There is nothing quite like a Friday night curry, a Saturday pizza or a lazy Sunday Chinese arriving at your door. The problem is what it does to your bank balance. The average UK household now spends well over £1,000 a year on takeaways and food delivery, and once you add delivery fees, service charges and app mark-ups, a £25 feast often costs closer to £40 by the time it reaches your front door.
The good news is that you do not have to give up takeaway nights to save serious money. From beating the delivery apps at their own game to cooking convincing fakeaways at home for a fraction of the price, here is the complete 2026 guide to enjoying your favourite food without the Monday morning regret.
Why Takeaways Cost More Than Ever
Delivery apps changed the way Britain eats, but convenience comes with a hidden price tag. Menu prices inside apps are frequently 10 to 20 per cent higher than the same dishes ordered directly from the restaurant, and that is before you add the extras:
- Delivery fees typically range from £1.99 to £4.99, and surge pricing can push them higher on busy evenings.
- Service charges of up to 15 per cent are quietly added to your basket on some platforms.
- App mark-ups mean the same pizza can cost £3 more on an app than if you collected it yourself.
- Small order fees punish anyone ordering for one.
- Tips and prompts at checkout quietly add another pound or two to every order.
Add it all up and the convenience premium can easily hit £15 on a single order. Over a year of weekly takeaways, that is nearly £800 of pure fees and mark-ups. Cutting even half of that is a proper saving.
Order Direct and Collect Where You Can
The single biggest saving is also the simplest: cut out the middleman. Ring the restaurant directly, order through its own website or walk in and collect, and you dodge delivery fees, service charges and most of the app mark-up in one move.
- Collect instead of deliver. Many restaurants charge £2 to £5 less per collection order, and the food arrives hotter too.
- Order direct by phone. A takeaway that pays 25 to 30 per cent commission to an app is often happy to throw in a free side or a discount for direct orders, because you just saved it a chunk of money.
- Check the restaurant’s own website. Plenty of independent takeaways have their own ordering pages with exclusive collection codes and stamp schemes.
- Rotate your locals. New customer codes are the industry’s biggest giveaway, and each app offers them for a reason. If your household has more than one phone, one order a month from a new restaurant is usually enough to stay on the best deals.
Play the Delivery Apps at Their Own Game
Sometimes you genuinely need the sofa, the telly and someone else doing the cooking. When delivery is the only option, these tricks keep the cost down.
Never Pay Full Price for Delivery Fees
All three big apps – Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat – run discount codes almost constantly. Before you check out, do two things: check a voucher site for the latest codes, and check the in-app offers section. Uber Eats and Deliveroo both push personalised promos to lapsed users, so a fortnight off the app often triggers a welcome-back discount. Our cashback and rewards guide also covers which cashback sites pay out on food delivery orders – it is not unusual to claw back 3 to 5 per cent on top of any code.
Bundle, Share and Bulk-Order
Delivery economics reward bigger orders. One £40 order usually costs far less in fees than two £20 orders, so team up with family members or flatmates. Many chains also sell multi-buy deals – two medium pizzas plus sides for a set price – that work out much cheaper per portion than individual dishes. Freeze what you do not eat and your next free night is already covered.
Time Your Order Right
Off-peak is cheaper. Midweek deals at chains like Domino’s can knock a third off the menu price, and lunchtime delivery windows often escape surge pricing. Setting your takeaway night to a Tuesday instead of a Friday can cut the bill for the exact same food.
Watch the Mark-Up
Compare the app price with the restaurant’s own menu before ordering. If the app version is £2 or £3 more per dish, ordering direct by phone and paying a small delivery fee yourself – or collecting – still wins. Some restaurants on Just Eat let you order at menu price if you choose collection, which is the best of both worlds.
Use Restaurant Deals and Vouchers Before You Order
Chain restaurants and fast food outlets are discount-heavy, and the deals change weekly. Get into the habit of checking the offers before you choose what to eat rather than after:
- Sign up for newsletters. Domino’s, McDonald’s and most big chains email exclusive vouchers to subscribers, and the first email usually contains a welcome discount.
- Check the app first. The McDonald’s app is famously generous with its deals, and Greggs Rewards gives regulars free items – see our Greggs deals page for current offers.
- Look at meal bundles. Family bundles and £10-ish mix-and-match boxes are usually the cheapest per-head way to feed several people from any chain.
- Use supermarket dupes. Supermarket shelves are packed with takeaway classics at a fraction of delivery prices. Our supermarket savvy guide shows which aisles hide the best meal deals, and the Iceland freezer section can stock a month of fakeaway Fridays for the price of two delivered ones.
The Fakeaway Revolution
The cheapest takeaway is the one you cook yourself, and the fakeaway trend has made home versions genuinely good. A curry for four that costs £45 delivered can be made at home for under £12 using jar sauces, a bag of spices and supermarket rice. The same goes for pizza: a two-for-£4 pizza deal plus your own toppings beats £25 of delivery pizza, and the oven does the cooking while you put your feet up.
Our recipes for a fiver or less and family meal prep guide are packed with fakeaway favourites – sticky chicken, chow mein, kebab-style wraps and oven-baked halloumi fries. Batch-cook a fakeaway on a Sunday evening and you get the Friday feeling twice, once when you cook and once when you reheat.
Build a Fakeaway Store Cupboard
Keep the essentials in the cupboard so a takeaway craving never leads to a full-price delivery order. The core kit costs about £20 at Aldi, Lidl or Tesco and lasts months: curry sauce jars, stir-fry sauces, noodles, rice, wraps, frozen chips, a spice rack and a bag of flour for pizza dough. Once the cupboard is stocked, a fakeaway costs less than £4 a head.
Meal Kit and Recipe Box Alternatives
If the real reason you order in is decision fatigue, a recipe box can be the middle ground. Boxes from Gousto or HelloFresh work out at roughly £4 to £6 a portion – more than cooking from scratch, but roughly half the cost of delivery, with everything measured and delivered. New customer discounts make the first few boxes even cheaper. Cancel or pause whenever you like, and use them only for your busiest weeks.
Set a Takeaway Budget That Actually Sticks
A takeaway habit survives budget cuts best when it is planned rather than banned. Try this approach:
- Pick your takeaway nights. Decide in advance – one or two a month – and enjoy them guilt-free.
- Set a per-order cap. A £30 limit including fees makes you think about bundles and collection deals automatically.
- Keep a fakeaway fallback. A frozen pizza and a bag of chips in the freezer kills most impulse orders.
- Pay yourself the difference. Every time you swap a £40 delivery for a £10 fakeaway, move £30 to savings. Watching the pot grow is the best motivation to keep going.
The Bottom Line
Takeaway inflation does not mean the end of curry night. Order direct or collect where you can, never accept a delivery fee without checking for a code, time your orders around the deals, and keep a fakeaway kit ready for the lazy nights. Do all four and you can eat exactly the same food for half the price – which, on a typical year of Friday nights, is a saving worth hundreds of pounds.
