If you grew up not having takeaways/meals out

[PrincessHoneysuckle]

Do your parents still see them as a luxury and not buy?
I'm 42 have dh and ds 9 and we generally get a meal delivery every week.
Money isn't an issue for my dp as they are comfortably retired.They will go and pick up fish and chips from time to time but no eating out in restaurants as a couple or chinese/indian/pizza etc.

Mil is the same

A generation thing or just different strokes for different folks?

When I was little (80s) there were takeaways available but we rarely got them. I don’t think they were expensive - we were just poor. As kids we used to go to the chippy and buy a bag of batter for 10p because we couldn’t afford the fish or chips.

I can’t remember ever eating out in a restaurant until I was 18, apart from the occasional McDonalds a couple of times a year. My parents would buy burgers for us kids then sit and watch us eat them because they couldn’t afford any for themselves.

Anyway, now I rarely have takeaways even though I could afford it. Habit I guess. Takeaways aren’t healthy anyway, which is another reason I rarely have one. And I still feel weird and extravagant if I eat out.

As a child, if we were shopping, my mother or grandma would always have tea/cakes out. My mother often treated me to a Wimpy as a little girl. DD and I always have coffee and something if we are out and about. I don't regard any of that as eating out. Similarly long drives usually involve having food en-route, either at small eateries or service stations. Although I do pack a flask, sandwiches for the first stop, usually the Chunnel so we can get 2hrs under our belts before the first stop.

However, I always take a flask and mug of coffee for the car to work and make myself a packed lunch most days.

I was a child in the 80s and we never had takeaway or meals out. I don’t even know if there were takeaways to have meals from to be honest, although we lived in a city so I assume so. We never even had fish and chips.

However we did have a lot of varied food at home. For a boringly English family with no heritage from any other places in the world, we ate food from around the world. No meat and two veg here. We made our own pasta, naan, paella, tortilla, ragu, croissants, etc, we had a tandoor, a tagine, a Karahi, a Mokka pot, a wok, etc. We made our own prawn crackers, our own pesto, our own spice rubs and all kinds of curries, breads, seafood, patisserie.

I can’t answer about current habits as they died young.

I'm in my 60s. I eat out quite often - garden centres for lunch with a friend, Wetherspons for lunch with SIL, decent country pubs and proper restaurants with husband and family. When we were younger and our sons were growing up, we didn't eat out much. Nor did we have takeaways. I COOKED good meals from scratch (no crappy McDonald's etc around then and I've never eaten in one of those places)

80s with mum and step dad, never ate out or got takeaway ever though they used to get a takeaway sometimes for the 2 of them which I think was a kebab. Basically didn’t have enough money.
then they used to go to the same burger restaurant every Friday when I was older. My younger half sister quite often went but not me.
as a teenager I would buy my own Chinese occasionally (just chips and curry sauce).
with my dad we ate out quite often, he took us out all the time and on lots of holidays but never remember having a takeaway apart from maybe fish and chips.
my mum never has a takeaway unless she’s with us and my dad lives in the country but we have had one with him more recently.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. We ate regularly at Chinese, Indians, Berni Inns and similar British restaurants. We had fish and chips or Chinese takeaways probably every week. My mother was really into cooking and cooked all of the above at home too, along with most European cooking.

DH and I took our DC out for meals, upto three times a week at every cuisine we could find in London, or all over Europe on holidays. Our DC are grown up and all have a keen interest in eating out!

We used to get fish & chips whenever we went to the seaside ( a few times a year)
That was a real treat.
Never had takeaways at home.
I’m from a large family, so understandable, it would have cost my parents a small fortune.

My mum & dad get a Chinese takeaway occasionally, it’s usually a Saturday night treat and they watch a movie together.

Dh and I get a takeaway about once a month,
Pizza or a Chinese. It’s usually when we can’t be bothered to cook tbh.

Growing up in the 70s/early 80s we seldom had takeaways. The main reason was DF didn't want a main meal in the evening. So we always had a home cooked lunch.

My DM had a similar attitude to @SomePeopleAreJustBloodyStupid . Everything had to be COOKED from scratch. I suspect she would have put it in capitals as well! I don't look back on those meals with fondness. They were always so dull!

Very occasionally we would go out for lunch to a Beefeater. A thimble full of fruit juice as a starter, a chicken leg with chips for main course.

DF died decades ago. DM now has her main meal in the evening. She spends a lot of time with DB who doesn't like takeaway food because of cost (even if he isnt paying) and fears about food hygiene. DM enjoys a takeaway when she comes to us.

We always had takeaways, well not unhealthy amounts but every Friday there'd be about 15 of us in my Nan and Gramps house having a big Indian or Chinese takeaway.

My Mum put on old recorder videos of when I was younger and I'm bouncing on their sofa and you can hear my Gramps say "what do you want elm26?" And I go "number 17 please" which apparently was duck and pancakes and I was 5 in the video 😂

We also ate out from young, my Gramps business partner owned a Chinese and there is photos of us cousins about 3 or 4 years old with chopsticks in the restaurant where the waitress used to tie elastic bands around the bottom so we could use them.

This was 90s.

I'm late 60s. We enjoy eating out in the evening or for lunch but never get takeaways. If I'm home I'd rather cook. I can rustle up a good, healthy meal in half an hour.

