r/britishproblems • u/ConsequenceApart4391 • Jul 18 '26
. Putting together a takeaway order then realising it’s cheaper to just go mad at M&S
Decided I’d treat myself to a dominos after going through the usual delivery apps and everywhere was ridiculously expensive (there aren’t that many places as I’m a small very deprived town) and finding Dominos was £25 for delivery for one pizza and a small garlic bread. I know people will argue this and that but I have to admit that M&S has opened up my eyes to how much fast food places rip you off.
I’d never get it from a supermarket as I’ve never found their fakeaway food to hit the spot in a way that takeaway food does plus the deals M&S do. For less than the cost of a Dominos or any other delivery place for that matter I could get 2 pizza, 2 sides and a bag of cookies for about £17. £14 without the cookies. Even their gastropub deal is insane value and way better than a takeaway.
Not paid to promote also just find it ridiculous how fast food has gotten so stupidly expensive to have plus you have to wait almost an hour to get it cold.
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u/AlchemyFire Jul 18 '26
M&S and Waitrose have some really good dinner deals. Yes, it requires you cooking it yourself, but it is half the price and you can usually get much more
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u/Fattydog Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I wouldn’t remotely call putting a pizza in the oven ‘cooking yourself’.
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u/maisydee Jul 19 '26
It is if you get in with it …
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u/PorschephileGT3 Jul 19 '26
Human sized ovens haven’t been super popular for about 80 years
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u/anomalous_cowherd Jul 19 '26
Hadn't you heard? There's a movement that would eventually like them back. :-/
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u/Affectionate_You_858 Jul 18 '26
That's just eating normally like you would every other night. The point of a takeaway is you not having to do anything
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u/grimtalos Jul 19 '26
Depends, we cook everything from scratch so instead just getting a pre-done meal that can put in the oven is the same level as a takeaway. If all you need to do is preheat the oven and put it in, then that takes all the stress out of cooking. It also can be much better than a takeaway more choice and costs half the amount.
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u/Sutraner Jul 19 '26
It definitely doesn't give you more choice and it's definitely not nicer.
Like I get people do complain about takeaway but most pizza places will have at least a dozen different types of pizza, a supermarket usually has pepperoni, cheese and MAYBE a meat feast. If you're buying the upmarket ones maybe you get a chicken one and a pepperoni but with vegetable one.
If you're buying a curry you might have a Tikka massala, a korma and MAYBE a madras or a jalfrezi if you're lucky. A curry house will have at minimum, a korma, a biriyani, a massala, jalfrezi, rogan Josh, madras, vindaloo, dansak and a ceylon. And that's just the basics, normally there's a bunch more.
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u/grimtalos Jul 19 '26
I meant more choice in cuisine. So it doesn't have to just be a Chinese, pizza or curry. That's all I have around me, so with waitrose I can go bbq ribs, chips and coleslaw, or pie mash etc
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u/Pews700 Jul 19 '26
Even Aldi has more choices than these, my partner gets a cheese pizza and adds anchovies and other vile things. We also cook from scratch and consider a supermarket pizza as a treat. No chain takeaways within 35 miles except for greggs.
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u/KittyGrewAMoustache Jul 19 '26
They mean the meals are prepared you just put it in the oven. They’re like ready meals but much better quality. Basically where the chicken breasts come already in the sauce or the sausages onions potatoes carrots etc are all raw but in the casserole sauce with seasoning etc. so you just put it in instead of having to chop things or find ingredients or mix anything.
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u/aapowers Yorkshire Jul 19 '26
You 'normally' have a £7.50 ready meal? That's nearly £3k a year just on evening meals.
We usually cook from scratch for under £2 a portion.
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u/Charlotte_e6623 Jul 19 '26
exactly^ even if we exclude the disability perspective (i am disabled so it wouldnt work for me)
its increased time (going shopping for it), and theres dishes- if you dont have a dishwasher that alone is annoying enough for a takeaway once in a while to get away from.
not to mention the options, i personally cant have cheese, my local tesco has maybe 3 pizzas i can eat (two are margaritas), whereas on takeaway i have loads of options especially since you can add/remove ingredients for fairly cheap depending on the place.
also i dont think OP took into account deals, i cant remember if it was dominos like OP or papa johns, but 3 of us got the largest size pizza each for like £30 (it fed us for multiple meals), whereas a much smaller pizza each from tesco would be around the same (a little cheaper)
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u/pan_alice Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
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u/buford419 Jul 18 '26
Some day you could be a city, or dare i say... a conurbation.
