When it comes to cooking at home vs. eating out, everyone says home cooking is cheaper, and most of the time that’s true. But “cheaper” isn’t much help when you’re tired at 6 p.m. and the delivery app is right there.
A real number is more convincing. Menu prices, delivery fees and tips have all crept up, so it’s worth ten minutes to find out what takeout actually costs your family and what the same kind of dinner costs from your own kitchen.
This post walks through a simple way to compare the two using your own prices, plus a few ways to make the home-cooked option the easy one.
What Takeout Really Costs
The menu price is only the start. To get the real cost of a takeout or delivery dinner, add up:
- The menu price of everything you ordered, including drinks and sides
- Tax
- Delivery and service fees, if it was delivered
- The tip
Pull up your last order confirmation or receipt and total it. Then divide by the number of people who ate. That’s your takeout cost per serving, and it’s usually higher than you remember.
What a Home-Cooked Dinner Really Costs
Now do the same for a dinner you cook.
- List the ingredients in the recipe.
- Price the amount you use, not the whole package. Divide the package price by the amount in it, then multiply by what the recipe calls for. If a 2-pound bag of rice costs $3 and you use half a pound, the rice costs 75 cents.
- Add a small allowance for the basics like oil, salt and spices. Fifty cents a recipe is plenty for most dinners.
- Add it up and divide by the number of servings.
Be fair to both sides and count what gets thrown away. If a recipe needs half a bunch of cilantro and the rest ends up in the trash, the whole bunch belongs to that dinner. (Here are 12 ways to waste less food.)
A Worked Example
Here’s how the comparison might look. These numbers are made up to show the math, so plug in your own.
| Takeout | Home-cooked | |
|---|---|---|
| Food or ingredients | $44.00 | $13.50 |
| Tax | $3.50 | included |
| Delivery and service fees | $7.00 | $0 |
| Tip | $8.00 | $0 |
| Total | $62.50 | $13.50 |
| Servings | 4 | 6 |
| Cost per serving | $15.63 | $2.25 |
In this example the home-cooked dinner costs about $13 less per serving, and there are two servings left over for lunch. Swap one takeout night a week for a home-cooked one at these numbers and a family of four keeps roughly $53 a week.
Your numbers will be different. The point is to see them.
Free Printable Worksheet
Want to run your own numbers? This free two-page worksheet walks you through all three steps: your takeout order, your home-cooked dinner and the comparison. Print it, or type straight into the blanks on a computer.
Cooking at Home vs. Takeout Worksheet
Two pages, with a worked example and room to track the dinners you order most. Free, with no sign-up needed.
See all of our free printables.
Don’t Forget Your Time
Money isn’t the only cost. Cooking takes time and energy, and some nights takeout is worth every dollar. The goal isn’t to never order in. It’s to order in on purpose.
So compare honestly. A dinner that takes 20 minutes is a fair match for the wait on a delivery order. A recipe with an hour of chopping on a Tuesday night is not.
Home Versions of Takeout Favorites
- Pizza night: Homemade Pizza or Sheet Pan Pizza.
- Chinese takeout: Veggie Fried Rice, Quick Honey Soy Chicken Stir Fry or Egg Roll in a Bowl.
- Tacos and burrito bowls: 20-Minute Taco Rice Bowls or Baked Chicken Tacos.
- Pasta: 5-Ingredient Pesto Pasta or One-Pot Creamy Garlic Parmesan Pasta.
- Chicken and rice bowls: Rotisserie Chicken Rice Bowls.
How to Make Cooking the Easy Choice
- Keep three emergency dinners in the house. Pasta and a jar of sauce, eggs and tortillas, rice and a can of beans. Our 15 lazy dinner ideas are made for these nights.
- Stock the freezer. A homemade freezer meal is the closest thing to takeout you already own. Start with the best freezer meals to make ahead.
- Plan takeout into the budget. One planned night out or in costs less than three unplanned ones. See how to set a weekly grocery budget.
- Do a little prep on the weekend. Cooked rice and chopped vegetables in the fridge take most of the work out of a weeknight.
- Cook double. Tomorrow’s dinner is already made.
Cooking at Home vs. Eating Out: Your Questions
Is cooking at home always cheaper?
Usually, but not always. A recipe that needs several ingredients you’ll only use once can cost more than an inexpensive meal out. That’s why the cost per serving is worth checking.
Are meal kits cheaper than takeout?
Run the same math. Divide the full price of the box, including shipping, by the number of servings you actually eat.
What about fast food value meals?
Use the same worksheet, and include everyone’s drinks and sides. A value meal for one is cheap. Four of them often isn’t.
The Short Version
Total a real takeout receipt, price out a dinner you like to cook and compare the cost per serving. Once you’ve seen your own numbers, it’s a lot easier to decide which nights takeout is worth it. The free worksheet has a spot for every number.
This post shares general budgeting information, not personal financial advice.
More money-saving reads: How Much Should a Family of 4 Spend on Groceries? and How to Set a Weekly Grocery Budget.
