Meal Prep vs Eating Out Cost Calculator

How this meal prep vs eating out calculator works

Cooking at home often feels cheaper than eating out, but the true comparison is more nuanced. You pay for ingredients, but you also invest your time planning, shopping, cooking, and cleaning. Eating out skips most of that effort, but restaurant prices and tips add up quickly. This calculator brings those pieces together so you can estimate which option actually costs you more over a typical week.

The tool focuses on a simple scenario: the same number of meals either cooked at home (meal prep) or eaten out. By entering a few key inputs, it calculates the total weekly cost for each option and the difference between them. That difference tells you how much you are effectively paying (or saving) for the convenience of restaurant meals compared with doing your own meal prep.

Who this calculator is for

This calculator is designed for people who want to understand the financial trade-off between cooking and dining out. Typical use cases include:

• Comparing your current routine (for example, mostly eating out) with a new plan to cook more meals at home.
• Evaluating whether meal prepping on weekends is worth the time compared with grabbing takeout or eating at restaurants during the week.
• Estimating cost differences when your income or schedule changes (for example, a new job with longer hours that makes cooking feel more expensive in terms of time).
• Planning a budget for an upcoming month or year and deciding how many meals you can afford to eat out.

You can revisit the calculator whenever your situation changes—if your hourly wage increases, ingredient prices rise, or your favorite restaurant adjusts its menu prices. A small change in any of these numbers can shift which option is cheaper.

Formulas used in the calculator

The calculator builds two totals:

1. The weekly cost of cooking at home (meal prep).
2. The weekly cost of eating out (restaurant or takeout meals).

It then compares the two and reports the difference. Here is how each total is calculated.

Home cooking (meal prep) cost

Inputs:

• Meals per week (n)
• Ingredient cost per meal (c_i)
• Prep time per meal in minutes (t_p)
• Your time value in dollars per hour (v)

First, convert prep time from minutes to hours:

_p ' = t_p 60

Then calculate:

• Weekly ingredient cost: n × c_i
• Time cost per meal: (t_p ÷ 60) × v
• Weekly time cost: n × (t_p ÷ 60) × v

The total weekly cost of meal prep is:

_h = nc_i + n t_p v 60

Dining out cost

Inputs:

• Meals per week (n)
• Eating out cost per meal (c_o)
• Tip rate as a percentage (r_t)

The tip is treated as a percentage added on top of the base meal price. The cost of one restaurant meal including tip is:

_o × ( 1 + r_t 100 )

The total weekly dining out cost is:

_o = n c_o ( 1 + r_t 100 )

Comparing the two options

The calculator compares the two totals and shows the difference:

_o − C_h

Interpretation:

• If Δ is positive, eating out costs more than cooking at home by that amount per week.
• If Δ is negative, meal prep is more expensive under your assumptions (often because your time is very valuable or your ingredient costs are high).
• If Δ is close to zero, the two options are roughly break-even on cost, so convenience and lifestyle factors may matter more than price.

Worked example

Suppose you enter the following values:

• Meals per week: 14
• Ingredient cost per meal: $4
• Prep time per meal: 30 minutes
• Your time value: $15 per hour
• Eating out cost per meal: $15
• Tip rate: 15%

Step 1: Home cooking cost

Weekly ingredient cost = 14 × $4 = $56

Prep time per meal in hours = 30 ÷ 60 = 0.5 hours

Time cost per meal = 0.5 × $15 = $7.50

Weekly time cost = 14 × $7.50 = $105

Total weekly meal prep cost, C_h = $56 + $105 = $161

Step 2: Dining out cost

Multiplier for tip = 1 + 15 ÷ 100 = 1.15

Cost per restaurant meal with tip = $15 × 1.15 = $17.25

Total weekly dining out cost, C_o = 14 × $17.25 = $241.50

Step 3: Difference

Δ = C_o − C_h = $241.50 − $161 = $80.50

Under these assumptions, cooking at home saves about $80.50 per week compared with eating out for the same number of meals. Over a full year, that is more than $4,000 in potential savings. You can adjust the inputs to see how sensitive that savings is to your time value, ingredient costs, or dining-out habits.