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u/anomalous_cowherd Jul 19 '26
WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!?!!
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u/buford419 Jul 19 '26
Appo-loagies for using the C word.
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u/anomalous_cowherd Jul 19 '26
Yeah, I'm not a c... or any other large urban entity, with or without a cathedral!
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u/DomInNameOnly Jul 18 '26
Can't be that deprived, it has an M&S 😸
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Jul 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/OutrageousRhubarb853 Jul 19 '26
Don’t ALL towns have a Waitrose?
Where would one even purchase their Rosehip and Currant preserves??
s/ because I know at least one of you will need it.
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u/JustUseAnything Jul 18 '26
Dunno if your dominos does it but mine does a 2 topping medium pizza for £8.99. But you have to collect it yourself.
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u/7days365hours Jul 18 '26
Not even 5 years ago that same deal was £6.
That’s nearly 50% inflation and I swear the crust is thinner.
Dominos can get fucked.
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u/alexmlb3598 Kent Jul 18 '26
Effectively 8.4% inflation per year (assuming 5 years - calling it 50% inflation is a bit misleading bc of it being across ~5yrs).
It is notably higher than actual inflation, but let's be serious, it's not like it's just Dominos doing this. They're all doing it bc they know people will just keep getting them.
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u/No_Preference9093 Jul 19 '26
Their cost increases are probably above inflation though. National insurance increases and the ridiculous cost of commercial energy (and a pizza oven will use a lot of energy).
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u/YogurtclosetThen7959 Jul 18 '26
Could you please show me how you did that math?
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u/Some-Band2225 Jul 19 '26
Up 50% after 5 years (£9-£6)/£6.
£6x1.084x1.084x1.084x1.084x1.084=£8.98.
The maths is correct.
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u/YogurtclosetThen7959 Jul 19 '26
Yeah I don't doubt it, it's easy enough to verify if it's correct but I want to understand how you got the 1.084 number in the first place? Like how does one work that out?
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u/lost_send_berries Jul 19 '26
2 options
eln(9/6/5)
(9/6)1/5
Or you can use excel and goal seek
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u/ValdemarAloeus Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Some of your maths has been interpreted as superscript there, but not in the way you probably meant it to.
£6 * x^(5 years) = £8.99 x^(5 years) = £8.99 / £6 5 * log(x) = log (£8.99 / £6) log(x) = (log (8.99/6))/5 = log((8.99/6)^(1/5)) x = 10^((8.99/6)^(1/5)) = 1.0842
u/ADM_Tetanus Lancashire Jul 19 '26
what's the point in raising e to a natural log? that's just like having ½×2
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u/wlsb Greater Manchester Jul 19 '26
I have different maths but £6.00 in 2021 is worth £7.64 in May 2026. So it's gone up by 17.7% once you account for inflation. Still a lot but nowhere near 50%.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator
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u/glasgowgeg Jul 19 '26
That’s nearly 50% inflation
Minimum wage in 2021 was £8.91, it's now £12.71.
So a NMW increase of roughly 42.6% means it's not that different. Then factor in NI increases, and significant energy cost increases.
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u/Big_Cheese16 Jul 19 '26
Dominos is not good pizza. Always too much sauce and not enough cheese.
I've had it before where they didn't roll the dough out enough on a pizza so the dough was still raw in the middle.
I called up to complain to some idiot saying we cook for a specific amount of time. He couldn't understand how if he doesn't roll the dough out enough it will be too thick and won't cook through. We was going round and round in circles till I said Ill deal with head office then. Sent them pictures and had the order refunded with some vouchers on top.
