(Last Updated May 2025)
Take a simple example: a popular Salmon O.G. poke bowl from Fishbowl in Sydney costs $15.90 in-store, but the very same bowl is listed at $19.90 on Uber Eats. Add a $5.99 delivery fee and a $1.99 service fee, and you’re handing over a bit under $28 for that bowl. The table below shows how quickly the costs stack up:
| Meal (Sydney) | Price if you pick up | Price via delivery app |
|---|---|---|
| Salmon poke bowl (Fishbowl) | $15.90 (menu price) | $27.88 ($19.90 + $5.99 delivery + $1.99 fees) |
| Flat white + banana bread (café) | ~$8 (in café) | $21 (with $3.99 delivery + $1.60 service fee + app markup) |
Even a humble coffee run can turn into a wallet-buster. One Sydney writer noted her $8 coffee and banana bread habit ballooned to $21 delivered, once a $3.99 delivery fee, $1.60 service fee, and inflated app pricing were factored in. And that’s before any tip for the driver. In other words, you’re paying a premium of 150% or more just for staying on the couch.
It’s not just these one-off examples. Broadly, research shows that ordering from a restaurant is almost five times more expensive than cooking at home. Of course, not every delivery is that extreme – but by the time you’ve paid a 10% service charge (Menulog caps this at $4, Uber Eats often has no cap) and a delivery fee (usually around $5–$7 in major cities), the fees can eclipse the cost of the food itself. What started as a $20 pad thai can easily end up costing $30-$35 delivered. In Sydney or Melbourne, those fees tend to be on the higher side of the range, but even in Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide you’ll shell out a similar ~$5 extra per order on average.
For us Aussies living on tight budgets, this “convenience tax” on food is a real worry. Every $10 in fees is $10 not going toward groceries, rent, or savings. To put it in perspective: Aussies who regularly order takeaway spend about $71 a week on it – around $3,700 a year – and using delivery apps for all of that would add roughly another $1,200 on top in fees. That’s over $5,000 annually drained by takeaway, much of it thanks to delivery mark-ups. In 2025’s cost-of-living crisis, those numbers are confronting.
A Nation Hooked on Home Delivery
Despite the costs, Australia’s appetite for food delivery is huge – and still growing. More than 60% of Australians had used Uber Eats by 2022, with New South Wales and Victoria leading the pack in usage. By 2024, nearly half of Aussies (49%) had ordered food delivery in just the past month. In fact, 68% of consumers were ordering as often or more often than they did the year before, showing that convenience is a hard habit to kick even as budgets tighten.
Who’s tapping “order now” the most? It skews younger – the largest group of users are 25–34-year-olds, who make up over half of Uber Eats’ customer base in Australia. Slightly older millennials (around age 30–39) are spending the most, averaging about $40 per week on food delivery – likely because many are in their prime working years, juggling careers and young kids. Interestingly, Australian mothers have been identified as some of the biggest users of food-delivery apps, with 4 million mums using them in 2023. That makes sense – after a long day of work and wrangling children, the allure of a no-cook, no-cleanup dinner can be irresistible. Gen Z and Millennials have also normalized app-based meals to the point that two-thirds “rely on” food delivery regularly as part of their lifestyle.
Usage isn’t limited to Sydney or Melbourne, either. Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide – all major cities have embraced app delivery culture. In fact, one report found South Australians spend slightly more on delivery apps (about $34 a week on average) than any other state, thanks in part to their penchant for midnight snack orders. And nationwide, Saturday nights around 6pm are peak ordering time– the new takeaway night in Aussie households.
The big players in the market are well known: Uber Eats dominates with around 38% market share as of late 2022, while Menulog and DoorDash make up most of the rest. (Deliveroo exited Australia in 2022, narrowing the field.) Fewer competitors can mean fewer generous promos than in the early days – remember when delivery was subsidised and cheap to hook us in? Those days are gone; now these companies are pushing towards profitability and we’re footing the bill for it.
