Aibu To think one takeaway every saturday is normal and what the average British family does.

[carolmwatt]

So my sister was surprised that we eat fast food/takeaway once a week every friday. We usually have fish and chips, dominos, Mcdonalds or KFC, the dc usually have an chocolate bar or sweet item the same night. None of us are overweight and dc have very healthy diet during the week.

Aibu to think most families do this.

3 times a week would be more than our weekly food budget!

Why would people be fibbing? I don't get them a) because of cost, b) because of sugar content. We do eat out though sometimes but not on weekly basis.

3 times a week?? For 5 of us (4 adults, 1 child) that would be around £90 a week - which is around the cost of our weekly shopping, and the cost of a very nice annual family holiday. On crap food

we don't

1. too expensive, we can't afford it
2. too unhealthy

I usually cook. If we need a fast meal it will be simple eg pasta and sauce or it will be supermarket bought pizzas.

What counts as a takeaway though? Does it include prepacked sandwiches? Is it just restricted to chippy/Chinese/pizza etc?

If it includes sandwiches or salads then 3 times a week makes sense. I know some who do it 5 times a week for lunch!

To be fair, I do know loads of families who do eat more.

There is a chippy at the end of our road and load and loads of families from the estate next to us get chips from the chippy several nights a week.

When I think of a takeaway I think of a complete chinese/Indian/meal but I think the figures actually represent lots of chips.

Also, loads of people go into town eg on on a saturday and have a quick McD lunch while out.

I have always struggled to understand the finances of this, but it obviously happens

Who cares what anyone else does and whether you hit some guessed at average?

Just do what suits you and take other people's habits as a matter of interest and other people's judginess as a matter to ignore!

Once or twice a month here.

Yep we do. It doesn't help that we recently moved house and there's a lovely chippy at the end of the road!

We eat out at least once a week, but probably get take away less jab once a month these days. I'd rather nip down to our local pub for dinner than call for a pizza/Indian/Chinese. It's generally cheaper and nicer too.

But we eat out a fair bit tbh, mainly at weekend but sometimes mid week.

I think what interests me is that most of the people on here can't believe that other people eat so many takeaways, or would anything other than a healthy diet.

There are a lot of takeaways out there and many people have them weekly or more.

It just demonstrates how different the Mumsnet demographic is to the general population. Sadly, the majority of the country are overweight and either unhealthy now or will be in the future.

I don't know if the numbers include 'all food eaten out of the house' or just the standard takeawat - does it include dine in, or just takeaway. What about McDonalds, which could be either and is hardly in the same category as a restaurant meal.

I try to keep all 'food out of the house' as a minority of my diet, due to both cost and for health/weight factors. Most of it contains too much fat/sugar/calories etc and if I ate a lot I would be overweight. There's also the cost - most of it is much more expensive than home made food and if I spent a lot on it, I would have less money available for things I think are more important like holidays. I would eat more 'nice' takeaway food like sushi, or Pret or M&S salads if money truely was no object. It's just that I can make similar food for about a half or third of the price at home.

Takeaway food can be done 'cheaply' though. It's never going to be as cheap as having something like omelette or beans on toast at home, but if you take the stereotypial single parent feeding herself and one or two small DCs on something like a kebab and chips or a Chinese or Indian takeway you get so much food that a large donner kebab and chips or a main and rice or chips and possibly chappatis could easily feed all three for one meal and at some of the cheap northern takeaways would only cost about a fiver or so.

Forgot to say that I also find it interesting that people with probably much higher incomes than average are saying takeways are too expensive and it would appear that proportionally, low income people eat more takeaways.

But then it might be that the takeaways that higher income people have access to are more expensive. Where I am, some of the cheapest ones will do chicken or burger and chips for a pound or two. A Chinese main and rice or chips is less than a fiver and Indian with rice or chips about £6-7. In my limited experience of similar food in nice areas of London, it can be much more than that.

Are the people on here getting a whole meal per person too? Do you eat the leftovers the next day, eat them all in one go, or throw them away?

Do you get less food to start with? Any of the examples above will feed two people if they are not all men or teenage boys - a main and a rice or kebab and chips is a massive plateful and more than enough for almost anyone.

If you have 2 adults and 2 primary age DCs, 2 mains, 2 accompaniments such as rice and/or chips and a side portion (naan or bhajis for example) will be more than enough for one meal and cost £10-15, not the often stated £25-30 upthread.