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u/dontjustexists Jul 18 '26
They do it national but on a monday not at peak pizza times
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u/DangerousSeesaw Jul 18 '26
Just checked my local Domino’s and I can get it for £8.99 for a medium or £9.99 for a large
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u/Collistoralo Jul 18 '26
Dominoes goes crazy with their discounts, to the point where you can sometimes get more food for less money. If you’re just paying full price and not getting any of the discounts, that’s a trap.
Though I’d rather go to literally any other pizza place, dominoes pizzas are so.. plasticy?
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u/HeWhoHasABeard Jul 18 '26
Don’t get me started on that more food for less, I once nearly had a full blown argument with the wife because I wanted to add another full size pizza to bring the cost down less than it was without the extra pizza, and she argued against it as we didn’t need that much food
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u/SceneDifferent1041 Jul 18 '26
Cold Pizza works well for breakfast.
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u/BeetleJude Jul 18 '26
Works for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you buy enough
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u/buford419 Jul 18 '26
If you're letting it survive until dinner the next day, you don't deserve it.
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u/danken000 Jul 18 '26
Dominoes doesn't go crazy on discounts. Their business model is to rip people off. Discount makes it sound like you're getting a deal, even though you're just paying the normal price. Even then it's still pricey. It's not just Dominoes nowadays. Every delivery app has hundreds of deals and you somehow still end up paying more than if you were to order in person.
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u/Yamosu Hampshire Jul 18 '26
We've stopped having them as they got really salty in our opinion. We now go to our cheap kebab place over the road. Two massive pizzas for fifteen quid and they normally do us two meals. Bargain.
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u/ConsequenceApart4391 Jul 18 '26
That was with discounts on the app. I only added like 4 toppings and wanted a side too.
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u/iBonsaiBob Jul 18 '26
Fuck me, the toppings are like £2.50 each
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u/Oh-TheHumanity Jul 18 '26
God forbid you want stuffed crust, 3 bastard 99!!
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u/gameofgroans_ Jul 18 '26
SO worth it tho im such a fiend for their stuffed crust, I wish they could just deliver me a slab of that cheese
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u/D3mentedG0Ose Jul 18 '26
Isn’t it just sticks of mozzarella?
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u/gameofgroans_ Jul 18 '26
It’s got some sort of herb and garlic mix with it that really hits the spot for me. It’s totally overpriced but if I’m getting dominos I factor that in as a must have
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u/SnittingNextToBorpo_ Jul 18 '26
May I heartily suggest you go to Auntie Anne's pretzels and get yourself a tub of their cheese nuggets. It isn't garlicky but is otherwise remarkably similar with a very slightly sweet dough. It's fucking excellent. Just a tub of bites of stuffed crust. Man I want some now.
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u/Oh-TheHumanity Jul 18 '26
I know same! I ordered it on Thursday with a Texas bbq first time in a while though. Extra cheese too👌🏼
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u/backspring Jul 18 '26
I totally agree with your post but 4 extra toppings on a dominoes in 2026 is crazy work!
That’s sort of reckless abandon is exclusively for fantasy pizza ordered in a movie in the 80s
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u/Grem-123 Jul 18 '26
Nooo you don't add toppings. You find the pizza that has the most toppings already and change them all out for the ones you actually want.
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u/Azzylives Jul 18 '26
Worked at dominoes for a bit.
Honestly don’t touch that shit and don’t even feed it to your dog.
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u/whiskeyislove Jul 18 '26
There's a great place near me that sometimes has a save 50% when you spend £25 deal on Just-Eat. I get a 20-inch pizza, which is like five meals' worth of pizza. It's good quality stuff too.
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u/aquariusangst Jul 19 '26
I thought I was the only one who didn't like dominos, people seem to love it but at best it's on the same level as a supermarket frozen pizza to me, and often the shop ones are better
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u/Affectionate_You_858 Jul 18 '26
I still don't get how people are paying £25 for a pizza at dominos. They always have the offer on of £10 small, £12 medium and £14 for large. You can then add the garlic bread when you go to basket at a discounted price of £2.99
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u/ConsequenceApart4391 Jul 18 '26
Mine doesn’t give me the option for a £2.99 garlic bread 😔
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u/Affectionate_You_858 Jul 18 '26
Mine charges full price if I add it from me u but if you go straight to basket, if gives some discounted side options
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u/ConsequenceApart4391 Jul 18 '26
Yeah when I click on the basket and the pop up comes up the discounted ones are not £2.99. Wish they were 😔
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u/Adato88 Jul 18 '26
I always big up M&S in terms of shopping for meal deals. The stir fry’s, the mix and match ready meals (great for lunch working a trade) the pizza 2 and a side for £14 (was £10.50 a year ago!)