Yet clearly, we haven’t been scared off. Convenience is a powerful drug – once you’re used to dinner arriving on demand, it’s tough to go back. Even in 2025, with grocery prices soaring and budgets stretched, many people are choosing to cut other expenses before they cut their Uber Eats habit. As a nation, we’ve gotten hooked on the dopamine hit of “ding! your delivery has arrived”– and we’re paying dearly for it.
When Takeaway Eats Your Pay: The Budget Impact
For someone living paycheque to paycheque, the casual $30 or $50 splurge on delivered dinner isn’t so casual – it can throw an entire week’s budget out of whack. Let’s consider a real-world scenario: say a couple in Brisbane orders delivery three times a week – maybe a curry on Monday, pizza on Friday, and burgers on Sunday. With delivery fees and markups, each order for two might cost around $40–$50. Over the week that’s roughly $120-$150, which in a month comes to $500+ on takeaway. That’s $500 that isn’t going to groceries or savings. In fact, $500 could cover a decent chunk of a monthly electricity bill or a week’s groceries for two, but instead it’s being spent on 12 dinners delivered to the door. Over a year, this habit could easily total $6,000 – $7,000.
Now compare: if the same couple cooked those three dinners at home, they might spend perhaps $60–$80/week on ingredients (even less if they meal plan carefully). Cooking at home can easily cost a quarter of what delivery does, so our Brisbane duo could save on the order of $4,000+ per year by limiting deliveries. That amount of money is life-changing for someone on a lower income – it could be the difference between sinking deeper into debt versus finally starting an emergency fund.
It’s not just hypothetical. Surveys show Australians’ takeaway habits add up. On average, regular users spend ~$3.7k a year on takeout, and as mentioned, using apps for it could push that near $5k after fees. To someone earning, say, $50k a year (just under the median full-time income), that’s around 10% of their pre-tax salary blown on takeaway. Little wonder many are finding there’s nothing left to save at month’s end.
We’ve all heard extreme stories too – like the young Aussie who discovered he’d spent $14,000 on Uber Eats in under a year. He shrugged it off as “zero regrets,” but for most of us that kind of spending is simply unsustainable. If you’re not a high-earner, treating app deliveries as a routine instead of a treat can quietly cannibalise your budget. It’s the classic latte factor on steroids: instead of a daily $4 coffee, it’s a $40 dinner a few times a week – and in a few months you’re wondering why you’re short on rent or behind on bills.
None of this is to guilt-trip anyone – we all value convenience, and time is money too. But it’s important to see the big picture of how these apps affect our finances. Many Aussies are effectively financing their Uber Eats habit by cutting into savings or putting expenses on credit. If you find yourself juggling bills, or using Buy Now Pay Later and wage advances to get through the month, it’s a sign that food delivery might be eating into more than just your food budget.
Smart Ways to Save on Delivery (Without Going Cold Turkey)
So, you’re not ready to delete the apps and start cooking every meal – fair enough. The good news is you can have your takeaway and eat it too, with a few savvy strategies to rein in the costs:
- Embrace Pick-Up and Ditch the Fees: The simplest way to save is to order on the app but pick it up yourself. Most platforms let you do this, skipping the delivery fee entirely. You’ll also often avoid the inflated “delivery” menu prices. That Fishbowl poke bowl example shows a $12+ saving just for taking a short walk to pick up the order. If a restaurant is close by (or on your commute home), be your own rider – you get the same food, $0 in extra fees, and maybe a little exercise to boot.
- Leverage Subscription Deals: If you’re ordering more than a couple of times a month, consider the membership programs. Uber One costs about $9.99 a month in Australia and gets you $0 delivery fees (and small discounts) on many Uber Eats orders, plus perks on Uber rides. DoorDash has DashPass for a similar price – but here’s a hot tip: Amazon Prime members get 24 months of DashPass free as a perk in Australia. (Since Prime itself is ~$7/month, that’s a steal if you already use Amazon.) These subscriptions pay for themselves if you order food even a few times per month. Just be sure to cancel if you stop using it, so the monthly fee doesn’t become yet another sunk cost.
