★ COMPARISON · FOOD · MEAL COSTS
At 6 meals a week, home cooking costs $1,560.00 a year, meal kits $3,740.88, and delivery $7,332.00. Delivery is not a little more expensive — it is nearly five times the home-cooked ingredient cost, because a $16.00 menu price plus $7.50 of fees and tip becomes a $23.50 meal. Enter your own numbers below.
The menu price is never the meal price. A meal kit charges per serving plus shipping, a delivery app adds a delivery fee, a service fee, inflated menu prices, and a tip, and home cooking charges only ingredients — plus your time. This calculator puts all three on the same weekly, monthly, and yearly footing so the gap, not the sticker, decides.
Weekly cost = meals per week × price per meal. Monthly cost = weekly cost × 52 ÷ 12. Yearly cost = weekly cost × 52. The delivery price per meal is the menu price plus fees and tip ($16.00 + $7.50 = $23.50 at the defaults). Meal-kit shipping is not in the per-serving price: add it to the kit price if your plan charges it — a $10.99 weekly box fee, which would lift the kit year from $3,740.88 to $4,312.36. Home cooking counts ingredients only; it does not price your time, and that is the honest limit of this comparison — see Accuracy below.
Setup: 6 meals a week; kit $11.99 a serving; delivery menu $16.00 plus fees and tip $7.50; home cooking $5.00 a meal.
Line 1 — per meal. Kit $11.99; delivery $16.00 + $7.50 = $23.50; home $5.00.
Line 2 — weekly. 6 × $11.99 = $71.94 (kit); 6 × $23.50 = $141.00 (delivery); 6 × $5.00 = $30.00 (home).
Line 3 — monthly. $71.94 × 52 ÷ 12 = $311.74; $141.00 × 52 ÷ 12 = $611.00; $30.00 × 52 ÷ 12 = $130.00.
Line 4 — yearly. $71.94 × 52 = $3,740.88; $141.00 × 52 = $7,332.00; $30.00 × 52 = $1,560.00.
Line 5 — the gaps. Home cooking saves $3,740.88 − $1,560.00 = $2,180.88 a year against kits and $7,332.00 − $1,560.00 = $5,772.00 against delivery; kits save $7,332.00 − $3,740.88 = $3,591.12 against delivery.
2-person household: 8 meals a week. Kits $95.92 a week, $4,987.84 a year; delivery $188.00 a week, $9,776.00 a year; home $40.00 a week, $2,080.00 a year. Home cooking saves $2,907.84 against kits and $7,696.00 against delivery.
4-person household: 16 meals a week. Kits $191.84 a week, $9,975.68 a year; delivery $376.00 a week, $19,552.00 a year; home $80.00 a week, $4,160.00 a year. Home cooking saves $5,815.68 against kits and $15,392.00 against delivery.
Pickup, fees at $0, still 6 meals a week. Delivery falls to $96.00 a week, $4,992.00 a year — still $1,251.12 above kits and $3,432.00 above home cooking, because the $16.00 app menu price alone beats both.
Premium kit tier at $14.99 a serving, 6 meals a week. Kits rise to $89.94 a week, $4,676.88 a year — still $2,655.12 below delivery, but the home-cooking gap widens to $3,116.88.
Budget kit at $6.49 a serving, 6 meals a week. $6.49 is the midpoint of EveryPlate's $5.99 to $6.99 range. Kits fall to $38.94 a week, $168.74 a month, $2,024.88 a year — only $464.88 above home cooking and $5,307.12 below delivery. At that price the kit-versus-home gap nearly closes, while the kit-versus-delivery gap stays huge.
Meal kits: published 2026 pricing puts HelloFresh at about $11.99 to $12.50 per serving plus about $10.99 shipping per box, and budget kits such as EveryPlate at $5.99 to $6.99 per serving — the $11.99 default sits at the HelloFresh end before shipping, and premium recipes add more. The same dish from groceries runs about $4 to $6 per serving, and the $5.00 home default sits in the middle of that range. Delivery: published app comparisons put DoorDash delivery fees at roughly $1.99 to $5.99, service fees near 10 to 15 percent of the subtotal, and app menu prices 15 to 25 percent above in-store prices; a $16.00 menu price plus $7.50 of fees and tip is the middle of that stack, not the worst case. Home cooking at $5.00 is a stated default assumption for a pantry-staple dinner, not a surveyed statistic — change it to your own ingredient cost and the verdict follows your number. Prices move; re-check your own plan and your last three delivery receipts before deciding.
| Output | Formula | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Kit, weekly / monthly / yearly | Meals × kit price; × 52 ÷ 12; × 52 | $71.94 / $311.74 / $3,740.88 at the defaults — the middle option on price. |
| Delivery, weekly / monthly / yearly | Meals × (menu + fees + tip); × 52 ÷ 12; × 52 | $141.00 / $611.00 / $7,332.00 at the defaults — the outlier, driven by the fee stack. |
| Home, weekly / monthly / yearly | Meals × home cost; × 52 ÷ 12; × 52 | $30.00 / $130.00 / $1,560.00 at the defaults — cheapest, before valuing your time. |
| Yearly savings gaps | Yearly totals subtracted pairwise | Home saves $2,180.88 vs kits and $5,772.00 vs delivery; kits save $3,591.12 vs delivery. |
The math is exact for the numbers you enter; the defaults are the uncertainty. Kit shipping, premium-recipe surcharges, delivery surge pricing, small-order fees, and grocery waste all move the real totals, and none of them are in the defaults except through the fees field. Home cooking is ingredients only: if your hour is worth $30 and dinner takes an hour, six home dinners a week cost $180 a week in time — more than the whole ingredient bill — and that changes the verdict for busy weeks even though it changes no cash figure. Tax is excluded throughout. Error policy: meals per week must be above 0 and every price must be $0 or more; anything else is reported as an error rather than calculated.
Bright Side Kit. "Meal Kit vs Delivery vs Cooking Cost Calculator." https://brightoolbox.com/meal-kit-vs-delivery-vs-cooking/ Accessed October 24, 2026.Yes, by a wide margin at these prices. At 6 meals a week, kits cost $3,740.88 a year against delivery's $7,332.00 — a $3,591.12 saving — because a kit has one price while delivery stacks a menu markup, a delivery fee, a service fee, and a tip.
On ingredients, yes. At $5.00 a meal, home cooking costs $1,560.00 a year at 6 meals a week, saving $2,180.88 against kits and $5,772.00 against delivery. The honest caveat is time: this counts ingredients only, not the hour cooking takes.
The fee stack, not the food. App menus run 15 to 25 percent above in-store prices, then a delivery fee ($1.99 to $5.99 on DoorDash in published comparisons), a service fee near 10 to 15 percent, and a tip are added. On a $16.00 meal that stack is $7.50 here, lifting the meal to $23.50.
Not at these prices. With fees set to $0, delivery falls to $4,992.00 a year at 6 meals a week — still $1,251.12 above kits and $3,432.00 above home cooking, because the $16.00 app menu price alone is higher than both.
About $11.99 to $12.50 for HelloFresh, plus about $10.99 shipping per box. Budget kits such as EveryPlate run $5.99 to $6.99 per serving, and premium recipes add more. Enter your plan's exact price for your number.
Count shared dinners, not people. A 2-person household eating 4 shared dinners enters 8 servings; a 4-person household eating 4 shared dinners enters 16. The calculator compares the same meals three ways, so the count must match across all three.
No — add it to the kit price yourself. A $10.99 weekly box fee lifts the kit year from $3,740.88 to $4,312.36. Delivery fees and tip go in their own field, so the two are never confused.