"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 don't see the point in looking back to the good old days of not eating out in 60s to 90s. There have been so many social and economic changes since then that we don't want or need to roll back on. Number of cars per family. Two parents working. Shift from manufacturing to service economy. Number of TVs. Not to mention the changes the internet brought. This is 2026, of course expectations are different.

If you want to strip back to what is necessary it’s a very stark life. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to take the kids out for lunch occasionally, or to stop for a coffee out shopping.

As a child we did have a weekly takeaway, on a Friday - it was considered a pay day treat, and my parents weren’t well off by any means. I earn considerably more than they did and should be able to have a pizza lunch without worrying it’ll cost my whole food budget for the week.

A better way to teach you to make sensible choices would have been to say, "We can buy that can of Coke, but if we do, it means spending less later on XYZ other thing that you want."

Instead, by dismissing you with "not bloody likely!", he has taught you that something like a single canned drink is actually a wild luxury indulged in only by those with more money than sense. Not for the likes of us! A lesson that, sadly, you've internalised.

Where are you? I’ve just priced that up at my local chippy and I’m getting £16. I know there will be some variation but that’s nearly double!

Yes there's a number of issues. There's more people in the world able to afford to eat regularly, so food producers have more choice of markets and if we want to buy their product then we need to pay. Our environment is increasingly knackered so its harder to produce food so the price goes up.
We as a country have decided its not really on for some of us to live in desperate poverty to provide goods and services for the jolly middle classes, so now when you eat out the staff who cook and serve you will at least be on minimum wage.

Boo fucking hoo.

I don't want to work 50 hour weeks in a professional career with high responsibility to only be able to afford a homemade sandwich for lunch with my family on a day out at the weekend.

Yes, it's mind-boggling how many people are saying "it was shit when I was a child and now I enjoy life going back to the good old shit".
No wonder the parasites will continue bleeding them dry, they seem to be very happy with that.

We always eat out on offers, and manage to make our money stretch much further. Our teens also love a Tesco meal deal as a treat on a day out. We’d never dream of thinking of Costa as a lunch spot or a full price three course meal in pizza express.

Its always been the case that eating out is expensive - though I think some people now see it as a regular thing rather than a treat.

I read it as 'cutting back on the fun' meaning that even if you still went out and took a packed lunch (as we do) that's not really as much of a treat as going out and having a meal whilst you're out somewhere. It feels like a serious luxury for us to not pack a picnic these days.

Side note: also far prefer to have my dessert in the middle of the day rather than at dinner. Better for metabolism, actually use the energy etc. Personal preference innit :D

Not having a weekly take away is no where near how the third world live. That’s so offensive and thoughtless . We live like kings in comparison. People weren’t buying kids thousands of pounds worth of tech, having constant renos on their houses, driving multiple shiny cars per family, flying off on holiday and having endless coffees, uber eats and meals out half a century ago. I know, I was there.

You can’t have it all!!!!

Am i missing the point? They earn £55k between them? How is that a decent income?

It is if you’re complaining about the price.

This!

So if everyone takes sandwiches and a flask on a day out, these places close; people lose jobs, both in the service, and in the production industries.

The supermarkets can hold farmers to ransom to provide cheaper and cheaper goods.

Basically, we need people to be able to afford stuff at every level. Wealthy families aren’t going to Costa.

I’ll be honest and say I didn’t know anyone would pay full price in pizza express there’s always a deal or vouchers. Last time we ate there dropping dc off at uni we used a bogof.
But I can see why they have used well known chains for a tv show.

Because the median gross household income in 2024 was £38,900?

Then dont. Jack in your professional job and try life on a minimum wage, zero hours contract if you think it will suit you better. Plenty of people to take your place

First thought was that most families wouldn’t think of having lunch at a Costa.

I see nobody has suggested that a nice MC family would go to Greggs instead.😂

I am in my 50s, and I agree with people who say our expectations of what is normal are very different now. I remember reading 'The Tiger who came for Tea' as a child and thinking how lucky they girl was to be taken out for sausages and chips for dinner after her dad came home from work 😂😂😂 it was certainly never something I could have wished for - eating out was something that happened for a special occasion, once or twice a year.

And so what if people could afford this more a few years ago - does that make it reasonable? Food inflation is terrible, that's for sure, but let's not use people eating out less as a way to demonstrate it. People have so many expectations of what is 'basic' these days that are really just over consumerism.

If an average family can no longer afford to eat out, the Costa will close, the pubs will shut, the theme park will go under. All of the low paid, part time hours jobs will disappear. Parents who can get PT hours in a supermarket won't be offered them as NMW costs less for teenagers. Those families will have even less chance of a trip to the cinema etc.

OP really has spectacularly missed the point. Living standards should have improved since the days of cramming 6 children into Rover without seat belts for a day trip to Weston Super Mare or Skegness. Instead they're declining.

That's expensive. I have a great local chippy. Decent fish and chips for 2 of us is £22. And still can't finish all the chips ( after sharing a portion)

Exactly. I couldn't imagine ordering such a huge amount of food, especially if I was concerned about the cost.

Or like the PP spending £60 on fish and chips for 4. Most people couldn't eat a whole portion so an obvious saving would be to buy 2 or 3 fish and a couple of portions of chips, or a single large portion and share between you as that would be plenty of food anyway and cost far less, probably about £20-25?

If I want fish and chips here and don't want leftovers I get a fish cake (they're a sliced potato and fish sandwich thats battered and fried here and are quite large) so plenty.

A lot of the 'Cost of Living how awful' stuff seems to be 'I can't afford to spend extravagantly without thinking about it any more'.

Which looks a bit ridiculous to those of us who've either never been able to spend like that or at least have always spent more mindfully

Exactly. I think all this talk of "the norm" is a red herring. Norms change every decade, or even every year.

People are just using the term as shorthand for "what I'm familiar with".

Until there are no nice wee family run restaurants to take your kids out for their birthday, because places can’t stay open if no one eats there. And it’s a big problem for owners and staff who find themselves out of a job.

It’s all depressing. I sometimes get meal deals with a coffee and get my points. Had enough for a free one so headed off on Saturday for a nice coffee. Considered a toastie but it was double the price my usual Tesco meal deal. How on earth can a toastie be that expensive?