- Hunt for Discounts and Loyalty Perks: Make it a rule to never order at full price if you can help it. The apps regularly have promo codes, specials or free delivery offers – keep an eye on promotional emails, in-app banners, or websites like OzBargain for coupon codes. Many Aussies are doing this – roughly half of food app users actively look for promos or discounts before ordering. Also, check if your favourite restaurants have loyalty programs or offer discounts for ordering direct. Some chains give 10% off for pickup orders via their own app or will throw in a free drink for loyalty members. And don’t forget referral credits – if your mates haven’t tried an app, refer them so you both get a bonus (just don’t rope all your friends into a spending habit they can’t afford!).
- Time Your Treats: If you can be flexible, try to order outside peak times. In busy periods (like Friday night 6-7pm), delivery fees can surge or restaurants might disable cheaper deals. Some platforms, like Menulog, have offered $1.99 delivery in off-peak times to drum up business. While that specific offer might come and go, it illustrates the idea: a 9pm dinner or a mid-afternoon lunch might come with lower fees (or at least shorter waits) than the big dinner rush. Late-night cravings in particular can be pricey (and we make poorer spending choices when tired), so if you can plan ahead to have some snacks at home, you won’t be at the mercy of midnight surcharges.
- Bundle and Save: Because delivery fees are often flat, it’s more cost-effective to order in groups or larger batches. If you and your housemates or neighbours are all likely to order separately, consider combining orders into one (most apps allow adding multiple restaurants in one delivery now, or you can simply transfer cash to each other after one person orders everything together). One $5 fee for one big order is better than three $5 fees on three small orders. And leftovers are your friend – ordering a bit extra and stretching it into next day’s lunch means you paid one delivery fee for two meals.
- Try Meal Subscription Services: For frequent users, an alternate route to convenience is meal kits or ready-meal subscriptions. These aren’t “takeaway” in the traditional sense, but they hit a similar convenience note by saving you grocery trips and meal planning. Services like HelloFresh, Marley Spoon (meal kits) or YouFoodz, Lite n’ Easy (prepared meals) deliver to your door weekly. They still cost more than cooking from scratch, but come out cheaper per meal than Uber Eats. For example, HelloFresh kits average about $11 per serving, which is half or less the price of an average delivered restaurant meal. You’ll invest a bit of time cooking (meal kits usually take 20-30 minutes to cook), but it can dramatically cut your spending while still offering variety and convenience on weeknights. Think of it as meeting in the middle – you get fresh, home-cooked dinners without having to brainstorm recipes or shop for ingredients, and you’ll pay far less than delivery (meal kits also help you avoid the trap of expensive impulse add-ons like that $6 bottle of Coke or $8 delivery dessert).
- Set a “Delivery Budget” and Track It: Sometimes just being aware is half the battle. Decide how much you’re comfortable spending on takeout in a month – say, $100 – and make it visible. You can use a simple note in your phone, a spreadsheet, or a budgeting app to track each order. Many banking apps now auto-categorise food delivery spend; check yours to see last month’s total. The number might shock you into trimming down! If willpower is an issue, pre-load your account with a set amount (like buy a $100 Uber gift card for the month – by the way, you can get gift cards for this purpose using PressPay Shop, many from 0% fees) – when it’s used up, it’s home cooking until next month.
Finally, if you do slip up and find yourself financially stretched, consider using smart tools rather than high-interest credit to get by. For example, PressPay is a service that gives you early access to a portion of your paycheck when you need it, helping smooth out cash flow without the nasties of credit cards or payday loans. It can act as a safety net if you’re caught short by an unexpectedly spendy month of takeouts. But remember, any wage advance or budgeting tool is just a temporary fix – if you’re constantly relying on it, that’s a sign to re-evaluate expenses (like food delivery) and perhaps set stricter limits. PressPay or similar tools are best used as support to help budget better, not an excuse to order $30 nachos on a Wednesday when you really shouldn’t.