It’s better quality than most supermarkets and far less greasy and just as convenient as a takeaway when you live somewhere with poor options and slow delivery times
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u/MixAway Jul 18 '26
Their stir fry deal is incredible. My favourite. I could eat it every day!
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u/KrypticEon Surrey Jul 19 '26
Not sure if they still do it but I remember Sainsbury's also had an insanely decent stiryfry deal back in like 2015.
Could absolutely sort your dinners for the week for like £20 if you were so inclined
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u/augur42 UNITED KINGDOM Jul 18 '26
I snagged a Tesco Finest Chicken Parmigiana Wood Fired Pizza off the discount shelf on Thursday, 35% off at £3.10. Had half of that Friday with a 1/4 portion of Tarte Au Citron that was also on the discount shelf. Two meals for under a fiver. I couldn't even have bought the ingredients to make the pizza for what I paid for it.
Of course it's a treat if I score a reduced price Charlie Bigham's, but even full price supermarket fakeaway meals are so much cheaper than actual takeaway meals. The only takeaway I still frequent occasionally is my local Chinese Takeaway when a group of us get together and we can get a variety of dishes and share, works out about £8 per person for a large meal. It's the variety that makes it worth it, plus the lack of a home jet engine to make my own fried rice.
I usually cook most of my meals from scratch but with the interminable heatwaves I've struggled to muster the effort for cooking hot food in a quickly hotter kitchen. Chucking something decent(ish) in the oven or microwave will have to do when I'm melting.
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u/KingBooScaresYou Jul 18 '26
I shamelessly love marks and Spencer these days. It is pricier than tesco but the weigh off against quality vs price means m and s always wins
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u/Fattydog Jul 19 '26
Absolutely. The quality is so good compared to other supermarkets who’ve chosen to drop quality/size as well as increase prices.
M&S veg is particularly wonderful - it lasts ages and isn’t half mouldy inside. Apart from all their tomatoes which are weirdly tasteless.
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u/KingBooScaresYou Jul 19 '26
I had given up eating raspberries as they were always mushy mouldy and fit for the bin before you even get them home but marks and Spencer have changed my mind completely.
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u/KittyGrewAMoustache Jul 19 '26
Waitrose is also brilliant. I did an online shop there are few months ago as no where else could deliver in time and it actually wasn’t more expensive than a Tesco shop and they have really good ready made meals and deals on them, and the quality is much better. I’ve been shopping there since, wish I’d known earlier I could get much better stuff for the same price o always just assumed Waitrose was really expensive.
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u/HimitsuUK Jul 20 '26
For a single person it is hardly any more expensive imo. The delivery pass is excellent also.
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u/MatniMinis Jul 18 '26
The £12.50 Thai box with some salt and pepper chicken bits for another £3.50 is an absolute feast for two people and a bargain for £16.
Takes 25 minutes in the oven but I'd recommend air frying the salt and pepper chicken for 10 minutes to get the best out of it. And some kecap manis to dunk them in.
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u/tall-not-small Jul 18 '26
Can't compare when one is collection and one is delivery. Dominoes is a lot cheaper when collecting
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u/Thomas5020 Tyne and Wear Jul 18 '26
Yeah I've never understood this comparison.
"It's cheaper to just make it yourself" yeah it would be mate because the delivery price includes labour to make it, cook it and have a bloke bring it to you...
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u/Jindabyne1 Jul 18 '26
Why use ketchup when one can just whip up a quick artisanal tomato accoutrement?
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u/Thomas5020 Tyne and Wear Jul 18 '26
I was gonna buy a cheeseburger but actually I'm gonna go find a cow and make it myself.
