To think no one eats out everyday?

[1AngelicFruitCake]

Lighthearted pondering about meals over summer holidays.

Yesterday talking to my friend about making lunch and tea everyday during school holidays. I love my children but it does feel relentless! Shop at Aldi or Lidl and buy varied food to keep it interesting. My friend knows someone who goes out everyday and eats out so the evening meal is simple. I’m like ‘how?!’ How does anyone afford that?!

Salmon sashimi from Itsu 178 calories anyone? Thai noodle chicken soup 285 calories.

I used to work with a single guy who ate out every evening meal and he bought a pack of sandwiches or a wrap at lunchtime too. He told me h only depends about £10-15 on food for home though just cereals, a few pot noodles and fruit and snacks.

I think quite a lot of very wealthy people never eat at home and if they have a dinner party, they pay caterers to cook it - my parents have friends who do that.

But yes, not an option for most people - to eat anywhere even quite ordinary in London other than fast food/pizza chain or a local caff these days is 100 quid or more for a family of 4 with older kids these days. We're going on holiday to Scotland imminently and it's going to be pricey - planning to do a few lunches as meal deal jobs and a few self catered dinners or else the costs really racks up.

I plan on eating out everyday when I am retired and only having sandwiches and snacks at home- I will take advantage of the cheaper lunchtime menus and move back to a city - at the moment we only really eat out a few times a year although we do have a couple of takeaways each week and I really miss it. Now we are no longer in the city and have dc it is just too expensive for not great food,

Oooh, are your neighbours mine!? We noticed during covid but it's never stopped! It's more unusual for a takeaway not to turn up and it is often two, in the morning and at dinner time for example. We often wonder if they have a kitchen!

My old neighbours had takeaway every day if the number of delivery drivers was anything to go by.

I guess that was their thing.

Where, though? Quite a lot of cafes, in supermarkets in particular, offer free kids meals.

I tend to have one meal out each day in the summer as I meet friends it may just be a croissant and a coffee or may be something more substantial . I'm know how lucky I am

Well, get the 250 cal salad instead? Plenty of places in my city where healthiness is their selling point, and their menus are already loaded into MyFitnessPal. Chicken, broccoli and brown rice, 450 cal, yum.

Try getting that from a takeaway in most places.

Hard to find in my city to be honest. But then I don’t get takeaways so I’m no expert. I get one takeaway on Christmas Eve.

When I first met Mr Monkey he ate out pretty much all the time. His workplace at the time had a very good subsidised canteen, so he'd eat his main meal of the day there and would pick up something light for evening meals in a cafe or pub - he was out a lot doing sport or socialising in the evenings - or have a sandwich at home.

Weekends he would go to restaurants or pubs for food.

The only things he really ate at home was breakfast (toast and a coffee) and the sort of easy oven meals you might feed a fussy child - chips, salad and breaded stuff or a pizza.

I changed all that and while we still love to eat out, I would now say 80% of our meals are homecooked and he has even got in to taking leftovers in to work for lunch (he no longer works at the place with the subsidised canteen!).

Couldn't bear to eat out every day even if I could afford it. All that waiting and bill-paying faff.

You do you, but I'd swap cooking for waiting and clearing up for bill-paying!

Really? Whilst waiting you enjoy a nice drink and a chat. And you pay by literally tapping your phone against the card machine, takes all of 2 seconds. And you spend zero time shopping, cooking, setting the table and clearing away.

All of these replies are so interesting! It seems I’m wrong!
I’d love to eat out more. The person who said they had a meals on wheels type service every day (not sure who it was) how did that come about?

There are some really weird comments on this thread who appear to go to restaurants who make meals void of any vegetables, waiting for food is an agonising void rather than an opportunity to sit comfortable, enjoy the ambiance, chilli out, chat with your dining partner/read a book/play on your phone/do literally anything than can be done sitting down, and then have to do an extended acrobatics routine to pay for their meal rather than the real world where paying is a quick tap of a contactleas card taking seconds.

Whereas in their house presumably their incredibly healthy, veg heavy, food appears magically and instantly at the tap of a finger with no planning, shopping, prep, cooking and cleaning?

I think it depends where you live. In a lot of areas the only eating out food options are takeaways like KFC or similar or chain restaurants with uninspiring offerings. You can travel further to find better, yes but that's probably more effort than just cooking yourself, especially if you don't have a car.

Yes please. Not everyone is fat.