When Paying for Convenience Does Make Sense
All that said, we shouldn’t ignore that sometimes food delivery is worth every cent. Life can throw curveballs, and in certain situations paying extra for a hot meal brought to your door is practically a necessity. For many people, time is as valuable as money – and delivery buys time.
Think about shift workers like nurses, paramedics, or hospitality staff who get home at 11pm exhausted – the kitchen is the last thing on their mind. A $25 delivered dinner after a 12-hour shift might be money very well spent to maintain their sanity and energy. Or consider new parents with a newborn: they’re sleep-deprived, barely finding time to shower, let alone cook. In those early weeks, tapping an app for dinner can be a godsend (and far cheaper than hiring a nanny or ordering Uber Eats and a babysitter to watch the baby while you cook!).
For carers and people with disabilities or illness, food delivery can be more than a convenience – it’s an essential service. If you’re looking after an elderly parent 24/7 or you’re recovering from surgery and can’t drive, having a meal come to you is worth the premium. It can help avoid physical strain or the risk of injury from going out. The same goes for those who don’t have transport readily available – if the choice is a $20 round-trip Uber ride to pick up food or paying $5 for delivery, the delivery fee suddenly looks pretty reasonable.
Even from a time-value perspective, if ordering in allows you to spend an extra hour on freelance work, studies, or with your family, that hour might be “worth” more to you than the $10 extra you paid. We all have different priorities, and it’s important to acknowledge that convenience has a legitimate value. The trouble comes when we start using delivery by default, rather than reserving it for when it truly adds value to our lives.
A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself: “Am I ordering in for a good reason, or just out of habit?” If a good reason exists – you’re utterly knackered, you’re unwell, it’s a special treat night, or maybe you’d spend more in petrol and parking to pick it up anyway – then enjoy that guilt-free takeaway. But if it’s just laziness or routine, consider saving the delivery splurge for when it will really deliver (pun intended) meaningful benefit to you.
Balancing Convenience and Cost: The Bottom Line
Food delivery apps have become embedded in our daily lives in 2025, offering unparalleled convenience at a time when many of us feel time-poor and stretched thin. But as an experienced financial commentator might put it: “Those Uber Eats dinners are eating your lunch.” The challenge for everyday Australians, especially those on tight budgets, is to balance the instant gratification of a delivered meal with the longer-term goals of financial well-being.
The data is clear that convenience comes at a cost, often a steep one. Yet with mindful use, strategic saving tactics, and a bit of self-discipline, you can enjoy the best of both worlds – the occasional pad thai on the couch and a healthier bank balance. It’s about making food delivery a conscious choice rather than a mindless habit.
Next time you’re hovering over that “Place Order” button, take a moment to tally the true cost. Is it worth it to you in that moment? If yes, then bon appétit – no judgement. If not, maybe cook up a quick stir-fry from the fridge and pocket the savings. Your future self (the one who checks the bank statement) will thank you.
In the end, financial wellness is about aligning your spending with what you truly value. If you value the occasional convenience of food delivery, enjoy it wisely and within your means. Use the tips and tricks – from pickup orders to subscriptions and meal kits – to minimise the damage to your wallet. By staying informed (now you know what that burger and chips really costs delivered) and being a bit crafty, you can keep living your modern life and keep the lights on.
The odd delivery won’t break the bank, but making it a thrice-weekly ritual just might. Treat it as a luxury, budget for it, and savour it when you do splurge. And for everything else, there’s the trusty frying pan in your kitchen – far cheaper and never charges a service fee. Bon appétit, and happy budgeting!
Sources
- aboutamazon.com.au, au.finance.yahoo.com, delicious.com.au, deliverect.com, forbes.com, internetretailing.com.au, mealpicks.com.au, menulog.com.au, uber.com