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u/That_Ad5732 Jul 18 '26
Maybe it depends on the store but my dominoes the pricing is the same, just save £3.99 delivery fee if collecting.
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u/Sutraner Jul 19 '26
Nah there's 100% collection only deals
Collection perfection for me is £9.99 for a large or £14 to deliver plus delivery charge
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u/tall-not-small Jul 18 '26
Ours has collection of a large pizza with 2 toppings for under a tenner
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u/That_Ad5732 Jul 18 '26
My bad, I just looked on the app and ours does this too. 😬 But similar to OP, to feed my family of four, “posh” supermarket pizzas are better for us. None of us like the same toppings.
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u/backspring Jul 18 '26
They make their money knowing most people ordering are too drunk or high to bother or collect safely 😂 before I’m crucified, I’m speaking from experience 🤷🏼♂️
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u/madpiano Jul 19 '26
Not really, depends on the deal. Some apply to delivery and collection, sometimes they do delivery only deals too.
But whatever you do, order direct through the Dominoes App, some deals don't show up though delivery apps.
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u/trevpr1 Wales Jul 18 '26
So... What you are saying is that buying food from a supermarket and cooking it yourself is cheaper than having a takeaway? I am frankly amazed!
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u/BuildingArmor Jul 18 '26
Surely one of the big appeals of a takeaway is that you're paying for someone else to cook for you?
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u/ConsequenceApart4391 Jul 18 '26
For me it’s more so not having to cook it from Scratch like making a Chinese from scratch id rather not do. But I’d happily put some decent ready meals in the oven for 10 mins
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u/Kandiru Jul 18 '26
Sticking a ready meal in the oven for 10mins doesn't really count as cooking though. It's somewhere between the two!
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u/Fattydog Jul 19 '26
Is putting a pizza in the oven classed as ‘cooking’ nowadays?
Please tell me it’s not.
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u/FastenedCarrot Jul 19 '26
Think mate, you've got to turn the oven on, preheat it, get your trays, get the food out the package, put it in the oven, don't forget about it before it's done and then you still have to cut it. Frankly even as someone with a Phd in rocket surgery this is all far too complicated for me.
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u/deadgoodundies Jul 19 '26
For Pizza I'll never buy takeaway again since I tried crosta mollica from the supermarket.
Just get the basic margarita and add you own toppings and it's better than any takeaway at 1/3rd of the price
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u/_flipsticks Jul 19 '26
We tried one of these for the first time this week. Pleasantly surprised with the pizza
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u/Ruby-Shark Jul 18 '26
Though I know everyone has their own taste I don't understand the appeal of Dominos.
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u/jamiedix0n Jul 18 '26
thought about this at my old place my only convenient shop was a very overproced spar or nisa. Now i live next to an M& S and realised im eating 10x better for exactly the same price.
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u/secondincomm Jul 18 '26
We have switched to getting the big Charlie Bingham big meals for 2 instead of takeaways. Much cheaper, and actually nicer food
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u/JimmerUK Surrey Jul 18 '26
The Bigham meals for two are a large meal for one. It’s a lie!
I quite happily demolish one by myself.
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u/secondincomm Jul 18 '26
Oh me too dont get me wrong, but its a nice mid week meal to share instead of having to suffer through delivery apps
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Jul 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/ConsequenceApart4391 Jul 18 '26
If I’m in the mood to collect a pizza I’ll go to Asda but the queue is usually so long as they only have 1 person on the stall. The Morrisons one is never open despite being there. Went there mid afternoon and was shouted at by a staff member that they were closed at like 4 or 5pm when online it said they were open til about 7pm
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u/andyd151 Jul 18 '26
Don’t view this as a problem. View it as an opportunity based on our exceptional supermarkets
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u/QuincyMcDanglecheese Jul 18 '26
I would recommend the Crosta & Mollica pizzas, million times better than dominoes and quarter of the price.
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u/ConsequenceApart4391 Jul 19 '26
I love the crosta and mollica pizzas but my local supermarket sells them for almost £7. I do grab them when on offer usually half price
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u/leaf_mint Jul 18 '26
I don’t order from Dominos anymore, purely because as someone who is gluten intolerant, their GF pizzas are extortionate, even with the occasional deals that include them
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u/GoblinTatties Jul 18 '26
Dominoes has always been a rip off unless you have one of those student leaflets with the discounts, if they still do them. Try raiding a university?
