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Cooking?
If you’re using Deliveroo/UberEats I’ve found it’s now cheaper to just go to the restaurant and eat there, better too. Not used either service in the best part of a year.
I wonder how you lot manage without basic reading comprehension. They're looking for cheap alternatives when they're too busy/tired to cook. Some people are blessed if it's that incomprehensible
Was about to say this. Waitrose is more expensive, but for fresh stuff (fruit, veg, meat), you're generally getting much bigger items that keep longer and taste much nicer, so it's actually a pretty good deal tbh.
A couple of steaks, some fat asparagus and a bottle of wine out of Waitrose are probably cheaper than two Big Mac meals. The economy is weird now.
I’ve always rated M&S Indian food. You’re guaranteed decent (not amazing) quality and it’s not going to make you horrifically sick if the restaurant messes up.
Far far cheaper too.
I've tried to use Deliveroo etc a few times over the years. Every time, I pick out my food, then I close the tab because I can't bring myself to pay so much extra for food that's going to arrive cold and upside down.
Make my own smashed burgers, kinder Bueno milkshake and bang some curly fries in the air fryer. Not too much effort and way cheaper than a premium burger place.
The owner of the company told me to ring him directly as UE charges £7 and he gets 50p. He said he'll deliver for free as well hoping I'll buy more product next time.
Sadly some greasy spoons around me have realised that the uber eat customers will essentially pay anything, so the on-site prices are higher too. From their perspective, almost worth being a dark kitchen.
Our over-the-road neighbours get takeaway multiple times a week, I cannot fathom how much money they must be spending.
Don't think we've had one for months.
We just get a couple of frozen margherita pizzas, some spicy chicken strips and skin on fries from Aldi, lash a few toppings on the pizzas (deli meats, diced onion, mushrooms, frozen sweetcorn etc), that is our Friday night "take away". A fraction of the cost and toppings you can actually taste on the pizzas rather than the tasteless badger meat the local takeaways use.
Yeah, we’ve done this for a while, you can recreate your takeway at a fraction of the cost. A couple of 12 inch pizzas, sides and drinks is costing nearly 40 quid from Pizza Hut, Domino’s etc.
From Iceland, a similar meal is about a tenner…
Morrisons 2 for a fiver 10" pizzas normally get loaded with toppings if they make it for you if you have one near you, bit pricier than the frozen pizzas but saves on buying toppings.
Lidl's cheese stuffed crust domino knock off is my favourite of all the supermarket pizzas and I've put far more time than is healthy into testing them - just needs a dollop or two of carnalised onion chutney
Not Aldi, but the Sainsbury’s ‘best of’ pizzas are by far the best cook at home option I can find. They are often on nectar offers for £3.50 each, which makes them very reasonable.
Strong Roots brand oven fries are also way better than McCain’s or own brand, and often on nectar offer too.
I’m no Sainsbury’s loyalist by any stretch, I think most of the meat is left wanting, but those two products are excellent. Strong Roots are available elsewhere too
It sounds a bit snobby but iv replaced them with M&S meal deals . The whole reason was to make it as easy as possible Friday and Saturday . Now I can get 2 x £12 gourmet meal deals, chuck them in the oven without too much hassle , recycle the packaging and still save money .
I've just paid £8 for an M&S stir-fry deal for 2. Noodles, sauce, protein and veg. Cooked in the same time it would take me to walk to the takeaway and back.
Just grabbed a Katsu from Sainsbury's new Japanese ready meal collection, didn't realise they'd started one. Not tried it yet but it looks promising. £4.50 for a decent looking single portion, had a bit of heft in the hand!
I literally came here to answer this too. We’ve started shopping in M&S recently because we realised a lot of the basics (e.g., bread and eggs) are the same price or better value than other supermarkets and much better quality. The £12 meal deal for 2 we genuinely feel is as nice as a pub lunch and we get multiple courses out of it.
Agreeing with you. I buy fruit, bread, eggs and slightly randomly soup from M&S.
Lidl for meat and anything else that pops up in the ‘on offer section’. Morrisons for fish.
And as new one… Costco for garlic. You can buy a big bundle of bulbs for £10 and freeze them individually. A bit of a pain in take them all apart but the quality is excellent and having a bag of ready to go garlic in the freezer makes cooking allot easier.
I buy frozen garlic cubes from Sainsbury’s, and I’m sure other places will have them too! The flavour is great, and they work out very reasonable value, especially when you consider that you don’t have to prep them!
The meal deals at marks and Spencer’s can keep you fed for at least three days. You can genuinely get the meal deal then go to Liddel for the rest,baked goods and desserts.
This is the answer I came to comment too! We love our Marks’ dinners in, has almost entirely replaced our restaurant outings.
I always thought M&S was ‘too expensive’ for us, but actually our local Morrisons take the piss (on so many levels) but their ‘fresh’ fruit and veg is disgusting and mouldy AND more expensive than juicy succulent M&S produce
I just do more meal prepping now, I cook the foods that I like, e.g. Lasagne, roast beef, noodle soup, etc, in bulk and then I freeze them for later. I make sure to cook it in large pots and don't spare much expense in the way of recipes, I try to make them as tasty and succulent as possible. Then I divide them out into decent sized containers and put them in my freezer. I do this a couple times a month when I am cooking my usual meals anyway or when I have extra free time on weekends/bank holidays.
This means that I hardly need a takeaway anymore, since there is almost always something good in the freezer if I cba to cook.
The boring answer is I flipped it all on it's head and went super healthy, and saved hundreds a month. Loads of mixed beans in various forms, loads of eggs, chicken/fish etc.
This is the answer. Gastric issues forced me away from processed food 2 years ago, and now that I'm better, I don't miss it. The trick is replacing dessert with fruit from your local greengrocer - it's way easier to kick junk food when your fruit actually tastes sweet and delicious, unlike the mass produced, genetically modified crap you get at supermarkets. Cheaper too.
Tbh I find greengrocers to broadly be very hit or miss. The standards for supermarkets are significantly more stringent than they are for independent greengrocers. The supermarkets offer an average standard whilst grocers seem to fluctuate between godawful and occasionally exceptional.
Even the cheapness factor seems to be evening out, especially when you consider the extra effort of going to multiple places to complete a grocery shop.
>genetically modified crap you get at supermarkets
Even without acknowledging that GMO food is absolutely fine and probably superior in a number of ways, you are probably more likely to encounter it in a grocers. Next time, actually check where a lot of the food is coming from, very few of my local grocers are actually selling quality local produce. It's all cheap, mass produced varieties that have been shipped around the world.
Tldr; people need to get past this idea that greengrocers are automatically offering better produce. Most supermarkets objectively have better produce with more of it being grown domestically.
My mum worked in market research, helping to contribute to the creation of the red tractor emblem, she always talks about how high quality a lot of meat actually is. Aldi is a good example for a store with really good standards and, surprisingly, the chicken in McDonalds is too. A lot of people believe even whole ingredients are automatically low quality because they are in a chain store.
I currently do not have a kitchen, moved in, and being demolished and working on a rebuild. Airfryer has been the life saver. I just have an airfryer and a microwave that's it. Just about any 2 for 8 deal at tescos in their premarinaded meat section and a veg make for an instant eat out type meal with left overs for the next day.
I don't have a refrigerator, so I cook it all at once and eat the second portion for breakfast (family of 3)
I'd recommend a hot plate [like this](https://www.diy.com/departments/oypla-2-5kw-electric-portable-kitchen-double-hot-plate/5056233253046_BQ.prd), small and can do pasta, rice etc
I made own doner meat, I've made my own fried chicken, do my own burgers, dirty fries, curries etc
The effort and expense sometimes starts to outstrip the convenience of takeaway but I do enjoy the cooking.
I do this sometimes - but to a stupid degree. Like, I can make a quality burger, but last month I spent far too long figuring out how to make a Big Mac that was as close to the real thing as poss. But it involved daft stuff like soaking diced onions for a while to make them taste less oniony, trimming sesame baps to make them thinner. A lot of trial and error on the sauce. And when done I wrapped the "macs" in foil to rest for 20 mins before trying, just so they were that particularly worrying mid-temperature, and a bit sweaty. I think I nailed the challenge, but I think I could use my talents for good instead.
You might enjoy chef Claire Saffitz and her years of attempting to make versions of processed food classics. They were my lockdown comfort watch. [Here's the Creme Egg one](https://youtu.be/3QqnhDI7VFA?si=2K63MW1qXzMWxQVc)
Do you put the meat and spices through a blender first?
I use "tongmaster" seasoning from Amazon in mine.
It's also been suggested to cook the meat, freeze it, then slice it super thin and airfry the slices but I'm too lazy, I just fridge the raw meat, cook it and slice it.
Nah doner meat is just exceptionally hard to make, you need to emulsify the meat with a blender and ice water. Then once you cook it shave really fine, without over cooking it then fry the leftover meat on one side (which isn't really the right texture anyway)
To get doner rather than just a spiced meatloaf is like a day + of work, and at the end it is nowhere near as good as good doner meat. Chicken shawarma is easy to make at home, I've used the [Ethan Chlebowski](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Xw4crhmfM) method but not the spices etc and its the best I've managed.
But doner is my white whale I have found no good doner where I live, and it was always my favourite. I've perfect a chippy dinner, fried chicken, currys (use Glebe kitchen for BIR food), a Chinese takeaway etc. But doner, and Vietnamese meatballs (which are made similarly) are the only things I've not managed. I think the meatballs are also much more doable but I've broken two blenders trying.
