"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?

It’s terrible for the economy if average families can’t afford to to fairly average things. I’m a high earner and I can’t really afford pizza express full price and it’s somewhere say 10 years ago when I wasn’t a high earner that I would regularly go for lunch with friends and kids. Likewise costa was somewhere I’d go for a drink and a cake without thinking about it, now the equivalent would be a takeaway from Greggs.

Even though I earn a lot of money my everyday life in some respects is worse than it was when I wasn’t earning enough to pay tax. If I’m saying that (and I’m not saying it for sympathy, I am sharing my reality) then I’ve no idea how people on lower incomes can do any of these things at all and I can only imagine many businesses offering the nice to haves will go bust and sadly lots of people will lose their jobs.

Yes we can all be grateful and take a cheese sandwich and some tap water to the park, but it’s shite and it encourages no one to change anything - what is the point of university/ college/ school/ setting up a business/ being a stressed key worker if you end up with nowt to show for it?

Yes, since when was that supposed to be a nice experience?!

We have a household income of 75k and massively cut down, I will happily refuse buying a coffee for myself
Dbil has a household income of 27k and they insist on all the treats then wonder why they are in debt
Definitely a matter of what is important to you!

Iv never done lunch at Costa or Starbucks esp with a family. Its just too much money even if I could afford it.

Yes, that's literally the point of the article. The fact that something so normal as a glass of wine with an evening meal or a couple of cookies after a lunch now has to be chucked in the "extravagant" bucket.

It is expensive and to be honest we serve these type of things now when we didn't as much ten years ago.

If it's Pizza express for the kids birthday I have tap water and a kids pizza so the kids can have a adult meal and a coke. If we went into Costa I'd but sandwiches and chips in Boots and just get them a cake and drink. Even then sometimes I'd get all food in Greg's and just a drink in Costa. Ie we only go into Costa when we feel like a siþ down. Kids happy to eat Greggs walking about.

Honestly the amount we spend on eating out and takeaways has plummeted. I'm sure it has a knock on. Yearly passes for venues and picnics all the way. But in theory we should be much better off as promotions etc. If I had spare cash I'd more inclined to save forfuel.prices increases etc

I agree with the general consensus. If you work hard, have a good job, earn well, is it too much to expect to be able to afford meals out now and then and some treats?

It’s like when gas and electricity companies put their prices up, everyone says sit in the cold with a blanket over you, wear an extra jumper, don’t use the oven or the tumble dryer. I want to scream no! I’ve worked hard all my life since leaving education without a break (except for minimum times off to give birth). Is it too much to expect to sit in a warm house of an evening?

Yes, exactly. I'm in my 50s. My parents were what you'd call middle-earners back in the 70s and 80s. We always took our own food on days out - we had lots of day trips, but very rarely bought any food other than perhaps ice-creams at the seaside. I remember once asking for a can of Coke from the station buffet waiting for a train, and my dad's response was 'Not bloody likely!'. They always put in a big bottle of lemon squash for us children to drink, and they had a thermos of coffee for themselves.

We did eat out on special occasions and we'd order more or less what we liked but my parents would never waste money on cafes and the like on a day trip.

I see your point OP! Growing up we were not hard up yet even still a lunch in costa or a lunch in pizza express would have been a very rare treat.

I don’t bother taking my young child to eat somewhere like that, knowing that they would waste a lot of the food!

I’m not sure who needs to read an article or watch a panorama episode about cost of living to realise that prices of food/drink/entertainment have inflated recently? It’s common knowledge. Frustrating, but common knowledge nonetheless.

No one is or ever has been entitled to a 3 course lunch with wine in Pizza Express.

Basically this tbh.

When we go abroad on holiday where you have to pay for museums we actually begrudge it. Instead we find stuff for free unless there's a particular reason we really want to do something, which frankly is generally just as good.

If you do your research you can find places which are way better and way cheaper than fucking pizza express and costa. These type of places rip off people because they can as much as anything. Anywhere that is a franchise is particularly problematic because you are paying for marketing and branding and office staff etc on top of the staff in the restaurant.

