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?

You could just get 2 mains (they're large so enough for 4) then cook your own rice. That saves a bit.

This is a good point. As much as the frequency of my takeaways spiralled a bit out of control - ordering multiple times a week in lockdown was overkill, I do take comfort in the fact I rarely drink. In London where I used to live drinks are often well over a tenner each. I couldn’t imagine spending upwards of £50 on drinks multiple times a year. At most I’ll buy one alcoholic drink a year at a friends birthday or something and the only wine bottles I tend to have are gifted and to me, so I’d like to think it balances out or at least that’s what I tell myself.

For people thinking takeaways aren’t that tasty they’ve clearly not lived in the right areas of London 😆 I used to be located a stones throw from a food/entertainment venue called boxpark that has so many food places under one roof and I was spoilt for choice..vegan desserts, old school dinner sponge cakes, American style diner food, gourmet burgers Korean and Vietnamese cuisine, Caribbean food, etc. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. There was just so much on offer!

I have to say thankfully there isn’t much temptation where I live currently, there’s only a couple of places that do decent takeaways!

Luckily where I am, a main is about £8 and includes rice, chips or noodles. Fried rice is an extra 20p.

We have one meal out or takeaway a week. Both work full time with commutes and we see it as a treat / reward. One of us is a v high earner, the other medium but we couldn’t afford more even if we wanted to because of cost of living increases / mortgage rate increases.

A good takeaway around our way is £40- £45 for 2 unless we get an Uber eats offer (which only works out £5-6 quid cheaper as they put the prices up).

@alwayscrashinginthesamecar1

Delivery was quoted as 60-90 mins.

https://www.effortlessfoodie.com/chicken-pathia/

Oops wrong link, but I highly recommend the pathia it's really nice.

https://mission-food.com/chicken-saag/

£7.50 per head sounds completely normal to me.

Ah that explains it, I've never had to wait that long! If I did I probably wouldn't bother much with takeaways either!

For me a takeaway is such poor value for money when I can make something nicer (and usually healthier) that we will enjoy more.

This.

We got a takeaway curry last weekend with friends. 4 adults, 3 kids and that came to £95 which was with a 20% discount because it was collected 😱
Far too much for us to enjoy on a regular basis.

If we do get a takeaway I collect. There was a row near us between a restaurant that does delivery and someone who found a maggot in the box and slagged the place off all over NextDoor, Facebook etc. It was quickly identified as having come from the box on the back of the delivery bike.

I think a lot of posters saying ‘I can cook something nicer myself’ are missing the point that for a lot of us, the benefit of a takeaway is that no one has to cook. DH is an excellent cook and his food is generally better than the takeaway equivalent, but he still has to cook. He makes some excellent curries but curries are generally better after marinating/simmering for a long time and it requires a level of effort and pre planning. We both have full time jobs, 3 young children (one is disabled with many additional needs), we’re exhausted and sometimes neither of us wants to cook.

Our takeaway options include Lebanese, Vietnamese, Vegan Caribbean, different authentic Indian / S Asian cuisine, Japanese, and more, and don’t have to be ‘unhealthy’.

No way am I going to start preparing 7 different things for a Mixed Mezze, for example.

And even if it took 90 minutes to be delivered, I’d still rather spend that 90 mins sitting in the garden with a glass of wine than in the kitchen cooking.

There's 6 of us so we have to be clever about takeout;the Chinese we use offers a deal where you get a tub meal;this is a select number of dishes where you can chose either chicken,beef,pork or veg in your chosen sauce in one half of the tub and then it comes with either chips/rice/egg fried rice in the other half.You get a discount for collecting it too;we had a takeout last week and it cost £39 for 6 of these and a portion of hot&sour soup.

There's a burgers/kebab place we use that offers all sorts and is reasonable;it's about £40ish depending on if DS has his girlfriend over.

We use to have takeout as a Friday night treat although we've had to scale that back to 2-3 Fridays a month due to living costs

This always reminds me of Kevin bridges. Honestly if you are cooking bits yourself it’s hardly worth it. Just batch cook and freeze/ pick up some yellow stickers stuff for the freezer. Ping and ding for a lazy tea.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pXvtEImH_L8

Judgemental much?!

Not everyone who pays for a takeaway dresses their kids in Shoe Zone shoes- what a strange assumption to make.

Maybe I can afford to pay for a takeaway because my husband and I earn good money and while eating said takeaway my children wear shoes from Clarks and Boden 😉

Well I am now cooking rajma and alu saag for Sunday lunch after looking at the cheapest delivery near me. £11 for beans. Which will serve two. Used to be £8.

We’re getting a takeaway later and had one for breakfast as well; why is it surprising that different people can afford different things?

@DanceMonster
I'm not missing the point. If you get pleasure out of not cooking and having takaway instead then that's fine. I don't, for me it's a waste of money to spend so much food that I'm not going to enjoy as much.
I find going out much more of an experience and really enjoy going out to eat if we have the opportunity of respite care for DS.

Of course. I wasn’t really directing my comment at you, there are many many people on this thread who have said there’s no point getting a takeaway as they can cook something nicer themselves.

Or maybe the parents can afford both; but their children are having a growth spurt and likely will grow out the shoes in 8 weeks anyway; so parents don’t see the point in wasting money?

We don't do takeaways anymore and would rather go out for a meal occasionally. Our last takeaway was £42 for 3 adults, the only thing we saved on was the drinks which we had at home so would rather wait it go out to eat.

The worrying thing about the poster judging people for where they buy their children’s shoes is that in a later post she claims that she works in a role where she ‘helps’ people who have issues with finances. I wonder if they know how much the person claiming to help them is judging them behind their backs and disparaging them on online forums?

But microwaving a packet of rice or doing some in a steamer is hardly 'cooking' is it.