Spending on Takeout/Delivery

[Anonymous]

A recent story from the NYT (linked below) discusses takeout and delivery spending. The topic isn’t anything new and I’m sure this has been discussed ad nauseam, but I continue to be fascinated by people’s spending habits in this area. One family highlighted in the article spends ~$700/week on takeout (2 adults + 2 kids). This seems so high, but maybe my household (2 adults + 1 child) are just on the very low end of takeout spending. I think annually we probably spend no more than $1500 on takeout/delivery and make $270K per year (combined).

Anyways, if anyone is willing to share what their household spends on delivery/takeout I would be interested to know.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/dining/food-delivery-apps-doordash-uber.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

[Anonymous]

It is bonkers, but i can also see how it is a thing. When we were relying more on doordash (covid, and for a few years after, it would be our friday night treat) it would always be $100 for our family of three to get a fairly normal meal of thai food or chinese or whatever. With some insane $20 service fee, a $14 tip, $7 in taxes, and a standard $50 of actual food. So if a family is doing that 5-6-7 nights a week, then year, it will be $700 a week. We still often get takeout or delivery on fridays, but we've shifted away from doordash as much as possible, and either pick up or use restaurants with their own delivery service.

My neighbors have a money spending problem. Well, he does. He gets home from the hospital at 3pm every day. She gets home from her dr job at 8 every night. Her DH is apparently too lazy to cook, so every night, her husband and 2 teens have all typically ordered 3 different restaurants between them. The dad thinks it's adorable that they all have such high standards for different foods. He also once told us his theory of making sure they always tipped like 40% "to teach my daughters the value of money". ??? Meanwhile, his wife (my friend) tells me they are in debt up to their eyeballs and can't afford any of it, despite two doctor salaries. I'm sure they're spending $100+ a night on food, and it's just a symptom of a bigger problem with spending and lack of financial accountability.

[Anonymous]

My spending on this has been all over the place since the pandemic (which was the first time I ever got delivery). Sometimes I go three weeks without getting delivery, and very occasionally it's three times in a week but that's too much.

My comfort spot is once a week on delivery and once a week (the day I work in the office) on takeout. $98k single who hates cooking/food prepping.

[Anonymous]

We spend close to $0.

We never get delivery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We spend close to $0.

We never get delivery.

Us too. We eat out about once a week but we pick up or eat there

[Anonymous]

I started using YNAB again so I have this information to share! This is expenses for takeout, drive throughs, door dash at work if I forgot to pack something, and the cost of vending machine snacks. It does NOT include actually going to a restaurant for a social meal.

In November I started budgeting takeout by the week instead of by the month to try to bring it back into control and I think it did help a lot.


Aug. $437
Sept. $407
Oct. $305
Nov $236
Dec $216
Jan. $210

[Anonymous]

Maybe $40 a month, if we happen to be going out and don’t have food prepped for the kids, we’ll order a pizza for delivery for them to eat. HHI $420k. I didn’t grow up with delivery so it’s never been a go to for me. We eat out as family about once a week, that’s anywhere from $150-$250 depending on where we go (4 people, no one eligible to eat from a kid’s menu).

[Anonymous]

I get takeout lunch all the time working from home - maybe 3x per week? And then for the whole family maybe once or twice a week. That right there is easily 250 assuming delivery and tips. But, I’m also one of those people who buy super expensive groceries, so eating at home saves less than you’d think. I do think if someone is spending 700 per week, they should seriously consider a chef service with that $

[Anonymous]

Way more than I would like, though I recently got fed up with it and will go back to picking food up when it makes sense. We probably do 2-3 meals a week as delivery for a family of 5. Probably averages 2-250? My husband is kind of a food snob, which is part of the problem.

We have more than enough income to spend this much on it, but it still seems nuts when you look at all the fees.

[Anonymous]

I know someone like this. They order out every night. And they are not even doctors.

They blame kids activities and sports.

The guy is obviously overweight. The wife is an almond mom. So expensive. And no too healthy either.

To each their own.

[Anonymous]

We go out once a week dinner for 3 at Thai place was $90 all in.

It wasn’t even great. It was ok. Pretty salt and portions were small. Won’t go back. Will try another Thai place.

Going out is a treat. We should enjoy it. And sometimes the food and/or service is meh.

[Anonymous]

We never get delivery.

All eating out was $625 for the year last year. We don’t eat out much. Takeout was probably 75% of that. HHI $400k

[Anonymous]

$35 for 2 takeout Puppatella pizzas and tip, maybe 6 times a year.

[Anonymous]

No delivery but we do a ton of takeout and fast food. Spend $500-750 / month for two people.

DINKs at $800K HHI. Save $400K annually so we don’t sweat it.

[Anonymous]

I would have said we get take out maybe once a month, but last month it was twice (extra long hours working plus a visitor one weekend). And this month we've already gotten take out twice (one was pizza so not very much). Tonight it was $83 including tax for a family of 5. Its bonkers.