Consumer Corner: Cutting out one takeaway a week could save you €1,500 a year

Niamh Hennessy shows how cutting back on fast food deliveries can make a big difference to your pocket

Let's Talk ... Takeaways

One of the Operation Transformation leaders, Sarah O’Connor said recently that she is saving around €70 on her weekly shopping bill after ditching takeaways and processed food. This just shows how changing some habits can result in big savings. 

With the price of just about everything on the rise, we can expect some price hikes with takeaways too. However, there is absolutely no need to be completely cutting out takeaways from your life as they can certainly bring a lot of joy. However, they don’t come cheap. Rather than go cold turkey on the takeaways, it could be time to do a bit of a cut back. Even cutting out just one takeaway a week can result in a lot of savings.

A report a few years ago from DKM Economic Consultants found that we spend nearly €1.5 billion in Ireland each year on takeaways. It did point out that men spend considerably more than women on takeaway, with an average spend of €48.86 per month for men compared to €31.93 per month for women.

At an average cost of €30 per takeaway for a family of four, cutting out one takeaway a week would save you €1,560 a year. Maybe even strike a deal with the family that this takeaway money goes into a jar for a family trip away.

Of course, all the rage in recent years has been the ‘fake-away’ and before you turn your back on such an outrageously healthy idea it would certainly be worth considering this and involve the family in the fun. There are so many videos and ‘fake-away’ tips around now between YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok that there’s no excuse for not making your own taco fries with a little bit of effort. Pizza is a great ‘fake-away’ option too and you can have a lot of fun making pizza as a family.

Collecting the takeaway will also save you money and perhaps stress as you wait for the delivery driver to arrive to the background noise of family members screaming for pizza. Another way to cut down on takeaway costs is forcing yourself to ring the restaurant rather than order online or via an app. This way you will be inclined to order fewer items. 

Also, an insider tip is that generally, places like Chinese takeaways do not advertise that they do large portions of items like fried rice and chips but they do offer them for usually around €1 extra which is cheaper than buying a double portion of a regular-sized one. Ask the restaurant if they do this when you are ordering.

Make sure too to check your kitchen drawers for flyers that may have accumulated as they came flying in the door. In general people do tend to stick to restaurants they know and like when it comes to takeaways but there might be no harm in trying out the new place that just opened as they will no doubt have good deals on.

Another tip too is when you do call the restaurant ask them what deals they have on at the moment. They may not have advertised them yet but they could have some good meal deals that would save you money. Check out their social media too as often restaurants will post discount codes on their social media.

Let’s hope there are some good ‘takeaways’ here for your next takeaway!

Champ of the Week: Card Gallery

David would like to nominate the Card Gallery on Grafton Street, Dublin 

The customer service at the Card Gallery was really excellent when I was buying cards from them recently. I was placing an order online for some cards for birthdays and other occasions and I mistakenly ended up placing two orders instead of one. 

As it was my own fault I thought I would have to go to the shop myself and explain the situation. However, Sabarish from the Card Gallery emailed me to say they noticed I placed two orders to the same address so they combined both the orders and sent them in a single post. They also said they refunded the shipping charge for one of the orders. I thought it was really nice of them without being asked.