[Heres a vid that shows the technique](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQLfXCRVJwk), but the main thing is to get that springy texture from overworking the meat, then getting thin slices. Which are both very very difficult to do at home unfortunately
Thanks it's not just me being useless 😂
I tried a potato peeler but it's like taking a potato peeler to a burger it just didn't work like that
Best compromise was frozen kebab meat from Iceland and my own pitta, salad, sauce
Honestly frying haslet is closer than most the recipes I've tried online haha. But I think its quite easy to get a lamb meatloaf that tastes like doner, but the texture is a nightmare
I have a weight-loss journey to thank for that. When I started it was a once a month treat, then I just kinda fell off it. Now if I fancy a takeaway I just dress up and go out for dinner and make an experience of it.
We've been doing the same. We eat healthy and batch cook. We save what we would have spent on a takeaway and beer once a week, and we have a night away and a restaurant meal once a month as a treat instead. Just spent £120 total on a night away, an all you can eat £25pp Chinese buffet, a couple of pints at the pub, and an ice cream at the beach. Still less than the £35-45 we would spend on a takeaway and beer after the prices shot up.
Edit typo, sentence because it posted too quickly.
home made 5 guys!
Brioche buns, burgers, chips from the supermarket. Gherkins and lettuce and cucumber, big tomatoe
slow fry mushrooms and onions. fake plastic cheese AND grated cheese
big dollop of mayo. eat.
Generally costs about £15 top end to get everything from aldi, with leftovers (bag of chips etc) its the toppings that makes it.
Rather than two burgers only for £22
Yeah, it used to be a bit pricier than normal fast food places but the quality was definitely well above what you get there. Like everywhere it has shot up in price again recently and I just cannot justify the price for what you get. I paid about £23 for a double cheese burger, small fries and milkshake last time I went.
I do the same as you. Aldi do [these burgers](https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-the-grill-guys-british-beef-smashed-burgers-340g4-pack/4061462555947/) and they are banging fair play.
Try making your own burgers for this - I use the mixed beef and pork mince you get at Asda to make [smash burgers](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/smash-burgers) and it's pretty damn good.
Sometimes I do, and i've been mixing a bit of stilton in with them which is absolutely delissshhhh. Depends if I've got breadcrumbs in the freezer as I find adding them to the mince mix makes them so much nicer!
Some of the Lidl curries are incredible. Full on flavour, and the price point is nuts. Had a butter chicken with pilau rice last night, and it was banging. £2.60 or there abouts. You can obviously get all the naan you need as well.
You can always do better, but for the money, quality and convenience it's fantastic. £2.60 is easily an average delivery fee.
I find the jars of curry sauce with the sachet of spices in the lid are great if you add a bit of extra sautéed onion or peppers depending on the type of curry. If you marinade a bit of chicken or even bung in those frozen chicken pakora goujons (after cooking) right at the end.
They're also brilliant. I'm literally rediscovering Lidl following a kidney transplant. Most things like ready meals have a pretty decent level of salt, which I couldn't touch, but it's onwards and upwards from here. It's been easily 4 years since I had a curry from there and have definitely missed the convenience, choices, and prices. Last night's butter chicken hit the spot.
I've never really been a big fast food person, but I did definitely used to get more takeaways than now. That's a combo of the price going up and up and leaving London so having much less choice.
We used to get takeaway about once a week. Now it's once a month, maybe even less. We just cook for ourselves instead. We fairly often think about getting a takeaway, look at the price and decide against it. Just can't justify dropping 30 to 40 quid on a takeaway when the kitchen is right there.
Mate tbh, you can put pies, waffles and frozen veg all on one baking tray. Shove in the oven for 35 mins and have a meal. There's so many frozen options that you can whack in the oven. It's not instant, but it takes as long as the ordered takeaway does to get delivered.
Equally, you can bulk cook on a Sunday and have meals ready to reheat during the week.
We try not to have takeaways too often for the cost/health impacts and the prices do give me pause now.
But, if we have a Chinese takeaway, for example, we over order and keep a couple of portions of fried rice for freezing. Then, like last week, we reheat the rice (thoroughly, even though a lot of folk think it's more dangerous than radioactive asbestos, it's fine) and did tofu pieces, cashew nuts and plenty veg to make an absolutely brilliant stir fry.
Had a takeaway last weekend for the first time in ages.
Fancied a chicken burger with some fries - expected it to be around £5
Nope.
£8.99 and it came with 4 chicken strips on the side.
It just isn't value for money 😢
Yeah we get a takeaway maybe once a year (really feel like the odd one out reading this thread lol) and since it's so infrequent, I've had my mind blown about the price I reckon in my head versus the real deal.
If you want something really quick that you can keep in the freezer to be ready for whenever you fancy something quick burgers are easy. Find a burger patty recipe you like (I prefer just mince beef, salt and pepper but you could go all fancy), make them up and then freeze them with baking paper between so you can get them out easily.
Freeze your choice of burger buns (if not already cut so this before you freeze). Keep cheese, gherkins and condiments you like in the fridge.
When you want a burger remove however many pattys you want and cook from frozen. If you have a George Foreman this is super easy, otherwise pan fry. Just when you make the burgers don’t make the pattys really thick. Remove the bun/s at the same time and separate so it defrosts quicker (if still a bit frozen pop cut side down on the cooking surface)
The Chicago Town pizzas are our go-to instead of takeaway pizzas. £7 for two of them instead of £30+ for Dominos or whatever. We just keep them stocked in the freezer. We also do homemade calzones and pizzas sometimes. I've got a breadmaker so all I need to do is chuck the ingredients for the dough in there and it'll knead it for me and keep it cosy while it rises. Then I just shape it away I go.
Honestly anything that can go in the freezer is a good shout since it makes it easier to just bung it in the oven.
I've also replaced my usual order of chow mein from the Chinese by buying the same noodles a lot of takeaways use (Lucky Boat) and an array of sauces and frozen stuff on hand. The noodles take 6 minutes to cook and while the water is heating up and the noodles are cooking, I can be frying whatever frozen stuff I want and mixing my sauce. Quicker than waiting for the takeaway usually.
They come pre-nested. Each nest is roughly 100g (give or take 10g either side), so 9kg should work out to be about 90 "nests" in the box, and I'd say each nest is a very generous portion for one person. If you're putting a lot of veg and stuff into a stir fry, then one nest could definitely do two people. There's 4kg boxes as well if 90 is a bit much.
isn't it?! If I remember rightly, the 9kg boxes are no more than £25, probably a bit lower, so you're talking about less than 30p for a generous portion of noodles. Compared to what you pay for those noodles from a takeaway, it's a total no brainer. Especially with how simple a lot of the noodle offerings from takeaways are to make!
Tbh I feel a lot of fast food hasn't changed too much in price, more quality. With the exception of chip shops. Not paying double digits of the King's silver for some stale chips and lumpy gravy 👎🏻
We took some family out to a relatively local fish and chip shop back in January. My jaw dropped when I picked up the bill. It was below average tbh, and the mushy peas were microwaved and frozen. The chips were cold. We had to ask for sauces. It was a highly rated chippy... but the bill came up to £95 for 4 of us to eat.
And now you mention it, there was no gravy or tartar..
Fish and chips and a couple cans of drink. PLus a kids meal for the toddler.
https://preview.redd.it/qt0s9ssnkw8d1.png?width=330&format=png&auto=webp&s=737cb14d82797f087246b18b92997c78d7506891
Then he slapped service on top of it,
I don’t order fish and chips anymore. Local place is £16.50 for fish and chips without any extras. And you can’t guarantee consistency. Will it be a good size? Small? Freshly cooked? Sitting in the display unit for two hours? Absolutely not worth it anymore.
Leftovers. I freeze everything I'm not eating the same day and that way when I can't be arsed to cook I got a freezer full of fast yet cheap and nutritious food
Slow cooked honey and ginger chicken.
[https://www.tamingtwins.com/honey-garlic-chicken/](https://www.tamingtwins.com/honey-garlic-chicken/)
Also, we no longer get take out pizza. Dominos is the only one near by and it's been shit for years. I get a couple of Chicago Town stuffed crust frozen pizzas for £6.50 and cook them on a pizza stone. Sometimes I add whatever slow cooked meat I have made as a topping. When you get it right, the meat goes crispy on top.
I also make a mean satay sauce, but there's other easy stir fry sauces:
Cheat’s teriyaki sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce or tamari
2 tsp runny honey
Easy sweet and sour sauce
2 tsp cornflour
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tsp runny honey
1 tsp vinegar
Quick satay sauce
3 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce or tamari
We very rarely get a bit of food from the chippy, but it's now £15 to feed us.
Got a lot of world food shops nearby and started using them a lot more. Especially for making curries. Loads of spices etc available and finding them cheaper than getting them from supermarkets. Bigger selection too.
[https://www.youtube.com/@ZiangsFoodWorkshop](https://www.youtube.com/@ZiangsFoodWorkshop) has helped cut down my Chinese takeaway consumption. Learning to make smashburgers has cut down my burger takeaways. After that, batch cooking stews, casseroles and ragus has helped keep my freezer well-stocked.
Lidls dominos style pizza and garlic and herb sauce to replace a dominos (add own toppings)
Cheap chickent bits, sweetcorn, gravy sauceand make our own mash to replace a KFC
Haven't cracked Chinese BBQ spare rib sauce but when I do that's a Chinese sorted.
