Cheapskate confessions: Never had home delivered food… until

Growing up, I never had home delivered food. It was an unnecessary and expensive luxury.

In fact, we rarely had takeaway or restaurant meals at all.

I remember having the very rare privilege of a Happy Meal from McDonald’s as a young kid. However, a memory that stands out was having an all you can eat lunch from Pizza Hut with my mum during the time of the Dinosaurs TV show in the early 90s (that intro hasn’t aged well!). I remember getting a couple of rubber hand puppets from there, and a whole lot of soft-serve ice cream.

As a family we only ever went to a restaurant for somebody’s birthday once or twice a year. And after my dad became ill and my mum quit her job to look after him and work from home, that pretty much dried up as well.

So I always knew the value of money and had it drummed into me from a young age that home delivery was a waste. After all, if the company can afford to charge you for the fuel, the time of a delivery driver, and still make a profit, you’re better off at the very least picking it up yourself. And best of all, you’re financially better off making food yourself.

So in this age of Uber Eats, Menulog, Deliveroo and heavens knows what other food delivery apps, I still found myself without ever having had home delivered food my entire life. How’s that for being a cheapskate?

At least, that was the case until I got an email from Uber Eats last year…

Getting crafty

I had to install the Uber taxi app on my work phone due to work travel trips. (I have to say, Uber beats regular Australian taxis hands-down in every way apart from airport pick-ups.)

But I soon started to get spam email in my inbox with offers for Uber Eats, trying to make me use that service as well.

The offers started out small. $5 off your first order. Yawn — don’t they know how I roll? I’m somebody who brings food from home with me to eat on the way to lunch out with work colleagues!

A couple of weeks later they offered free delivery on my first order. Yeah — but the food is expensive to begin with — I’m still being ripped off.