"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?

Being able to extend longevity is improving healthcare.

The thing is, if hardly anyone can afford eating out and entertainment, how do these industries survive? Do we just want to be surrounded by supermarkets and nothing else? Living a fulfilling life also means being able to enjoy yourself in a way that you like, for many people it is eating out, cinema, gigs, trips, etc. If all of this becomes unaffordable for the grand majority of people should we just say, oh well, just stay home, cook and watch telly?

And what are the incomes of the these home-owners ripping out new kitchen and bathroom suites? You can bet it's not £55k combined per annum.

I was astounded that a “day out” seemed to be what I would have thought of as two separate days out i will admit! Meal out OR activity in my life

but i get that it is hard when people have got used to something to have to scale back

edit to add - and I guess the surrounding industries have grown to sweep up demand that is no ok her there

but we have had full employment with a much smaller tourist sector before now

Obesity is a leading cause of cancer( and other expensive diseases) second only to smoking.

People saying it’s always been expensive and you can take a picnic etc are missing the point. The point is that now it is comparatively more expensive.

The point is that the cost of living has gone up so much. We used to be able to go out, or pay for tickets to things, or get coffee, or get takeaways regularly. Or go shopping for fun, or to the hairdresser, or out for drinks ... these weren't big expenses. But now they are not things we can afford to do at all, really.

Now let me think! Many people are coming off fixed rate mortgages, so these are increasing significantly. Petrol is now around the £1.45 mark and rising, this is going impact on the cost of people’s shopping due to the increase in transport cost! So even a decent salary isn’t going to go very far!

Strictly it’s more expensive than it was for a few years but if you are older you see it possibly as still cheaper than when you were growing up

If you're going on about obesity as some sort of finger-wag against Costa or Pizza Express being unhealthy, you're missing the point.

I strongly object to paying £5-6 for a soft drink when it’s comes out of a machine and costs the company about 50p, so I more often have tap water. The mark up on soft drinks is extortionate and unjustified.

This. Life seems to be cyclical. We hardly ever ate out as kids in the 70s. Maybe those days are coming back. Blackouts and 3 day weeks anyone?

Nope I was simply pointing out that endless takeaways, fast food and meals out(2 in a day) with unnecessary amounts of poor quality food in both aren’t desirable things for the consumer to be aspiring to.

Why are implying I was lying? Is it uncomfortable for you to acknowledge that there are still plenty of people who can happily eat out regularly?

£174 in pizza express is excessive. Theres plenty of offers if you use the app.

Common sense? We have a bigger than average income but don't waste money because why waste money?

But that's not what will happen. The vast majority of people will still eat out/go out but less often. So yes my high street may go back to 3 cafes rather than 6 cafes, there may be fewer chicken shops and every second shop may not be a nail bar but there will still be cafes, restaurants etc. And that's life. Its not different to other high street shops going out of business because we have switched to shopping on line.

And some of us want to have an ok retirement.

Different people have different ideas about what “wasting money” means, though.

It's actually smoking (30%), then inactivity. You can keep arguing that there isn't a cost of living crisis and that the average worker isn't experience a real-time salary decrease due to fiscal drag, but you're not doing a very good job.

Obesity chat belongs in another topic to 'average family would like to have lunch out in a cafe once a month of £55k income and not worry about it'.

Endless?

The whole point of the programme and the thread is that they're not endless - and now not even an occasional thing for many.

It's not for you to decide other peoples' eating priorities, in any case.

Even if they were 'endless', it's still an extremely unpropitious sign of an economy in trouble. That should concern us all - even those who are sanctimonious about other peoples' weight.

Surely the answer for middle class people feeling the pinch is to cancel Netflix and stop eating avocados ?

It wasn't two meals out in a day. It was two families who each ate out once – did you even read the article?

Lol, that statement as a blanket is not true

It might be, it can be, but isnt necessarily

Healthcare to prolong life, great, or is it?

It doesnt mean we are living more healthily into old age or having 'good' health care, it could be mean that merely we are providing some care to one condition at the expense of the wellbeing of the rest of the body.

Its quite a complicated system that we have created

See also vets and keeping animals alive for the owners benefit well past their time.

I meant the Laser Quest and the aquarium trip in the BBC article. They are discretionary spending without adding meals out.