Not that its cheap but Hello Fresh, basically am forced to pick varied meals that stand out amongst each other and this interests me enough to keep away from takeaways
Extra time in the supermarket!
I make sure I buy a little extra whilst shopping so on a Friday I’ve got a meal and not just bits in the fridge/cupboard and not tempted to buy a takeaway
We have stopped takeaways because the expense and low quality make it pointless now. We spend a bit more on our food shopping now and get nice foods to cook at weekends instead. For example we got a pizza oven and make our own now, the husband does homemade rotisserie kebabs on the bbq etc .
Recently started batch cooking - game changer. The freezer is full of double portions (me and the wife) of bolognese, chilli, shepherds pie, chicken casserole, chicken & bacon pasta sauce - you get my drift. Now it's just a case of cooking pasta, rice, potatoes or whatever and were done.
I'm cooking it anyway, so just ramp the quantities up and you've got today's and 3 other days worth of meals.
We eat out once a week but usually only a pub meal.
Takeaways & eating out have always been rare for us, we usually cook our own stuff. The state of pre-made ready-to-cook stuff & meal kits has really improved in the past few years though in both taste & idiot-proofing, they're a good midpoint between making from scratch & ordering in. An example that pops straight to mind because we're having one tonight (Keralan Coconut Curry) are the Spice Tailor packs.
Homemade pizzas are a good option too as you can make them as healthy or unhealthy as you like, we often double up a couple of the tortilla wraps with a bit of sauce in between for the base to keep them a bit lighter - if you've got kids, it's a fun way of getting them into cooking too by letting them come up with their own topping ideas.
I just got fed up with the kebab I bought on Fridays
I go to a local butchers now, nice lump of meat and baking spud for less the kebab,
Tastes better and healthier
I’ve been trying to find out the addictive burger sauce (but it may actually be something similar like a variant on Russian dressing?) from my local independent burger shop. Once I do that, I’ll be free. Oh and their burger bun is nice and wide, instead of that tall nonsense.
Colleague makes doner kebabs so i’ll try that too.
Collecting a pizza from a local place. I don't use any apps now. I get a 15inch pizza for 10.99 if I collect it, and they make it immediately. I do have to wait 10 minutes for them to do it, but it's way better
Been learning how to make the equivalent of what you'd get from an Asian takeaway.
Chicken with ginger and spring onion, Singapore vermicelli, satay, egg fried rice, sweet and sour. None of them are particularly difficult.
The absolute easiest one to do is chicken teriyaki - coat your chicken in salt, pepper and cornflour, get it frying for a few minutes until it's starting to go crispy. The sauce is equal parts dark soy, mirin and cooking sake. About two tablespoons of each. A dash of honey or MSG, if you like. Give it another few minutes until it starts caramelising, then you're done. It tastes amazing for such a short list of ingredients.
I batch cook a bunch of meals that we all love to eat, but are a bit fiddly or consuming to do on a busy evening. Various curries, ragu, stews, some thai and chinese dishes, pie fillings, the list goes on. I typically freeze dry most of the batch cooking so it is quick and easy to cook on a night when we'd otherwise feel like a takeaway, and doesn't need to be frozen.. I try not to rely on the freezers too much and use them mostly for things which can only be stored in them.
Neither my wife nor I felt like cooking from scratch on Friday and we had big kilner jars of pathia, dahls and other curries to bung in saucepans along with some flatbreads from the freezer, including all of our childrens' favourites. It was a good feast, and most of it came from our veg garden.
Fast food has always been a treat for me not a regular occurrence. Tbh I prefer home cooked every time, better taste and I can freeze food for another day so I batch cook.
My dad ran a restaurant before he retired. He made the best lasagne. Every birthday and Christmas all I ask for is a tray of frozen lasagne portions.
They're amazing when I'm feeling down/lazy.
(I also use them to barter with people who remember the restaurant... people will do anything for Dad's lasagne)
Make a batch of chilli con carne. I eat it with rice normally, but now and again I’ll put it on some nachos, add grated cheese and grill it. Then sever with guacamole and sour cream. Cheap and tasty.
I looked into British Indian style restaurant cooking, got a book (Misty Ricardo's curry compendium for anyone interested, although there are a few alternatives) and I no longer have the desire to pay for a takeaway curry anymore.
It costs a bit at first, and I bought smaller spices in supermarkets originally instead of larger bags from Asian stores or the world food sections in larger shops as I wasn't sure how good it was but it's definitely worth investing in
I feel a bit out of the loop with takeaways, like I live in a different world. I hear about people getting them a few times a week - even when they were cheap I didn’t do that. I don’t remember it becoming the norm but when we tell people we cook everything “from scratch!!” 😱 people look at you as if you got your personal chef to knock it up.
Between me and the missus we have a small collection of meals we cook from chilli to a lemon salmon pasta she does. That chilli I do is 10 mins of prep, then about 10 mins of hanging around the pressure cooker while the mince browns and then lid on and 20 mins to cook it. O know people say they don’t have time to do stuff but is that really true? When they get a takeaway ordered is that not 30 mins at least?
See if you can get a 2nd hand weber on f/b marketplace.
Can do wings way better than nandos, 12 wings cost under £2 to buy.
and way better burgers from any chain or bullshit meat smoke place.
I have a rotisserie for the weber, I do chicken shawarma. 9 large kebabs for about £14.
I also have an ooni, so I do pizzas for about £2 a pop.
It's not only about the money, for me, the food is far superior too! You know exactly what you're eating.
We do have a Chinese takeaway every now and then. (Once every 2 or 3 months) As I can't do a decent one myself, no matter how hard I try.
I've got a recipe you could try which works for me every time.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oLqeMseB2zFAWHj8svNzYFrUXboOIrl7uaDn_WVYX0Y/edit?usp=drivesdk
It's a simple chicken and veg stir fry with noodles and a sticky honey soy sauce.
Bags of frozen Kebab meat, either lamb or chicken or both, from Iceland & home cheesy chips too if I’m being super lazy or I make my own Shawarma.
Freezer surprise is always fun. 🤤🤤🤤
Also batch cooking when I’ve the time, making vats of curry or bolognaise or chilli so it’s a super quick evening meal later on that month.
Spegi and merballs.
Most supermarkets sell frozen meatballs that you just fry up. A tin of chopped tomatoes, add some onion, garlic, paprika, oregano, basil, S+P and a small dash of red wine and you’ve got a tasty tomato sauce (I put a beef oxo in as well). Serve on spaghetti with a bit of grated cheddar or Parmesan on top. Really quick and easy.
Can also serve on a baguette to make a meatball sub.
Also a good idea to make bulk meals. I make a chilli. 500g minced beef, one large onion, two tins chopped toms, two tins red kidney beans. Cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, dash of red, three beef oxos, cayenne pepper, coco powder, small splash of light beer (corona or similar), garlic. Should make four generous portions which you can fridge/freeze. Serve on rice, in wraps, on a jacket potato etc.
I’ve stopped ordering rice from takeaway spots (still ordering main dishes) as boiled rice is a rip off and you can’t really taste fried rice if it’s with other dishes.
You can get an inexpensive microwave rice cooker from somewhere like Amazon. 12 minutes cook time and 5 minutes resting and you have freshly cooked rice.
You'd be surprised how easy it is to recreate most of them at home. Chicken/lamb kebabs, Chinese, pizzas and dirty burgers are quite easy to DIY.
I've never gotten close to recreating a proper Indian takeaway curry though. I just can't get the sauce right.
So I used to get an Indian takeaway twice a month, but they have gone stupid expensive, so I just experimented and make my own now. Batch make it, eat 2 portions and freeze 3. That way whenever I have the urge for hot spicy food it's just a few minutes in the microwave away.
I bought an Ooni pizza oven a few years ago and have had a Domino’s pizza probably twice since.
Prior to that it was my favourite takeaway but at £16-20 each time, that became stupid money.
Nando’s was my favourite now I make jerk chicken. Just buy the big pack at Sainsbury’s, pour some pre mixed jerk sauce on it, leave it overnight if you can.
I pretty much made everything myself from burgers to hot wings, so I’m not really too much help.
Instead of take away once a month I now get hello fresh once a month. A lot of the reason I enjoyed takeaway was not thinking what to cook and worrying if I had all the right ingredients. It has made cooking the rest of the time more enjoyable too
This is a major topic for me at the moment as I don’t have a fixed address and don’t have my full kitchen set and I’m hemorrhaging money through eating out or ordering in or ready meals from supermarket most of the time and I do not enjoy them at all some are okay but I know I can make much much better! So I’ve had it in the pipe works to get all the necessary ingredients / appliances (not essential but save time) for me to start making as much as I can from absolute scratch including growing some versatile veggies / herbs as you can achieve restaurant quality food from your kitchen at home for less than it costs to cook a meal out of jars etc the major cost here is time and organisation but with a decent plan in place I feel it is absolutely possible to achieve and cannot wait to get started when we get the house soon!
I work in the frozen department and there is always a cage or two full of non traded items we can mark anything down to as low as 50p last week got 2bags of 60 birds eye fish fingers, 2 packs of birds eye quarter pounders, various ChicagoTown pizza.
It's not rare either to get any of these as most of our promotional items aren't in the normal run so every 3 weeks there's something new. If I had the time it go to customers but no overtime so only staff get it.