We normally have left overs the next day. And if DH and I are having a takeaway on our own after the DC are in bed (he often gets back from work too late for DC to be eating ) then we'll save the free popadoms / prawn crackers / garlic bread for them to eat at breakfast. I think that last admission will cause some kind of MN breakdown because it is simultaneously frugal and a nutritional nightmare.

We probably have it once every 2-3 months, but I don't see a problem with having it every week if you can afford it.

No, not average at all.

Maybe not average for you, but I would say it's pretty average across the country, for sure.

We have fish and chips about once month and go out for Chinese 4-6 times a year, but if money was no object I'd definitely do takeaway once a week!

We get fish and chips quite often - it varies from once a week to once a month. We share one portion of chips between three of us though.

We also have a weakness for M&S Italian ready meals which we also have 1-2 times a month.

But I don't really like Chinese, husband doesn't really like Indian, son dislikes both, so we don't bother with other types of takeaways. If we have pizza we buy from the supermarket and heat up in the oven.

Probably 3-4 times a year?

I always feel fat after having one as they just give you such a ridiculous amount of food and my eyes are always bigger than my belly, though I guess most people don’t chuck the leftovers away like I do and eat it the next day or whatever…but then I’d feel even more fat! (I’m a size 8 so not fat, but would be if I ate all they gave!)

They’re pretty expensive too, well Fish and chips and pizza’s aren’t so much but if getting a take away it tends to be Chinese or Indian.

I enjoy them, but for whatever reason don’t really think to have them a lot.

We do eat out a lot though, some months it’s 3 x a month, others once or twice, so I guess it’s similar but I eat all that I’m served in restaurants as they don’t give you a disgusting amount.

Not sure if it makes a difference that we’re rural too and so takeaways are few and far between, they do deliver to our village but you have to order a certain amount to get free delivery.

I wonder if there is a correlation between where you live and the amount of take aways you eat?

Forgot to say that I also find it interesting that people with probably much higher incomes than average are saying takeways are too expensive and it would appear that proportionally, low income people eat more takeaways.

this is actually quite well documented. The poorer the area the higher the proportion of take away and chippies etc.

But as I said earlier, I think it is much more likely to be a portion or chips than a 'take away meal'

We have one about once every two-three months. Or we'll go months and months before fancying one again.

My sister gets two to three a week.

Me and ds either have a takeaway or eat out once a week,generally. It's not always every week and if I'm I'll and exhausted it's sometimes been more than once a week.

Never had one as a child and we rarely have them now. In the past 6 years, we have had two, once when moving house and the other when DS was ill and I hadn't managed to cook anything for the evening meal. I don't think we would be able to afford it. We rarely eat out unless it's a picnic!

Fish and Chips about once a month, on average over the year (more in summer less in winter as we have a round trip of 30miles to get gluten free).

supermarket take away curry bag about once a month

chinese - about 3 or 4 times a year just me and DH

we do eat other 'junk' at home though eg frozen breaded fish, or sausages, with oven chips on a lazy/busy day once a week. pizza once a fortnight I buy the bases but then its topped with tomato puree and loads of veg, and eaten with salad and coleslaw.

never ever have TA pizza (last time was 16 yr ago when we had just moved home and had no cooker!), never KFC, 1 of DC occasionally (2x year) has a McD but the other 2 never do - a treat for them is hot choc and cake with friends in costas.

I think that TA once a week is a nice treat if you can afford it, but it all depends what you are eating the rest of the time too. I know friends who would say their DC never eat take aways, but they live on nuggets, sausages, waffles, oven chips and frozen pizza, or plain boiled pasta with grated cheese. barely any veg in sight..

Same for eating out - if we eat out (maybe 8 times a year) it's usually a sunday roast with lots of veg and decent meat. Hardly in the same league as McDs or KFC.

we don't have a weekly takeaway - maybe monthly or every 2 months?

Unless I'm going ultra fancy, I actually prefer M&S curries to those from the takeaway (usually bland and expensive - I've not found a good curry takeway to replace the once that closed down years ago), and they are fraction of the price too.

I never buy takeaway pizza - I make my own, or will buy a supermarket one in an emergency.

We have a very nice fish and chip shop close by and this is our usual choice.

I love Chinese and Thai and Sushi but will eat out if I want someone else to make it.