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?

Ive just had a shitty Pret. On a shitty day at work.

Bad planning but this will change. I'm going to make a list of lunch based changes I am implementing this weekend. Group them together a bit. Work through them.

It was if anyone is interested the tuna sandwich, vinegar crisps and cookie. WTF DO they put in the tuna sandwich? Can never make them taste like theirs 😂

I hear you OP. I've done this a few times when I haven't had time to make a pack lunch and couldn't face another Tesco meal deal. It's ridiculously overpriced and so meh. £1.95 for a pack of salt and vinegar crisps. Madness.

I'm interested in your lunchbox ideas though. Can never think of anything for DC one of whom doesn't eat meat. If they had it their way it'd be pesto pasta with no veg or protein every day of the week.

I love the tuna baguette too, and until recently, I sometimes got one from Waitrose, but that's now gone up too and is £4.95 I think. I can't get the tuna to taste the same, but I did make a decent grilled cheese sandwich today which I'm taking as a small victory (but wfh so easier today)

Oh I absolutely love the Pret prosciutto baguette. It’s my absolute favourite, and a treat at least a couple of times a month. But I hear you. 😣 Need to start making lunches on my one day a week in the office, bahhh.

Oh op I’ve eaten home made lunches all week so far. Check out my halo!

I make a pot of harissa and spinach pasta and have that for lunches (usually made a second batch wed evening). I go through phases eating same lunches. I have it with some salad. Very cheap.

Have you tried cooking the zizzi pollo piccante pasta recipe? It’s divine — uses harissa paste, and spinach. It’s a regular in our household. X

I'm pretty sure the tuna baguette is simple but has way more mayo and salt than anyone would put at home, that's how we did it when I worked in a sandwich shop.

@Pigtailsandall @CherryBlossomPie
I love the tuna baguettes too , and it's completely different from tuna I make. DD looked at the ingredients list it had anchovies and mustard (iirc) both of which I can't stand! (But they taste good in a pret tuna baguette!)

I've had a week off work but back to the grindstone on Tuesday. My DS is going back to pack lunches at school this term which is tricky as he doesn't like sandwiches. I've frozen 4 lots of korma chicken with rice and peas so he can take a thermos, need to sort out more options! Luckily he will eat pitta bread and hummus until the cows come home but if he ever goes off that we're screwed.

I'm back. I've taken inspiration from everything on this thread and have done some batch cooking.

I've frozen some peppers and onions with paprika for a fajita mix to go with left over roast chicken in wraps. I also bought some strong bread flour and made some wraps and froze them. The mix would also go with rice or quinoa.

I bought some sourdough baguettes. M&S had one for £2.25 which I've cut into five portions, buttered, and added double ham and cornichons from Aldi. I taste tested one today - a good contender for the Pret version. So a mini mid morning snack.

I also bought the Fitzgerald sourdough part baked baguettes from Waitrose for £2.10 and cut into 9. I tried to recreate the cheddar and pickle baguette. Something wasn't quite hitting the spot so instead I've frozen it and I will defrost and make egg baguettes for another mid morning snack.

I've also cut the cheddar into cubes and frozen it and bought some mini pickled onions in Aldi, as another snack.

I also recreated the chocolate Almonds from Pret which frankly are better than the real thing. I melted some Aldi dark chocolate, mixed Almonds in then spread them out and added salt and coconut sugar. O.M.G.

I also semi invented another snack which is dates stuffed with peanut butter and dipped with dark chocolate. They taste just like Snickers, so that's a treat now in the freezer, to replace Pret cookies.

I batchcooked an enormous red lentil soup.

I have a few more things to make tomorrow.

So lunches will look something like:

Chicken fajitas
Left over roast
Tuna baguette
Salmon or chicken salad
Lentil soup

Ugh. I walk by those places watching people paw at the food and think “why??”

It’s not that difficult to pack a low cost pleasant lunch.

That's interesting that they have anchovies. They must be ground in a processor. I might try that. Interestingly mustard is a pretty common ingredient in mayonnaise so that may be where its coming from.

I've had quite a lot of fun recreating Pret classics.

Ooh I reckon this one could definitely be recreated at home. I'm not a fan of the prosciutto one unusually for me!

I've just woken up from a dream about biting into a cheese baguette 😂

I think I'd like to try batch cooking pasta sauce. Useful for so many things. Some days it's all about pasta.

It's not the cheapest but Waitrose does a protein pasta. It's basically 50/50 pasta and red lentils. So holds its integrity like pasta but still with the protein of red lentils. Would they have chopped nuts on the pasta?

How do you mean paw at the food?
Surely people are just picking it up and eating it like they would at any other eatery?

There are lots of reasons why people might not make their own lunch - boredom, lack of time and ideas, forgetting to bring a lunch made at home (this has happened to me more than once! ) thinking pret is a treat etc.
I think its a useful thread sharing ideas because it's easy to get stuck in a rut with lunches (bought and home made)

I was out on a Saturday, thought I'd pop into Pret, picked up a salad and when given the cumulative price, put it back! Not tight, but I could buy the makings of a roast dinner for less and it was 1.5 hours of the minimum wage, which puts the cost into perspective.

I have the odd meal deal from Waitrose but generally take lunch to work.

Get yourself a nice lunch bag with some of those freezer blocks. It literally takes 10 minutes to whip up a sandwich or salad. Buy some nice ingredients and vary what you eat. I eat much better if I plan and take my own food.

It literally blows my mind what some of my colleagues spend on lunch and snacks.

Oh @CherryBlossomPie i like your ingenuity there! Sounds like you had great fun and you Have got loads of lunches sorted. Winning at life!

@CherryBlossomPie

Have you opened a savings account and how much is your current Pret savings? Also do you have a plan on what to spend on?

or has the savings just been eaten up by general living expenses?

Great work on the packed lunch revolution

That sounds like a great start OP and I hope it works out for you. However, I do wonder how well peppers and onions will defrost (are they raw or cooked)?

But if you find they're not great, you can cook them into a chilli or something. You'll also find that prepared veg and salad is fine for a few days in the fridge, so you could also look at jar salads that you can make a few at a time and will stay fresh all week if you follow the guidance about layering (although a plastic tub will likely be more practical than Insta friendly mason jars).

I agree OP and need to get back to packed lunches. Post Covid I definitely have developed a Pret or bought lunch habit which I never had before. It started as a back to the office and normality treat and then kept going. Pret prices are insane right now and given that you also do not even get coffee in a proper cup when you sit in, I refuse to go there and pay the prices.

You need a food flask (£8 Asda) and left overs.

for nice sandwiches, roast a chicken, strip it, add some salad, some mayo, bacon and put the whole grain bloomer from Aldi it feels like you’ve bought it and the roast chicken will last a good few days. Chilli jam and ham is lovely as is plain old ham and cheese with some butter on them. It’s a bit of prep on a Sunday but it’s totally worth it and it saves a fortune.

home made soups

left overs can all go in the food flasks, I managed to squeeze a small baked potato in mine and took salad and fillings in other small tubs and kept the fillings in work fridge.

you could have lunch out once or twice a week so you still have that lunch made by someone else feel.