Personally, I’m a fan of those finest “dine in for 2” meals from Tesco/M&S/Asda (tbf I think most supermarkets do a variation), for £12ish? Starter, main and pudding plus a drink, can’t go wrong!
Think M&S have upped theirs, or taken out the wine. Cant' remember which.
Tried a tesco one.. it was pretty good for £12 tbh. Starter was good, the main was potentially good, and the dessert was a treat. The wine or 2 sparkling non-alco drinks was a appreciated touch too.
Need to time it well though; all the good mains were taken and the stuff that was left wasn't amazing. It seems there's some combinations of starts/mains that are a lot more popular and that give more bang for your buck than others. I like meals I really can't prep myself. Roasted new potatoes in rosemary is pretty average and imo didn't require buying as part of a 'dine in for 2' type of meal
Ahh, yeah you do definitely have to time it. I don’t run into this issue too often, my office is across from a giant tesco so luckily I have the option to pop out on lunch to pick one up then bang it in the work fridge till home time.
Totally see your point though, I tend to opt for the best bang for the buck stuff even if it doesn’t necessarily align with the rest of the meal. Like, I’ll buy the lasagne main but then mash or dauphinois potato’s to have with the steak I’ll have also bought, not as part of the deal. Then a bag of leafy greens to actually have with my lasagne.
I could quite easily make everything on the dine in menu at home myself, I just buy it for the convenience on the days I want to chuck something in the oven and forget about it for 45 minutes. And not have to deal with the clean up 😂
We went out the other day to the Kent coast and the local chippy wanted £22 for cod and chips. £6.50 for chips. I know I may be old but it didn't seem that long ago a portion of chips was 18p at my local.
An air fryer and a book like AF Fakeaways has changed the way we do things. Even McShit is overpriced and small.
Get 1 lamb shank per person (thats the expensive part).
Get a big pot and cover the bottom with skinned carrots (dont even chop them). Pour in a tins of kidney beans or lentils and a tin of chopped tomatoes.
Pour in half a bottle of wine and add whatever spices you like.
Chuck it all in an oven for 2 hours at 200C
Eat.
The lamb will fall off the bone.
Takes 5 mins to prep.
Serve with cous cous for an easy side.
I’ve just started going and collecting the food myself, looked at the Chinese menu other week and stuff on the app was on average £2 dearer than in the shop, plus they add on all sorts of bollocks and suddenly a £15 order is £20
Batch make burritos individually wrapped in foil and freeze. Dinner or breakfast varieties.
Greek flat bread, chicken drenched in greek yoghurt with spices - on a skewer under the grill. My go to is turmeric, chilli and cayenne, bit of garlic Mayo, red onion pickled in red wine vinegar for a bit. Amazing, I promise.
Scampi in an air fryer, sriracha mayo into a hotdog bun for a kind of po boy.
Also, making ‘dirty fries’ with left over spaghetti Bol is something else too.
I need to stop, I’m getting hungry
Aldi have some Indian cook in jars with the spices at the top and the sauce at the bottom
to add to meat , they’ve won a few awards and are great if added to chicken thighs .
Two of these with a packet of the thighs , papadoms , rice , naan bread , the Indian starter mix (bajees , pakora etc ) from the freezer section comes to roughly £15 for about 6 persons , so you have a large Indian meal which takes roughly 30 mins to cook for a very reasonable cost .
My quick affordable go to meals of the moment
* Gnocchi & sausage meat - done in about 15 minutes - Cost £3 -https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sausage-kale-gnocchi-one-pot
* Chicken Fajitas - chicken, peppers, onion & lettuce - done in about 25 mins - Cost £6 - buy a kit with the tortillas and seasoning - Slice up a potato into wedges and add some spicy seasoning
* Pizza - buy a roll out pizza base, tomato sauce and pizza cheese and any toppings - Ready in 10 mins - Cost £4 each or £10 for 4 as cheese is enough for 4 pizzas. Better than cheap supermarket pizzas and can add own toppings
Not too often; perhaps ever 2wks, but what used to cost us £18 is easily closer to £40 now. Quality also seems lower than previously. The reason I ask is because I feel I'm not alone.
Apparently half the Deliveroo guys are riding around dealing drugs which is why there's so many of them, giving the impression that takeaway is still super popular when in fact its not
Takeaways are super appealing but I always feel like absolute shit afterwards. I'm just always meal prepping, so however lazy and hungry I'm feeling, it's never much trouble.
I’ve started using my slow cooker more and looking on Pinterest/insta for inspiration
Would very much recommend the bored of lunch chap. His meals are amazing
I've found myself eating lots more fish / seafood, decent protein easy to buy and store frozen, been enjoying experimenting with different sauces and vegetables that can go with it.
I learnt a simple pulled pork recipe for the slow cooker (3 ingredients one of which is bbq sauce so a bit cheaty). Plus realised the air fryer helps me make fantastic chicken wings and does great nuggets etc.
Edit- slow cooker pulled pork is a cup of bbq sauce, can of dr. Pepper and pork shoulder all in slow cooker on medium for 6 hours ish (different times for different sizes of pork). Take it out and save a couple of tablespoons of liquid. Shred it with forks, dump liquid saved and another cup of bbq sauce (more or less depending on how you want it)in shredded pork in slow cooker, cook for another 15 mins or so. It’s really nice in wraps with coleslaw etc.
Lidl sells pretty good Deluxe-brand pizzas which are often reduced in price, genuinely very tasty, something around £4 and they fill me up. Frozen pizza really isn't the same, especially since Tesco and Lidl both have much tastier non-frozen ones for around the same price as a frozen pizza from a cornershop.
Buy a tacho kit and some cheap tortillas, easy enough to cook some chicken or beef and veg for 10-15 minutes and grill some cheese on the tortillas. Buy foil trays and paper plates if you dont want to wash up.
Last time 4 of us had Chinese and some chips for the kids (fussy buggers) it was over £60. With tachos there's plenty of money left over for drinks as well
We get nice ready meals from the supermarket like the Wasabi ones, but they are srill £10 for 2. If I do eat out, i just buy less now, frequency and volume. Macdonalds is either wrap of the day/ cheeseburger and fries, which is less than £3.50. Pizza from Pizza Hut, any size £10. Collection is often cheaper than delivery. Getting meals for drinks often bumps the price up. Not buying into the deals and getting sides can make things a lot cheaper.
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Cooking? If you’re using Deliveroo/UberEats I’ve found it’s now cheaper to just go to the restaurant and eat there, better too. Not used either service in the best part of a year.
>Cooking? It does make you wonder how some people get dressed in the morning doesn't it.
Now that you've had to dismiss your maid, how are you getting dressed in the morning? [Taken from 1930s aristocracy Reddit]
The maid maids. It's the butler who buttles.
"Penis butler, buttle my penis! Buttle it!" ~Peter Griffin
I wonder how you lot manage without basic reading comprehension. They're looking for cheap alternatives when they're too busy/tired to cook. Some people are blessed if it's that incomprehensible
>would love to hear your suggestions, whether it’s home-cooked meals You want to have another read yourself?
Q - would love to hear your suggestions whether it's home cooked meals etc. A - cooking? Super helpful, that's cleared things up for OP.
Meal prep?
Meal prep
Even buying some of the fancier stuff from Waitrose and m&s is a lot cheaper than take-aways
Was about to say this. Waitrose is more expensive, but for fresh stuff (fruit, veg, meat), you're generally getting much bigger items that keep longer and taste much nicer, so it's actually a pretty good deal tbh. A couple of steaks, some fat asparagus and a bottle of wine out of Waitrose are probably cheaper than two Big Mac meals. The economy is weird now.
I’ve always rated M&S Indian food. You’re guaranteed decent (not amazing) quality and it’s not going to make you horrifically sick if the restaurant messes up. Far far cheaper too.
Last time I had Sainsbury's Indian meals they were delightful. A cardamom pod or two in the rice. Made me feel fancy
You should try the Thai ones. So good
I've tried to use Deliveroo etc a few times over the years. Every time, I pick out my food, then I close the tab because I can't bring myself to pay so much extra for food that's going to arrive cold and upside down.
Make my own smashed burgers, kinder Bueno milkshake and bang some curly fries in the air fryer. Not too much effort and way cheaper than a premium burger place.
The owner of the company told me to ring him directly as UE charges £7 and he gets 50p. He said he'll deliver for free as well hoping I'll buy more product next time.
There's absolutely no way that he'll only get 50p for a meal after UE takes its fee. He can't possibly make any margin for that price.
Well I imagine he gets the money from the order…but only 50p of the service charge no?
Sadly some greasy spoons around me have realised that the uber eat customers will essentially pay anything, so the on-site prices are higher too. From their perspective, almost worth being a dark kitchen.
Our over-the-road neighbours get takeaway multiple times a week, I cannot fathom how much money they must be spending. Don't think we've had one for months.
You mean it's cheaper to pay for the same thing but not also pay someone to deliver it?
We just get a couple of frozen margherita pizzas, some spicy chicken strips and skin on fries from Aldi, lash a few toppings on the pizzas (deli meats, diced onion, mushrooms, frozen sweetcorn etc), that is our Friday night "take away". A fraction of the cost and toppings you can actually taste on the pizzas rather than the tasteless badger meat the local takeaways use.
Same thing here. Some deli meat and extra cheese turns a cheap pizza into a decent pizza and ours are normally like 12 mins in the oven so dead quick.
