"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?

Exactly.

I thought Costas and Starbucks were largely venues for business meetings/ short travel stops or mums dropping in for a collective pickup drink and chat.
Food there is just filler tat not a meal.

Noone thinks its a right. Where on earth are you getting that conclusion?

People are noticing an economic trend that inflation is 3%, wages are stagnating and the economy is contracting so there are job losses. Some of it is due to worldwide events and some of it due to the last budget.

The people werent living beyond thier means. The cost off everything increased and now its no longer in their means so they dont do it anymore. Its noticing a shift in behaviour. Not suggesting a right.

I cant see the celebration in this. People seem delighted that wars, covid debts, a messed up truss budget, and some recent NI hikes mean people have to cut back. Hurrah! I love war and mismanaged budgets, I cant get coffee out anymore. Its amazing.

I agree, and especially nowadays you have to be smart about it I think to not overpay.

We eat at Pizza Express as a family of 4 a lot and it’s never over £100 with a glass of wine, sides etc, so I am surprised by the £170 pizza express bill. But they don’t seem to have taken advantage of any of the offers or discounts available. The app always saves some money, with a free side, free soft drink, etc here and there. The kids meals include a dessert too.

I shudder when I see the cost of entry for a family at National Trust places. We are associate members, so entry is free. Lunch, the last place we visited was nearly £30. That was for a sandwich, a sausage roll, 2 drinks and a cake. We can afford it but next time we go I’ll be taking a packed lunch. OTOH I’m happy to pay over the odds for a nice meal out. It’s what I prioritise. However, I do think that the Panorama programme was a bit skewed. They could have got the message across without giving carte blanch to the families to spend what they want.

I don't know how old you are, but when it first started, the food at Pizza Express was very good indeed. I first ate there in about 1980 and it was still good then. It's gone downhill recently, since being bought out, as the pizza is now the American version of pizza, but it used to be much nicer.

Eating out is ridiculously expensive now. We just don’t do it anymore, but I agree it doesn’t need to stop you from going for days out. We either find a supermarket a buy some sandwiches or make them if money is tight. It was standard practice to make a picnic when I was a child. We never ate out in restaurants and even fish and chips was a rare treat.

You know when austerity came in, along with the local housing allowance and the bedroom tax and people needed to use food banks, not be able to heat their homes, their children doing no hobbies, why did you think that your lifestyle would never change?
If earnings are stagnant and those working full time, in lower paid employment, are told to tighten their belts, which means shite food except on special occasions etc. Why do you think that you needing to cut down on luxuries wouldn't happen?

Your boomer parents may eat out a lot now, but I bet they didn't when they were your age, or when they were young. Maybe you'll just have to wait your turn?

Fairness isnt you having now what other people has to wait years for.

Isn’t that the whole point though - that £10 is absolutely extortionate for one glass of wine? We were in Spain recently and bought a bottle of wine in a restaurant. It was a nice bottle which would have cost £10 in a Spanish supermarket - we paid just £15 for the bottle in the restaurant. Imagine what the mark up would have been here.

People have been living beyond their means- household debt has been horrific. Look at what people think are necessities for kids- new iPhones, car finance x 2 or 3, constant nail treatments, constant expensive renos on perfectly descent rooms, holidays abroad, expensive days out and whole class parties….. the list is endless.

People have debt and debt costs.

Me and my husband earn well, but we need to use coupons and offers to keep costs down.

What is the point in frittering this money away willy nilly for the sake of a (quite frankly) mediocre sandwich at Costa?

People might look down on bringing-your-own-lunch, but hands down I can prepare a much nicer (and more generous!) lunch to eat in a park with the kids that the overpriced micro-sandwiches you find in these places.

The problem wouldn't necessarily be the money, the problem is what shit everything has become, particularly in the "going out to eat" business.

Lol its almost as if Spain produces a lot of wine and the UK doesnt isnt it?

You’re having the last laugh because the hundreds of pounds you’re saving can go on things with far more value.

