The big night in: 12 simple tips for a cheap takeaway

A takeaway dinner is one of the most convenient luxuries you can enjoy in this day and age. It's a fantastic treat and a way to enjoy a cooked meal with minimal effort on your part. For some people, an easy, delicious delivery meal is one of the highlights of their week.

At the same time, it's also one of the most expensive ways to enjoy food. Like all restaurants, they charge high prices for good quality. However, things like delivery, portion sizes, and the apps you use can all drive up the cost even higher.

You don't need to cut out takeaways altogether to save on money. Your diet doesn't need to be entirely home-cooked dinners to be affordable. By making a few smart choices and cutting out the middleman where possible, you can eat pizza, Chinese, Indian, KFC, or any takeaway of your choice for less.

Here at TopCashback, we're passionate about saving you money this summer. This is why we're offering £5 cashback on your first £10+ spend on all things takeaway.

How to find a cheap takeaway restaurant

Picking the right place to purchase your takeaway is an essential first step to saving money on.

There are many ways the price gets ramped up to make even a modest order cost an eye-watering amount. That doesn't mean you need to sacrifice convenience to avoid a raid on your bank account. If you do want to save money, however, keep a few steps in mind.

1. Order directly from the restaurant

You can't move for takeaway apps these days. They make it so very simple. You can download their app, add your details, click a few times, and you'll have food at your door within the hour. They show you new takeaways you might never have ordered from.

Unfortunately, this all comes at a cost. There's a significant markup on Just Eat, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, or any other takeaway service or app you use. You should only use them with a generous discount, such as TopCashback's own Just Eat offer.

Apart from anything else, the apps add service charges and often high delivery fees. On top of that, they take a commission from the restaurants for every order. In response, restaurants have to increase their prices on these apps to remain profitable.

If you use Just Eat, Uber Eats, or Deliveroo, you might find that your quick breakfast takeaway becomes an alarmingly expensive order that breaks your budget.

You cut out service fees if you go directly to a restaurant's website (if they have one) or even pick up the phone and order your meal from their menu. You might still pay for delivery (unless you collect), but you'll cut out a significant chunk of added costs and raised prices from your meal.

It's not like you can't use these apps at all. Their listings are a great way to discover local restaurants and browse their menu. You can even use their filters to narrow down what you're looking for. However, don't order from them if you're trying to get your meal on the cheap unless you can get a great cashback deal.

2. Order from the right sort of place for the right sort of meal

It's not just the app that matters when you're looking for a takeaway. Whether you shop at a big, national chain or opt for a local independent business can shape your prices significantly.

In general, a one-person meal will be cheaper at a local restaurant than at somewhere like Papa John's or Pizza Hut. This is because smaller orders often benefit from lower prices per item and more reasonable portion sizes from a smaller restaurant.

This isn't the case for every takeaway order, however. The deals and offers given by major brands often ramp up significantly for larger spends and bigger meals. If you're looking to feed a party or a large family, the biggest deals at Domino's or Pizza Hut for a bulk order could well end up saving you money. If you're getting sausage and chips for one, a local takeaway is usually your best bet. If you're buying pizza for eight, at least scope out the deals you can get at a bigger chain.

3. Try newer takeaways in your area

Newer restaurants and stores often have better prices or welcoming deals to get those first orders rolling in. To try and get customers quickly, they drop their prices on everything in your basket, have bargain deals for you to redeem, and generally offer cheaper dinners.

If you know somewhere has just opened up in your area, whether you see it online or they post a menu through your letterbox, why not choose them for your weekly treat? It's not a sure thing that they'll have an offer, or that the meal will be as good as your go-to, but you can at least check out the menu.

4. Explore time-limited fast food deals

Discounts don't just come from new takeaways or bulk orders. If you're ordering takeaway during specific times, such as holidays, see whether any takeaways near you are offering deals to mark the occasion.

From popular sale occasions like Black Friday and Christmas, to annual events like Mother's Day or Father's Day, you might be surprised when some takeaways drop their prices. It's far from a guaranteed thing, however. On these occasions, it's worth browsing all of your locals, checking promotional emails, and enabling push notifications on your apps to see which have dropped their prices.

Some of these occasions are more routine than you think. Random weekdays are popular with bigger restaurants for fast food deals. Domino's and Just Eat both offer significant discounts on Tuesdays. Participating restaurants on Deliveroo do the same on Thursdays. Check out the deals and see how much you can save on these occasions.

Some restaurants also run their own promotional campaigns, such as the infamous McDonald's Monopoly.

How to order a takeaway meal for less

Picking the right restaurant is only the first step to saving money on cheap takeaways. You can get cheap eats almost anywhere if you order sensibly – and that doesn't mean forgoing your favourites and surviving off pasta and broccoli for the rest of your life.

5. Use desserts, drinks, and sauces you already have at home

Takeaway restaurants have thin margins and usually try to make back costs wherever they can. Charging a lot of money for extras to your meal is one of the more popular ways.

Getting a can of Coke or ginger beer delivered with your meal might be convenient, but it'll also be eye-wateringly expensive compared to a supermarket. The same goes for sides, desserts, or condiments you want with your meal. Woe betide you try and get a bottle of brown sauce from the chippy!