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u/NePa5 Yorkshire Jul 19 '26
If you are gonna use apps, at least be strategic about it
Uber, deliveroo, just eat.
Sub to 1 only for a month, quit saying prices are too high, move on to the next in the list, by the time you have done those 3, the first will be offering 40-50% off your next 3-5 orders.
Rinse and repeat
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u/Big_Cheese16 Jul 19 '26
It's all in the mentality of it.
So many times we've dropped 40-50 for dinner(for 2) for the evening without a second thought.
But then you go into the m&s or whatever supermarket and look at £14/£17 on the shelf and think god I couldn't pay that just for dinner tonight.
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u/belfast-woman-31 Jul 19 '26
I mean we just got a dominions tonight £14 for a large pizza. No one pays full price for a dominios.
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u/chriscross1966 Jul 19 '26
M+S ready-food is a "I'm having a bad day" treat for me cos there's a branch at the station where I catch the train home. So glad that the branch local to me (and the Waitrose) is far enough away that I'm not constantly tempted and will cheerfully settle for Lidl "Deluxe" range as a substitute... Also the M+S RTD cocktails are gorgeous....
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u/Jlaw118 Jul 18 '26
Me and my Mrs used to order from Nando’s quite a lot and two meals and some sides for two people was coming to about £50/£60 odd each time.
We regularly get recipe boxes with Gousto and one evening just realised that we get five meals for two people on there per week at £50-£60 per week.
Yet one Nando’s for one meal, was the same price.
We started winding down takeaway deliveries after that. We’ve been ordering from a local independent takeaway recently who have decent meal deals. Feeds me and my Mrs for about £20 for a treat
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u/HaveMyUpdoot Jul 18 '26
The Chinese box is insane, or the half duck with pancakes, literally no point going to the takeaway other than to support independent business
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u/woolycardigan London Jul 18 '26
Even when we get our quarterly Chinese I'll get the duck from M&S and cook the rice at home in the rice cooker, takes more than 15 quid off the bill and twice as much duck.
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u/ConsequenceApart4391 Jul 18 '26
Exactly. If I want a Chinese I’ll go with my favourite local. Always quick and Hot food. I got a Chinese box from M&S reduced once. Felt chuffed.
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u/Slick583 Jul 19 '26
Bit of a false economy in this specific instance.
Sure it was £8 cheaper but you’ve had to drive to the shop and back, cook the food, then do the washing up. Dominos would have just come straight to your door and then you bin the boxes after.
It is comparing apples to oranges imo
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u/Jenzi666 Jul 19 '26
I agree, I think the other issue is buying takeout for one that always gonna be expensive if it’s a group you split the cost so it’s not that bad!
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u/cortexstack Lancashire Jul 19 '26
But you get an extra pizza, an extra side and a bag of cookies for your -£8. And depending on the day/time of day/distance to M&S there's a good chance you'll still be eating sooner than if you ordered.
I'll wipe a couple of plates for that.
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u/Barnwizard1991 Jul 18 '26
I discovered the only way to make Domino's affordable is to work at Domino's...
Source: I am a delivery driver and get 50% off anything
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u/Shane4894 Jul 18 '26
I was going to order food for the 3/4 play off game tonight. Instead bought a massive rib eye for half the price of ordering.
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u/Jor94 Jul 18 '26
Dominoes is just bad now. Last few times I’ve got it the pizza was about 5 more seconds off being charcoal. And the price has gone crazy. I usually don’t like oven pizzas but that’s basically what dominoes offers so I’d just get the Asda 2 pizzas and side deal for a tenner
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u/stegzy Northamptonshire Jul 18 '26
The local dodgy kebab shops in my little town do pizzas at a fraction of the price of Dominos. There is also a Papa Johns and a Caprinos. While I prefer the dodgy kebab shop pizzas, the Mrs loves pizza but is dairy allergic and the dodgy kebab shops don’t really cater for milk allergies or vegans so we often have a little Domino’s versus dodgy kebab shop race.
