I need to stop eating at Pret

[CherryBlossomPie]

I cannot afford it. I'm living like its the 00s and its not. Its 2025 and I need to just save the money.

If I invested the £7 a day I spend there do you know how much I'd have in 16 years when I turn 60?

£53,000.

Anyone else up for a starting from scratch to stop eating lunch out thread?

I’m forever buying a meal deal for lunch but I don’t think it’s that bad. I normally get a salad beetroot and feta with done grains, a couple of boiled eggs in a snack pot and a costs coffee for the caffiene for 3.60. I don’t have access to free tea / coffee at work.

Can I join? Money stuff really scares me right now but the kick up the arse I needed was weight loss. I’m doing calorie deficit and intermittent fasting. I can’t handle the uncertainty and temptation of buying lunch.
i bought myself a sistema square lunch box with sections and I’ve appropriated a lunch bag discarded by dd2 which is really stylish imo. It was habitat in the sale in Sainsbury’s.
I have a protein bagel with cream cheese, then either a load of mango, raspberries, few tortilla chips, then the box comes with a screw top tub so I put Greek yoghurt from a much bigger tub. Then I add a banana and some fruit tea bags.
often I have vine tomatoes and I take salt and pepper in a tiny tub for seasoning. Sometimes I take green olives. The olives and tomatoes you need to pad the section with kitchen roll or the box leaks but you get into the swing of it.

i also have dinky bottles I use for my juiced at home and I put kefir in them.

my theory is that my job is hard and stressful - I owe my body the nicest healthiest lunch I can make - and fast food/canteen food isn’t that!

I’ve moved to a managerial post and now I see loads more staff there is lots of interest in my lunches!!

the other thing I do is buy own brand Diet Coke and keep thrm in the car. I pop a couple in fridge at work in case I’m craving pop.

our canteen at work shuts at 2.30 so after that I can’t spend!!
I reckon the good enough lunch box is a great starting point.

Just adding get some ice blocks for your lunch bag they are cheap and work really well with an insulated lunch bag.
also googling the chicken laksa soup

Also - get a thermos or chillys food flask. The thermos one is about £16. You just zap the soup and pre heat the flask with boiling water. I do that bit when I get up and it’s ready soon enough.

get an insulated cup and make yourself a really nice coffee at home. A milk frother is about £5 and whips up the milk. Buy the coffee syrup in home bargains. I can make a way over iced coffee at home now than I can buy and the teen DDs agree.

@declutteringmymindim doing this yoghurt it sounds amazing!!! I can’t go without my Greek yoghurt and fruit now and I’m planning on going weeks without a chocolate bar now

Try the "too good to go" app.
My local pret is on there and I get a decent haul if I remember to do it, for about £4

You certainly do live on a different planet to not comprehend that people live different lives to you. That’s really emotionally immature.

obviously people buy pret- even if you can’t understand it at all, didn’t you notice they haven’t gone bankrupt?

for me, I am very busy and run out the office the only 10 mins I get, to the pret opposite. When I get home I am too tired to prep tomorrow’s lunch. When I get up I am not focused on food.

I also don’t like packed lunches which remind me of school and do always seem a bit miserable. But I’ll join you OP. Things I can tolerate are things like pasta salad which store well. And buying packs of snacks places like aldi where they’re cheap.

I also need to give up a daily coffee. I can take one from home but it’s just another thing to carry on my mile long walk to the station with laptop rucksack, office shoes and make up and now packed lunch 😂😂

Also buying brioche rolls and seeded bagels with the weekly shop helps as they are nice and have more structural integrity.

dp will sometimes make me a sandwich on sourdough with blue cheese and mango chutney. It’s heavenly but I will be fat if I have that each day.

you have to plan well. If you have wet veg/fruit then either pack them separately or cut the seeds out of tomatoes or they make the bread soggy.
salad leaves are ropey too. Whereas cous cous or quinoa salad will hold up just fine.
my colleague and I are trying to convert our team to non sad packed lunches.
I learned how to make shell on poached eggs in batches on tiktok too so that’s another thing I can make 😀

I love the sound of that lunch @Jamfirstest . I really like sectioned lunchboxes and when I was in the office regularly used to also keep a nice plate and real cutlery in my drawer as well.

I'm proud of myself today. I was down in the town and had a craving for a proper breakfast- eggs, bacon, sausages and good bread. Rang the DCs who were at home and they were unenthusiastic about joining me but I probably could have persuaded them. I was standing looking at a menu that had scrambled eggs and bacon for £11. So it would have been £33 for the three of us plus coffees- £40 or more. Pulled myself together and spent a tenner on groceries and we have more than enough for two lots of breakfast. We are about to go on holiday for a trip I have been saving ages for and i really don't need to waste £40 on a whim.

Fizzboz.. just wanted to give a tip

Every now and then lidl do xxl bags of fresh peppers. You get loads. We cut them up and freeze. Lidl do xxl pasta deals and all sorts of bargains. Watch their app or leaflets. I stock up.

I am just watching a GMB segment about shopping addiction. A very brave woman is on and she has spent £250k on her shopping addiction. She just has piles of stuff. I admire her for facing it head on and the figures are mind blowing.

Also- although I am late to the party I have discovered the To Good To Go app. A friend of mine showed me how it worked yesterday. It's food that would otherwise be wasted and shops/bakeries/cafes put up the food left at the end of the day on the app and you can purchase it for a nominal cost. I did my first one yesterday and received a lovely bag from our local bakery filled with a couple of loaves of good bread, a few sandwiches and a couple of almond croissants. The sandwiches will do for the Dcs today (they were made that day, but can't be sold a second day) and I have had a gorgeous slice of sour dough for breakfast. I have not used that bakery before just generally but the bread is so good that I will certainly be using it again- even without the massive discount thanks to the app!

Thanks for the tips about freezing peppers, I've no idea why I didn't think of this myself, but it makes much more sense!
I think I'll do my own onions too!
(We grow tomatoes and freeze in bags of 400g to use in place of tinned tomatoes but never thought of freezing bought vegetables)

@FeelingLessTiredive just had a look at too good to go! Wow you couldn’t reserve on it years ago. I’ve moved to city centre since I last looked and there’s loads where I live!

Fiz - I also freeze mash potatoes and carrot and parsnips

So mid week you just have to stick on some meat (dh likes a spud dinner) so I might just roast pork chops or wrap a salmon fillet in foil the airfryer