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Since 2020, when the pandemic started, family life, and eating habits, have changed for so many people, including my own family!
When the pandemic hit our favourite restaurants were closed. Having takeaways delivered was also unheard of, for months. As a result our family took to cooking more. My own air fryer recipes came into their own, and we really enjoyed having tasty meals at home, however, it was fair to say that I was very excited when places started re-opening and we could order our favourite meals again!
In our home we have a mixture of cuisines that we love to eat. I’m a BIG fan of Chinese cuisine, and also love eating Japanese food. My husband loves Indian and both our daughters are partial to a pizza delivery.
Once life started to regain some normality we were enjoying lots of takeaway deliveries. Probably a few too many! This is when we decided to bring in a fortnightly family takeaway night.
We have one night, a Saturday every two weeks, that we set aside for everyone to enjoy their favourite meal, guilt free, and it is a great way to lower the takeaway spends that crept up on us once everywhere reopened.
Since late 2020 we’ve enjoyed this fortnightly tradition, and then in the Summer of 2022 we started changing it up with every other family takeaway night actually being a visit to a restaurant instead.
We aren’t alone in eating out more, as 1/4 more diners have been searching for ‘Chinese restaurants’ since the pandemic. Interest in Italian restaurants has more than doubled too. There are a staggering 222% more people searching for ‘Japanese restaurants’ in 2022 also!
Usually our 6 year old chooses where we eat, which we’re happy with, as long as I can find some 2 for 1 dining offers, and suitable meals for my daughter’s dietary requirements.
I love searching for a discount code or special offer, but sometimes am lacking in the time to do so. This is where tastecard comes in!
tastecard is a service that offers you discounts on restaurants and attractions. You can save money with either 2 for 1 meals or 50% discounts at popular restaurants such as Pizza hut, Café Rouge, Zizzi, Bella Italia and more. You can even find discounts at local restaurants serving a variety of tasty cuisines including Italian, Indian, Thai, Chinese and much more.
In addition to great discounts when dining in at great restaurants you can also grab yourself discounted cinema tickets at chains such as VUE and Showcase, or even get a discounted pizza delivery to enjoy at home!
For just £5.99 per month your tastecard can help you save money, and with the average member saving £19 per meal a single meal out per month, like my family usually enjoys, can save as much as £226.56 annually! Or £154.68 after the cost of the tastecard membership.
If you’re someone who eats out more frequently then you could make even bigger savings.
tastecard have compiled some information of their own, showing the impact that the pandemic has had on our eating habits.
This post is in conjunction with tastecard but all thoughts are my own.