Live Well for Less #1 : Takeaways

There are plenty of ways you can save money every week without having to resort to bread and water, and hairshirts. As with diets, exercise regimes and any new year's resolutions, if you are unrealistically harsh with your penny pinching methods, it's unlikely you'll stick to your new-found frugality for more than a week or two. In this series, I am sharing with Mumtopia readers some of the ways our family lives well for less. Everyone has a different idea as to what constitutes a luxury, of course; feel free to add your own frugal treats and tips in the comments below.

There's nothing I like more on a Friday night than falling asleep in front of Inspector Morse with a pizza on my lap, but those days are a distant memory. We've since become parents/ healthier/ more broke, so takeaways aren't often an option, but How to Cook Your Favourite Takeaways at Home (Carolyn Humphries, £9.99, How to Books) has been a real money - and waistline - saver. The only thing I would change are the black-and-white photos, which make everything look a little school dinner-ish, but the recipes are easy to follow and there are lots of tips about kitchen hygiene, stocking your store cupboard and how to cut corners to speed things up.

Humphries points out, "When you fancy a curry, Chinese, pizza or good old fish and chips, nothing else will do,"; this recipe book, which is full of easy-to-make, great-tasting versions of everyone's favourite fast foods, is a brilliant resource for satisfying our bad-to-the-bone tastebuds, whilst saving us money and calorific intake. 

From the simplest side dish such as Golden Oven Wedges, to more adventurous Mixed Sushi, and Tandoori Chicken with Baked Vegetable Pilau, you could easily several weeks' worth of fresh, well-balanced meals for your family based on their favourite fast food dishes, guilt-free. I am particularly keen to try the What's In My Fridge Stuffed Pizza. "Most of the dishes are freezable too," says Humphries, "so with one lot of preparation, you will always be ready to grab a takeaway whenever the mood takes you."