‘I quit takeaways and eating out for a month, here’s what I learnt’

My social life revolves around eating out, but how much money could I save? And would I be able to stick to it?

By Izzie Cox

It’s February now, but as an experiment and in an attempt to live a little more frugally, I decided to stop all eating out and takeaways for the whole of January. I wanted to see just how much money I was spending and whether it was worth making any long-term changes. Would I miss it? And how would my social life be affected?

I love meeting up with friends to try new restaurants and I make sure that’s in my diary at least a couple of times a month, whilst an after-work drink is a weekly occurrence. And while I’m not a fan of hot drinks, so don’t spend in coffee shops, I am partial to the occasional takeaway pizza on a Sunday night.

Keen to find out exactly how much I was spending on eating out, I decided to review my monthly spending on food and drink and was shocked to discover the amount I was paying out.

In December I spent £219.87 on food and drink at restaurants and bars plus takeaways at home and that’s on top of the £209.43 I spent during the month on weekly food shops. I was surprised to learn that I spent less on my weekly food shops and keen to see how I could make some savings…

Week one

The first week or so ended up being easy as I caught the flu and without much appetite, I was just eating tinned soup, spaghetti rings and ice cream to soothe my sore throat. However, after a few days when my hunger gradually began to return, I was fed up with the tinned food and really craving a nourishing noodle soup like pho or ramen. Still feeling completely rubbish, I had no capacity to make one, so would normally reach for my phone and head to my usual food delivery app. Without that option I made do with instant ramen – which didn’t quite hit the spot.

Week two

The second weekend of January, I was feeling much better and headed to the cinema with friends. The film finished at an awkward time – around 8.30pm – so everyone was really hungry and suggested grabbing food together. Whilst very tempted, I made my excuses saying I had food to make at home and left, which felt a little sad – but I did feel quite worthy once I got home and was making my healthy dinner and not splashing any extra cash.

During the week it wasn’t too much of a struggle, as it was easy to settle into heading home to make the meals I’d planned. It was almost nicer to go home and get cosy, rather than heading out into a dark, cold January evening to meet someone. I even found, without constant plans, I had more time for things like exercise, or watching a film I’d been meaning to see.

However, by the time we reached Friday I was feeling pretty twitchy – missing the celebratory nature of getting dressed up to head out to dinner and catching up with a friend over a bottle of wine. I was also really missing the types of food I would never normally make at home, as I felt I wouldn’t be able to do the dishes justice.

But with no option to eat them out or order them in, I decided to give making them at home my best shot.

I planned an Indian feast of dal makhani, butter paneer, dosa and rice and enlisted my housemates’ help.

In the morning we headed to our local Indian supermarket to pick up ingredients, which was a fun trip, but tricky not to blow the budget and buy everything! The dal makhani and dosa were quite involved recipes, so we spent the day on and off soaking pulses and rice, fermenting batter and slow cooking the bases of the dishes.

In the couple of hours leading up to when we wanted to eat, the cooking intensified – and was a little stressful, with five or six pots or pans on the go swapping between our four hobs. But when we brought everything to the table and served up it was all worth it.The food was delicious and tasted even better knowing all the time and effort we’d put into cooking it. Sitting around the table with a few friends we’d invited, it was just as fun as going out to eat, for a fraction of the price.

Weeks three and four

During the week I found that in my meal plans I continued to lean towards recipes for the types of foods I would normally go out to eat – especially noodle dishes like cold kimchi noodles and harissa tahini noodles and quick curries like green pea chickpeas with spiced oil which were achievable for weeknight cooking.

I fell at the final hurdle on the last Saturday of January though. It was a friends’ birthday and she wanted to go out for a meal to celebrate. I considered saying no but would have felt too guilty, knowing how much of a tough sell January birthdays can be! We went to a pasta restaurant and I went for the least expensive dish (a delicious cacio e pepe bucatini) and stuck with tap water, so managed to only spend £12 (including the service charge), which wasn’t bad!

So, my total eating out spend for January was £12 and my food shop expenditure was £206.56, which means a whopping saving of £210.74! I do think the food shop total would have been a little more if I hadn’t been ill the first week, but even so, there would still have been significant savings.

I learnt a lot over the course of the month - I think the most significant impact I noticed was how not eating out affected my social life. Having to host, cook and clean up every time I wanted to catch up with a friend was a lot and I definitely saw people less than I usually would. Plus, whilst I really enjoyed getting creative with cooking and making recipes outside of my comfort zone, the results didn’t quite match up to food cooked by people with a lifetime’s experience of that cuisine.

What was the first thing I ate on 1 February, you might ask? I did head out for a vegetarian thali, which was delicious and very much appreciated. However, I don’t plan to completely go back to my old ways - moving forward I will be more mindful of my eating out spend and planning in more fun dinners at home rather than always defaulting to a restaurant for social plans.

Originally published February 2025

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