It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

Jellytotts

If we are out longer than expected and need food then we find a supermarket and it’s a pack of sliced meat, a pack of sliced cheese and a box of grapes.  Being coeliac means avoiding so much ready prepared stuff and I refuse to pay over £6 for a dry GF sandwich and a packet of crisps.  

If we plan a day out then there’s always a picnic of some kind and always a bottle of water and our thermal mugs of coffee. I got stung at Hampton court for ice creams when we went, near £20 for 4 ice creams….that’s half a week’s grocery budget!

Longwalker

So glad the kids are adults and. those days of expensive day trips are over.

It was always a pack up, the kids were told the trip was the treat and we tell the Gkids the same

When we took the Gson over to England for Lego land, there was a supermarket on the way to the bus stop where we lifted our meal deals and packets of sweeties. The day we went was so hot so we bought a limitless cup - just one - and we all three of us drank from it, each of us taking a turn in choosing what we were drinking next.

Yes we always got the kids ice cream whilst out - a mcD's 

Even now if we are taking the Gkids to the cinema, we stop at Poundland or Home bargains where they choose their sweeties and drink, not a hope in hell of me buying at the cinema. And they know I only have x amount of money for a treat so if its all spent getting into the cinema and food, theres nothing left over to play the arcade ( unfortunately our cinema is part of a Childrens paradise  - soft play, bowling, mini golf and a huge arcade which churn out the tickets to exchange for cheap tat ) Of course I want the Gkids to do what they see other kids doing, but I dont have bottomless pockets. And cinema day is always a Tuesday - half price

sammy_kaye18

Longwalker said:

Even now if we are taking the Gkids to the cinema, we stop at Poundland or Home bargains where they choose their sweeties and drink, not a hope in hell of me buying at the cinema. And they know I only have x amount of money for a treat so if its all spent getting into the cinema and food, theres nothing left over to play the arcade ( unfortunately our cinema is part of a Childrens paradise  - soft play, bowling, mini golf and a huge arcade which churn out the tickets to exchange for cheap tat ) Of course I want the Gkids to do what they see other kids doing, but I dont have bottomless pockets. And cinema day is always a Tuesday - half price

Also worth checking on weekends and holidays because some cinemas have a kids club where tickets are only a few pound each.
I know our local cinema does tickets for £2.50 - 3 and that is the same price for adults too. Ive taken my kids to see a few films that way - granted they arent always new releases but still a nice treat. We do the same too and buy before we go to the cinema - no way am I paying stupid price for a bag of maltesers when I can buy them for a £1 in the other shop. Same with drinks. 
We are lucky too that our cinema is on the beach front so we would see the movie and then go and chill on the beach for a bit afterwards and then when their dad came to collect us we would stop in the ice cream shop for a few scoops :-) 

sammy_kaye18

Bluegreen143 said:

Reminds me of going on holiday as a student, instead of eating for breakfast or lunch, each morning we would buy fancy ham, cherry tomatoes, some kind of bread, sliced cheese and apples to share between us that day. No need to pre-prepare any of it, we’d just tear the baguettes up as we ate. If my children liked ham I would do this now! 

I love this too. 
My husband took me away for our anniversary to an AirBnb. He had to work on the saturday so I was left in the house to have a nice relax, there was a coop up the road and I could practically smell the fresh bread so I walked up and brought a baguette and spent the day tearing bits off of it with proper butter to snack on. Made a nice treat as we usually have cheap supermarket bread. 

Lifes little pleasures :-) 

Florenceem

I am keeping to no spend January.
While decluttering I have found some magazine pages - they must be from Mil's house - they seem to be 1980s - people complaining about the price of food. It may be the time of high interest rates so budgets were tight.

littlemoney

The 1980s saw mortgage rates rise to 22%. That was a real ouch.

Florenceem

Photo of magazine page and the fashions on back of page - is it 1980s?

sarahj1986

It’s a few weeks away but I’ve booked my daughter in for a free crafts day at the local library. They have other things on before but they fall on days we are busy or she’s in nursery. It gets her out and entertained for a few hours for free. I’ll take some snacks along 

EssexHebridean

That 30-bag pack of crisps in T's is on the increase again - £3.90 a few weeks ago - £4.10 now.

On the flip side - I nabbed a box of 100 F1nish dishwasher tablets in F@rmf00ds at the weekend for £9.99 - of I'd wanted to buy two I could have taken up the 2 for £18 offer. 10p a tablet has been my "target price" for years so it was a pleasant change to see that it's still achievable. 

We also buy bread or rolls, ham and cheese as a treaty lunch if out and about - yummy! For airshows I usually budget to buy food as it's often a long day in hot sun, and by the time I have a heavy camera bag to lug about, plus a couple of large bottles of water, I don't tend to fancy adding lunch into the mix too!  it's budgeted for though, and I shop about amongst the stalls for value for money too! Day 1 at airtattoo always consists of a "first pass" along the two nearest rus of food stalls to see which one does the best bacon butties - then that becomes our breakfast haunt for the following two days as well!   

YoungBlueEyes

Yeah I would say 80’s @Florenceem, that’s a lot of eye liner! 

I used to have a good system for finding the cheap food vans at shows. It used to be that the nearest the car park or entrance or main show ring was the dearest one cos people are idle. Then they realised that we go to the furthest ones cos they’d be a bit cheaper, so they made the nearest and furthest the dear ones. Now it’s a seemingly a crap shoot…. 🤷‍♀️