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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

How much do you spend on lunch and coffees etc on work days?

167 replies

fourikeachairs · 03/03/2023 17:17

Forgot my soup yesterday and wound up spending a stupid amount of money on my chicken salad and coffee. Twenty four bloody quid. Prices have risen so steeply in the last while.

What is a normal spend for you in a local lunch place?

OP posts:
GobbieMaggie · 04/03/2023 01:18

Staff canteen, £5. Coffee and tea are free after midnight.

JaceLancs · 04/03/2023 01:37

£2.25 for coffee most mornings
I take my own lunch so free

pompomdaisy · 04/03/2023 02:09

I call at Greggs. I think £3.50

Tourmalines · 04/03/2023 02:11

I always bring my own but at least you admitted it was a stupid amount. I would have rather gone without.

HerRoyalNotness · 04/03/2023 02:17

I WFH but bought a lunch this week US$20. It was a brisket and bacon sandwich with aoili, lettuce and tomato and a slice of pie. I was shocked at that. Normally I get something at home

Twillow · 04/03/2023 02:44

Lucky to have free basics provided (breads, cereal, fruit, milk/tea/coffee etc) provided, so rarely buy anything even if I haven't taken a lunch in I can get through the day. Might buy a meal deal as a treat once a month! I do work on minimum wage though...

Shoxfordian · 04/03/2023 06:26

I get a coffee on the way in, £3:30 and then I’ve been going to the Amazon store which has a cheap meal deal so that usually comes to £6 including a yoghurt for breakfast so about a tenner a day. I only work in the office two days a week though

Anyotherdude · 04/03/2023 06:26

Subsidised canteen. £1.40 for a Costa coffee and £2.00 for a main meal…

Coffeetree · 04/03/2023 06:34

I'm terrible. I pack a lovely lunch and snack, determined to have a no-spend day, and then I'll decide I deserve a hot chocolate at the student cafe, because it's Friday.

Twenty-four pounds! But the salad sounds amazing. Avocado in a chicken salad. Bet there was some cracked pepper up in there too, and some crispy lettuce. Mmmmm.

OhHoneyHoney · 04/03/2023 06:36

I’m a district nurse so out and about, about once a week I grab a meal deal so a fiver, 2/3 times a week I get a coffee from maccies which is a quid so probably about £8 a week so £32 a month

OhHoneyHoney · 04/03/2023 06:38

I go home and eat my lunch the other days BTW, I don’t go into the office very often for lunch

Chocchops72 · 04/03/2023 06:42

€4,50 for a 3/4 course lunch at my school cantine (France). Yesterday was:

Starter - rice salad
Main - rice, beef stew, carrots
Dairy - portion of tomme cheese or a yoghurt
Dessert - pistachio entremont (a kind of blancmange, I think)

Bagwyllydiart · 04/03/2023 06:45

Not a penny

crazycycle · 04/03/2023 06:47

Free tea, coffee and fruit in my office. I only go in twice a week so usually get a Tesco meal deal (£3-4) sometimes I go to Pret or M&S and spend £7-9. We just got a microwave so might start taking soup and roll.

PandasAreUseless · 04/03/2023 07:05

£0.
I've made my own every day for pretty much my entire working life.

MinnieMountain · 04/03/2023 07:14

If I can’t be bothered to make lunch on a day I swim before work about £3 for a salad from Asda.
£2 for a coffee every other week. Generally I bring a thermos.

rookiemere · 04/03/2023 07:18

I've recently started low carbing and bringing my lunch in and have been bringing my own coffee in for a few years.

If I don't bring in lunch I buy a pret protein box which costs £6 for something I can make for about £2 at home, so I try to avoid doing that.

However when I was younger I used to spend a fortune on coffees, breakfast bagels, takeaway lunch etc. If I had made my own then and put that money into savings, I'd probably be retired by now (52).

Skyla01 · 04/03/2023 07:25

I usually bring my own lunch from home. Otherwise work canteen or sandwich etc from the shop would be around a fiver. We have a coffee club at work. I think I contribute about £40 a year for tea / nice filter coffee and biscuits.

I've always made my own lunch, it would be so expensive to buy out every work day- but even more so now.

Motheranddaughter · 04/03/2023 07:25

£15

avocadotofu · 04/03/2023 07:28

Nothing. I bring my own lunch.

Polis · 04/03/2023 09:38

I take my own so while not exactly nothing, it’s not much.

Funkyslippers · 04/03/2023 09:43

I take in lunch every day so nothing. Make my own tea at work too, free tea bags and boiling water.

DD and I were on the train last week with a few snacks and DD had a Greggs pastry. A mum & daughter sat next to us had sushi, salads etc probably from somewhere in the train station. I noticed the sushi alone was £22 for around 5 pieces. They must have spent around £100 in total. How the other half live!

clary · 04/03/2023 09:55

Tbf the OP did ask what you might spend at a local lunch place, not how much do you spend on a meal deal or packed lunch (I am as guilty as most people here in that I said the latter).

So to answer your question OP, nothing even close to £24. I rarely eat lunch out but every so often we go to the pub over the road and I will have a sandwich with chips and a soft drink. Or maybe a cappuccino. Costs max of £10 maybe £12 at a push. £24 is ridiculous.

KimberleyClark · 04/03/2023 10:15

Took my own lunch. Paid £5 per month to office coffee club.

redspottedmug · 04/03/2023 10:22

Really OP, comparing a restaurant lunch vs homemade soup presumably eaten at your desk is ridiculous! I don't understand why you would go out for an expensive sit-down meal when you could've:
Bought a takeaway soup from Greggs
Bought a carton of supermarket soup and heated it in the office microwave
Gone wild and bought a meal deal