Where possible, make use of the extras you already have in your home. A bottle of Pepsi in the fridge, your everyday ketchup, and some ice cream in the freezer will take huge chunks out of your takeaway bill. If you don't have any, you can even go and get them from the shops and still save – although this does cost some of the convenience of a delivery meal.

6. Don't have eyes bigger than your belly

Takeaways can charge so much because they offer such large portion sizes. In most cases, you'll get a meal far larger than if you'd home-cooked it yourself. At the same time, it's very tempting to get a few sides to go with it, however much you've ordered.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying a few extras with your meal, but you might want to consider how much you need them. How many times have you eaten everything you've ordered and then felt far too full?

If a side pushes you over the minimum spend for a restaurant or a deal threshold, then it's usually worth it. However, try not to order more than you actually want to eat and spend lots for the privilege.

7. Check out individual deals

Most takeaways don't just have a menu you order from. They also have a great selection of deals for you to browse. These might offer extra food, additional drinks and sides bundled with a main portion, or money off specific items.

These deals are cheaper than the individual items that make them up. If you find one that's offering exactly what you want, then you can easily save a significant chunk off your meal. Sometimes the offers might be as good as half-price!

One of the best deals we've seen offers Cantonese sweet and sour pork, four mini spring rolls, chicken with green pepper and black bean sauce, beef with mushrooms, and two portions of egg fried rice for £31.50. Doesn't that make your mouth water?

Do be careful, however. Restaurants often run these deals in the hopes that you'll want to take advantage of the savings or order extra items that you didn't originally plan to get. It's not saving money if you get a great discount on a deal that's more than you planned to spend.

Here at TopCashback, we have our own way to help you get great food delivered to your house for less. You don't need a promo code to get savings on hundreds of restaurants, cafes, takeaways, supermarkets, and more with our cashback deals.

We have over 6,000 brands at TopCashback, including companies that offer cheap eats like Pizza Hut, and takeaway apps like Just Eat and Deliveroo. Our cashback rates stack with some of the deals offered at restaurants or by providers, so this tip works with everything else we've been saying.

9. Use Student Beans and other student discounts

The best deals at takeaways are usually reserved for very specific people. Students are a natural target market for restaurants, but don't always have the most disposable income. As a result, many takeaways, especially bigger brands, offer specific deals for them.

Some of these run through Student Beans, UNiDAYS, or similar apps. Others just need you to prove your student status.

This isn't available at every restaurant you might want to order from, but it's well worth looking out for if you are at university. At the very least, it's more exciting than eating tins of tuna every evening.

Do note, however, that discount codes risk voiding your cashback and actually making your meal more expensive.

Other tips for saving money on your takeaways

The main ways to get a bargain on your takeaway cheap eats are by picking the right restaurant and being careful with what you order. However, there are a few other ways you can save on the price.

10. Collection, not delivery

For many people, part of the joy of fast food deals is the convenience. You don't need to leave the house; food comes to you. If you are looking to save, however, don't underestimate how much you can reduce the cost by collecting your food.

Most restaurants charge significant delivery fees. It typically costs less to drive there yourself and pick your food up, and it almost always costs less to walk.

In addition, many takeaways offer collection-only discounts to encourage this. You might be able to get some of the best deals around if you don't mind taking the food home yourself. For example, Domino’s offer a Blue Light Discount to certain professions, but only on collection orders.

11. Split it into two or more meals

We've already discussed the large portion sizes restaurants offer. However, this is a golden opportunity to stretch the food you order further.

From most places, one portion of food makes for two very satisfying meals. If you've got a friend or loved one you're having dinner with, split it with them and each pay half. If you're eating alone, have some of it for dinner and the rest for lunch or breakfast.

You effectively cut the cost of a meal in half either way.

12. Use takeaway alternatives

Almost everyone in the UK loves a cheap takeaway, but it's far from the only way to enjoy a convenient, delicious meal in the evenings. Some supermarkets even go out of their way to replicate the flavour, feel, and style of a takeaway meal.

Marks & Spencer have their ‘dine-in-for-2’ section, which offers restaurant-quality food that is easy to heat and eat at home. As well as replicating takeaway favourites like pizza and Indian, they aim for nutrition in these meals. 

Similarly, Tesco have their range of Pizza Express pizzas that you can get as part of meal deals. Waitrose offer their Food Lovers’ dine-in deals for high-quality mains, starters, and sides that feed two.

Many supermarkets have similar meal deals. They're a much more affordable alternative, as long as you don't mind the hassle of putting them in the oven.

Too Good to Go also offer food from restaurants and bakeries that you can get for much less. However, they don't deliver, you don't have much say in what you get, and it tends towards snacks and desserts over meals.

First order of business: save money

Inflation and the cost-of-living crisis have made it more expensive than ever to enjoy a meal delivered to your front door. That said, you can still get a takeaway or similar dinner on a reasonable budget.

Almost every stage of the process has somewhere you can cut down on the costs. From where you order from to how you order to what you order, you can save on price and not go without any of the food you really crave.

So don't hesitate and don't starve yourself. Get stuck in with a pizza, get a great bargain on it, and take advantage of our £10 cashback offer to help pay for your next meal.