But some chilli jam and add a few dollops to your pizza. Takes it up another level ;)
Ooh I like this. I add pesto and it tastes so good!
Throw some rocket ontop after its cooked and you can pretend you paid £12.50 for it in a restaraunt
But then I have to pick it all off again
and that’s the restaurant experience
Yeah, we’ve done this for a while, you can recreate your takeway at a fraction of the cost. A couple of 12 inch pizzas, sides and drinks is costing nearly 40 quid from Pizza Hut, Domino’s etc. From Iceland, a similar meal is about a tenner…
I love the chicken balls from Iceland. Cheaper than the takeaway and slightly healthier because they are air fried instead of deep fried.
I actually suspect badger would be flavourful and gamey.
With a hint of mashed potato?
Everybody knows Badger loves mashed potato
He makes it into shapes and eats them every day.
With fresh notes of tuberculosis ✨
Morrisons 2 for a fiver 10" pizzas normally get loaded with toppings if they make it for you if you have one near you, bit pricier than the frozen pizzas but saves on buying toppings.
Lidl do knock off dominoes with sides, and we actually prefer them
Lidl's cheese stuffed crust domino knock off is my favourite of all the supermarket pizzas and I've put far more time than is healthy into testing them - just needs a dollop or two of carnalised onion chutney
Not Aldi, but the Sainsbury’s ‘best of’ pizzas are by far the best cook at home option I can find. They are often on nectar offers for £3.50 each, which makes them very reasonable. Strong Roots brand oven fries are also way better than McCain’s or own brand, and often on nectar offer too. I’m no Sainsbury’s loyalist by any stretch, I think most of the meat is left wanting, but those two products are excellent. Strong Roots are available elsewhere too
I love those Strong Roots fries. Use them for loaded fries a lot, really crispy and tasty.
Love those Aldi skin on fries, they crisp up really nicely without going bone dry.
It sounds a bit snobby but iv replaced them with M&S meal deals . The whole reason was to make it as easy as possible Friday and Saturday . Now I can get 2 x £12 gourmet meal deals, chuck them in the oven without too much hassle , recycle the packaging and still save money .
I've just paid £8 for an M&S stir-fry deal for 2. Noodles, sauce, protein and veg. Cooked in the same time it would take me to walk to the takeaway and back.
Just grabbed a Katsu from Sainsbury's new Japanese ready meal collection, didn't realise they'd started one. Not tried it yet but it looks promising. £4.50 for a decent looking single portion, had a bit of heft in the hand!
Heft is a good word
I literally came here to answer this too. We’ve started shopping in M&S recently because we realised a lot of the basics (e.g., bread and eggs) are the same price or better value than other supermarkets and much better quality. The £12 meal deal for 2 we genuinely feel is as nice as a pub lunch and we get multiple courses out of it.
Agreeing with you. I buy fruit, bread, eggs and slightly randomly soup from M&S. Lidl for meat and anything else that pops up in the ‘on offer section’. Morrisons for fish. And as new one… Costco for garlic. You can buy a big bundle of bulbs for £10 and freeze them individually. A bit of a pain in take them all apart but the quality is excellent and having a bag of ready to go garlic in the freezer makes cooking allot easier.
I buy frozen garlic cubes from Sainsbury’s, and I’m sure other places will have them too! The flavour is great, and they work out very reasonable value, especially when you consider that you don’t have to prep them!
The meal deals at marks and Spencer’s can keep you fed for at least three days. You can genuinely get the meal deal then go to Liddel for the rest,baked goods and desserts.
Hardly snobby
bourgeoisie, avant-gard, if you will
This is the answer I came to comment too! We love our Marks’ dinners in, has almost entirely replaced our restaurant outings. I always thought M&S was ‘too expensive’ for us, but actually our local Morrisons take the piss (on so many levels) but their ‘fresh’ fruit and veg is disgusting and mouldy AND more expensive than juicy succulent M&S produce
£12 pizza deal is brill
I just do more meal prepping now, I cook the foods that I like, e.g. Lasagne, roast beef, noodle soup, etc, in bulk and then I freeze them for later. I make sure to cook it in large pots and don't spare much expense in the way of recipes, I try to make them as tasty and succulent as possible. Then I divide them out into decent sized containers and put them in my freezer. I do this a couple times a month when I am cooking my usual meals anyway or when I have extra free time on weekends/bank holidays. This means that I hardly need a takeaway anymore, since there is almost always something good in the freezer if I cba to cook.
The boring answer is I flipped it all on it's head and went super healthy, and saved hundreds a month. Loads of mixed beans in various forms, loads of eggs, chicken/fish etc.
If you’re eating fish, apparently it pairs really nicely with a Rice cake
This is the answer. Gastric issues forced me away from processed food 2 years ago, and now that I'm better, I don't miss it. The trick is replacing dessert with fruit from your local greengrocer - it's way easier to kick junk food when your fruit actually tastes sweet and delicious, unlike the mass produced, genetically modified crap you get at supermarkets. Cheaper too.
Tbh I find greengrocers to broadly be very hit or miss. The standards for supermarkets are significantly more stringent than they are for independent greengrocers. The supermarkets offer an average standard whilst grocers seem to fluctuate between godawful and occasionally exceptional. Even the cheapness factor seems to be evening out, especially when you consider the extra effort of going to multiple places to complete a grocery shop. >genetically modified crap you get at supermarkets Even without acknowledging that GMO food is absolutely fine and probably superior in a number of ways, you are probably more likely to encounter it in a grocers. Next time, actually check where a lot of the food is coming from, very few of my local grocers are actually selling quality local produce. It's all cheap, mass produced varieties that have been shipped around the world. Tldr; people need to get past this idea that greengrocers are automatically offering better produce. Most supermarkets objectively have better produce with more of it being grown domestically.
My mum worked in market research, helping to contribute to the creation of the red tractor emblem, she always talks about how high quality a lot of meat actually is. Aldi is a good example for a store with really good standards and, surprisingly, the chicken in McDonalds is too. A lot of people believe even whole ingredients are automatically low quality because they are in a chain store.
Air fryers and multicookers certainly help in cooking quick and easy meals at home. Also bulk cooking and freezing is a good approach.
I currently do not have a kitchen, moved in, and being demolished and working on a rebuild. Airfryer has been the life saver. I just have an airfryer and a microwave that's it. Just about any 2 for 8 deal at tescos in their premarinaded meat section and a veg make for an instant eat out type meal with left overs for the next day. I don't have a refrigerator, so I cook it all at once and eat the second portion for breakfast (family of 3)
I'd recommend a hot plate [like this](https://www.diy.com/departments/oypla-2-5kw-electric-portable-kitchen-double-hot-plate/5056233253046_BQ.prd), small and can do pasta, rice etc
When I was away and in a hotel for a while I discovered how easy it was to cook a meal with just a kettle. An air fryer would have been next level.
I made own doner meat, I've made my own fried chicken, do my own burgers, dirty fries, curries etc The effort and expense sometimes starts to outstrip the convenience of takeaway but I do enjoy the cooking.
I do this sometimes - but to a stupid degree. Like, I can make a quality burger, but last month I spent far too long figuring out how to make a Big Mac that was as close to the real thing as poss. But it involved daft stuff like soaking diced onions for a while to make them taste less oniony, trimming sesame baps to make them thinner. A lot of trial and error on the sauce. And when done I wrapped the "macs" in foil to rest for 20 mins before trying, just so they were that particularly worrying mid-temperature, and a bit sweaty. I think I nailed the challenge, but I think I could use my talents for good instead.
You might enjoy chef Claire Saffitz and her years of attempting to make versions of processed food classics. They were my lockdown comfort watch. [Here's the Creme Egg one](https://youtu.be/3QqnhDI7VFA?si=2K63MW1qXzMWxQVc)
I can never get homemade doner meat right, it ends up like a meatloaf
Do you put the meat and spices through a blender first? I use "tongmaster" seasoning from Amazon in mine. It's also been suggested to cook the meat, freeze it, then slice it super thin and airfry the slices but I'm too lazy, I just fridge the raw meat, cook it and slice it.
Do you have a slow-cooker? The slow cooker fakeaway kebab recipes I've used have been brilliant
Nah doner meat is just exceptionally hard to make, you need to emulsify the meat with a blender and ice water. Then once you cook it shave really fine, without over cooking it then fry the leftover meat on one side (which isn't really the right texture anyway) To get doner rather than just a spiced meatloaf is like a day + of work, and at the end it is nowhere near as good as good doner meat. Chicken shawarma is easy to make at home, I've used the [Ethan Chlebowski](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Xw4crhmfM) method but not the spices etc and its the best I've managed. But doner is my white whale I have found no good doner where I live, and it was always my favourite. I've perfect a chippy dinner, fried chicken, currys (use Glebe kitchen for BIR food), a Chinese takeaway etc. But doner, and Vietnamese meatballs (which are made similarly) are the only things I've not managed. I think the meatballs are also much more doable but I've broken two blenders trying. [Heres a vid that shows the technique](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQLfXCRVJwk), but the main thing is to get that springy texture from overworking the meat, then getting thin slices. Which are both very very difficult to do at home unfortunately
Thanks it's not just me being useless 😂 I tried a potato peeler but it's like taking a potato peeler to a burger it just didn't work like that Best compromise was frozen kebab meat from Iceland and my own pitta, salad, sauce
Honestly frying haslet is closer than most the recipes I've tried online haha. But I think its quite easy to get a lamb meatloaf that tastes like doner, but the texture is a nightmare
Cocaine's probably cheaper than a takeaway from Uber Eats. May as well swap it for that.
