“You don't have to give up takeaways, just take back control”: How to beat takeaway temptation and save money

With bills going up and Christmas approaching, many of us are looking for easy ways to cut back. And one place to start could be hiding in plain sight: your takeaway habit.

But you don’t have to give up that Friday night curry or midweek pizza and spend every evening cooking from scratch. It's about breaking the impulse-ordering cycle and being smarter about when you treat yourself.

We spoke to Ben Armstrong, founder of the Kitchen Closed app, designed to help you cut back on food delivery, about why takeaway temptation is so hard to resist, how much it could be costing you and how to get your spending back under control.

Why are takeaways so tempting?

We've all been there. You start the day determined to cook, but after a long day at work, the prospect of a takeaway delivered in 30 minutes suddenly seems much more appealing.

Ben believes 'food noise' plays a big part.

“I think food noise, the constant thinking about food, is hard for a lot of people to ignore, even more so when you're on a diet or trying to lose weight. In the morning, when you're motivated, it's easy to say you won't order tonight. But after a long day at work you're tired, and it's so easy to open an app and have food at your door in 30 minutes. At that point logic goes out of the window and you tell yourself you'll start tomorrow.”

And it's not just convenience. Saved card details, tempting offers and endless choice make ordering almost effortless.

As Ben explains:

“It's a combination of things: how easy the apps are to get to, the huge amount of choice, and our brain telling us we're tired and just want to lie on the sofa and watch TV. The apps make it effortless too. Your card is saved, your last order is one tap away and there's always an offer on. You never see the money leave, so £25 doesn't feel like real money.”

The real cost of your takeaway habit

One takeaway might not seem like a big expense, but regular orders can do serious damage to your finances. To help you see what you're spending on takeaways over the course of a year, Kitchen Closed has launched a free handy calculator. 

Ben says:

“We found the average our users spend on a takeaway is £27, including delivery and service fees. Order four times a week and that's about £470 a month, more than £5,600 a year. Cut it to once a week and you'd save around £350 a month, over £4,000 a year.”

That's a huge amount of money that could be going towards your bills, savings or giving you more breathing room each month.

So, how do you know when an occasional treat has become an expensive habit?

“When you're ordering several times a week, that's when it stops being an occasional treat and starts hurting your bank balance, and in some cases your waistline. Other signs: you order on the same nights without really deciding to, you order when there's food in the fridge, you're paying for a delivery membership, or you're shocked when you add up last month's orders.”

Five simple ways to resist takeaway temptation

1. Meal prep when you have the energy

Don't leave dinner decisions until you're tired and hungry. Prepare a few meals at the weekend so you've always got something ready.

As Ben recommends:

“There are lots of ways to fight it. Meal prep at the weekend, when you have the energy, so your meals for the week are sorted. If you live with a partner, take turns cooking and hold each other to it.”

2. Keep cooking simple

Stock up on easy ingredients, use your air fryer and find three or four meals you can make in 15 minutes.

“Keep it quick, and cook things you actually want to eat. Have three or four meals you can make in 15 minutes without thinking, and always keep the ingredients in. Frozen veg, microwave rice and an air fryer cut out most of the effort.

“Cook double and freeze half, so on the nights you can't be bothered there's something to heat up.

“And try a fakeaway: make your usual order at home. A homemade curry or burger costs a fraction of the delivery price, and you can still eat it on the sofa.”

3. Watch out for late-night cravings

It's not always dinner that's the problem. Those little dessert and snack orders can be surprisingly expensive once delivery and service fees are added.

Keep affordable snacks at home so you aren't tempted to pay takeaway prices for a late-night treat.

4. Plan your takeaway nights

Rather than ordering whenever you fancy it, choose one evening a week to enjoy a takeaway. You'll still have something to look forward to, without blowing your budget.

“Takeaway is best as a treat”, says Ben, once a week or a few times a month.

“It's also something to look forward to all week, and because you've planned it, it won't wreck your budget. On the night, check whether the restaurant takes orders directly or does collection, because that's often cheaper than the apps.”

5. Make impulse ordering harder

Deleting your takeaway apps might seem like the obvious answer, but Ben says it doesn't always work.

“We found that deleting the apps doesn't work. When you're that hungry you're not thinking logically, most people just download them again and order away, even if they fight it at first. We personally recommend deciding in advance, when you're not hungry: pick the nights you'll order and lock the apps the rest of the time.

“A few other things help too. Remove your saved card from the apps so ordering takes more effort. Turn off their notifications and offer emails. And cancel free-delivery memberships like Deliveroo Plus or Uber One, because free delivery makes it easy to order more often.”

Know your takeaway danger times

For many, takeaway temptation tends to strike at predictable times.

Ben has noticed two key periods:

“In my experience, definitely the evening, at two times in particular. The first is between 6pm and 7pm, when people have just got home from work, they're tired and want to kick back and relax.

“The second is around 10pm, when the night owls get peckish after dinner. That's when a lot of people order a snack or a dessert.

“If you know those are your danger times, plan for them: have dinner sorted before you get home, and keep a snack in for later.”

A little help with breaking the habit

Ben created Kitchen Closed with his best mate after realising just how much their own takeaway habit was costing them.

“We were ordering delivery every evening, sometimes twice a day, and couldn't stop. We were spending over £1,000 a month on it. Every time we deleted the apps, we'd just download them again. We wanted something that would break the cycle and push us to cook, meal prep, sign up to a meal service or actually do a food shop.”

Don't try to change everything overnight

If you're spending more than you'd like on takeaways, you don't have to go cold turkey or feel guilty about every order.

Ben's advice is to start small:

“The biggest piece of advice I can give is that you don't have to go all or nothing straight away. Start by cutting back a few nights a week. And if you give in and order when you didn't mean to, don't feel guilty and don't quit. Just try again the next day.”

You can still enjoy your favourite food without letting delivery apps dictate your spending.

A little planning, a few easier meals and fewer impulse orders could leave you with hundreds of extra pounds over the year.