Let’s face it, we’re all busy these days, whether we’ve got kids or not. I know myself, my son has scouts on Monday night from 6:30pm until 8:00pm. Tuesday night my daughter doesn’t get home from dancing/singing/drama lessons until 7:20pm and Thursday nights, my son has hip hop class from 5:30pm until 6:15pm, all around dinner time. After a busy day, sometimes the last thing you feel like doing is cooking (and I love cooking) so the first thing most people do is call into the drive through to pick up dinner but it all adds up. There are quite a few ways you can avoid spending that money, get food on the table in a hurry and still enjoy the occasional ‘takeaway’. Here are my tips.

Shop at the supermarket

Instead of going through the drive through, call into the supermarket. Here in Brisbane most of our supermarkets are open until 9:00pm but some are open later. You can pick up an already cooked chicken, bread rolls, salad ingredients or ready made salads and you’ll find there’ll be leftovers for another meal. For our family of 4, I can usually get 3 meals out of a supermarket roast chicken, ie chicken and salad bread rolls, a roast chicken dinner and soup made from the bones.

Be prepared by having quick meals in the freezer

When you cook rice or pasta, cook double or triple and freeze in family size portions. That’s one part of the meal already made. If you make a big pot of stew, pasta sauce, Chinese food or a curry, for example, always cook extra. Freeze those extras ready for those busy nights. I always have lettuce and tomato in the fridge, whether it’s summer or winter. You can use them on burgers or on a salad plate.

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Keep tinned foods in the pantry

Even though I can’t stand the taste of tinned soup, sometimes having a couple cans on hand come in handy for a quick meal. I always have tinned tomatoes on hand so I would tend to make a tomato based soup instead of using a condensed tin soup and you can add whatever vegetables, herbs and spices you have on hand. Tinned pulses like lentils, chick peas or other beans are good to have in a curry or a stew. Even tinned baked beans on toasted sprinkled with cheese is a good alternative to spending money on the big takeaway food chains.

Stock up on frozen ready made options

One of my favourite things to have in the freezer is frozen fish fillets. You can use them in a fish pie, crumb them, make a curry, steam them in parcels, just about anything. I also like to keep a couple boxes of crumbed chicken tenderloins (homebrand) in the freezer for lazy Sunday night dinners or if I haven’t been prepared during the week. I keep tortillas frozen in the freezer and I can put together a chicken burrito dinner, with my salad ingredients, in just under 20 minutes. I don’t like the processed frozen take away foods like chicken nuggets and other such things but there are some good options out there. Even in the meat section of the supermarket you can sometimes pick up hamburgers made from lean ground beef that can be popped in the freezer for a busy night. I usually pick up a couple of those when I see them marked down.

Use your microwave to speed up the cooking process

I make my own potato wedges by par cooking them in the microwave for about 5 minutes and then they only need about 20 minutes in the oven to crisp up. You can do that with frozen food too. Give it a blast to defrost and then crisp up in the oven or under the griller.

I know the main reason we all like to buy takeaway food is because of the convenience but at the end of the day, the money you’re spending really can’t be justified. Here’s two examples.

Takeaway Burger meal vs at home burgers

My husband and I were taking our dogs for a walk one evening and it was getting late. We decided to grab a burger meal deal at our local drive through burger joint. (We also picked up 2 junior cheeseburgers for our dogs.) It cost us $29! I was flabbergasted. I obviously hadn’t bought it in such a long time.

I always have bread rolls in the freezer and I usually pay $2 for 6. There is always beef mince, cheese and salad ingredients plus potatoes for wedges or chips. My husband likes to take a bottle of fizzy drink to work with him so there is always some of that too. Based on the cost of ingredients from my local supermarket, making it at home would’ve cost me:

Bread rolls x 6 = $2
1kg beef mince = $8
lettuce = $1
tomatoes = $3.00/kg
onions = $3.00/kg
cheese = $7.50/kg
potatoes = $3.00/kg
fizzy drink (homebrand) = $0.75

Total: $28.25

For less than the price of two burger meal deals and 2 junior cheeseburgers, I could’ve had more than enough ingredients for 6 burgers plus still had beef mince leftover for more burgers or to be used in other meals. There would’ve been salad ingredients and vegetables leftover and a kilo of cheese lasts a long time in our house if used sparingly. 

I really can’t justify the price just for the convenience. When I purchase my beef mince, I can prepare a few burgers and freeze into separate portions. I can also prepare potatoes into wedges or fries by par boiling and tossing in olive oil before freezing and then only pulling out the quantity I need.

Chinese takeaway vs at home

We were put onto a really good “value for money” local Chinese takeaway restaurant. My husband and I can get a meal deal for around $35 that includes a variety of 3 snacks like spring rolls etc, a choice of two main meals and a serve of fried rice (plus some prawn crackers thrown in). It’s pretty good and we can usually get two meals out of this $35 but could you image what I could buy for $35 from the supermarket?

1kg chicken breast = $9.00
1kg frozen fish fillet = $7.00
1kg frozen stir fry vegetables = $4.40
1kg rice = $1.50
1kg pack of frozen cocktail spring rolls (about 60) = $5.00
sauces and spices from the pantry

Total: $26.90

As you can see, considerably less for doing it at home. You could make a chicken and vegetable stir fry with all the chicken breast and all the vegetables and have enough for dinner that night plus 2 extra nights (based on a family of 4). At the same time you could cook 2 cups of rice and have oodles to pack away in the freezer. The fish fillets could be dusted in seasoned cornflour and made into Sweet & Sour Fish. You’ll also have your entree of spring rolls to pop in the oven while you’re reheating your already prepared meals.

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It does take a little bit of organising but just think about how much money you’ll be saving over the long run PLUS getting value for money. I don’t know about you but I have never, ever received a burger like you see in the picture advertised. What you can make at home looks exactly how you make it and tastes fantastic. 

The extent of our takeaway these days could be a couple pizzas on Saturday night for movie night, picked up, but even those prices are starting to go up or hot chips from the local fish and chip shop and $5 worth is still pretty good value. Start looking around a good frozen or canned options for quick mid week meals or cook that little bit extra when you’re making dinner and freeze in family sized portions. Failing that, make sure you factor into your budget that extra amount you need for takeaway night and buy it from the supermarket instead of the drive through places. You’ll get more for your money and it will taste better.

Disclaimer: Prices as per Coles Australia Online as at May 2016.