We have days out almost every weekend and often it costs nothing extra. We make packed lunches for weekends and school holidays as a routine thing. It's cheaper but also healthier and better for dcs who like to eat little and often rather than a meal out. We have Merlin passes and zoo passes so with those and the free museums and attractions in London we can often spend nothing at all (we don't buy coffees out or gift shop toys for the sake of it, and have travel passes for work). We have a comfortable income and don't desperately need to cut back but spending cafe prices for snacks and drinks that are just the same as supermarket multipacks is just a waste of money. I'd rather that money was squirreled away to build up assets for our family's future than frittered away.

To me, the problem is people eating in chain cafes and restaurants. They've been sold the idea that this is special or glamorous. The prices charged cover shareholder dividends, advertising, branded disposable cups and all the other associated crap. I am fortunate to live somewhere with lots of independents and rarely eat in a chain restaurant.

Perhaps get rid of the SUV and have a normal car before you complain about other expenses.

This. I have never gone to Costa or Starbucks for anything other than a cappucino or a latte (and sometimes a cake) when meeting a friend. I wouldn't dream of going there for a 'meal.'

.

Yep, same here. Never ate out, but had fish and chips about 6 times a year and one Chinese takeaway on mum's birthday - she refused to cook and that was her takeaway of choice. It was so rare you can remember them. This kind of thing was a treat, true meaning of a treat.

When my parents got older and us kids moved out, they'd go for a pub lunch on occasion too, they never could've have affording it with a family of six.

My dad was a good earner and we lived in a nice part of Sussex but things were different back then. None of these coffee shops were around, just greasy spoon cafes, no burger or fried chicken shops and money was spent very wisely, mainly with dad it was paying off the mortgage. We didn't have any family holidays either. People just used their money in different ways and expectations different.

I completely agree. You're totally missing the point OP, despite many posters explaining it. If you're earning a decent salary you shouldn't have to take warm meat paste sandwiches out with you. You shouldn't have to be agonising over whether you can order a glass of wine at pizza express or a bloody cookie at costa. Quality of life is being completely eroded for millions of people and we shouldn't just be shutting up and taking crap butties and a flask everywhere we go. The wealth on this planet is being held by a tiny amount of people that are getting richer while we are all getting poorer.

Exactly this. In the 90s when a lot of us were growing up, for a middle class professional couple some version of this was reasonably doable regularly. Now for the same demographic its not. Its irrelevant whether Pizza Express is nice or if they could use vouchers or if you could make a nicer pizza at home. Its the change, especially in the last few years, and its filtering down so that places go.bust, or hire fewer staff so my 16 yo cant get a part time job, so I have to keep funding pocket money so.i cant afford to take us out and so on....

Agree with the other comments that middle class earners should be able to enjoy things without penny pinching, I am in this situation myself and constant costs rising means we have to budget a lot of the time.

Saying that, I do think it’s somewhat stupidity to go to a chain like Pizza Express/Ask Italian etc and not use the offers (which they always have on), £20 for a pizza!!! And eating lunch at Costa, obviously it’s going to be daftly expensive.

We eat at Pizza Express as a family of 4 a lot and it’s never over £100 with a glass of wine, sides etc, so I am surprised by the £170 pizza express bill. But they don’t seem to have taken advantage of any of the offers or discounts available. The app always saves some money, with a free side, free soft drink, etc here and there. The kids meals include a dessert too.

Because they ordered an absolute mountain of food, including 4 full sized desserts. There is also no mention whether the two children got any of the added free things from the kids menu, presumably not because there were 5 drinks on the bill. The also ordered 8 sides (including salad) for two adults and two small children. So the entire thing is just a farce to generate a ragebait total sum for the BBC.

Where else would you go ? The prices will be roughly the same (if not more in some more artisan places).

But you are missing the point of the article. The point is that people are now having to bring their own food, or skip the glass of wine, because the cost of entertainment/eating out has risen far more than the average wage, and it's causing people to have to change their lifestyle/spending choices.

The very fact that having one glass of wine with a meal out has now become an extravagance for families on decent wages says it all.
That can't be good for the hospitality industry, or the economy as a whole.