May 16, 2026
From late-night sushi cravings to $40 burrito bowls, food delivery apps have made it easier than ever to outsource dinner. But as delivery fees, service charges and inflated menu prices stack up, some couples are realizing convenience can come with a high price tag.
That's exactly what one New York physician assistant says happened in her marriage. Writing into a personal finance column for The Cut (1), the woman revealed she and her husband are sitting on roughly $20,000 in credit card debt from their wedding and she says his DoorDash habit is making it even harder to climb out.
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"We were on the same page about our budget, in theory, but in practice it's almost like he forgot how money works," she wrote.
By her estimate, her husband spends anywhere from $200 to $400 a week ordering delivery, often multiple times a day. Living in New York City, where a single takeout order can easily climb to $40 or $50 after fees and tips, she says the costs have spiraled quickly.
"He says he doesn't have time to cook and that ordering food is his only 'vice," she wrote.
When one spouse pays more toward shared debt
For this New Yorker, the frustration isn't only about what's showing up on the credit card statement, it's about what's showing up every evening at the front door. While she packs her lunch each day and looks for small ways to cut costs, she says her husband's relationship with food delivery feels harder to shake. She suggested he try bringing lunch from home too. He gave it a shot, briefly, then slipped back into old habits.
The couple keeps separate finances, splitting rent and other shared expenses, but the debt lingering from their wedding has become a growing source of tension.
"It's not my responsibility to tell him what to eat or how much to spend on it. But it is our responsibility to pay off this debt, and so far he has contributed much less than I have," she wrote.
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The conflict isn't entirely black and white. She describes her husband as generous, the kind of partner who always asks whether she wants something added to the order. But generosity, she suggests, starts to feel different when it's competing with mounting interest charges. She says she's contributed roughly $5,000 toward paying down their debt, while her husband has put in closer to $2,000. Their original goal was ambitious: each putting $1,000 a month toward the balance in hopes of getting rid of it as quickly as possible.
And they're hardly alone in treating delivery less like a splurge and more like a utility bill. According to the National Restaurant Association (2), 51% of Americans say takeout and delivery have become an "essential" part of their lifestyle. That attachment appears even stronger among younger generations, with 67% of Gen Z and 64% of Millennials saying the same.
DoorDash (3) data found customers earning under $75,000 spent an average of about $31 per order in 2023 and ordered delivery more frequently, compared to roughly $39 per order among higher-income households.
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The math behind takeout
Even if delivery fatigue has become a familiar modern complaint, that doesn't make it any less frustrating when the charges keep piling up, especially when one person feels like they're carrying more of the financial weight.
Experts say creating boundaries around takeout can help before occasional orders turn into routine spending. Bill Shafransky, a senior wealth adviser at Moneco Advisors (4), told MarketWatch that one approach is treating delivery as an occasional reward rather than an everyday convenience.
"I politely press back on clients who tell me they don't have time to cook," Shafransky said (5). "There are other options out there that don't come with restaurant prices, demand surcharges, delivery fees and tip."
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At Trader Joe's (6), a frozen pepperoni pizza costs $5.99. Meanwhile, in New York City, the average price (7) of a one-topping pizza has climbed to $33.65.
The gap may only grow wider. According to the USDA (8), food-away-from-home prices are expected to rise another 3.6% in 2026, compared to a projected 2.4% increase in grocery prices, continuing the trend of restaurant costs outpacing food-at-home inflation.
For couples who find themselves in situations like this, the answer may not be deleting delivery apps altogether, but becoming more intentional about how often they rely on them.
Setting a monthly takeout budget, alternating who cooks during the week or keeping quick, low-effort meals on hand can help reduce the temptation to default to delivery after a long day. Meal prepping lunches or turning dinner into an at-home date night can do more than reduce spending, it can help couples feel like they're working toward the same future again.
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
The Cut (1); National Restaurant Association (2); DoorDash (3); Moneco Advisors (4); MarketWatch (5); Trader Joe's (6); Fox 5 New York (7); U.S. Department of Agriculture (8)
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Victoria Vesovski is a Toronto-based staff reporter at Moneywise covering personal finance, lifestyle and trending news. She holds degrees from the University of Toronto and New York University, and her work has appeared on platforms including Yahoo Finance, MSN Money and Apple News.
