To be annoyed that DH has just spent £25 on dinner?

[SnappyHorse]

We’ve just had our usual Saturday night ‘what shall we have for dinner’ conversation. Me not wanting to cook because I cook every night because I’m home earlier than DH, and DC’s wanting takeaway fish and chip which costs £30 every time. We compromised on fish and chips from the Co-Op round the corner which I can just chuck in the oven.

DH said he’d nip out. He’s just come back from M&S having spent £25 on Gastro fish and chips. I’m sure they’ll taste lovely, but I’m annoyed that he’s spent £25 on 1 dinner. We haven’t really got £25 to spend on 1 dinner and if he was going to spend that, why didn’t he just get takeaway?

Slightly light hearted, but I am annoyed with him.

Is M&S so much more than a fresh take away. If so remind him the budget is £30 for 4, and what he’s bought isn’t (although surprised £30 would only get one portion). Probably neee wider discussion around budgeting.

Works long hours as a grown adult but needs your permission to spend £25 on a family of 4 meal deal even if he can afford it. Plenty of worse
things in the world a husband could do yeez.

I think you’re misinterpreting the OP saying a single dinner – DH spent £25 for four people, ie a single, one-off dinner for the family. Not a single portion.

A chip shop meal is £30, a m&s fish and chips is £25.
Add on £1 or so for gas or electric to cook it, plus labour.
You're not really saving anything there op.

For future reference, I highly reccomend Lidl's frozen cod in batter. 4 pieces for £4, plus some frozen chips is a bargain! We crack out the tartare sauce, gherkins & bread and butter to go with it. A lot cheaper than takeaway and really tasty!
Our local chippy is about £10-12 a portion.

He was doing a nice thing and you seem so u grateful. You should go and buy your own dinner next time.

Fish and chips is far and away the most expensive takeaway where we are. It’s easily £40-£50 for four people - and one is a vegetarian and one prefers a burger! The price of fish alone is insane. We get a curry instead now. Feels like much more of a treat for around the same price.

OP plans and does 99.9% of the dinners.

£25 to feed four people with adult size portions? Doesn't sound like that big a deal to me. It's not like you're spending that every night.

The point for me here is that one party cooks every night. Couldn't be bothered on Saturday and he couldn't be bothered so spent family funds. It's simply not fair. If the chief caterer in the family (often the woman) did this every time she didn't want to cook then they would be broke.
Raising children is hard. Cooking every day after work for 20 years is hard
Having a partner who doesn't do his share is hard
Not unreasonable at all

My DH is lovely, but I need to literally spell it out what I require, and to be honest it ends up sounding petty, so I've learnt either let him go out and risk the consequences or do it myself.

Don't you think that's why he does it? Because he knows you won't bother asking next time?

Or does his boss need to literally spell it out at work too? It's interesting that with most men like you describe, they seem to be able to follow instructions just fine at work.

That very much depends where you live. Where I live it's nearer £15 pp. Can we just believe the poster and the information she has given.

Exactly, a man puts a bit of effort maintaining the house and a few hours here and there doing some parenting and he has the right to mess up all the week budget on fish and chips.

I bet op does 300%percent what her husband does in terms of maintaining the house in good shape and entertaining the kids, while possibly keeping a job herself, yet she can still arrange treats for the family without messing up the weekly budget.

Well she said her, her husband and her children so a few. Me and husband can easily rack up nearly £30 at the fish and chip shop, it’s not odd at all and you don’t have to try v hard, two large cod at about £7 each, large chips, curry sauce, mushy peas etc etc

4 pieces is £9 then and £4 on chips and it’s under £15.

This!! It chippy costs £15 for three of us including a drink each

I piece of cod is £7 here! Chips extra £3. Crazy money.

I do agree with others that buying food and thinking about what you eat it a huge task. I take this responsibility on in our family and cook most of the meals, but DH does cook dinner on Saturday. He almost always makes a big spag bol with enough to heat up as a pasta bake on Sunday night which I do with some veg on the side. So I get a break from the thinking about it at the weekend..

I like to cook from fresh ingredients most of the time and during the week we have mostly veggie and a bit of fish. But I do keep some cheapish frozen battered fish, peas and chips in the freezer for the occasional days when I'm too tired or busy to cook. They are OK, but not great.

We have had those M&S Gastropub fish and chips a few times and they are really nice. They come with mushy peas and feel much more like a treat than the frozen ones. But I would save them for a special lazy dinner, equivalent to a takeaway. Even though they are expensive and I would have to put them in the oven, I know they would both taste nicer and be cheaper than our local chippie. So I can see the reasoning occasionally, but definitely not regularly.

Takeaways are rare for us now with costs of everything, but last week we got fish and chips for three of us for about £25. Couldn't believe fish was about £6.50 each, but I just got "small" chips to share, as at our shop it's still a massive amount

Your bigotry has blinded you. Op said they could afford the £25.

Bigotry my arse. Right to an opinion. It is well known that even in these times of equality at work, the woman is still doing the lion's share of the housework and child rearing, whether they can afford it or not and no matter how hard she is working outside of the home.

Do you enjoy cancelling people's opinion that differ from yours? If you are a man pulling your weight at home as much as the mother of your children, you are the exception, not the rule.

That does sound annoying, as you could either get a much nicer dinner for that money, or for just bung it in the oven it could have been less than a tenner.

I also do most of the food / meals in the house and will always plan for the week around what's on special offer etc. It's sort of fun, like Ready Steady Cook!
When my DH cooks he tends to just think of what he'd like to eat and spend a fortune on it - doesn't check what we have already, or what's good value, or think how to sub expensive ingredients w cheaper ones.

I think ours was £11.25 each. My friend and I share one about once a month. The fish is huge and beautifully cooked. DH and I have two fish and one chips and sometimes I cant eat all the fish.

I don't blame you being annoyed. My DH gets carried away in the nearby services M&S.🙄

DH just got a large cod and chips with curry sauce for £11.