"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?

I do agree the examples in the article are chosen badly.
No one would buy lunch and dinner out for a short activity like going to the aquarium/laser quest, for example.

But eating out has risen a lot over the last few years.

That said, the Pizza Express meal is a bad example - you can get nice pub lunches for less that would fill you up more (we can never manage 3 courses, in the way you easily can at PE).

I'm exhorting them to make the best of a situation they can't change. Instead of complaining that they can't afford a day out, or even that they can't afford a lunch or dinner out, make sensible choices so that you can afford it.

That's TV sensationalism for you. If I had £180 to drop on an evening meal it wouldn't be a Pizza Express. If I had to eat at PE I would use some voucher deal. E.g 3-Course Set Menu £28.
Wasn't that long ago was £19.95 for similar.

That is a mad article - a family day out including Sea World AND Laser Quest? Sounds like the day from hell to me! Plus they are only on a combined income of £55K - that's barely above national minimum wage. Low paid family can't afford over the top day out to expensive attractions shocker. Lunch at a coffee shop with 4 mains, dessert all round plus hot drinks wasn't cheap 10 or 20 years ago, and was definitely not a regular feature of my middle class childhood.

Yes, they’ve undermined their own argument by the families being extravagant. Most families I know would always have only done activity AND meal very very occasionally even prior to COLC. Much more likely to do activity OR meal. Plus they ordered a lot of food and I say that as someone who likes to eat.

When low earners struggle its because they arent trying hard enough or its cast as some sort of moral failing. When high earners are affected then its oh no! sign of the times! Just cut back like poor people get told to.

Apparently the hospitality sector has accounted for half of all job losses in the uk over a one year period (this was in sept last year) due to rising costs and weaker demand.

Yes each individual can have a nice time halving thier order or taking a picnic but its not a good economic sign.

I do think it’s odd how accustomed we have become to eating out. I think I can count on one hand how many times my parents took us out for a meal that wasn’t to celebrate a birthday in my entire childhood. Now we see brunch as part of the cost of a standard weekend

You could certainly skip the cafe lunch and have peanut butter sandwiches and celery sticks on a park bench every weekend instead ... and skip laser quest to stay home and shine torches at each other ... which would be cheaper, but a very different experience.

Meanwhile, the cafe and entertainment venues go out of business

How can I become Panorama case study? Maybe they will do holidays next?

It's not.

But it's also not essential if you're just going to complain about the bill afterwards.

I suspect they ordered a lot of things because the BBC was footing the bill. My thoughts were exactly the same as yours @PropitiousJump. I think they were told to push the boat out to stand the story up.

You have not fully read the article. They did only one activity per kid & parent. The younger child & mom went to seaworld. The older kid and dad went to laserquest.

You have not fully read the article. They did only one activity per kid & parent. The younger child & mom went to seaworld. The older kid and dad went to laserquest.

Well sure, it goes without saying, surely, that they make the best of it now that they’ve been landed in that situation.

But we shouldn’t be keeping quiet about the massive change in the economy that’s led to this. People should be asking questions of our politicians about what’s happened and how to get back on track. The government should be scrutinised on it. Their policies are contributing to the lack of turn around.

Yes, the cost of living does mean middle-income families can not afford to do this as often.

However.

If you look back historically it is only quite recently that most people could afford to go out for meals, days out etc regularly. In the main, it's always been the preserve of the wealthier, not the middle of the road.

This is a correction back to the norm.

Even I remember in the 90s we would only go to the zoo once a year and we would take a picnic. We didn't go out to eat much at all!

We are both top 5% earners but would never eat out for lunch and dinner. It’s not that we can’t afford it, it’s just it’s such a waste of money, and with young kids eating out is stressful. And costa and pizza express? Generic chain crap. Yuck! We’d take sandwiches or so a meal deal. And we rarely pay for attractions. Why bother when the UK has world class museums that are free?

I also think that people who are middle income don't do this without planning - my family has been to the zoo and SeaWorld in the last six months: one with friends who booked discounted tickets with their Merlin pass, and one using 'Kids Pass' for discounted tickets. We've been to the cinema a few times - on the £2 holiday specials, when it's £4 on the clubcard, etc.

It's also about where you eat. Me and my daughter ate for £21 all together the other week - she had juice in her set menu, I had water, and then we bought a tub of icecream to share with the family for less than buying one dessert.

I think you’re missing the point of the article. This isn’t their normal day out. It’s a paid for day for a TV programme.

As you can see at the end it says ‘For now, the Osbornes are going to enjoy the simple things in life.
"We tend to prioritise going to parks, museums, fairs, that type of stuff that we can do for free," says Paul.‘

I think it makes a good point. We have a good income but we won’t even consider eating out with the kids because of the cost. We could afford it but it’s just not justifiable.

It wasn't Sea World AND Laser Quest. The family split up so one parent took the older child to laser quest and one parent took the younger child to sea world.

Three course meal is bloody extravagant. I don't get it. Feeling like you can't breathe because you have eaten so much isn't fun.

If you are eating at Pizza Express then I have very little sympathy anyway.

We can afford to eat out if we want to precisely because we aren't greedy and we go to places which don't rip you off for shit food.

When did going out for lunch and dinner as part of a day out become the norm? I don’t think it was when I was a child in the 80’s. My parents were my rich, but had good jobs and were comfortable. We would always take a packed lunch if we went out for the day. We might have a drink and a cake somewhere, or chips on the way home. Meals out were saved for special occasions. I’m not saying I don’t think things are expensive now, but I do think expectations have changed.

You can easily spend £100 on four mains and a drink each in my local pubs now.

They all clearly struggle for midweek trade - but spending a decent weekly food budget on one (usually fairly average) meal just doesn’t make sense!

You can spend £8 a pint at most of our local watering holes now - couple of drinks each for a couple might be getting on for £40.

Well Panorama was paying, so I suppose they took the opportunity to have whatever they wanted, rather than what they might have got if they'd been paying. But you're right - if you're on a tight budget for a day out you find ways to economise and make it work - so if that means forgoing the wine and crisps or taking a picnic, that's what you do.

PP are definitely missing the point of this exercise. Which is that people who could previously afford a day out which included a meal now can't. This shows illustrates that the knock on effect is the loss of lower paying jobs meaning those workers have no job at all.