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 got food poisoning from Pret and don’t eat there any more. I was very sick for nearly 2 weeks.

Not sure if anyone has used the demotivator or compound savings tools on MSE?? Very enlightening for this kind of thing.

£5 a day for 30 working years is £75K+ etc!! Put this amount each week / month in a LISA or SS ISA if you can?!

I prep everything, but also have emergency snacks at work. I find buying liquid drinks is (literally) money down the drain. I also keep a 12-pack of water bottles in the car (£1.59 Home Bargains) in case I forget mine.

Reduced-price hummus freezes really well & carrots / value tortilla chips are super cheap. I rarely pay full-price for fruit & eat seasonally anyway.

I'm going to make a batch of egg, spinach, courgette and red pepper frittata or muffins. Add to a salad - v tasty and uses up leftover veg too!

I'm without a kitchen currently so this week I'm doing Tiffany Plates, as seen on TikTok. Cottage cheese, mustard, a sausage (can't cook them, so having ham or chicken), a gherkin and a small cheese cube, plus loads of raw veggies - cucumber, carrot, baby corn, mange tout, apple, grapes. She does raw broccoli, cauli, radishes, heart of palm too but am not sure about those!

Experimented with apple slices last week - 10 mins in salted water and they didn't go brown for 3 days in the fridge. Am only planning to do overnight but wanted to be sure!

The packed lunch revolution! I love it!

Aww thank you so much for the encouragement. It has coincided with a new job which is slightly less money so I've been through my whole budget. My goal is to rebuild my emergency savings back up as that got depleted. So, hoping to get from £1k to £3.2k this year which is definitely achievable. In reality I'm just moving the money when I get paid into a savings account.

One thing I am going to do, because I am a glutton for punishment, is go through my bank statement and work out how much I've actually spent on lunches in the last couple of months. I think I am going to be horrified.

I do quite like the idea of then moving the average of that (daily) amount every day into a savings account when I don't spend it.

They are raw. I was then going to fry them up from frozen. Not sure how it will go.

Oh gosh yes totally relate. I think that's how I ended up eating out more - it was a post covid treat. Not a treat every day/time I am in the office 😂

Chilli jam and ham sounds amazing!

Totally with you on the flask. I have a one person sized flask and put some soup in it today when I went out. I was also thinking I'm going to make pasta and put it in the flask.

I am loving the humble homemade sandwich.

This happened to me with krispy creme donuts. Tbf I don't think anyone is meant to eat two donuts consecutively but I got norovirus.

That's a good tip on reduced price hummus. I never thought about freezing it.

What kind of emergency snacks? I'm terrible with savoury snacks as they have to be not nice enough that I will motor my way through them.

In my car I have a giant bag of raisins (I don't really like them 😂) and some plain nuts - enough just to get me home. And yes to water bottles in the car - also a good idea in case of breaking down.

Ooh this is a good lunch idea. Frittata things also freeze very well.

we abandoned McDs yesterday,DH had a strop because it was getting too close to 4pm and he needed to go to one more shop. We ended up buying a box of magnums and drinks for £1 each in home bargains possibly cheaper than my large Big Mac meal for the 4 of us. Was sufficient to get everyone home without the hangries arriving and just had dinner a bit early.

I like Spanish tortilla in wedges with a big salad and some cheese. Also making a big casserole or something like chorizo and chickpea stew and having that with a bit of baguette. Lovely

i put £100 a month on a prepaid debit card for frivolity (😁) and if I buy lunch at work it just disappears. It’s very motivating as I like to keep it for wine out with my friends rather than an M&S sandwich at my desk

Made a huge tub of roasted veg, crispy chickpeas and tofu, plus some tahini dressing.

That’s lunch this week. Nothing else exists 😂

This sounds like a delicious lunch idea I'm going to steal 😂.

I'm not a huge fan of Tofu but I could sub in Feta and prawns. How do you make the chickpeas crispy?

Casserole is a banging idea. That would carry really nicely in my flask.

Tbh I’m shocked people actually even do this in a regular basis let alone daily, buying lunch at places like Pret

Season them, add a little oil and give them about 10 mins in the oven or air fryer.

The tofu needed using up - it’d usually be feta and some chopped fresh tomato and maybe some leftover fresh herbs added on the day.

Stop judging - it’s only Pret FFS. We’re not mainlining KFC every day. I’ll have lunch from Pret or M&S once a week as I live on my own, have done for 25 years, and just once in a while it’s nice to eat one meal that I haven’t effing made myself.

Ooh I think that sound a good way of using day old chickpeas as well.

I’ve made my own lunch for 20 years, I’m retiring early … of course it’s not just down to lunch it’s more about a philosophy of ensuring I don’t spend on things that don’t add value to my life

I have a Starbucks habit. At least 2/3 times a week 🙈
I’m going to try weaning myself off slowly..maybe cut down to once a week, then twice a month in the hope I don’t miss it and it just becomes an occasional treat!

I think this is a good tactic. I used to get coffee nearly daily (something that would probably horrify most people here), but I have been cutting it down pretty well. I still buy coffee, because unless I invest in a really nice machinery, I just can't make it as good as coffee shops. But now I get a Nero coffee on the way to the office (free, with Octopus), and once I week I go to work in a coffee shop and buy one there. I consider it as workspace rent 😂 as I'd go a bit mad if I stayed in the house all day. Sometimes we go out as a family to a nice coffee shop, so I'll get a second one (in a week) then - but that's usually a part of an outing and something we enjoy doing as a family.

Edit to say that I've also budgeted for this weekly so it's not an unexpected expense.

@CherryBlossomPie , its great to read that you are now making lunches yourself. You are proving to yourself that what you can make at home , is often a lot better tasting and often a lot cheaper and your lunches are only limited by your imagination

I finish work at 10am now so lunches aren't big on my agenda - I take brunch at home and its whatever I fancy, in the fridge ( salad veg, cheese and chicken ) or tinned - fish - mackerel, mussels , sardines, and in jars - pickles , olives etc, I eat when hungry and pile the plate high

My dirty little spend is I love coffee. A dark roast, chocolatey , nutty , Cappuccino is my spend

Only its not any more

I bought myself an espresso machine and I make my own. I recently went from entry model Sage to a better one, and I paid for a course to lean how to make the best from my machine. So big initial spends, but to be honest, I resent buying a coffee out now because Im paying big money for mediocre coffee , where as at home, Im getting a good coffee and now Im getting a coffee that would wipe the arse out of the main players in the high street

Your lunches ( home made ) will become my coffee :)

Only just seen this - good tip. Thank you!