About the Cooking vs Eating Out Calculator
This cooking vs eating out calculator puts a number on a choice most people make several times a week. Enter how many meals you currently eat out or order in, the average price per meal, and the tip, delivery and service fees you usually add. Then enter what a comparable home-cooked meal costs per serving and how many restaurant meals you would like to swap for cooking.
The calculator shows the true cost of each meal out, how much you save per swapped meal, and the savings per week, month and year. Because small weekly savings add up, it also shows what those monthly savings would grow to if you invested them for a number of years at a return you choose.
Price meals on a per-person basis and be honest about home costs: include the groceries for the whole dish, not just the main ingredient. The calculator ignores the value of your time, so weigh the result against the cooking and cleanup time you are taking on.
With the default inputs, the yearly savings from cooking is $3,130.40. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the cooking vs eating out calculator
- 1Enter how many meals you eat out or order in each week.
- 2Enter the typical menu price per person and your usual tip and fee percentage.
- 3Estimate the cost per serving of a similar meal cooked at home.
- 4Choose how many of those meals you will swap for cooking.
- 5Read the yearly savings and what they could grow to if invested.
Formula and method
The true cost of a meal out is the menu price plus tips, delivery charges and service fees. The saving on each swapped meal is that true cost minus the cost of a comparable home-cooked serving. Multiplying by the number of meals swapped each week and by 52 weeks gives the yearly saving; dividing by 12 gives the monthly saving.
The “if invested” figure treats the monthly saving (M) as a deposit at the end of each month, compounding monthly at r = yearly return ÷ 12 for n = years × 12 months. It is an illustration, not a forecast — actual investment returns vary and are not guaranteed.
- M
- Monthly savings deposited
- r
- Monthly return (yearly return ÷ 12)
- n
- Number of months invested
Worked examples
Swap 4 of 6 weekly meals out for home cooking
A $17 meal plus 15% tips and fees really costs $19.55, versus $4.50 at home — $15.05 saved per meal. Swapping four meals a week saves $60.20 weekly or $3,130.40 a year. Investing the $260.87 monthly saving at 6% for 10 years grows to roughly $42,751.
Takeout lunch every workday swapped for packed lunch
Each $14 lunch with 10% extras is $15.40, or $11.90 more than a $3.50 packed lunch. Five lunches a week saves $59.50, about $3,094 a year. Invested at 5% for five years, $257.83 a month grows to about $17,534.
Couple cutting delivery dinners from 4 to 2 a week (per person)
Delivery fees and tips of 25% push a $22 dinner to $27.50 per person. Cooking two of those dinners saves $21.50 each, or $43 a week and $2,236 a year per person. At 7% for 20 years, the monthly saving could grow to about $97,066.
Frequently asked questions
How much cheaper is cooking at home than eating out?+
It depends on what you cook and where you eat, but the gap is usually large: with this calculator’s defaults, a $17 meal plus 15% tip and fees costs $19.55 against $4.50 for a home-cooked serving, so cooking costs less than a quarter as much. The gap is widest for delivery apps, where delivery charges, service fees and tips stack on top of menu prices that are often marked up.
How do I estimate the cost per serving of a home-cooked meal?+
Add up the grocery cost of every ingredient used in the recipe — including oil, spices and sides — and divide by the number of servings. For pantry staples, use the share of the package you actually used rather than the whole price.
Should I include tips and delivery fees?+
Yes. Tips, delivery charges, service fees and app markups are part of what a meal out really costs. Leaving them out understates the saving, especially for food delivery, where menu prices are often higher than in the restaurant itself.
Is the invested amount guaranteed?+
No. It assumes a steady average return compounded monthly, which real investments do not deliver. It is meant to show the long-term opportunity cost of a habit, not to predict what a particular account will earn.