Meal Cost Per Plate Calculator

How home cooking compares to takeaway, per plate

Home-cooked meals are almost always cheaper per plate than takeaway, but not free — ingredients and the energy used to cook both contribute. A typical four-portion home meal at default values comes out at around 2.13 per plate (in your selected currency), versus a 12 takeaway. Multiplied across the year, that gap is one of the larger structural levers in most household food budgets.

How to use it

Enter the total ingredient cost for the recipe, the cooking energy cost (a small fraction of the ingredient cost for most dishes), the number of portions the recipe yields, and a takeaway equivalent price per plate. The tool returns home cost per plate, savings per meal versus takeaway, and an illustrative annual savings figure if the home meal replaced takeaway three times a week (3 × 52 = 156 meals per year).

What the result means

The primary figure is home cost per plate. The secondary details show the takeaway comparison per plate, savings per meal, and the implied annual savings at three replacements per week. The annual figure scales linearly — at one replacement per week it's a third of that figure; at six it's double.

Why include energy?

Cooking energy is small per meal but not negligible across the year. An hour in an electric oven uses meaningful electricity; stovetop gas is less, an electric hob varies. Ignoring it understates the true cost, particularly for slow cooking and baking. For most stir-fry or pan dishes, the energy cost is a small fraction of the ingredient cost — but it adds up on recipes with long cook times.

Quick example

With ingredient cost of 8 and energy cost of 0.50 across 4 portions, the home cost per plate is 2.13. If the takeaway equivalent is 12, the savings per meal is roughly 9.88, and the annual savings at three replacements per week is around 1,540.50. Adjust any input to see the pattern shift in real time.

Which inputs matter most

The result responds to Total Ingredient Cost, Energy Cost to Cook, and Number of Portions. The Takeaway Price Per Plate doesn't change the home cost — it only changes the savings comparison. Increasing portions has the biggest effect on cost per plate because it sits in the denominator.

What's happening under the hood

Cost per plate equals (ingredients + energy) divided by portions. The takeaway comparison is user-supplied. The annual savings figure assumes 3 replacements per week for 52 weeks — a rough but illustrative extrapolation. The formula is listed in full below.

What this doesn't capture

Time isn't included. Cooking, washing-up, and meal planning take time, and that time has a value that varies by household. Bulk cooking and meal-prep workflows partially offset this, since the per-meal time drops as portions go up. The cost figures here are the cash baseline; the time question is yours to weigh.