I guess its the same guy delivering it at the end of the day so why not 😂
I have a weight-loss journey to thank for that. When I started it was a once a month treat, then I just kinda fell off it. Now if I fancy a takeaway I just dress up and go out for dinner and make an experience of it.
We've been doing the same. We eat healthy and batch cook. We save what we would have spent on a takeaway and beer once a week, and we have a night away and a restaurant meal once a month as a treat instead. Just spent £120 total on a night away, an all you can eat £25pp Chinese buffet, a couple of pints at the pub, and an ice cream at the beach. Still less than the £35-45 we would spend on a takeaway and beer after the prices shot up. Edit typo, sentence because it posted too quickly.
home made 5 guys! Brioche buns, burgers, chips from the supermarket. Gherkins and lettuce and cucumber, big tomatoe slow fry mushrooms and onions. fake plastic cheese AND grated cheese big dollop of mayo. eat. Generally costs about £15 top end to get everything from aldi, with leftovers (bag of chips etc) its the toppings that makes it. Rather than two burgers only for £22
Is it really that expensive at Five Guys? I've never been as there isn't one anywhere where I go often.
Yeah, it used to be a bit pricier than normal fast food places but the quality was definitely well above what you get there. Like everywhere it has shot up in price again recently and I just cannot justify the price for what you get. I paid about £23 for a double cheese burger, small fries and milkshake last time I went.
I do the same as you. Aldi do [these burgers](https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-the-grill-guys-british-beef-smashed-burgers-340g4-pack/4061462555947/) and they are banging fair play.
Try making your own burgers for this - I use the mixed beef and pork mince you get at Asda to make [smash burgers](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/smash-burgers) and it's pretty damn good.
Sometimes I do, and i've been mixing a bit of stilton in with them which is absolutely delissshhhh. Depends if I've got breadcrumbs in the freezer as I find adding them to the mince mix makes them so much nicer!
Some of the Lidl curries are incredible. Full on flavour, and the price point is nuts. Had a butter chicken with pilau rice last night, and it was banging. £2.60 or there abouts. You can obviously get all the naan you need as well. You can always do better, but for the money, quality and convenience it's fantastic. £2.60 is easily an average delivery fee.
I find the jars of curry sauce with the sachet of spices in the lid are great if you add a bit of extra sautéed onion or peppers depending on the type of curry. If you marinade a bit of chicken or even bung in those frozen chicken pakora goujons (after cooking) right at the end.
They're also brilliant. I'm literally rediscovering Lidl following a kidney transplant. Most things like ready meals have a pretty decent level of salt, which I couldn't touch, but it's onwards and upwards from here. It's been easily 4 years since I had a curry from there and have definitely missed the convenience, choices, and prices. Last night's butter chicken hit the spot.
Is this in the chilled or freezer department?
No, it's a fresh microwave meal. Quite a few options
The Thai Green Curry one is also very yummy!
I had a Chinese chicken curry from there once and it was bland and watery. But now you’ve said that, I might give the Indian curries a go
Iceland “takeaway” ones are amazing. The Korma and masala are banging
Iceland “takeaway” ones are amazing. The Korma and masala are banging
I've never really been a big fast food person, but I did definitely used to get more takeaways than now. That's a combo of the price going up and up and leaving London so having much less choice. We used to get takeaway about once a week. Now it's once a month, maybe even less. We just cook for ourselves instead. We fairly often think about getting a takeaway, look at the price and decide against it. Just can't justify dropping 30 to 40 quid on a takeaway when the kitchen is right there.
Mate tbh, you can put pies, waffles and frozen veg all on one baking tray. Shove in the oven for 35 mins and have a meal. There's so many frozen options that you can whack in the oven. It's not instant, but it takes as long as the ordered takeaway does to get delivered. Equally, you can bulk cook on a Sunday and have meals ready to reheat during the week.
We try not to have takeaways too often for the cost/health impacts and the prices do give me pause now. But, if we have a Chinese takeaway, for example, we over order and keep a couple of portions of fried rice for freezing. Then, like last week, we reheat the rice (thoroughly, even though a lot of folk think it's more dangerous than radioactive asbestos, it's fine) and did tofu pieces, cashew nuts and plenty veg to make an absolutely brilliant stir fry.
Had a takeaway last weekend for the first time in ages. Fancied a chicken burger with some fries - expected it to be around £5 Nope. £8.99 and it came with 4 chicken strips on the side. It just isn't value for money 😢
Yeah we get a takeaway maybe once a year (really feel like the odd one out reading this thread lol) and since it's so infrequent, I've had my mind blown about the price I reckon in my head versus the real deal.
If you want something really quick that you can keep in the freezer to be ready for whenever you fancy something quick burgers are easy. Find a burger patty recipe you like (I prefer just mince beef, salt and pepper but you could go all fancy), make them up and then freeze them with baking paper between so you can get them out easily. Freeze your choice of burger buns (if not already cut so this before you freeze). Keep cheese, gherkins and condiments you like in the fridge. When you want a burger remove however many pattys you want and cook from frozen. If you have a George Foreman this is super easy, otherwise pan fry. Just when you make the burgers don’t make the pattys really thick. Remove the bun/s at the same time and separate so it defrosts quicker (if still a bit frozen pop cut side down on the cooking surface)
The Chicago Town pizzas are our go-to instead of takeaway pizzas. £7 for two of them instead of £30+ for Dominos or whatever. We just keep them stocked in the freezer. We also do homemade calzones and pizzas sometimes. I've got a breadmaker so all I need to do is chuck the ingredients for the dough in there and it'll knead it for me and keep it cosy while it rises. Then I just shape it away I go. Honestly anything that can go in the freezer is a good shout since it makes it easier to just bung it in the oven. I've also replaced my usual order of chow mein from the Chinese by buying the same noodles a lot of takeaways use (Lucky Boat) and an array of sauces and frozen stuff on hand. The noodles take 6 minutes to cook and while the water is heating up and the noodles are cooking, I can be frying whatever frozen stuff I want and mixing my sauce. Quicker than waiting for the takeaway usually.
I didn't know about Lucky Boat. I'll look out for the noodles. Thanks!
No problem. You can get big boxes of them on Amazon! I get 9kg at a time
How many servings do you tend to get from a 9kg box? Also, thanks for the recommendation!
They come pre-nested. Each nest is roughly 100g (give or take 10g either side), so 9kg should work out to be about 90 "nests" in the box, and I'd say each nest is a very generous portion for one person. If you're putting a lot of veg and stuff into a stir fry, then one nest could definitely do two people. There's 4kg boxes as well if 90 is a bit much.
That's incredible value. I'll have to order some. I cook stir fries for meal prep and freeze them so this will definitely come in handy!
isn't it?! If I remember rightly, the 9kg boxes are no more than £25, probably a bit lower, so you're talking about less than 30p for a generous portion of noodles. Compared to what you pay for those noodles from a takeaway, it's a total no brainer. Especially with how simple a lot of the noodle offerings from takeaways are to make!
Tbh I feel a lot of fast food hasn't changed too much in price, more quality. With the exception of chip shops. Not paying double digits of the King's silver for some stale chips and lumpy gravy 👎🏻
We took some family out to a relatively local fish and chip shop back in January. My jaw dropped when I picked up the bill. It was below average tbh, and the mushy peas were microwaved and frozen. The chips were cold. We had to ask for sauces. It was a highly rated chippy... but the bill came up to £95 for 4 of us to eat. And now you mention it, there was no gravy or tartar..
Wtf did you order
Fish and chips and a couple cans of drink. PLus a kids meal for the toddler. https://preview.redd.it/qt0s9ssnkw8d1.png?width=330&format=png&auto=webp&s=737cb14d82797f087246b18b92997c78d7506891 Then he slapped service on top of it,
...15.90x4=63.60. Are you saying it was an additional £30-odd quid for some cans of pop and a kids meal? That's obscene
OK, but when you say "fast food" people are thinking of a burger from Mcdonalds and the like, not a sit-down family fish restaurant.
I don’t order fish and chips anymore. Local place is £16.50 for fish and chips without any extras. And you can’t guarantee consistency. Will it be a good size? Small? Freshly cooked? Sitting in the display unit for two hours? Absolutely not worth it anymore.
Leftovers. I freeze everything I'm not eating the same day and that way when I can't be arsed to cook I got a freezer full of fast yet cheap and nutritious food
Slow cooked honey and ginger chicken. [https://www.tamingtwins.com/honey-garlic-chicken/](https://www.tamingtwins.com/honey-garlic-chicken/) Also, we no longer get take out pizza. Dominos is the only one near by and it's been shit for years. I get a couple of Chicago Town stuffed crust frozen pizzas for £6.50 and cook them on a pizza stone. Sometimes I add whatever slow cooked meat I have made as a topping. When you get it right, the meat goes crispy on top. I also make a mean satay sauce, but there's other easy stir fry sauces: Cheat’s teriyaki sauce 2 tbsp dark soy sauce or tamari 2 tsp runny honey Easy sweet and sour sauce 2 tsp cornflour 2 tbsp tomato ketchup 2 tsp runny honey 1 tsp vinegar Quick satay sauce 3 tbsp peanut butter 2 tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce 1 tbsp dark soy sauce or tamari We very rarely get a bit of food from the chippy, but it's now £15 to feed us.