How to interpret your results

When you use the calculator, focus on these ideas:

• Weekly vs. annual impact: A small weekly difference can become large over a year. Multiply the weekly difference by 52 to estimate the annual effect.
• Role of your time value: If you enter a higher hourly value for your time, cooking at home becomes more expensive in the calculation. That reflects the opportunity cost of time you could spend working, resting, or doing something else.
• Price sensitivity: Higher ingredient costs make meal prep more expensive; higher restaurant prices or tip rates make eating out more expensive.
• Break-even scenarios: If the calculator shows a very small difference between the two options, you effectively have a cost tie. In that case, convenience, health, and enjoyment can drive your decision more than money.

You can also use the results to explore “what if” questions:

• What happens if you cut prep time by using simpler recipes or batch cooking?
• How much do you save if you choose slightly cheaper restaurants or reduce your tip rate within your usual tipping norms?
• What if you cook some meals and eat out for others instead of choosing one extreme or the other?

Choosing realistic input values

Your results are only as accurate as the numbers you enter. A few tips for choosing realistic values:

• Meals per week: Count the main meals you want to compare, usually lunches and dinners. You can run a separate calculation for breakfasts or snacks if needed.
• Ingredient cost per meal: Add up your grocery receipts for a typical week, then divide by the number of home-cooked meals that food produces. This often gives a more accurate figure than guessing per-meal costs.
• Prep time per meal: Include chopping, cooking, and cleaning. If you batch cook, divide your total weekly cooking and cleanup time by the number of meals produced.
• Your time value ($/hour): A common starting point is your after-tax hourly wage. You can also use a personal estimate of what an hour of free time is worth to you.
• Eating out cost per meal: Include the base price of a typical meal, not counting tip. You can average a few receipts from your most common restaurants.
• Tip rate (%): Enter the percentage you actually tip most often. If you sometimes order takeout without tipping or use delivery apps with different fees, you can run separate scenarios.

Comparison summary

The table below summarizes how the calculator treats each option.

Limitations and assumptions

This calculator is a simplified model of a complex real-world decision. Keep these assumptions and limitations in mind when you interpret your results:

• Same number of meals: The tool assumes you are comparing the same number of meals cooked at home and eaten out. It does not handle mixed strategies (for example, 50% home-cooked, 50% restaurant) in a single run.
• Consistent meal size and quality: It treats all meals as roughly comparable in size and quality, even though restaurant portions and home-cooked meals can vary.
• Excluded home costs: Utilities (electricity, gas, water), kitchen equipment wear-and-tear, and pantry staples you already own are not included explicitly in the ingredient cost.
• Excluded dining-out extras: Delivery fees, service charges, parking, and transportation to restaurants are not modeled. If these are significant for you, consider adding them into the meal cost per restaurant meal before using the calculator.
• Time value is linear: The tool assumes that each additional minute of cooking has the same value to you. In reality, the first hour of lost free time might feel more costly than later hours.
• Health and enjoyment not included: The calculator focuses purely on financial cost. It does not incorporate potential health benefits of cooking, social aspects of dining out, or how much you enjoy either activity.
• No inflation or price changes over time: When you extrapolate weekly results to a year, the model assumes that ingredient and restaurant prices remain constant, which may not be true.

Because of these limitations, use the calculator as a guide rather than a precise prediction. It can show you the order of magnitude of the trade-off and highlight which levers—time, ingredient costs, or restaurant habits—have the biggest impact on your budget.

Using the results to take action

Once you understand how costs compare, you can decide what to adjust:

• If meal prep is much cheaper, you might plan more home-cooked meals, batch cook on weekends, or invest in tools that reduce prep time.
• If eating out is close in cost or cheaper, that may reflect a very high value of your time, unusual ingredient prices, or specific restaurant deals. You can still choose to cook for health or enjoyment, but you will know that you are not saving substantial money.
• If the difference is moderate, you might adopt a hybrid strategy: cook on less busy days and dine out when your schedule is packed or when socializing matters more.

Experiment with different scenarios until you find a balance of cost, time, and lifestyle that feels right for you.