"We can't justify a £52 lunch" - AIBU to think you didn't need to?

[PropitiousJump]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg3g11z6d8o

I found this article irritating. Middle earning families complaining they can't afford a day out, in part because of the expense of eating lunch and dinner out. A family of four in both cases.

I completely agree it's got expensive to eat out, but have they never heard of taking your own sandwiches?

And if you look at what they've eaten, they've ordered a lot of extras that have bumped up the bill.

Costa family - £52 lunch for four. If they could have done without an overpriced bag of crisps on top of their mains, and not had puddings (this was lunch, not dinner) they could have got the bill down to a more reasonable £40ish - a tenner each.

Pizza Express family - £174 dinner for four. If they cut out the starter and side orders and the adults had soft drinks instead of alcohol, they could have got the bill down to approx £109 for soft drinks, mains and a dessert each.

This isn't saying they are eating too much - it's not a diet-bashing thread - but common sense says that if you are eating in a chain place on a day out and trying to keep costs down, you don't order loads of extras and alcohol. Have a drink and a snack at home if you're still hungry. Save all the extras for an 'occasion' where eating out is the focus of the event and you're going somewhere special, not fuelling up in a chain restaurant.

AIBU?

Not so good for jobs though. Independent cafes tend to struggle to survive even more than the chains. We'll be left with the really cheap crap chains.

People in deprived areas are more likely to be obese so it isn't eating lunch out that is causing obesity.

I was a child in the 80s, we ate out regularly. Lunch out every Saturday either on camp (dad was in the military) or in the local department store cafe. Evening meal out at least once a month and takeout maybe once a fortnight.

I went in two different cafes yesterday. Cafe 1 with friends whilst our children were competing, two scones, a bacon roll and 2 (large) coffees came to just under £20. There was also a glass of water but that was free.

Cafe 2 with a friend and two 11 year olds, 3 pizzas (friend and I shared due to still being full of scone) and cold 4 drinks came to around £56.

Neither were chains, everything was cooked from scratch and very nice but I was surprised for a lovely warm spring day, how quiet both were.

We usually do a mix, picnics if we're going to the beach or hiking and cafe/restaurants for city days. Rarely 3 courses in one place though as that's just too much food at once.

I’m not being funny, but there’s a reason we do the occasional ‘Spoons for breakfast or tea as a treat. It’s cheap!

In our 20s, DH and I had visited every curry house there was in Cardiff at the time to try them all out (over a few years). We ate out probably once a fortnight.

There’s no way we could afford that now.

Ha, my family are so not tiny eaters but even we don't buy a portion of chips each. Most chippy portions are huge and known for it are they not? Every single chippy I have ever been to has been the same and I've moved a lot in the UK over the years.

Beer taprooms are brilliant for a good meal and a drink at a relatively reasonable price compared to chains. Why? Because their business model is significantly more sustainable and because they brew onsite theres a big saving right there coupled with an on site attraction (many do beer tours on a Saturday). They are often geared up as family friendly with games available for the kids to play.

The problem with the whole concept of mass eating out is you have to have significant inequality to enable it - it relies on exceptionally low wages and overheads for those at the bottom compared to a middle income.

Interestingly eating out in a lot of Northern European countries still is much less common than in the UK for precisely this reason - there isn't enough of a gap between the lowest and highest earners to enable lots of eating out. Anywhere that has high energy costs is going to be more affected. Anywhere with generally high wages compared to other countries will be more affected. Anywhere which relies on imported food will be more affected.

Spain has more energy security - its less affected by whats going on in Iran because the government invested in alternative energy sources. It produces most of its own food and this is reflected in the food available and wages are low compared with elsewhere in Europe - and tourism is a significant part of the equation. Also see Italy.

The UK in someways was an outlier because we were happy with the low wages - until there was a political backlash about this. With massive increases in energy costs and demands for fairer wages how does anyone on this thread think we could continue with mass eating out???

My mind boggles in terms of people's understanding of how we are supposed to keep eating out costs low when we don't have energy security and we aren't self sufficient for produce.... and people insist on eating three course preprepared and then microwaved meals at huge half full branded shit eateries who have huge marketing budgets rather than local eateries with fab small menus, alternative income streams and can regularly fill most tables from reputation alone...

There are some amazing places out there - for cost and quality. You have to put the effort in to find them.

Eating out in general has become expensive, regardless of whether or not you have alcohol, starters or deserts.

The article doesnt suggest it as a weekly event though?

If you read to the end of it, it has business owners talking about how customer behaviour has shifted and staff are being cut. The soft play owner says that people used to do whole class parties but are now doing 15 instead.

