Are we fat bastards? How much do you spend on a takeaway?

[Hottubby]

I was interested to see on another thread that some people were horrified at a poster spending £40 on a takeaway and suggested she must be ordering an awful lot.
We had a Chinese last night for 4 people and it was £85- there was some left over for lunch today.
this was our order;
1x King Prawns Mushroom in Oyster Sauce 1x King Prawns Hong Kong Style Sweet & Sour Sauce 1x Aubergine Black Bean Sauce 1x King Prawns Satay 1x King Prawn Ginger & Spring Onion Sauce 1x Quarter Crispy Aromatic Duck 1x Mixed Appetisers for 2 1x Chicken & Prawns in Yellow Bean Sauce * 3x Egg Fried Rice (300g) 1x Special Chow Mein 1x King Prawns Fried Rice

so how much do you spend/order for 4 people and are we fat bastards?

I've come to the conclusion that no-one eats a normal amount of food on Mumsnet.

You have the people who exist on 4 blueberries on an egg cup of porridge followed by a side plate of steamed fish and broccoli, or people like the OP and the poster from the other day who proudly reported that her 16 YO DS demolished an entire family food shop in 24 hours home alone, and was backed up by dozens of others who replied to say that's what teen boys do and you just have to keep buying more food because everyone has an unlimited food budget to throw at a bottomless pit.

I don’t think £85 for 4 people is expensive. It’s just that Chinese takeaways charge a lot per dish 🤷‍♀️ You’ve got some for lunch so no harm really. For what it’s worth, we never buy Chinese, always Indian. But that costs about £50 for two adults.

For 2 adults and a teen we have 2-3 mains 1 fried rice 1 noodles and 1/4 crispy aromatic duck. We always get free prawn crackers. About £30-35

Erm…we actually are fat bastards and our Chinese takeaway order is approx £20 for the two of us. So double it and add a bit for more starters / regional price variation….for that amount we would have had a lot of leftovers.

For 2 adults & 2 kids we’d normally order:

quarter crispy duck
2 starters
2 mains
2 sides (eg rice & noodles)

that would leave some for adults lunch next day. Average price £40-45

yours does seem to be an awful lot of main dishes

I pissed myself at that too 😆

I'm not a fan of the MN "massive salad" but even I think seven main meals, plus starters and appetisers for four people is a lot 😬

Between two of us we usually spend between £21 - £33. It doesn't usually go over £35 really. It depends on location and type of food as well.

Wow! I wouldn’t be spending that much money unless I was getting table service and a couple of alcoholic beverages….

That’s an awful lot of food for 4 people unless portions are small so if this is a regular take away meal for your family I’d guess you probably do have weight problems.

this isn’t about some mn competition to see who can survive on a grain of sand there are more than four mains plus multiple
side dishes too. That’s obviously going to cost a lot among 4 people.

@MeanderingGently we are comfortable but that’s a ludicrous amount of money to spend on a takeaway. You are not alone!

Mmm sounds great to me ! We have takeout as a treat. I think the prices have Gone up as well.

Set meal for two... £22.90

Ribs
Szechaun chicken
Sweet and sour chicken balls
Beef in black bean sauce
Large egg fried rice
Prawn crackers.

Dies us and one child. If both around well add some duck and more prawn crackers.

It's a long time since I had a takeaway 'up north' but I don't remember ever paying for rice, with Chinese it was just included and with Indian it was usually rice/naan or chapati included.

Sounds good, but I’ve never come across this in over 20 years of takeaway ordering in the midlands and north! Was shocked on Saturday to find that a standard egg fried rice around here (Manchester) is now £3 to £4+. This was via deliveroo so there’s a markup, but still. I am militant about having my own rice portion, so this is a very important topic.

I think Chinese is good value compared to other takeaway options. Just as good the next day, unlike burgers and fish and chips (inedible) and pizza (second-rate) so no waste. For that reason, I’d not have an issue with ordering loads of food because it wouldn’t be wasted.

I always massively overorder so I have leftovers for the next day and dishes to freeze.

DH and I get Thai takeaway quite frequently. Our usual order is:

1x chicken satay
1x crispy squid
1x veg and tofu green curry/massaman/panang
1x another main (sometimes Pad Thai, sometimes a stir fry dish)
1x coconut rice

If we're feeling really greedy we might also get a side of stir-fried vegetables. Sometimes there are leftovers, sometimes not!

That costs a good £40/45 but we are in London.

OMG! How many calories is that? 10,000? 20,000? As for the fat content....if that once a week, it's quite horrifyingly concerning.

Just over £20 for 2 adults and one teen. Seaweed, prawn crackers, two main courses, rice. We still have leftovers for breakfast.

It's a very rare treat so we make the most of it.

Local fish and chips is about £10 each for haddock, chips and mushy peas. So £40 ish in total.

Indian

Husband will always have lamb tikka bhuna with egg fried rice.

I always have lamb korma with naan bread

Eldest son always has chicken korma with rice.

Younger son always has chips.

They both have a cheese naan too and we buy a few poppadoms.

It's been so long since we had one 🎻 that I can't remember how much it was but it was probably around fifty quid.

Our Chinese has just gone up in price and we now spend £50 for seven of us, with plenty left for the next day. The two adults and three teenagers will eat fairly large portions, and the two younger ones less so, but you seem to be spending an obscene amount.

In your defence Op you probably ordered some of the more expensive options on the menu. For example the king prawns and aromatic duck! I'm not surprised you spent that much!!

That's an awful lot of food for four people.

We normally spend £20-25 for two people which is one appetiser, two mains with accompanying rice or noodles plus prawn crackers.

That sounds a lot to me but then we don't buy enough to have leftovers the next day. We ( 2 adults) tend to have 2 mains, teen DD has satay chicken for her main plus one portion of egg fried rice plus one portion noodles. That's plenty for us (about 2 plates of food each) despite DH being a bit of a pig. It costs about £30 now.

I don't know how people eat the quantities of food that they say they do on MN, it must cost a fortune and we'd be overweight. (That 16 yo eating thread slightly blows my mind. What's wrong with a teen feeling hungry sometimes?)

To last how long? We order to have leftovers. 2 people, 3x main courses &1 rice, 1 or 2 sides.

Yes, definitely this!