To ask do you deem takeaways or meal outs as a waste of money

[Canwe666]

Ditto coffees out etc

Also to add though I find very few decent restaurants where I am. I will pay for good food.
Most pub food is bland and tasteless ...
fast food is a nice treat
Takeaway when I can’t be bothered to cook is a waste IMO I utterly resent it when I have to. I try to force myself to cook rather than give in to temptation

Takeaways - yes I do think they are a waste. It's as quick to bake a camembert, throw a salad together, add a baguette, some prosciutto, gherkins and olives; or serving of smoked salmon, good bread and bagged caesar salad. Otherwise something like a Charlie Bighams lasagne or fish pie. On a Friday evening. Better food for less money imo.

Restaurants - yes if it's high quality with a star or three or one of our favourites before or after the theatre. I deeply resent mid range restaurants where I could do better for a quarter of the price.

Coffee - lovely to have out, especially when shopping or meeting a friend. I drive to work and take my own for the car and a small flask for later.

Coffee is absolute filth but I love eating out but feel guilty having a takeaway but zero idea why!

No eating out is my favourite activity. But I have a strict budget I stick to and when my fun moneys gone it's gone.

Im always pretty meh about takeaways. We probably have 1 every 6-8 weeks.

Id rather spend a few hundred quid on one decent dinner in london than a handful of meals at pizza express or zizzis.

Coffee and any food in a cafe, yes I consider that a pretty big waste of money and tend not to bother.
Similarly with restaurant food, I'm a pretty good cook and prefer my own food but I am lazy sometimes. I'll happily pay for Asian/indian food as it's not easy to recreate that at home if you're not used to cooking it.

No it’s one of our pleasures in life.

Coffes yes but love a takeaway meal

@RosesAndHellebores

Takeaways - yes I do think they are a waste. It's as quick to bake a camembert, throw a salad together, add a baguette, some prosciutto, gherkins and olives; or serving of smoked salmon, good bread and bagged caesar salad. Otherwise something like a Charlie Bighams lasagne or fish pie. On a Friday evening. Better food for less money imo.

Restaurants - yes if it's high quality with a star or three or one of our favourites before or after the theatre. I deeply resent mid range restaurants where I could do better for a quarter of the price.

Coffee - lovely to have out, especially when shopping or meeting a friend. I drive to work and take my own for the car and a small flask for later.

It's Better food only if you like that kinds of food.

Not at all. I get a takeaway maybe once a month: it's a treat and an indulgence and worth every penny.

No, I hate cooking and cleaning up after and am a single parent so it all falls to me, but I love food so it's not a waste to me!

Very much depends on your financial position.

If you're hard up for whatever reason, struggling to lay the bills or saving for something big and important (house deposit, wedding, car) then it probably is a waste of money.

If you have some disposable income, take away food or meals out is a nice treat.

@Hyperion100

Im always pretty meh about takeaways. We probably have 1 every 6-8 weeks.

Id rather spend a few hundred quid on one decent dinner in london than a handful of meals at pizza express or zizzis.

A few hundred quid on tea? What are they serving you, gold bars???

A takeaway as a treat now and again, not a waste at all. Especially a good Indian as I cannot cook that at home.

Meals out, definitely not a waste, as they tend to be about the experience meeting up with friends or family as much as the food itself.

I would consider takeaway coffees or drinks a huge waste personally, but they seem to be popular.

I think if I was getting takeaway all the time I would because I’d only be doing that because I was too lazy to cook.

I get take out coffee every day and go out for meals a lot and I don’t see these as a waste of money because I usually get the coffee whilst I’m working and eat out as a way of seeing friends/spending time with DP so it’s not just the food it’s the experience.

Pre lockdown I probably ate out 4x a week and I didn’t see this as a waste of money because of the experience I was getting out of it. I love Chinese takeout but if I ordered takeaway 4x a week I’d be a little furious at myself.

Takeaways - yes I do think they are a waste. It's as quick to bake a camembert, throw a salad together, add a baguette, some prosciutto, gherkins and olives; or serving of smoked salmon, good bread and bagged caesar salad.
Is it as quick after you've shopped for the fresh ingredients?

We don't get much take away besides excellent pizza from a local pizzeria. However we don't have kids and live 5 minutes walk from a Whole Foods. Easy enough for us to throw a meal like that together, less so for a family with two working parents or a single parent who shops once a week.

For me it’s the experience more than the food or drink itself which means I don’t see the point of takeaways
I’m a fab cook but if I can’t be bothered just have a ready meal or frozen pizza etc
I love going out for coffee or a meal - being waited on and people watching - but it had to be better coffee than at home or if food offering then different or better than I can cook or I feel it’s wasted

Not if you enjoy them but as we have a bean to cup machine and I’m a pretty good cook we often find takeaways in particular disappointing and all too often meals out

Nope

Meals out are one of my main hobbies

Takeaways - yes I do think they are a waste. It's as quick to bake a camembert, throw a salad together, add a baguette, some prosciutto, gherkins and olives; or serving of smoked salmon, good bread and bagged caesar salad

Lol people with all that in the fridge aren’t ordering takeaways 😂

Takeaways = yes.
Cafe alone = No.
I don't get to go out for a meal often in a restaurant definitely a treat not a waste.
I don't like takeaway, DP loves them.

Yes such a waste of money. Especially if it’s unhealthy crap from awful chains.

I view takeaway coffee as a waste of money. I love eating out, if the food is good. But I think the quality of food in most takeaways and restaurants is not great.

Yes and no!

We’re all pretty good cooks in our house and have experimented with a wide variety of cuisines. DH enjoys baking bread, pizza dough and the like (but that happens in fits and starts) and we all do cakes, biscuits, etc. when the mood takes us.

Often, we’re quite unimpressed with restaurant food as we’ve made as good as, if not better, at home. Have yet to find a good roast - DS is the king of roast potatoes and gravy much to DH’s chagrin 🤣

We also have a coffee machine at home and I don’t drink it anyway. I resent paying for tea or water when out and struggle to find cold soft drinks that aren’t fizzy or extortionately expensive for what they are. I do have hot chocolate and tend to meet up with friends at coffee shops.

I guess it’s not so much a waste of money but, for me, resenting the cost when I can get what I want at home 🤷‍♀️

We had 5 takeaways in the past 9 months.
-One from our favourite local Chinese. Cold and oily by the time it got to us.
-One preordered birthday (ME!) meal delivered from our regular restaurant. They’ve reduced their delivery menu to dishes that they know will transport well. It was alright but €€, especially as we provided our own cake and drinks.
-Three pizzas/kebab salads from Just Eat’s best reviewed takeaway. Cheap and punctual. That will be the sort of takeaway we use after lockdown.

The first two are just not comparable to the real restaurant experience. Everybody knows that and orders takeaway from them as a gesture of goodwill until they’re back to normal.

As soon as we could eat in a restaurant outside (a month ago?) we did and this Saturday we’re eating 4 to a table indoors.
I CAN NOT WAIT. I’ve had enough of catering for more than a year. I just want somebody else to do the buying, storing, prepping, cooking, serving, clearing and washing up!
We’ve saved loads of money, though. Last Bank Holiday I made fresh lasagne and a table picnic for 4 and spent €25 on the ingredients. No change from €100 for something comparable in a “Rifugio” restaurant.