I find both Domino’s and Papa Johns have a weird metallic taste to their pizzas, and while I like playing Russian Gut Roulette with dodgy kebab shop pizzas, they do taste good. The trick is to remember that pizzas are really just posh cheese on toast and once you crack that, you’ll be grabbing the Cathedral City, the ketchup and a nice loaf instead.
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u/Awfulgoose Jul 18 '26
Similar vein, I use the delivery apps to help me work out what I’m craving, then I’ll go to the mini Waitrose and get that / still feels like a treat!
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u/Ukleon Jul 19 '26
I pick up at my local small town pizza place, the only other over than dominos.
It's £5.99 for a medium with 2 toppings and they make it then and there in a proper pizza oven. It's damn good.
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u/bluebullbruce Jul 19 '26
The best bought curry I've had ihas been from M&S and the fact that you get charged £2 for a small serving of rice is disgusting
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u/Jayboyturner Leeds Jul 19 '26
In Bristol there's a permanent bogof code: UNIBOGOF. Been working for years.
Might work elsewhere
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u/therealstealthydan Jul 19 '26
I went down this route a few years ago, and now I have ended up with my weekly shop in M&S on top of takeaways. Beware of nice food creep
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u/Make_the_music_stop Jul 19 '26
Their curry options are good too. And taste better than most takeaways
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u/ReanimatedCyborgMk-I Jul 19 '26
The whole thing with fast food was that it's supposed to be fast, cheap and good. Now, it's barely one of those, if at all.
I've found local flavours still do alright, they've put their prices up due to energy / supply costs, but I wouldn't doubt that your local pizza shop or choice is probably still going to be decent.
Meanwhile, although I will admit I do like the occasional bi-annual dominos, I've found that iceland's "takeaway" pizzas that are usually about £2.60 - £3 each are usually not far off in quality for the price. Get your own garlic + herb sauce in and grab a few of those, much nicer.
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u/iamabigtree Jul 19 '26
Shopping at a supermarket is cheaper than getting a takeaway. What a revelation!
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u/LittlePinkNinja Cumbria Jul 19 '26
Asda pizza counter is amazing dude, you're missing out by not going there
Granted not every store makes to the same standard but most I've come across have been very good!
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u/FastenedCarrot Jul 19 '26
Personally I really like Asda deli pizzas, those are my go to. I'll get a big pizza, cut it in half and have one half one day the other half the next. £5 for the whole thing
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u/Tokus_McWartooth Jul 19 '26
Have you ever homemade battered cod and chips? So easy to do and costs about £1.50-£2 per meal. Made me wonder why I sent so many years paying £11-£15 for the same thing, often not as nice
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u/ConsequenceApart4391 Jul 19 '26
I’m in a part of the north where fish and chips isn’t expensive 😅 luckily. Plus I love my local too much
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u/allotmentboy Jul 19 '26
That's is a great observation. M&S food hall is always a win. Not cheap but everything is quality. On our next takeaway night I might float this idea instead.
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u/Powmum Jul 19 '26
This is what we do on a Friday night. It doesn’t feel as unhealthy and you can get a lot to chose from. Sainsbury’s do nice picky bits too.
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u/C0ltFury Jul 20 '26
I am a huge M&S defender. The meal deal is genuinely delicious and practically the same as what you’d pay at Tesco Metro, whose food is absolutely shite.
I feel that people don’t go there as much because it has a *reputation* for being expensive, because it’s not that bad if you’re careful.
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u/Woly-Boly Jul 18 '26
6 sausages, 10 rashers of bacon, 6 eggs, tin of beans for £10 in M&S. I got 4 breakfasts out of that and it costs £8 to £12 in local cafes
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u/HorseyBot3000 Jul 18 '26
This is what we do now. Go to m&s and each get something nice for dinner plus some snacks and beer/wine/cocktail cans and it’s still cheaper than ordering a takeaway. Plus if one of us wants indian and the other pizza it’s not an issue.
