Is It Cheaper to Cook Curry at Home Than Order Takeaway? (Real Maths)

It’s the Friday night dilemma: the takeaway menu is on the fridge, but your wallet is giving you looks. Is it cheaper to cook curry at home than order takeaway? Short answer: yes, dramatically — once you’ve got the spices. But the full picture is more interesting than that, so let’s do the actual maths.

The numbers: home-cooked curry for four

Here’s a realistic cost breakdown for a chicken tikka masala-style curry, rice and naan, serving four generously:

• Chicken thighs (800g): £4.50
• Tinned tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger: £2.00
• Yoghurt and cream: £1.50
• Rice (400g basmati): £1.20
• Naan (4, shop-bought): £2.00
• Spices (per-meal share of jars): £0.80
• Oil, salt, odds and ends: £0.50

Total: ~£12.50 for four, or about £3.10 per person. The equivalent takeaway order — four mains, rice, naans — would run £55-£75. That’s not a small saving; it’s a fivefold difference. Even a vegetable curry drops to under £2 per person at home.

The spice cupboard objection

“But I’d have to buy all the spices!” — the most common pushback, and it’s fair the first time. Setting up a basic Indian spice collection costs roughly £15-£25 if you buy smart (cumin, coriander, turmeric, garam masala, chilli powder, mustard seeds, cardamom). But those jars make 20-30 curries. Amortised, it’s under a pound per meal — and the second curry onwards, you’re cooking at the £3-a-head rate above. The maths only gets better.

Where takeaway still wins

Let’s be fair to the curry house. Home cooking wins on price, but takeaway wins on:

• Time. A proper curry takes 45-75 minutes including prep. A takeaway takes a phone call.
• Variety. Ordering five different dishes to share is easy; cooking five different curries is a military operation.
• The tandoor. You cannot replicate a 400°C clay oven at home. Your naan will be good, not transcendent.
• Effort and washing up. Real costs, especially after a long week. Sometimes the premium is worth paying for your sanity.

The hybrid approach (the actual smart move)

In my experience, the sweet spot is cooking curry at home most of the time and getting takeaway as a treat — say, twice a month instead of weekly. If you currently spend £60 a week on Friday takeaway (£3,120 a year — let that sink in), switching three of those weeks to home cooking saves you roughly £2,300 a year. That’s a holiday.

Other hybrid tricks:

• Batch cook. Double the recipe; freeze half. A freezer full of homemade curry is the ultimate defence against lazy takeaway ordering — and storing fresh ingredients properly means your batch-cooking supplies actually last.
• Fakeaway nights. Make it an event — homemade curry, shop-bought naan warmed in the oven, poppadoms from a bag. 90% of the fun, 20% of the cost.
• Cook the expensive dishes. King prawn and lamb curries have the biggest takeaway markups. Cook those at home; order the cheap-and-cheerful ones if you must order.

Does homemade taste as good?

Honestly? With a good recipe, yes — and sometimes better, because you control the salt, oil and heat. What home cooking can’t easily match is the smoky tandoor flavour and the sheer variety of a restaurant spread. But a well-made home curry — properly browned onions, bloomed spices, rested meat — will beat a mediocre takeaway every time. The BBC Good Food curry collection is a reliable starting point if you need trusted recipes.

Is it cheaper to cook curry at home than order takeaway every single week?

Let’s look at the habit level, because that’s where the real money lives. A household ordering a £55 Friday takeaway every week spends £2,860 a year on curry. The home-cooked equivalent — even cooking generously with quality ingredients — costs about £12 a week, or £624 a year. The difference: £2,236 a year. That’s not a rounding error; that’s a family holiday, an emergency fund, or a very healthy ISA contribution.

You don’t have to go full monk about it. The 80/20 approach — home-cooked curry three weeks a month, takeaway on the fourth — still saves around £1,700 a year while keeping the treat alive. And here’s the thing most people discover: after a month of good home cooking, the takeaway often disappoints. Your palate recalibrates. The £55 order that used to feel like a treat starts tasting oversalted and greasy compared to your own version. That’s when the habit really shifts — not through willpower, but because the home version is genuinely better.

The freezer is your secret weapon. Cook a double batch every other week and freeze half in portioned containers. Within a month you’ll have a rotating stock of 4-6 different curries — effectively your own takeaway menu, ready in 10 minutes from frozen (defrost in the microwave, simmer to finish). Label everything with the name and date; all frozen curries look identical, and “mystery brown stew” is less appetising than “chicken dopiaza, Oct”.

Leftovers plug straight into this system too. Sunday’s roast chicken becomes Monday’s curry — leftover roast chicken folded into a simmering sauce for the last five minutes makes the fastest curry you’ll ever cook, and it costs essentially nothing. The base gravy method from the main guide plus leftover protein is weeknight cooking at its smartest: 15 minutes, one pan, restaurant depth.

The store-cupboard curry: dinner for under £1.50 a head

When the fridge is empty, the store cupboard still delivers. Tinned chickpeas or lentils (£0.80), tinned tomatoes (£0.50), an onion, and your spice collection: that’s a complete dal or chana masala for under £1.50 per person, ready in 25 minutes. Add coconut milk (£1) if you’re feeling luxurious — still under £2 a head. Keep these five tins in the cupboard permanently and you’ll never be more than half an hour from a proper curry, no shopping required. It’s the ultimate answer to the takeaway temptation: faster than delivery, cheaper than everything, and genuinely delicious.

The takeaway

Cooking curry at home costs roughly £2-£3.50 per person versus £14-£20 for takeaway — it’s not even close. The spice cupboard investment pays for itself within two or three meals. Keep the takeaway for treats and variety, cook at home for the everyday, and pocket the difference. Your bank balance will taste the difference even if your palate can’t.