Obviously noone needs a soft play party at all. Ive never had one. But there was clearly enough people who once a year for maybe two or three years running had a whole class party and now there's not.

There was clearly enough people eating out and now there isnt. The exact mechanics of whether they were going out for extravagant meals on a weekly basis, or more modest ones on high days and holidays only is a bit irrelevant to the fact that overall the economy is contracting and this sector is hit worse.

I think the article has bad examples. Pizza express for example, i think is deliberately, or artificially overpriced because they know 90% of customers are going to use a deal/voucher/app to get the cost down. The last time I went, I had a deal on my 02 app....but almost every other customer, when presented with the bill was using some app or deal. I probably wouldn't have gone at all if I didn't have the offer.

The same with sealife centre, there are so many vouchers, as well as yearly passes, that I imagine majority of customers aren't paying the on the door prices.

But I agree that eating out has generally got a lot more expensive. I have 2 teens, wed expect to pay £150-180 if we went out for a meal (somewhere nicer than PE) and had wine....so we dont do it very often. Mainly birthdays and on holiday.
When they were younger if we went out for an activity we would probably combine that with an ive cream.or snack out or possibly mcdonalds rather than a full meal.

No it’s fast food outlets which also need to reduce.

People have been living beyond their means. There is no way on earth we could have afforded whole class soft play parties either!!!

It’s staggering what people think is a right.

This is wildly different to my experience as a child - we lived in a middle class area and my Dad was always a solid good middle earner. My Mum worked part time. We had a take away once in a blue moon. We ate out maybe once or twice a year if that.

You have missed the point of the article. I'm sure that they do still have days out and cut stuff out like you helpfully suggest. But in this case, they were paid by Panorama to highlight the affect of inflation on family days out. So that's what they did.

How do you pay hospitality workers decent wages if nobody needs to be eating out and going to cafes? Also, newsflash, it's not the 70's-90's anymore.

Obviously house prices are ridiculous but being in negative equity is very tough for people so I doubt there is much appetite for that.

Doesn't change the fact that businesses going under is rarely cause for celebration.

In a few years’ time will there be similar threads, but this time people berating others for boiling the kettle more than once a day? For daring to have more than one winter coat?

I've no doubt they will, the race to the bottom stops at death only - and then you'll have to feel obliged to donate all your organs to reduce the national debt 😁

Yep wildly different for us too. My dad was on an ok wage and takeaways and eating out were treats.

Who eats at Pizza Express without a half price voucher? 🤔

Parties as kid were at a friends house with parents doing games. There wasn't hall hire and children's entertainers. When you got older you could take a couple of friends out for a meal or bowling. But it was one or the other not both. This wasn't unusual.

The expectation shift is huge. I don't think it is good in its own right for a whole pile of reasons.

You mean it’s not the
40s,50s 60s, 70s,70s,80s,90s
any more .

Why is it that this generation feels they need and deserve a life of unnessary shite luxuries to survive and be happy with?

Where we are places are heaving with boomers only 😁 We younger generations cannot afford eating out that much yet boomers keep telling us to cut back on coffee and avocado toasts

I know because then kids expect it and can’t amuse themselves with less. Soft play was a couple of times a year treat for my dc (and a couple of times a year hell for us).

I was just out walking with a friend and we were discussing exactly this - how everything has become so horrifically expensive. Our household income is more than that - but with all our household bills/costs, not to mention feeding endlessly hungry teenagers - we have barely anything left at the end of the month.

We have the occasional meal or day out, or trip to the pub - but not frequently. Agree spending £174 at pizza express is insane, and I wouldn't have lunch at Costa either...but it's very annoying how everything has become so unaffordable.

Our salaries simply haven't kept pace with the cost of living, and I really feel it right now.

@RedToothBrush

totally agree. What people spend on their kid’s birthday parties is mind blowing

Weatherspoons will take over. They serve affordable food/drinks and are good employers. But Costa is liked by younger, childfree and the older retired, so they will keep their customer base.
Middle earners generally max out their borrowing, to get something that they think is worthy enough for them, then over pay their mortgage and pensions. So they spend their money elsewhere. I don't know anyone, who has less money, who goes to an aquarium for 90 minutes. They go for at least half a day and take lunch. Food out is Weatherspoons, the pound bakery/cafes. Basically poorer people lead the lifestyles and shop in places that are sneered at on here. The real issue, is as said, overpriced wanky food outlets and seemingly intelligent people not getting that spending your money on items that you can't see, isn't the same as not having any disposable income.

174 is crazy for lunch for a family of 4. Prices are extortionate even if they had extras.
People with money are entitled to complain and feel ripped off too.