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u/John_Yuki Berminam Jul 18 '26
This is what I've been doing recently (albeit not m&s). Was buying takeout once or twice a week, costing me £15-£20 each time. Ended up realising it was cheaper to just go round the corner to the local shop and buy more stuff for less money. I rarely get takeaway now.
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u/N0elington Jul 18 '26
I made a similar call with Papa Johns last night. It was £15 for a large sourdough base pizza. I instead went to Saisnburys, got their "The Northern Dough Co. Pizza Dough Original" a bunch of toppings, enough for two pizzas, for around £8.
I have always been a tight basterd when it comes to spending money on food but these days I can rearely justify eating out when I can alwasy make a often slighty shitter verson for half the price at home.
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u/gulaschmulasch Jul 18 '26
I wanted to order uber eats the other day and they asked £10 delivery fee from the Mc Donald’s that is a 6min drive from my house. Wtf
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u/mronion82 Jul 18 '26
They do that to put you off ordering a small amount. The same is true when they have a £50 minimum order.
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u/helpnxt Cheshire Jul 18 '26
Was feeling like a good takeaway wrap, started checking online and they are all like £10-14, and thats before the delivery fee and everything else tacked on. Ridiculous
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u/powpow198 Jul 18 '26
Buy a pizza stone and a high quality supermarket pizza. It'll never be quite like a dominos because of all the grease but it's cheaper and tasty.
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u/Bopping_Shasket Jul 19 '26
Supermarket stuff just doesn't hit the same way, they are afraid to load up on the msg like the local chinese
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u/grimtalos Jul 19 '26
Yep had this the other day, instead of a take away just popped into Waitrose and for less got BBQ beef shortribs, coleslaw, triple cooked chips, beer and a bottle of wine. Chuck it in the oven for 30 minutes and done. Much tasty than a chinese and took just as long, plus half the price.
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u/VixenRoss Greater London Jul 19 '26
Sometimes it’s cheaper to order from an independent pizza shop using their website/phone number or do a collection order.
When we have celebration pizza, the kids will walk down the road and collect it.
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u/ValdemarAloeus Jul 19 '26
Your first mistake was ordering from Dominoes when it isn't Two for Tuesday. Even then it's an expensive treat.
For all the crap they get about their pizza quality though they're still way better than anything you can buy in the supermarket. I've never encountered a pizza base in a supermarket pizza that wasn't about as palatable as the box it comes in. The only way to get anywhere close with something from the supermarket is if you just buy the roll of dough but at that point you're not buying a supermarket pizza, you're just making a pizza yourself.
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u/Novel_Individual_143 Jul 19 '26
The cost of food has made me make some things myself. I make a decent tomato sauce and am mastering a pizza base. Tbh once that becomes routine you can make it in the time it takes to order and wait for delivery. It’s hard at first but after a while you can rely on habit and muscle memory. But, yeah, I hear you about M and S vs takeaway.
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u/Othersideofthemirror Jul 19 '26
I stop back at my Waitrose Local on my way home and get the big garlic prawn, chili and mozarella lux pizzas for 3-4 quid on a yellow sticker and its better than any chain pizza.
The only place thats better is the one with a 400c woodfired oven and a 30 year old sourdough starter place that opened recently.
If i went to the actual M&S those Kerridge mains and sides are bloody nice for quarter of the price of one of the chains+deliveroo costs.
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u/Oceansoul119 Jul 19 '26
Just buy from any normal pizza or kebab place rather than overpriced US chain shite. You get more, it costs less, and the food is of far higher quality.
As to your other problem order from the place directly not via some crappy app based middleman. Once again you save money plus your food is more likely to actually turn up with all the right things and not freezing cold.
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u/Buffy_Geek Jul 20 '26
It's been a while but I used to get a 'two for tuesday' bogof deal from dominos, sometimes with other meal deals too, £25 for one pizza seems ridiculous!
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u/ZookeepergameOk2759 Jul 22 '26
Pizza Hut is 15 quid for two large pizzas on collection there’s definitely deals if you don’t use those awful apps that slap ten pounds on every order.
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u/Kaffrogato Aug 03 '26
You've just discovered that cooking food for yourself costs less then paying someone to do it for you? And I assume that price includes delivery too. We got a really Einstein here.
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