrateful here!

£10 per head is crap, that will basically cover a free starter in most of the decent places round here. Not much of an incentive really.

And he really talked it up in Parliament. Got quite excited then realised it was a lesser discount than a lot of places do Monday to Wednesday anyway.

I never thought it would happen but that didn't stop me mentally spending it all. Was looking forward to replacing some flooring in the house and doing up ds's bedroom now he's off to secondary school.
I wonder if McDonald's will be half price? That's about the limit of our eating out budget

meerkat meals is better than what the government are offering i think its insulting

Yes, I was saying if you’ve got Meerkat Meals or a Tastecard or any one of about a million voucher app you’ve already got this. If you were paying full price to eat out Mon-Wed then you don’t deserve money off 😂

Wasted on me. I never eat out, really.

Why Monday to Wednesday? Yes, it's quiet then but restaurants sometimes close on a Monday or adjust staffing accordingly, I don't see why they had to limit the days. Also a simple voucher per person rather than half price would make it more worthwhile. I can still eat cheaper at home so I'll likely wait until it's all more back to normal and enjoyable. I don't want to pay to eat out if it feels like I'm in a hospital.

I was hoping for something like clothes shops, not being entitled to anything and suddenly coming out of lockdown to find my son needs a whole new wardrobe, not to mention uniform come September and shoes.

That would have gotten me out shopping, going out for dinner is the last thing that would cross my mind in things I need to spend money on

Surely the point of the eat out scheme and the reduced vat scheme isn't really about helping the end consumer though. It's about helping the businesses survive and preventing more unemployment. I'm not sure that three days a week for one month will make enough of a difference though.

I certainly wouldn't expect the vat reduction to be passed on to customers, but I would hope that it makes that business profitable enough to retain all its staff.

The idea of the £500 voucher wouldn't work because no one could police that it would go to the businesses that needed most help - hospitality.

@whereistherum

I was hoping for something like clothes shops, not being entitled to anything and suddenly coming out of lockdown to find my son needs a whole new wardrobe, not to mention uniform come September and shoes.

That would have gotten me out shopping, going out for dinner is the last thing that would cross my mind in things I need to spend money on

Should also say on this, I am not sure how it would be workable for people who don't have kids or don't need new clothes for them. Maybe on themselves?

Same OP, realistically thought it was a bit of a pipe dream anyway but thought of things we could get that we couldn’t get now, new beds for 2 of the dc, a bed for us(slept on futon sofa bed now for 5yrs!) anything left over towards school shoes for sept...

Eating out is something we won’t be doing, it normally ends up as a rare treat as it’s so expensive, then because it’s a treat we end up going OTT and let the kids have extras/puddings etc usually ends up being circa £100 for one meal! Dp would be at work mon-wed in aug anyway so we won’t be spending eating out.

Indeed- it’s to help restaurants by tempting customers in. If you’re a family of 4, it’s £40 off. You can have that every Monday to Wednesday in August.

However, I won’t be going as I don’t want to catch coronavirus and I don’t think it’s safe yet.

florabella I was just about to post the same thing.
It's about kick-starting an industry not giving everyone a treat.

Yes, very disappointing, although I thought it was a pipe dream. I get meerkat meals and I’ve only used that once because eating out Monday to Wednesday is awkward.

@KitKat1985

I would have liked to have seen something 'real' for keyworkers to be honest (and by 'real' I mean something other than fucking clapping). There's been a lot of support for people furloughed (and rightly so) but there's been fuck in in the way of real thanks for those of us who have been working on the front line putting ourselves at risk for months (and I say that as a very fed up NHS nurse). Many people I know have been better off or no worse off financially being furloughed anyway given they have no childcare / travel costs. And what do we in the NHS frontline get? Oh that's right, reinstatement of car parking fees.

Totally agree.

You now have to pay £50 a month to park to save lives again but never mind - you can get a tenner off a pizza

There is no magic money tree. We are going to have to pay every penny back.

We retired folk can eat out any day of the week. I do have every sympathy for those losing jobs as I was made redundant 4 times during my working years.
I will await to see if any local establishments sign up and we may venture out since we have had to cancel flights that were planned.

It wasn’t going to happen, but it was nice to daydream “what if...?”. The new eating out scheme is useless for families with small kids, or people who work fulltime, (And the same for anybody with the faintest idea about voucher schemes), so big gesture, minimum government spend.