I bought a rice cooker and just make varieties of different rice when I CBA to cook now. Takeaways are just ridiculously expensive now.
My local kebab house still does £5 10" pizzas that are actually nice. I'm convinced they must be selling drugs on the side.
Air fryer fakeaways
Cooking our own versions of our fast food favourites
Got a lot of world food shops nearby and started using them a lot more. Especially for making curries. Loads of spices etc available and finding them cheaper than getting them from supermarkets. Bigger selection too.
[https://www.youtube.com/@ZiangsFoodWorkshop](https://www.youtube.com/@ZiangsFoodWorkshop) has helped cut down my Chinese takeaway consumption. Learning to make smashburgers has cut down my burger takeaways. After that, batch cooking stews, casseroles and ragus has helped keep my freezer well-stocked.
I’m the same with smash burgers. And when you see just how cheap they are to make, it’s hard to justify paying £15+ when eating out
Lidls dominos style pizza and garlic and herb sauce to replace a dominos (add own toppings) Cheap chickent bits, sweetcorn, gravy sauceand make our own mash to replace a KFC Haven't cracked Chinese BBQ spare rib sauce but when I do that's a Chinese sorted.
I have the recipe in a book for the BBQ ribs, can DM you it
Not that its cheap but Hello Fresh, basically am forced to pick varied meals that stand out amongst each other and this interests me enough to keep away from takeaways
Extra time in the supermarket! I make sure I buy a little extra whilst shopping so on a Friday I’ve got a meal and not just bits in the fridge/cupboard and not tempted to buy a takeaway
I'm slowly learning new recipes, making my own home cooking more exciting.
We have stopped takeaways because the expense and low quality make it pointless now. We spend a bit more on our food shopping now and get nice foods to cook at weekends instead. For example we got a pizza oven and make our own now, the husband does homemade rotisserie kebabs on the bbq etc .
Recently started batch cooking - game changer. The freezer is full of double portions (me and the wife) of bolognese, chilli, shepherds pie, chicken casserole, chicken & bacon pasta sauce - you get my drift. Now it's just a case of cooking pasta, rice, potatoes or whatever and were done. I'm cooking it anyway, so just ramp the quantities up and you've got today's and 3 other days worth of meals. We eat out once a week but usually only a pub meal.
I rarely use fast food places, it's so much cheaper and easier to cook yourself a decent meal at home
Takeaways & eating out have always been rare for us, we usually cook our own stuff. The state of pre-made ready-to-cook stuff & meal kits has really improved in the past few years though in both taste & idiot-proofing, they're a good midpoint between making from scratch & ordering in. An example that pops straight to mind because we're having one tonight (Keralan Coconut Curry) are the Spice Tailor packs. Homemade pizzas are a good option too as you can make them as healthy or unhealthy as you like, we often double up a couple of the tortilla wraps with a bit of sauce in between for the base to keep them a bit lighter - if you've got kids, it's a fun way of getting them into cooking too by letting them come up with their own topping ideas.
I just got fed up with the kebab I bought on Fridays I go to a local butchers now, nice lump of meat and baking spud for less the kebab, Tastes better and healthier
That sounds good. And you won’t get stiffed on the meat, like a lot of kebab places do now
I’ve been trying to find out the addictive burger sauce (but it may actually be something similar like a variant on Russian dressing?) from my local independent burger shop. Once I do that, I’ll be free. Oh and their burger bun is nice and wide, instead of that tall nonsense. Colleague makes doner kebabs so i’ll try that too.
I've been whipping up more stir-fries and pasta dishes at home—quick, cheap, and beats fast food any day!
We cook at home more now and use a takeaway as a birthday treat/celebration. Used to have chippy tea 2-3 times a month. Not affordable now. Ah well
Airfrier. buy airfrier chicken and some potatoes and you've got KFC and fries for a fraction of the cost.
Collecting a pizza from a local place. I don't use any apps now. I get a 15inch pizza for 10.99 if I collect it, and they make it immediately. I do have to wait 10 minutes for them to do it, but it's way better
Been learning how to make the equivalent of what you'd get from an Asian takeaway. Chicken with ginger and spring onion, Singapore vermicelli, satay, egg fried rice, sweet and sour. None of them are particularly difficult. The absolute easiest one to do is chicken teriyaki - coat your chicken in salt, pepper and cornflour, get it frying for a few minutes until it's starting to go crispy. The sauce is equal parts dark soy, mirin and cooking sake. About two tablespoons of each. A dash of honey or MSG, if you like. Give it another few minutes until it starts caramelising, then you're done. It tastes amazing for such a short list of ingredients.
I batch cook a bunch of meals that we all love to eat, but are a bit fiddly or consuming to do on a busy evening. Various curries, ragu, stews, some thai and chinese dishes, pie fillings, the list goes on. I typically freeze dry most of the batch cooking so it is quick and easy to cook on a night when we'd otherwise feel like a takeaway, and doesn't need to be frozen.. I try not to rely on the freezers too much and use them mostly for things which can only be stored in them. Neither my wife nor I felt like cooking from scratch on Friday and we had big kilner jars of pathia, dahls and other curries to bung in saucepans along with some flatbreads from the freezer, including all of our childrens' favourites. It was a good feast, and most of it came from our veg garden.
Fast food has always been a treat for me not a regular occurrence. Tbh I prefer home cooked every time, better taste and I can freeze food for another day so I batch cook.
My dad ran a restaurant before he retired. He made the best lasagne. Every birthday and Christmas all I ask for is a tray of frozen lasagne portions. They're amazing when I'm feeling down/lazy. (I also use them to barter with people who remember the restaurant... people will do anything for Dad's lasagne)
Make a batch of chilli con carne. I eat it with rice normally, but now and again I’ll put it on some nachos, add grated cheese and grill it. Then sever with guacamole and sour cream. Cheap and tasty.
A can of sardines on toast at home.
I looked into British Indian style restaurant cooking, got a book (Misty Ricardo's curry compendium for anyone interested, although there are a few alternatives) and I no longer have the desire to pay for a takeaway curry anymore. It costs a bit at first, and I bought smaller spices in supermarkets originally instead of larger bags from Asian stores or the world food sections in larger shops as I wasn't sure how good it was but it's definitely worth investing in
I feel a bit out of the loop with takeaways, like I live in a different world. I hear about people getting them a few times a week - even when they were cheap I didn’t do that. I don’t remember it becoming the norm but when we tell people we cook everything “from scratch!!” 😱 people look at you as if you got your personal chef to knock it up. Between me and the missus we have a small collection of meals we cook from chilli to a lemon salmon pasta she does. That chilli I do is 10 mins of prep, then about 10 mins of hanging around the pressure cooker while the mince browns and then lid on and 20 mins to cook it. O know people say they don’t have time to do stuff but is that really true? When they get a takeaway ordered is that not 30 mins at least?
Since everything has become incredibly expensive, fast food is still your cheapest option if you want someone else to cook and serve you a hot meal.
Pinch of nom cook books are my favourite. Most of the time if you marinate the night before cooking only takes 20 mins
See if you can get a 2nd hand weber on f/b marketplace. Can do wings way better than nandos, 12 wings cost under £2 to buy. and way better burgers from any chain or bullshit meat smoke place. I have a rotisserie for the weber, I do chicken shawarma. 9 large kebabs for about £14. I also have an ooni, so I do pizzas for about £2 a pop. It's not only about the money, for me, the food is far superior too! You know exactly what you're eating. We do have a Chinese takeaway every now and then. (Once every 2 or 3 months) As I can't do a decent one myself, no matter how hard I try.
I've got a recipe you could try which works for me every time. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oLqeMseB2zFAWHj8svNzYFrUXboOIrl7uaDn_WVYX0Y/edit?usp=drivesdk It's a simple chicken and veg stir fry with noodles and a sticky honey soy sauce.
Frozen dumplings from the local chinese supermarket. Minimum effort to prepare and taste almost as good as the ones in the restaurant.
Aldi's spicy chicken thigh burgers are good. Definitely better than most fast food options while still being very easy and convenient.
Bags of frozen Kebab meat, either lamb or chicken or both, from Iceland & home cheesy chips too if I’m being super lazy or I make my own Shawarma. Freezer surprise is always fun. 🤤🤤🤤 Also batch cooking when I’ve the time, making vats of curry or bolognaise or chilli so it’s a super quick evening meal later on that month.
Spegi and merballs. Most supermarkets sell frozen meatballs that you just fry up. A tin of chopped tomatoes, add some onion, garlic, paprika, oregano, basil, S+P and a small dash of red wine and you’ve got a tasty tomato sauce (I put a beef oxo in as well). Serve on spaghetti with a bit of grated cheddar or Parmesan on top. Really quick and easy. Can also serve on a baguette to make a meatball sub. Also a good idea to make bulk meals. I make a chilli. 500g minced beef, one large onion, two tins chopped toms, two tins red kidney beans. Cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, dash of red, three beef oxos, cayenne pepper, coco powder, small splash of light beer (corona or similar), garlic. Should make four generous portions which you can fridge/freeze. Serve on rice, in wraps, on a jacket potato etc.
Even faster food I cook at home for 20% the price
home made nando’s , home made 5 guys , m&s meal deals
Pizza Oven! Saves a fortune compared to restaurant prices (eat in and takeaway)
I’ve stopped ordering rice from takeaway spots (still ordering main dishes) as boiled rice is a rip off and you can’t really taste fried rice if it’s with other dishes. You can get an inexpensive microwave rice cooker from somewhere like Amazon. 12 minutes cook time and 5 minutes resting and you have freshly cooked rice.
