At-home Pizza Nights Can Rescue Family Budgets in 2025

A leading UK pizza pioneer believes UK families need to approach this year’s National Pizza Day on February 9 with a new mindset, really doing the sums and working out how best to slice up their household budget in the year ahead.

With extra cost pressures, such as increased mortgages, household budgets may start to prevent the weekly trip to the pizzeria.  In the hospitality sector, businesses have their own issues, such as higher food and energy costs, not to mention a much-increased wage bill since the October budget.  All is driving up prices on the menu.

For this reason, pizza oven champion, Orchard Ovens, says National Pizza Day should be an opportunity for families to reflect and start to look at pizza night in a different way.

The company that first brought pizza ovens to the UK says families could be leveraging huge benefits from staging their own pizza nights at home, serving up gourmet pizza from their own gardens or other outdoor space.

By investing in their own oven, a family of four could save a considerable sum of money every time pizza night comes around.  The average cost of a pizza in a UK eatery is around £14 per person, so £56, for food alone, on every purchase of a bought-in restaurant pizza.  Going out for a meal incurs other expenses too, on drinks, transport and other ‘extras’.  Even at a conservative estimate, it is likely to tot up to £20 per head.

Put this towards the cost of a pizza oven and it would only take the family 15-20 pizza nights to cover the costs, including food.  From there on, they are quids in, saving money every single time they cook up pizza.

But that’s where they need to get savvy.  Many of the ovens available on the market are not built to last, being constructed of inferior materials that an Italian family would not dream of using in a pizza oven.  Orchard Ovens has long championed best-in-class Tuscan pizza ovens from Valoriani, because they are built to last 20 years or more.  Many other available ovens have been shown to last between just six and 18 months.

One of Valoriani’s Fornino ovens could easily be paid for in a year by a family of four that typically enjoys a regular pizza night out a couple of times a month. With their own pizza oven, they would not need to settle at just one pizza, if they wanted more.  They could also invite family members round and feed them for very little more cost. 

But a Fornino oven is best in class and Orchard Ovens wants to make pizza night payback much quicker.  So, it has taken the key element of the Valoriani oven – the oven floor - and incorporated it into a new oven that will deliver both longevity AND quick family pizza night financial payback.

Its new Fornino 50 oven comes at a price of £1299, meaning a family of four only need use it around 20 times, to have paid for their at-home asset.  From there on in, they can save huge amounts on their favourite food, for the long lifetime of this oven.  After all, a pizza costs very little to make, requiring just flour, water, a little bit of yeast, a sauce and a topping.

Having the Valoriani floor is a massive differentiator from any other ovens priced within this sort of price bracket.  But there is more.   Because not every pizza night can be outdoors, given the British weather, Orchard Ovens has made the top-quality floor removable, so it can be used within an indoor oven, if things need to move inside.

This should become a real game-changer for families who don’t want to give up the fun of pizza night but just evolve it.  Utilising this opportunity, mums and dads can make sure that the family can continue to eat together, but have enormous fun in the process, with all getting involved in the pizza-making and cooking process.  They can help their kids cement friendships by inviting those ‘new best friends’ round.  They can keep their kids off the streets and safe at home, by giving them something entertaining to do instead.  They can bond the family and social network circle over pizza, as Italian families have done for centuries.

“Cooking a pizza the wood-fired way is engaging, fun and able to deliver a real sense of accomplishment – something you don’t get by just having pizza served up on a plate.  Yes, it requires a bit of effort but it’s definitely a year to focus on the savings, not have kids feeling shortchanged by not going out to eat. It’s a time to view pizza night differently,” says Orchard Ovens’ managing director, Andrew Manciocchi.

“I introduced pizza ovens to the UK well over 20 years ago, so families could have this experience.  The growth in eating out has deterred some from enjoying home-cooked woodfired pizza and others have had their fingers burned by investing in sub-standard pizza ovens that just don’t last.  The time for the at-home pizza night experience, cooked outdoors and with heaps of family fun, seems to be now.  The time has finally come.”

To grab your oven that can help you to start paving the way to pizza night savings, call Orchard Ovens on 07743 847647. 

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Editors notes

Orchard Ovens is the domestic and commercial pizza oven supplier in the UK of Valoriani, based in Reggello, Tuscany - the manufacturer of Italy's hugely respected Valoriani pizza ovens, known as the Maserati of pizza ovens and the kings of clay. These ovens are made from superb refractory clay - cotto clay - found in the family's quarry and unique, thanks to having just the right alumina. This allows Valoriani ovens to heat up quickly and retain heat superbly, bring huge advantages to homeowners, as well as restaurant owners, hotels, pubs, mobile caterers, pizzerias, takeaways and more.

Orchard Ovens supplies some of Britain's best-known restaurants and chefs, whilst it is also a specialist creator of outdoor kitchens and wood-fired oven builds for the rich and famous, as well as everyday homeowners wishing to add value to their home and enjoy an outdoor lifestyle to the full.