@LVhandbagsatdawn This is a correction back to the norm.

OK, but why is the norm, where ordinary working families could only do a fun activity or meal out once or twice a year, automatically better than a situation where they could afford to do more? Where mid-price entertainment or hospitality venues provide a product to people who want it, and hire local people, and contribute to the economy, and generally make life a little bit better? Why would getting rid of that be a "correction"?

If places like this go out of business, it's just another example of the enshittification of everything 😕

And they don't even supply salt & pepper any more to try and give the shite sandwiches/toasties any flavour. 😂

Because they keep going bust/closing down, so there are fewer of them to choose from.

Costa is expensive anyway at the best of times so I’d avoid at all costs, it’s £4.50 for a small coffee!

As for pizza express, it is expensive- I can confirm. I went a couple of weeks ago while in London with DS. We had one small side to share, a pizza each and a soft drink each and it cost £55. Suppose it’s £22.50’each for a pizza, drink and half a side. Not sure if that’s fair or not really, it felt steep.

I guess the point here is Gary Stevenson’s point- the middle are squeezed so much they barely scrape by despite being graduates and earning pretty well. DH and I are in this situation so I get it. We’re not eligible for benefits of any sort due to ‘high incomes’ but we’re fucked by tax monthly, student loan repayments, childcare, mortgage so we barely have a thing left every month.

It’s terrible for the economy if average families can’t afford to to fairly average things.

Yes, which should be the ultimate takeaway here.

Exactly. Pizza Express has always been madly overpriced for mediocre food and the drinks even more so. Modern day equivalent of 'more money than sense' is eating at a chain restaurant or going to 'an attraction' without using a voucher.

DP and I had artisan wood fired pizzas and a pint each of craft beer last week in a big city bar that specialises in these items for under £40 last week. Pizza Express factory food would have cost far more.

I also often take pack lunches- they are often nicer and more relaxed. But also teaching my children that they are not infinite resources is my job too. And helping children see that their is a budget to stick too helps with their financial literacy. It would be either a day out or lunch out- never both on the same day unless it's a birthday treat..

I agree. If every experience you want to give your DC has to come as a package with eating out, you're not going to be able to do do much unless you have limitless funds. For my family it would have been an either/or. We're either doing this activity or we're going out to eat as the activity. Unless we're the elite, we all have to make some compromises with our spending and prioritise in one way or another.

OP: . I remember once asking for a can of Coke from the station buffet waiting for a train, and my dad's response was 'Not bloody likely!"

Sorry, but ... that sucks! Why do you want to go back to that?

That is the point. These prices are ridiculously high compared to what they used to be. So families who still earn decent money can no longer afford these things.

My parents were middle earners and we used to eat out fairly often. I guess it just depends what people prioritise(d).

I don't recall us ever going out and taking sandwiches and a flask. But equally we'd never have been bought cola.

I’m on the fence with this one. When our DC were young, we would go to theme parks using Tesco vouchers and take a packed lunch with us which we would normally eat in the queue for rides, both as something to do and to give us more time for rides.

We often saw families pile into (or even queue) for the restaurants that would leave a family of four with little change from £50-60 or more.

This was 15yrs ago, when we had a household income in the six figure bracket and would rather put the money of full-price entry tickets and a fast food meal into our pensions.

I know millionaires that use Groupon and discount vouchers, or do a packed lunch, that’s partly how they get to keep their money for other things.

Yes, things have got more expensive, but there has always been (& will always be) people who budget and people who want to spend more than their budget allows.

i think there’s been a real shift in expectations about what a day out means. I’m as guilty as anyone as having lunch at a cafe/ pizza express on a day out.

but growing up, even going to McDonald’s was a rare treat that you would have talked about at school
on Monday.

my parents were quite affluent but it was always sandwiches on day trips. And a family meal
was the ‘treat’ in itself.

i didn’t even read the article. We’re high earners but don’t buy lunch when on a day out. It’s a waste of money mostly. Can’t relate to people moaning about this.

That's the only option at some aquariums.