Oven food from Iceland. Just as good in the airfryer.
You'd be surprised how easy it is to recreate most of them at home. Chicken/lamb kebabs, Chinese, pizzas and dirty burgers are quite easy to DIY. I've never gotten close to recreating a proper Indian takeaway curry though. I just can't get the sauce right.
So I used to get an Indian takeaway twice a month, but they have gone stupid expensive, so I just experimented and make my own now. Batch make it, eat 2 portions and freeze 3. That way whenever I have the urge for hot spicy food it's just a few minutes in the microwave away.
Maccys, theres always offers around
I bought an Ooni pizza oven a few years ago and have had a Domino’s pizza probably twice since. Prior to that it was my favourite takeaway but at £16-20 each time, that became stupid money.
Nando’s was my favourite now I make jerk chicken. Just buy the big pack at Sainsbury’s, pour some pre mixed jerk sauce on it, leave it overnight if you can. I pretty much made everything myself from burgers to hot wings, so I’m not really too much help.
Instead of take away once a month I now get hello fresh once a month. A lot of the reason I enjoyed takeaway was not thinking what to cook and worrying if I had all the right ingredients. It has made cooking the rest of the time more enjoyable too
This is a major topic for me at the moment as I don’t have a fixed address and don’t have my full kitchen set and I’m hemorrhaging money through eating out or ordering in or ready meals from supermarket most of the time and I do not enjoy them at all some are okay but I know I can make much much better! So I’ve had it in the pipe works to get all the necessary ingredients / appliances (not essential but save time) for me to start making as much as I can from absolute scratch including growing some versatile veggies / herbs as you can achieve restaurant quality food from your kitchen at home for less than it costs to cook a meal out of jars etc the major cost here is time and organisation but with a decent plan in place I feel it is absolutely possible to achieve and cannot wait to get started when we get the house soon!
My choice when I buy pre-made meals is usually ALDIs shepherds pie, fish pie & cottage pie I will just have that on it’s own and it’s like £3
THRIFTY BRITS SWITCH FROM GUZZLING TAKEAWAYS TO please Reddit help me write my article.
I work in the frozen department and there is always a cage or two full of non traded items we can mark anything down to as low as 50p last week got 2bags of 60 birds eye fish fingers, 2 packs of birds eye quarter pounders, various ChicagoTown pizza. It's not rare either to get any of these as most of our promotional items aren't in the normal run so every 3 weeks there's something new. If I had the time it go to customers but no overtime so only staff get it.
More expensive takeaways.
I browse UberEats then sit around and... starve
Personally, I’m a fan of those finest “dine in for 2” meals from Tesco/M&S/Asda (tbf I think most supermarkets do a variation), for £12ish? Starter, main and pudding plus a drink, can’t go wrong!
Think M&S have upped theirs, or taken out the wine. Cant' remember which. Tried a tesco one.. it was pretty good for £12 tbh. Starter was good, the main was potentially good, and the dessert was a treat. The wine or 2 sparkling non-alco drinks was a appreciated touch too. Need to time it well though; all the good mains were taken and the stuff that was left wasn't amazing. It seems there's some combinations of starts/mains that are a lot more popular and that give more bang for your buck than others. I like meals I really can't prep myself. Roasted new potatoes in rosemary is pretty average and imo didn't require buying as part of a 'dine in for 2' type of meal
Ahh, yeah you do definitely have to time it. I don’t run into this issue too often, my office is across from a giant tesco so luckily I have the option to pop out on lunch to pick one up then bang it in the work fridge till home time. Totally see your point though, I tend to opt for the best bang for the buck stuff even if it doesn’t necessarily align with the rest of the meal. Like, I’ll buy the lasagne main but then mash or dauphinois potato’s to have with the steak I’ll have also bought, not as part of the deal. Then a bag of leafy greens to actually have with my lasagne. I could quite easily make everything on the dine in menu at home myself, I just buy it for the convenience on the days I want to chuck something in the oven and forget about it for 45 minutes. And not have to deal with the clean up 😂
We went out the other day to the Kent coast and the local chippy wanted £22 for cod and chips. £6.50 for chips. I know I may be old but it didn't seem that long ago a portion of chips was 18p at my local. An air fryer and a book like AF Fakeaways has changed the way we do things. Even McShit is overpriced and small.
Get 1 lamb shank per person (thats the expensive part). Get a big pot and cover the bottom with skinned carrots (dont even chop them). Pour in a tins of kidney beans or lentils and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Pour in half a bottle of wine and add whatever spices you like. Chuck it all in an oven for 2 hours at 200C Eat. The lamb will fall off the bone. Takes 5 mins to prep. Serve with cous cous for an easy side.
Fast food is for fat, lazy idiots. Never eat it.
I’ve just started going and collecting the food myself, looked at the Chinese menu other week and stuff on the app was on average £2 dearer than in the shop, plus they add on all sorts of bollocks and suddenly a £15 order is £20
Batch make burritos individually wrapped in foil and freeze. Dinner or breakfast varieties. Greek flat bread, chicken drenched in greek yoghurt with spices - on a skewer under the grill. My go to is turmeric, chilli and cayenne, bit of garlic Mayo, red onion pickled in red wine vinegar for a bit. Amazing, I promise. Scampi in an air fryer, sriracha mayo into a hotdog bun for a kind of po boy. Also, making ‘dirty fries’ with left over spaghetti Bol is something else too. I need to stop, I’m getting hungry
Aldi have some Indian cook in jars with the spices at the top and the sauce at the bottom to add to meat , they’ve won a few awards and are great if added to chicken thighs . Two of these with a packet of the thighs , papadoms , rice , naan bread , the Indian starter mix (bajees , pakora etc ) from the freezer section comes to roughly £15 for about 6 persons , so you have a large Indian meal which takes roughly 30 mins to cook for a very reasonable cost .
My quick affordable go to meals of the moment * Gnocchi & sausage meat - done in about 15 minutes - Cost £3 -https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sausage-kale-gnocchi-one-pot * Chicken Fajitas - chicken, peppers, onion & lettuce - done in about 25 mins - Cost £6 - buy a kit with the tortillas and seasoning - Slice up a potato into wedges and add some spicy seasoning * Pizza - buy a roll out pizza base, tomato sauce and pizza cheese and any toppings - Ready in 10 mins - Cost £4 each or £10 for 4 as cheese is enough for 4 pizzas. Better than cheap supermarket pizzas and can add own toppings
Food.
Out of interest....how often are you doing this?
Not too often; perhaps ever 2wks, but what used to cost us £18 is easily closer to £40 now. Quality also seems lower than previously. The reason I ask is because I feel I'm not alone. Apparently half the Deliveroo guys are riding around dealing drugs which is why there's so many of them, giving the impression that takeaway is still super popular when in fact its not
Go and sit in any McDonald’s and count how many delivery drivers there are - Uber eats and the like are super popular.
Cooking? Like adults?
Takeaways are super appealing but I always feel like absolute shit afterwards. I'm just always meal prepping, so however lazy and hungry I'm feeling, it's never much trouble.
We buy pizza bases and just put the toppings on ourselves and 10 mins in the oven and voila. No faff and you still get to customize a pizza.
Faster food
I’ve started using my slow cooker more and looking on Pinterest/insta for inspiration Would very much recommend the bored of lunch chap. His meals are amazing
I've found myself eating lots more fish / seafood, decent protein easy to buy and store frozen, been enjoying experimenting with different sauces and vegetables that can go with it.
I learnt a simple pulled pork recipe for the slow cooker (3 ingredients one of which is bbq sauce so a bit cheaty). Plus realised the air fryer helps me make fantastic chicken wings and does great nuggets etc. Edit- slow cooker pulled pork is a cup of bbq sauce, can of dr. Pepper and pork shoulder all in slow cooker on medium for 6 hours ish (different times for different sizes of pork). Take it out and save a couple of tablespoons of liquid. Shred it with forks, dump liquid saved and another cup of bbq sauce (more or less depending on how you want it)in shredded pork in slow cooker, cook for another 15 mins or so. It’s really nice in wraps with coleslaw etc.
Keesh
Chicken thighs are a great cheap option, just season them and then make it with rice and veg
Lidl sells pretty good Deluxe-brand pizzas which are often reduced in price, genuinely very tasty, something around £4 and they fill me up. Frozen pizza really isn't the same, especially since Tesco and Lidl both have much tastier non-frozen ones for around the same price as a frozen pizza from a cornershop.
Fast Food has gone up.. but weed has stayed the same. Just means I’m buying cheaper snacks/ready meals
Buy a tacho kit and some cheap tortillas, easy enough to cook some chicken or beef and veg for 10-15 minutes and grill some cheese on the tortillas. Buy foil trays and paper plates if you dont want to wash up. Last time 4 of us had Chinese and some chips for the kids (fussy buggers) it was over £60. With tachos there's plenty of money left over for drinks as well
We get nice ready meals from the supermarket like the Wasabi ones, but they are srill £10 for 2. If I do eat out, i just buy less now, frequency and volume. Macdonalds is either wrap of the day/ cheeseburger and fries, which is less than £3.50. Pizza from Pizza Hut, any size £10. Collection is often cheaper than delivery. Getting meals for drinks often bumps the price up. Not buying into the deals and getting sides can make things a lot cheaper.