Cost per plate when cooking at home — ingredients, energy, and per-portion math.

8 of ingredients plus 0.50 of energy for 4 portions is 2.13 per plate. A takeaway equivalent at 12 per plate is 9.87 more per serving. Over 100 home-cooked meals versus takeaway that's 987 saved a year — a meaningful slice of most households' disposable income.

How to use it

Enter the total ingredient cost for the recipe, cooking energy cost (usually 30p-1 for most dishes), number of portions the recipe yields, and a takeaway equivalent price per plate.

What the result means

Primary is home cost per plate. Secondary shows takeaway comparison per plate, savings per meal, and implied annual savings if this meal replaced takeaway 3 times a week.

Why include energy?

An electric oven running for an hour costs roughly 20-40p. Stovetop gas is less, electric hob more. Ignoring it understates the true cost, particularly for slow cooking and baking. For most stir-fry or pan dishes, 30-50p is a reasonable estimate.

Quick example

With total ingredient cost of 8 and energy cost to cook of 0.5 (plus number of portions of 4 and takeaway price per plate of 12), the result is 2.13. Change any figure and watch the output shift — it's often more useful to see the pattern than to memorise the formula.

Which inputs matter most

You enter Total Ingredient Cost, Energy Cost to Cook, Number of Portions, and Takeaway Price Per Plate. Frequency and unit price pull the total in different directions. The biggest surprise for most people is how small recurring amounts compound into large annual figures — that's where this calculation earns its keep.

What's happening under the hood

Cost per plate equals (ingredients + energy) divided by portions. Takeaway comparison is user-supplied. Annual savings figure assumes 3 replacements per week for 52 weeks — a rough but illustrative extrapolation. The formula is listed in full below. If the number looks off, you can retrace the calculation by hand — that's the point of showing the working.

Making this stick

The number the tool produces is only useful if you act on it. The simplest habit that works: automate the savings transfer on payday, then spend what's left. Everyone who's told you "pay yourself first" was right; the math here is what makes the first number concrete.

What this doesn't capture

Budgets are snapshots of intent. Real spending includes irregular costs: birthdays, one-off repairs, the occasional bad week. Tracking actual spending for a month before fixing any budget usually reveals 10–20% that didn't make the original plan.