Interesting… it seems like we (and our parents) are of a similar age, and our parents have very similar attitudes. They love their takeaways, but for years my dad would insist on collecting them and make a face if you suggested getting it delivered. “Ohhh, no; there’s always something wrong or missing, it isn’t worth it”. (I can literally think of one or two times in our entire lives that this has happened).

My mom used to be even more extreme and wouldn’t believe Uber Eats even existed where they lived. “I know you have things like that in London, but I can’t imagine anything like that around here.” (For context, they live in a large suburb of a major city, not a rural one-street village.) She also couldn’t understand why you’d try somewhere new. I told her about a special offer at a nearby Chinese and she gave me this bewildered look and said “But… we like the Green Lantern” - as if the very idea was beyond her.

I think I’ve finally convinced my dad of the benefits of delivery now. I’d treated them to a takeaway when I was visiting and there wasn’t a collection option. When he realised he could a) track delivery on the app and b) sit and have an extra glass of wine instead of getting the car out, he was sold!

We only had takeaway when we were teenagers and visiting our granny for the day so she didn't have to cook we bought fish and chips.

Going to a restaurant was something we did a couple of times during a week if we were on holiday. Which was a week once a year.

Grew up on the 60s. Had fish and chips once or twice a year. Now DM has a coffee out sometimes.

DH and I eat out on special occasions but don’t usually get takeaway as we both grew up in homes where it was normal to cook. Also consider takeaways to be very poor value for money.

Grew up in the 90s and we would get chippy tea as a treat but that was about it! The occasional macdonalds and I can remember having my first ever jam donut in a transport cafe with my trucker dad when I was around 7 (I'd gone to work with him for a few days in the school holidays-he had bunk beds in his lorry cab 😂 imagine it now!). My dad warned me the jam would all squirt out when I bit into it!

My mam recently died but loved a chinese takeaway! She had started to her quite adventurous in her last years and beef chow mein was a favourite! With chips and curry sauce!

My parents enjoyed eating out but just pub food...especially a cheapy chain with a 2 for £8.99 deal! Or Wetherspoons, my mam loved wetherspoons fish and chips!

My two are always treated to takeaway or eating out they are totally spoiled 🙈

My dad is 73 and always going for meals/coffee/lunch somewhere!
Takeaways - yes but he would rather go and collect it and order over the phone
We went for an Indian meal on Christmas Day and that's one of his favourite things
He grew up very fussy and plain food but tried more stuff over the years, still not adventurous with cooking though

I'm in my 50s. Had my first takeaway at a friend's house when I was 16..a Chinese. It was amazing. We would get fish and chips occasionally. If we went out to eat it was z birthday treat or similar at the berni Inn. Orange juice for starter, steak and black forest gateau.

Eating out was much less common.

My mum likex to gonout gor a pub lunch once they became more common

We rarely had takeaways growing up, once in a blue moon we might get fish and chips or a pizza but it certainly didn't get them regularly. It definitely wasn't a cost thing, we would go out to eat at least once a month and would often stop for a drink a cake if out and about, not hugely expensive places but fairly decent. I just don't think my parents particularly enjoy takeaway food, they had quite traditional British tastes and there weren't that many options to choose from.

Despite enjoying a much more diverse range of cuisines, I too hardly ever get take aways. That's some what influenced by the lack of decent takeaways near by, but I also find the food pretty unhealthy, expensive, never hot enough and I'm a decent enough cook to make a similar dish, the way I like it at home. Even eating out I tend to do mostly for social reasons or out of convenience, there's only a few places I go specifically for the food.

I'm mid 30s and takeaway / eating out was a big treat, usually for someone's birthday. Maybe once every 3 months (if everyone in the household wanted a meal out for their birthday but they didn't always), if that. My parents are mid 50s and while they do enjoy going out for a coffee now, they don't love eating out. My mum is an amazing cook though, so typically restaurant or takeaway fare falls short. I, however, LOVE getting a takeaway! We probably get one once a fortnight and it's my favourite meal. Always feels like a treat!

I grew up in the 50s/60s and 70s. We were on a low income so takeaway was the Friday night chip shop tea. I can't remember ever eating out.

Now I'm all grown up I don't have to watch the pennies. I had the odd takeaway during lockdown when restaurants weren't open for birthday meals. The habit of home cooking persists because it's what my late DH did and for reasons I can't fathom, takeaway on my own feels sad and I do enjoy cooking. My cooking is as good/better than quite a lot of commercial stuff. Maybe I'm going to the wrong places.

I eat out more when meeting friends for brunch as it takes the pressure off those who'd rather not cook, and for birthdays and anniversaries with DD.

I grew up in the 80s/90s in a low income household. We hardly ever got takeaways, though we'd sometimes get good quality restaurant Chinese food takeaway (my parents are Chinese) for special occasions - for certain foods that my parents didn't know how to cook themselves (but they are excellent cooks and could cook most things).

Eating out is still very much a treat to them - they are on pension credit, so they aren't rolling in it. It they do save a fair bit of money as they're so frugal, and part of that is down to things like being mindful about having takeaways.

As an adult, I've never been in the habit of getting takeaways - weekly would feel extravagant, despite being on a top 1% income. We started a habit of monthly takeaways for a treat during the pandemic, and we have continued with that. But at weekends we almost always pack up home made sandwiches and snacks brought from home, so we never go to cafes. We like to squirrel money away and then splurge on bigger things.

He wouldn’t eat in a restaurant or cafe either. He is just incredibly antisocial.