Takeaways Can’t be good for your bank account or your belly

A hundred pounds a month on takeaways? Are you kidding me?  

Joe Stanley-Smith

“Ah, lazy students,” I thought. I still find the time to cook for myself every night in a way at least vaguely resembling a functioning adult.

If your typical takeaway is costing, say £7, and you’re spending £100 a month on curry and Chinese, it means you’re getting one every other night! That can’t be good for your bank account – or your belly.

Don’t buy into the myth

When I go to a friend’s house and see a leaning tower of pizza boxes piled in the kitchen’s corner I can’t help but pity them, mainly for the fact that I find cooking so much fun.

I go so far to say it’s an art form, it can be expressive and stress relieving. You get better at it with practice and, best of all, even if you’re rubbish you can still have a good time.

I don’t buy into the myth that you need a big takeaway to end a night either. Whether a mad one in town or a chilled one with some friends at home, the food you make yourself is just on another level.

Like Gordon Ramsay himself

When else would you even consider eating a triple-layered toastie made of fried bacon and mushrooms, the inside bit of a cheese and onion pasty and some funny garlic sauce you nicked from your housemate?

It might not titillate taste buds while sober, but after labouring over it for ages, welcoming the smell and burning your fingers on the grill, it’ll taste like Gordon Ramsay himself cooked it.

What actually goes into a kebab or burger is enough to turn your stomach; the very dodgiest meat leftovers or even horse, as we have learnt.

Controlling what goes into your food is a big perk. When a new list rating hygiene standards in Kingston’s restaurant was released, I was shocked to find that my favourite takeaway on Surbiton Road got a score of just one out of five or ‘major improvement necessary’.

A talk on hygiene

If I’m going to treat myself to a 20 quid meal out it would also be nice to know that the standard of hygiene is more than ‘generally satisfactory’.

I’ve worked in three different restaurants/cafes and it really does put you off. I’ve seen a chef go from scratching to stirring without so much as wiping his hands on his apron, and it’s amazing how good you can make food look after it has been dropped on the floor.

I’m sure you’ve heard that staff sometimes spit (or worse) in the food of nasty customers? Trust me. No smoke without fire.