To wonder how people can afford a takeaway for a family?

[MaknCheeese]

We haven't had a takeaway for a while and I was thinking about ordering one for the family as a treat tonight. I decided not to once I worked out the price, I just couldn't justify paying 1/3 of my weekly groceries budget, £30 on a curry for 4.
When did you last have a takeaway?
How much did it cost and how many did it feed?

We used to have about 1 a week... DH had mastered cooking Indian and chines at home now, so we have pizza once a month ( I have a tastecard so get 50% off a £30 or over spend) and probably chippy mid month.. £17 for 4

@Remaker you need to get chips next time then when you get your Indian takeaway-they soak up all the lovely curry juices!

We were out at our local Indian restaurant last night and I make a mini fajita of veggie pathia curry, lemon rice and cups using sections of my chapatis 😋🤤

Back on topic,takeaway for us two comes in around £30 and we get it every Friday or Saturday. We also like a costa for breakfast a couple of times a week after the gym. I like getting things done for me 😄

We have one maybe once per month when we’re too tired to cook. About £25 for a Chinese for two.
We don’t get fish and chips anymore. I can’t justify spending nearly £40 on it!
The takeaway boxes from Tesco are quite good and they are sometimes down to £5 with clubcard.

For those who eat out less than takeaway, round here you can have a decent Spoons/Hungry Horse/Greene King out out for much less than the price of a takeaway.

Are people using Indian and Chinese for leftovers? That ends up like two takeaways then really.

I do find Indian expensive. It would be £35 for DH and I to have a naan each, a curry each and him some rice.

Chinese we'd get something like chow mein, salt and pepper chicken and a rice to share and it would come in under £20.

Chip shop we might both get a burger or one of us fish the other a burger and some chips to share, and they comes in around £15/£16.

Dominos we'd get two large pizzas so about £23 but that would do us dinner for 2-3 nights.

We probably eat out about once a month. But we never have takeaways - we would always cook a treat meal at home and for quick meals there is invariably something quick we can whip up at home from leftovers we have put in the freezer.

Yesterday, we (2 adults and 2 teens) had king prawn pathia, garlic and coriander rice, cauliflower 65, raita, beetroot salad and garlic naan - all homemade and for less than £12 in total. It would have been at least 4x that for takeaway.

Well we have all the sushi we can eat (and more!) as my son delivers for a sushi restaurant and brings it home about twice a week. Aside from that we maybe get pizza from our local about every 2 or 3 weeks. It's fabulous pizza, much better than the like of dominos, and pizza for three is about $50 AUD (approx 28 pounds, with plenty of leftovers for the next day. Occasionally we get Chinese or Vietnamese, which is a little more exxy,, maybe $70 -$80 for three. We also eat out most weekends. None of this involves scrimping on children's shoes! U usually cook everything "from scratch' as they say on here (god bless my Thermomix), but sometimes I just CBF.

of course it is, I think what’s being pointed out is simply many people have a higher food budget or disposable income and can afford takeaways and eve holidays, and on the flip side, there are folks who have less than you. That’s how an economy works.

generally though a takeaway isn’t out of food budget, irs on top of and out of disposable income.

You're right. It's a huge treat for the 4 of us. We stick to £30 and make it a once in a two months occurrence.
And we only have food for 2 adults because our children are small and we all share.
TBH, I don't even enjoy takeaways that much (the choice we have in our area is rather restricted) but it's fun to do something different at times, especially for the kids.

This is the kind of food I cook daily, and for about that amount or less, but do you not get tired? Indian cooking is so messy ( Or maybe I am messy).

A few times a month we will go to the chippy, otherwise we eat out in restaurants quite a lot. Takeaways are very infrequent but that is due to preferences not cost

Erm, yeah. Or some people just have more money than others :/

We always have a takeaway on a Friday night. Usually costs anywhere between £35-£55 depending what we have. Feeds 5 of us.

DH and I spent £35 on sushi for the 2 of us the other night but we 1) like food and are somewhat greedy and 2) don't have kids so I'm happy to throw money at tasty food.

We had a Chinese takeaway for 4 the other night on my husband's birthday. It was just over £40.

I've never been a huge fan of takeaways and usually find them a bit disappointing. We used to have them 4-5 times a year and eat out less than 10 times (not always great either), but with everything going up we won't do that anymore. I'm OK at cooking fakeaways at home, so would rather do that and save £20, or if i really can't be arsed, just chuck some fish and chips in the freezer instead. I don't miss takeaways, but i do miss eating out in a nice pub garden in the summer. My eldest likes eating out, so it's a shame about the prices being prohibitive now, but I very rarely went out for dinner as a kid and it was an exciting new thing when i finally could as an adult.

I prefer going out for breakfast now, you generally know what you are getting and it's cheaper and quite a nice social start to the day.

I agree, I'd rather just have something ready made or very easy at home than pay £££s for a disappointing takeaway or restaurant meal.

Ours is about £7-9 per main dish, but that includes rice, noodles or chips - unless you order off the "specials" list where you pay extra for them.

So, two main meals and two starters can easily come to just under £20, plus you get free prawn crackers with each order too.

The portions are massive and easily last two meals each, if not more.

Yeah me too. I mean, I don't see the 'joy' (referring to a PP saying not liking takeaways is 'joyless') in paying 70 for a Chinese when I could make it myself for less than 15 and it would be far nicer. But as I've said, we have never ordered a takeaway in 20+ years. We eat out very occasionally. We do like a bacon roll or cheesy chips when out and about at sports things though!

Our last takeaway was Papa John's pizza. Two large, stuffed crust. It was an indulgence and an eye watering £38. Fed two adults for two days. We have young toddlers they don't really have any takeaway yet apart from the odd Happy Meal.

BUT I am NEVER paying that much again. Only reason I caved was because I'd been traveling solo (train, plane, car) all day with a 1 and a 2 two year old so just wanted something easy.

We're done now til Payday I think.

I am impressed by the takeaway choices some PPs have. Where I live we have the basic Chinese, Indian and fish and chips.

I mean, having pizza two days in a row sounds gross. Why on earth you'd pay nearly 40 for the privilege of eating heated up pizza for two days is beyond me.

We have full time jobs and have just finished renovating a house. The COL crisis is hitting everyone differently we are in the fortunate position that it more no I am not paying x for that, rather than we can't afford it. We eat out a lot less now DS is older (he's a home bird and would rather have friends over when he's off school than go out with us) so a nice take away (£50+ now 😬) is an indulgence for me and DH after a day of decorating with DS plus friends running round the house.

We cook a lot from scratch but also get things like the M&S dine in etc

I mean, I’m just going to throw this out there, it may be a totally radical idea but maybe… because they like it? I don’t particularly like pizza at all, but it’s not a difficult concept to me that some people do. So I can also make the mental leap that some people might like reheated pizza.

Who said anything about heating it up?

Cold leftover pizza for breakfast is one of life's great pleasures