A picky eater shelled out an extra £300 to be able to take an extra suitcase full of noodles, chips, sausages and a George Foreman grill on his all-inclusive holiday – just so he could eat bacon.
John Phillips, 40, carried a staggering 21 noodles, 86 bags of crisps, two packets of bacon, a packet of 30 sausages, tins of tuna, a block of cheese and brown sauce for his £1,400 trip to Egypt last year.
And to satisfy a picky eater’s sweet tooth, his wife Rebecca, 29, added an additional 30 Club Biscuit bars, 16 candy bags and breakfast bars.
The stash, including the charge to check another suitcase, cost the family an extra £300, bringing their holiday total to £1,700, but Rebecca said the extra luggage “doesn’t bother her” as she claimed it would do. She wouldn’t enjoy the trip if her husband wasn’t eating.
The mother-of-one started packing dry goods for John three years ago when he refused to eat anything but chips during his trips abroad.
Picky eater John Phillips takes suitcases of extra food, packed by his wife Rebecca, on holiday as he refuses to eat anything but chips while abroad.
John carried a staggering 21 noodles, 86 bags of crisps, two packets of bacon, a packet of 30 sausages, tins of tuna, a block of cheese and brown sauce for his £1,400 trip to Egypt last year.
The couple even brings a George Foreman grill on vacation so John can enjoy bacon and “good old-fashioned English food.”
They even carry a George Foreman grill in their checked luggage so truck driver trainer John can enjoy bacon and sausages while he’s away.
But this usually means Rebecca dines alone on vacation, and John admits he only pays for all-inclusive trips for the “free beer.”
Rebecca, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, said: “I go on holiday and eat anything but he just doesn’t want to.” He’s always been like that.
“He loves food, but because he’s picky he doesn’t eat it and I don’t like going with someone who can’t enjoy food like me.”
That’s when Rebecca decided enough was enough and began packing dry foods and sweets for the couple’s two-week getaway.
“So we started bringing meat with us. We put ice packs in food containers and put the meat inside,” she said.
‘We didn’t know if it would work, but it did. When we took out the food after the flight, it was still very cold.’
Beer-loving John admitted he has been a picky eater since childhood and prefers “good old-fashioned English food.”
John said: ‘I like the comforts of home when I travel abroad. So instead of looking for decent food, I’ll just take my own food.
‘I’ve always been a picky eater, I don’t eat a lot of vegetables. “I like good old-fashioned English food, chips, sausages and gravy, that sort of thing.”
He revealed that a full suitcase would normally last him the entire trip, but on some occasions he ran out a day or two before.
“It’s an expense, but you usually spend money on your weekly shop when you get back to England anyway,” he said.
Rebecca, 29, added an additional 30 Club Biscuit bars, 16 bags of candy and breakfast bars to John’s stash.
Rebecca began packing meat into ice-packed food containers so John could enjoy sausages and bacon during the holidays.
John said: “I’ve always been a picky eater, I don’t eat a lot of vegetables.” I like good old fashioned English food, chips, sausages and gravy, that sort of thing.
The stash, including the charge to check another suitcase, cost the family an extra £300, bringing their holiday total to a staggering £1,700.
John said: ‘I like the comforts of home when I travel abroad. So instead of looking for decent food, I’ll take my own food.
Rebecca said: ‘It doesn’t bother me. I love food and I love cooking, so the fact that he’s happy with something that he likes, I prefer that.
‘In the all-inclusive regime I’m only interested in the free beer, the food doesn’t matter too much to me.
‘Why go on holiday and worry about food when I can take it with me?’
Resigned, Rebecca said that having a selective dinner partner as a husband is simply “normal life” for the couple: accepting her partner will never change her ways.
Rebecca said: ‘It doesn’t bother me. I love food and I love cooking, so I prefer the fact that he’s happy with something he likes.
“It was more like me saying ‘let’s take this (on vacation)’ and it just piled up.” He wouldn’t enjoy the vacation if he wasn’t eating.
‘He will only eat the food we have brought him. If he comes with me to the hotel restaurant, maybe he’ll have some bread.
‘We’ve been on boat trips before and I took a Pot Noodle.
‘I think the only drawback is eating alone. For us now it’s just a normal lifestyle. I don’t think it will change, this is it now.’
Rebecca shared a video on her TikTok page of the suitcase full of food she takes on the couple’s three annual trips abroad and which has been viewed more than 200,000 times.
Rebecca said: ‘In the TikTok comments they were just calling him boy.
But some people were really impressed and said they needed to know the trick with the ice packs.
“People laugh at this, they can’t believe it.”