Cost per person per day for any shared trip, event, or household total.

A 3,200 family holiday for 4 people over 7 days is 114 per head per day. Compared to eating out at 30 per person per day at home, you're paying 84 more per head for the holiday experience — a useful reframe for deciding if a week of premium accommodation is worth it vs two cheaper weeks.

What the result means

Primary is cost per head per day. Secondary shows per head total, per day total (across all heads), and the full total. Useful for comparing cost structures — hotel vs Airbnb, guided vs self-led trips, home vs restaurant catering.

Why this unit works

£/head/day normalises across party size and trip length. A two-person weekend at 500 is 125/head/day; a family of four for a week at 3,200 is 114/head/day. The units match and can be compared directly, which aggregate numbers can't.

Quick example

With total cost of 3,200 and number of people of 4 (plus number of days of 7), the result is 114.29. 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 Cost, Number of People, and Number of Days. Not every input has equal weight. Flip one at a time toward extreme values to feel which ones move the needle most for your situation.

What's happening under the hood

Total divided by the product of people and days. Does not weight by age or role — a toddler counts as a person the same as an adult. For more nuanced splits, do them manually before entering. 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.