Many of us are watching our pennies carefully during these difficult times, but if you want to treat yourself once in a while, getting a takeaway doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Here are our tips for finding the cheapest takeaway and ways to help keep costs down.
Which takeaways are the cheapest?
The cheapest takeaway you can buy is a takeaway burger, which on average costs £4.42, according to the Office for National Statistics, but if that’s not your go-to takeaway, here’s how much the most popular takeaways typically cost:
| Type of takeaway | Average price (May 2023) |
| Takeaway or eat in burger | £4.42 |
| Takeaway chicken & chips | £6.29 |
| Chinese takeaway, main-course | £6.82 |
| Takeaway kebab | £6.93 |
| Takeaway fish and chips | £9.17 |
| Indian takeaway, main-course | £9.17 |
| Takeaway or delivery pizza | £9.95 |
Of course, these prices are only for one person, so if you’re buying a takeaway for your family, or are adding drinks, sides or desserts to the order, the price is likely to increase considerably.
Regardless of your financial situation, you don’t want to spend more than you have to on a takeaway, so if you’re looking to drive down costs, try these tricks to make your order cheaper.
Order once eat twice
You might be able to save some money by spending a little more on your order and spreading it over a couple of meals.
Almost every delivery service will charge a delivery and/or service fee for all orders, and some even apply a small order fee, so if you’re ordering less than £10-£12 worth of food, you might pay a couple of pounds more for the delivery.
Some places also offer free delivery if you order over a certain amount, so it can cancel out delivery fees if you order an extra dish. Most takeaway foods should be perfectly fine to eat the next day, just make sure you reheat it well.
Make money as you spend money
If you’re ordering your takeaway online, then you might be able to recoup some of the cost of your takeaway by getting cashback on your spending.
Cashback sites like TopCashback and Quidco have a range of offers for cashback on some of the most popular takeaways. For example, at the time of writing, TopCashback was currently offering up to:
- 27.5% cashback on Just Eat
- 5.5% cashback on Deliveroo
- £3.15 cashback on Uber Eats
- 4% cashback on Domino’s Pizza
- 4.4% cashback on Pizza Hut delivery
While these aren’t groundbreaking savings, they might help balance out the cost of delivery or service fees, so it could help minimise costs a little.
Collect your food rather than getting it delivered
Most of us know that one way to make takeaways a little cheaper is to go and collect them yourself, but actually doing this can feel like a faff.
Seeing just how much delivery might cost you though, might motivate you to go and pick up the food you’ve ordered yourself. Here’s how much some of the biggest food delivery services charge for delivery, along with some of the charges they add on top:
Delivery service | Service fee % | Service fee min | Service fee max | Delivery fees min | Delivery fees max |
Deliveroo | 10% basket before discounts applied | £0.99 | £2.49 | £0.00 | £9.99 |
Uber eats | £0.99 | £2.99 | £0.29 | £7.99 | |
Just eat | £0.99 | £1.99 | £0.00 | £13.99 |
These fees can vary massively from place to place, and the amount you pay depends on the amount of food you order, the distance you are from the restaurant and often how many other people are ordering at the same time.
Another thing to be aware of is that even if delivery costs are low, some restaurants have different prices if you order through a delivery app than if you were to go into the restaurant itself, so it can sometimes be even cheaper to order it direct and wait for it to be prepared (more on this later).
Make parts of it yourself
One thing that can make takeaway costs spiral is when sides and things like rice, chips and drinks start being added. To keep costs down, why not try ordering the main part of your meal from a takeaway, and buying the sides from the supermarket, or even better, making them yourself?
For example, you could order a couple of curries from your favourite Indian takeaway, but rather than buying rice, naan and poppadoms from the restaurant, you could make them at home. When you consider you can buy each of these from supermarkets for £1 or £2 each, you could save yourself quite a few pounds.
Compare prices
Restaurants can sometimes appear on several food delivery services, each of which may have different delivery and service fees, so you might be able to save yourself a few pounds by shopping around and going for the cheapest delivery option.
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Consider ordering on off-peak days
Lots of us will fancy a takeaway at the end of a long week, or at the weekend when we want to treat ourselves, so these are obviously the busiest times for most takeaway restaurants. Ordering on less popular days, so usually Monday to Wednesday, might mean you’re able to grab a deal, like free dishes or discounts as some restaurants will have special offers to tempt people to buy things on slower days.
The main delivery services often detail the special offers restaurants have, but it also never hurts to ask if you’re phoning to make an order.
Order directly from the restaurant
Restaurants have to pay to use the services of food delivery companies, so often you can find a better deal if you’re able to order from the restaurant directly. Most of the time, they’ll really appreciate you ordering through them as it means they get to keep more of a profit, and sometimes you’ll get a discount for doing so.
Check the Too good to go app
Too good to go is an app that lets you buy food from local restaurants, cafes and other businesses usually at significant discounts, and this includes some takeaways. The whole point of the app is to reduce food waste, so you can buy food that would have ended up in the bin at the end of the day at a reduced price.
Through the app you can buy a “magic bag” which usually contains a surprise mixture of products or dishes that could include anything from that shop or restaurant, but always at a reduced price.
You’ll obviously have little choice in what you actually get from them, but it might hit the spot if you’re hankering after a takeaway but at a much-reduced price.