Meal Cost Calculator

Add the cost of the ingredients actually used and divide by servings. The word that matters is 'used' — a recipe needing 100 g from a 500 g pack costs a fifth of the pack, not all of it.

For a comparison against a takeaway it is worth a rough allowance — an hour in an electric oven is meaningful. For comparing recipes against each other it usually cancels out.

By the share used. A tablespoon of oil from a litre bottle is under 2% of the bottle. Costing it as the whole bottle is the most common reason a home-cooked meal appears to cost more than a restaurant.

Per serving, almost always by a wide margin. Per hour of your time it is a different question, and for a single person cooking one portion the gap narrows considerably.

Add a percentage to the ingredient total — households routinely waste a meaningful share of what they buy. Ignoring it makes home cooking look cheaper than it is.

Commonly at a target food cost percentage of the menu price, which is why the ingredient cost of a restaurant meal is a small fraction of what you pay. The rest is labour, rent and everything else in the building.

The ingredient cost as a share of the menu price, commonly targeted in the high twenties to low thirties. The remainder covers labour, rent, utilities and margin, which is why a restaurant meal costs several times its ingredients.

Price each ingredient by the portion used rather than the pack, using the unit price. It takes longer the first time and the numbers are reusable across every recipe afterwards.

Usually, through larger pack sizes with lower unit prices and less waste. It also removes the tired-weeknight takeaway decision, which is often the larger saving.

It varies enormously with the ingredients, which is why this calculates it rather than quoting a figure. What is consistent is that it comes in far below the equivalent restaurant or delivery price.

For a financial comparison, no — you are not paid for it either way. For a decision about whether to cook on a particular evening, it is the main input, and it is a fair reason to choose otherwise.

Shift the ratio towards cheaper ingredients — more vegetables and pulses, less meat — buy in season, and use the whole ingredient. Stock from bones and a soup from vegetable ends are the classic cases.