AIBU to ask, what helped you give up takeaway?

[EndlessUserName]

We have one every week without fail. I'd like to get to once a fortnight but we can never manage it! Money isn't a super issue, but I think it would be healthier to go less often. If you've done it, how did you manage to have less takeaway / none anymore?

Don't like ready meals is quite an interesting concept for a takeaway lover (hot ready meal?).

If you purchased an extra portion of curry, froze it and warmed it up a week later would it be takeaway reheated, a freezer meal or a ready meal?

My point is ready meal is such a generic term. They vary enormously. There are fine dining type places that do all the prep of fresh ingredients so you're just warming through, then at the other end of the spectrum there are the mass produced convenience food meals that can be rather beige. There's a massive range between the two.

I tend to try and buy one lazy meal option for DH and I to have when the DC are fed earlier. A nice steak with a fresh salad mix and bottle of wine. Something thats really quick to cook and hardly any tidying up afterwards. I used to think £7 on a nice fillet steak was eye watering but £20 on a takeaway an okay deal. The steak generally is a far nicer meal.

We do have the odd takeaway too - especially like curry as I think all the elements I love are a faff in small quantities. Just not in a weekly/ fourtnightly routine

I had quite a few dissapointing takeaways (wrong orders, rude staff, not very nice food) which put me off takeaways for a long time. As well as the price. If it's burgers you like, often making them at home is much nicer and you know exactly what's in it.

If I was you, I would mix in some nice homemade treat dinners like burgers and chips or homedmade pizzas. And that way you're still getting the 'treats'.

Covid. We've been quite careful about what comes into the house. I've started planning properly, and batch cooking on a Sunday so we have a week's meals ready. It removes the temptation to be lazy if all you have to do is stick some tubs in the microwave.

Not being able to get one delivered no one likes to deliver rurally - it’s certainly broken our take away habit. We used to have a take away at least twice a week. We have saved a small fortune.

Occasionally we may do a massive order from a curry place and one of us goes and collects it but even that doesn’t happen very often anymore!

Honestly it’s a hard one to crack, we used to make noises about how much we were spending but never enough to change it.

Now I spend a lot of time looking for something special to cook on a Friday, someone recommended doing a theme week so one week something Italian one week Greek one week Indian etc which we will be starting from next week

What have you ordered from Simply Cook OP? We've really enjoyed the curries and the Thai dishes from there. We used to have takeaway a couple of times a month and while I liked it I didn't LOVE it. If I'm spending £30 I want to love it! I'm a good cook so learnt to make better curries, pizzas etc. than I could buy in. If if I'm wanting speed and ease then I'll go for a Simply Cook box or pop to Iceland for their takeaway range pizza and some sides for 1/3 of the price. I just cant justifying the cost on something I'm not enjoying that much.

@stopfundinghate

Thank you all for your replies, I've read them all! Yes lots of you are right, it's not the worst thing in the world I guess! And we do share main meals etc so it's not too much food. Sometimes I think I'm trying to become the perfect person!

I've ordered a simply cook box to try. I'll try going 8 days this week and see how we do. That's a great idea. The olives and bits things sounds great too so may well try that, I really hate ready meals so it's hard to be tempted to switch to those, and as we share our takeaway anyway I don't think it would be any 'healthier'. Maybe I'll do an update and let you know how we get on!

Get better ready meals.... Charlie Bingham's are very good.

@stopfundinghate

Thank you all for your replies, I've read them all! Yes lots of you are right, it's not the worst thing in the world I guess! And we do share main meals etc so it's not too much food. Sometimes I think I'm trying to become the perfect person!

I've ordered a simply cook box to try. I'll try going 8 days this week and see how we do. That's a great idea. The olives and bits things sounds great too so may well try that, I really hate ready meals so it's hard to be tempted to switch to those, and as we share our takeaway anyway I don't think it would be any 'healthier'. Maybe I'll do an update and let you know how we get on!

Get better ready meals.... Charlie Bingham's are very good.

I gave up when I paid £20 for a small burger, chips and few nuggets. I was totally ripped off.

Started cooking yummy, nutritious food at home after that.

I have an Instant Pot and I buy premade curry sauce (Spice Tailor or Holy Cow). I keep lots of different types of frozen veg and some kinds of diced meat/fish in the freezer. It all goes in the Instant Pot and before I know it, dinner is ready. No chopping etc...

All takeaways near me are shit, so this is a no brainer. You don't miss something that tastes like crap.

We made a NY resolution to not have a takeaway for the whole year. It's so easy and we are finding we are wasting less food, eating healthier and saving money :)

If you've done all this before, please forgive my repeating your own thoughts back to you.

First, I hope you're not feeling guilty or under pressure in any way. Certainly, in the town near here, some takeaway meals are made, to my personal knowledge, with fine ingredients and by a group of people with excellent understanding of health, fitness and nutrition. I'm sure this is repeated near you — at least, let's hope it is.

Second, is it a matter of planning? One of my day jobs is utterly unplanned and reactive, yet pressured, so to have the certainly of having planned which ingredients are going to go into lunch or dinner, many days ahead, is a beautiful oasis of calm for me; and is a visible form of respect for my own well-being and those who may share food here. How is your own planning?

I hope you never feel low about using takeaways (the workers there deserve their wages) but your meal planning will change not only when you are ready for it, but also when you truly want it to, from the inside out.

Used to be every week.Kids in bed,order a Chinese.But now I only order when I have the money.Cause I have to buy for everyone and it's expensive.

I love getting take away but it really adds up in cost.

We get one maybe once every 4 weeks which works ok.

Smells the only difference between vs four and five eating is that fives have a suitable in house hygiene training programme but a four doesn't, they may well be as well trained but outsource training.

Bar an Indian take out maybe once in a blue moon. The reason I stopped getting take outs was because one they're too expensive and two most are shit anyway. 2 lots of food poisoning from a Chinese and pizzas that the topping falls off as soon as you pick it up. I'd rather eat it all in piece not have to try and stick it back on top before I do.

If it's usually a Friday or Saturday night thing - could you get an M&S meal deal instead?

We have a lovely little butcher nearby who sells gorgeous fresh, prepped meats (in sauces etc). It’s more expensive than buying similar from a supermarket but sooooooo nice! So on a Friday we pop in and pick something up , buy a bottle of wine from the shop on the way (oops! ) and put it in the oven once kids are in bed. No hassle and just as nice as a takeaway.

Do you know that chefs are one of the occupations most likely to die of Covid? We haven’t had a takeaway since lockdown.

Add up the cost for a year. It stopped me in my tracks. Not had takeaway now since the start of the year and prior to that always ordered on a Friday and sometimes Saturday too.

We don't live near a takeaway so it's just not in my routine to get one

Except one shop of Indian takeaway I indulge on occasionally, 9/10 takeaways are very poor quality and completely underwhelming for the price. Much prefer home cooking to all too many dodgy foods..

I would rather use the money to go out out. Even if it is not once a week it is far more fun to be out than eating takeaway in the same four walls.

@Mistlewoeandwhine

Do you know that chefs are one of the occupations most likely to die of Covid? We haven’t had a takeaway since lockdown.

Source please.

Because you know it is complete and utter bollocks. How can such an occupation put you more at risk of dying? Of all the shite I have ever read on the whole internet, this is the thickest.