When did cheap nights become so expensive.

[gothicomedy]

A trip to the cinema last night cost £9 for ticket, £5 for parking, £3 for bag of chocolate sweets and £3.50 for a cup of coffee before hand. So over £20 for a night out at the pictures for one person.

A fish and chip supper for two with a bottle of supermarket wine last saturday cost £23.

AIBU to wonder when what was traditionally a cheap treat has now become an expensive luxury?

Yes - we rarely went to see a film in the 70s/80s. The Saturday morning kids' club was peanuts to get into, though - a place for parents to dump the children while they went shopping - the programme was all crappy Children's Film Foundation stuff😁

Cinema was £6 many years ago, in fact it was £9 in London when I was young (hint I'm not now!) it's £3.50 for a coffee from coffee shops anyway.

Our local cinema is £5.99 thankfully (Vue)

Cinema has always been that range of prices.

The fish and chips is cheap. Around here it's at least 20 pp without drinks.

Meal for two and a bottle of wine for £23. That is definitely an inexpensive treat!

Fish and chips here is £12 per meal though we do tend to share, our local pub lets you eat inside (they don't serve food) so it's £20 for 2 beers and sharing a fish and chips, I think that's reasonable myself. Parking is free at many cinemas and I've never bought snacks in my life, I don't need to eat constantly!

Some 'packaged' bank accounts do cinema tickets as an option. Wouldn't be worth the fee for that alone but if you have one for something else such as travel or breakdown cover, it could be worth looking for one that offers cinema as an add on.

My local Vue is £4.99 a ticket and I can get two tickets for £4.99 on a Tuesday or Wednesday with Meerkat. The car park is free after 6pm. I take my own snacks in and a travel mug of Yorkshire tea.

No way would I pay the prices that cinemas charge for snacks and drinks.

Yes it used to be but that was many decades ago. Regional theatre was cheap then too.

Our local cinema is £18 for an evening ticket! I don't remember it ever being cheap though, even in the 90s going to the cinema was a treat.

Food in the cinema has always been overpriced. Nothing new there. I wouldn't say £20 to the cinema is an 'expensive luxury'.

I agree about chip shops. I had a fish and chips takeaway the other week and it was £15 for one person! I don't live in London or anything, in fact I live in a run-down area. I don't understand how they can charge so much.

Vue cinemas are £4.99 for a ticket, which is way cheaper than they were pre-Covid! I had 2 freebies via Vitality (had to clock up plenty of exercise to earn them though), and took 4 of us to see Wonka for £9.98 at Christmas! Made popcorn at home before we left (takes 5-10 mins max, and way nicer than cinema popcorn) so it was a bargain trip out!

In contrast, my friend saw Wonka at Everyman and came home £100 lighter...

@TheLogicalSong I ended up working in a cinema in the 90s (which is why after the age of 16 I suddenly saw a load more films) and doing Saturday morning cinema club - parents happy to dump their very young kids with a few non DBS checked (don’t even know if that was a thing then) teenagers to watch films that were up to 30 years old so they could go shopping. Jason and the Argonauts was a particular standout.

The cost of keeping fryers running has gone up astronomically. As has the cost of oil, potatoes and fish. And rents, rates and min wage. It's easy to see how the price of F&C has sky rocketed.

It’s the cost of oil, and heating that oil. Their overheads are extortionate now.

I don't get people who complain about this sort of thing and think that all the add ons are necessary. The cinema itself is the treat, you don't need to buy a coffee before hand and chocs from the cinema. Most people I know go to Home Bargains and buy sweets/drinks there and take it in with them. Anyway the cinema has never been a cheap treat.

It's £12 at ours on a weekend! That's in the north east not even London! We Ave limitless passes for £15 a month so go a lot. I think probably it works out at about £5 per go as we are also quite busy so would maybe see more but have time!

I'm sure it was cheap, since you apparently also time travelled back to 1998. 😁

I agreed to take the DC swimming today. There was an inflatable session so I thought they might enjoy that which they were definitely up for. I didn't realise it would cost £24 due to the big blow up thingy though!!

Prices have gone up a lot.
We went to the fireworks and it was £7 for a hotdog.

I do get the running costs of the shop will be high, for the reasons mentioned. I just worry that they won't be able to afford to stay in business charging those prices, as most people in my area can't afford that.

Me and dh were talking about this the other day, we’ve cut back and changed lots of days or evenings out now because things are just so expensive.
meals out would cost us £30-£50. Now it’s £80 upwards.
weve gone from a once a month treat to really only special occasions.
takeaways are ditched now, in place of finding something at home or a Chuck in the oven dinner.

we know plenty who are doing the same.
yet places still seem really busy

That fish & chip/wine treat is CHEAP!

They won’t.

i read a report that the chicken shop has now replaced the fish and chip shop as our staple takeaway.

Going to the cinema buying a snack there and a coffee there and parking has never been a cheap treat. And parking isn't a per head cost.

The cinemas around here are £5 a head, if you want to do it cheaply you buy a snack and a drink from poundland or share a popcorn. Then you walk/get the bus. I actually think parking is discounted so about £3 to park. Could be £15 for 2 which is a cheap night

Fish and chips again round here was £23 for me and DH the other day, 2 big size pieces of fish plus we had 3 sides. That seems really cheap for the amount of fish we got. Again if I wanted a cheap treat I'd share a large chips or go for something like a sausage which is cheaper. Cod from the supermarket is expensive, I can't expect it to suddenly half in price when it's battered