Another crappy dinner, but coffee and ice cream out

[Thetimestheyareachangingdude]

Or a better dinner 🤷🏻‍♀️

Like many of us, we’ve been finding the bills and rising cost of food etc hard. Feel like I’m scrimping back on meals and haven’t had many nice ones recently…just lots of very simple pasta and sauce, jacket potatoes..it’s fine but not great.
My Dd, 4 is off tomorrow so I thought we’d have a morning just us at the beach. I only have a bit of change left, do I go for a coffee for me and ice cream for her and have basic eggs & chips tonight or do I get a nicer dinner for tonight as it’s been a letdown all week?

Cannot believe I’m even fretting over a coffee and ice cream, it’s depressing.

Do whichever would make you happier. I'd go for egg, chips and then coffee and icecream, as soon the weather will be too cold to enjoy a day at the beach. Or take coffee in a flask and buy a cheap pack of cornetto-style ice creams from a supermarket for the same price as one from an ice cream seller. Wrap it up to keep it cold and give it to her when you get there. Then there will be three more for later on when you want to give her a treat.

Have a treat when you're out. You might be bored of your dinners but I bet your DD isn't.

She’ll remember the ice cream at the beach more than a posher dinner at home (egg and chips was one of my favourites as a child).

I’d take a coffee in a flask and freddo or similar and then wud feel like I was doing both!

Definitely coffee and ice cream out. Egg and chips is a nice dinner.

Try to learn how to make dishes from other cultures which in my view are a lot nicer than basic English food
veg and lentil curries are so cheap to make
if making chips and egg u usually sprinkle some cumin on the egg and add a dash of whatever spicy sauce I’ve got in the fridge
on chips sprinkle some paprika or whatever seasoning you already have in your cupboard
add a bit of plain yoghurt on the side this can be bought for about 45p

Press post before I was finished that usually spruces Up a meal nicely

Never buy coffee out, ridiculous price! Say £3 for a latte? I'd rather buy something nicer to eat.

A flask at the beach is way better than some lukewarm coffee in a paper cup that costs the thick end of £3.00. Thay will pay for the icecream or just take a picnic

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No, don't send money to strangers online.

Can you take a flask and some sandwiches and only pay for the ice cream?

Egg and chips sound yum and my mouth is actually watering

@Charlotte123456789 Oh that’s so kind of you, but please no, not at all! This wasn’t my reason for the post 🙈feel a bit embarrassed. We get paid likely tomorrow night so all ok, I just wanted to take her somewhere but was feeling a bit crap that we’ve not had the nicer dinners as much recently-just simple things like fajitas, curries etc. Nothing wrong with egg and chips at all, just a very bland week.
Thank you for the kind thought though, but honestly no need 💐💜

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There's nothing wrong with egg and chips OP, especially if you add some frozen peas or tomato salad on the side. There's also nothing wrong with a little treat on the beach, but if money's so tight why not take a flask of hot chocolate to share instead? Then you'll still have a little left for something else. Or coffee for you and some biscuits.
As someone else says, maybe explore some more interesting cheap dinners – lentil dal or bean chilli and rice, root veg soup...

Honestly a 4 year old will be more impressed with an ice cream treat than a fancy dinner. Nowt wrong with egg and chips (though if you can some beans or something with it would be good!)

I’d probably take my own hot drink in an insulated cup (but then I don’t notice a massive difference between my own tea or coffee and “fancy” stuff when I’m out. Maybe it’s different if it’s a genuine treat for you). I’d then buy my kid an ice cream.

Maybe then with the £3 saved on coffee you could get something to fancy up the dinner a little bit. A nice pudding or something?

I bloody love egg and chips! And ice cream. And coffee. If all three are within budget I'd call that a win.

But I get your point. Cost of living is becoming alarming and we're all having to adjust.

Take comfort from the fact that your daughter is unlikely to notice. Sounds like a nice tea and a great plan for tomorrow.

Agreed. A £3 coffee isn't 30 times nicer than a coffee at home that costs maybe 10p to make, but a £3 dessert is 30 times nicer than no dessert.

What are nicer dinners? We have fajitas and curries each week and I’d say that’s my good cook night. Easy and plain boring dinners would be jacket potato for example or a pizza from the freezer.

Egg and chips is my 14 yr olds favourite meal ever 🤣

Chips and egg, fabulous tea.

Your dinners sound really nice, I think we all have our basic go to foods for meals.
I've a bookcase of recipe books that I'm sure I keep saying I'll look through and plan some nice new eats....

How far away from the beach are you?
As PP's have suggested can you make a coffee at home and take it with you. DH and I often do that before we go off out somewhere saves a few pounds.
Buy an ice cream, maybe throw a sandwich together to take and make memories with your DD.
I'm slightly jealous of you living near the beach...

On another note if I'm making a simple dinner, like tonight, throw it together stir fry, I make a quick easy pudding as something nice to have after..
Today I've popped some Sponge fingers in a pudding glass, can't think of the correct name, and poured jelly over later when set I'll share one of those individual custard pots between them, blast a spray of canned cream, sprinkles and I have a lovely trifle treat. Apart from the jelly setting it takes literally minutes to put together but I'll enjoy it while watching TV later.
Same with a quick old school sponge cake with icing and sprinkles, your DD could get involved in making that.

I remember the days long ago when little and we ate those hot dog sausages...On a cold day we'd warm them up at home and stuffed them into a flask to keep warm, pack finger bread rolls and a pot of ketchup and go off to the river for a picnic.