Weekly Meal Budget Calculator
Use this weekly meal budget calculator to add up what a week of meals costs, from your own cost per serving, and see it per week, month, year and person.
Work out your weekly meal budget
Your meals (example meals and costs shown in Rs; replace them with your own)
Enter the cost of one serving and how many servings you eat in a week (0.5 = every other week). Not sure of the cost per serving? Work it out with the recipe cost calculator, or divide a receipt by the number of servings.
How the weekly meal budget calculator works
The weekly meal budget calculator multiplies the cost of one serving of each meal by the servings you eat in a week, then adds up every meal. You enter two numbers per meal: the cost per serving and the servings a week. Decimals are allowed, so 0.5 means every other week. Free meals, with a cost of 0, are allowed too.
cost per week = Σ (cost per serving × servings a week)
cost per month = cost per week × 52 ÷ 12
cost per year = cost per week × 52
cost per day = cost per week ÷ 7
cost per person = cost per week ÷ people eating
A year is taken as 52 weeks and a month as one twelfth of that year, about 4.33 weeks. Each meal’s share is its weekly cost divided by the weekly total. The meal with the largest weekly cost is shown as the most expensive. If you enter a weekly budget, the difference is shown as an amount under or over it. Totals are worked out before rounding, and money is shown to two decimals.
Worked example: a household of four
These example costs are in Rs and are not current prices:
| Meal | Cost per serving | Servings a week | Per week | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dal chawal | Rs 90.00 | 4 | Rs 360.00 | 31.9% |
| Chicken karahi | Rs 320.00 | 1 | Rs 320.00 | 28.3% |
| Vegetable pulao | Rs 120.00 | 2 | Rs 240.00 | 21.2% |
| Paratha and egg | Rs 70.00 | 3 | Rs 210.00 | 18.6% |
The total is Rs 1,130.00 a week, Rs 4,896.67 a month and Rs 58,760.00 a year, or Rs 161.43 a day on average. Shared by four people, that is Rs 282.50 per person per week. Against a weekly budget of Rs 1,200, the household is Rs 70.00 under. Dal chawal is the most expensive meal over the week at Rs 360.00, even though chicken karahi costs the most per serving.
How do I get the cost per serving?
Divide what a meal costs to make by the number of servings it makes. The easiest way is the recipe cost calculator, which prices only the amount of each ingredient you use. To check that you are buying ingredients at a fair price, compare pack sizes with the grocery unit price comparator. For takeaway, divide the receipt by the people who ate.
How can I spend less?
Once the weekly meal budget calculator shows your total, start with the meal at the top of the share column, because a small change there moves the total most. You can lower its servings a week, swap an ingredient, or make a bigger batch. If you cook in bulk, the recipe scaler resizes a recipe to any number of servings. For ideas on planning a full week of meals, see our 7-day meal plan. Re-enter your costs every few months, because prices change.
What the calculator does not tell you
A weekly meal budget calculator is a simple sum, so it has limits worth knowing:
- Only the meals you list. Snacks, drinks, cooking fuel and food eaten out are not included unless you add them as rows.
- Your own costs. The result is only as accurate as the cost per serving you enter. No prices are built in.
- A plain weekly average. A month uses 52 ÷ 12 weeks, so a real calendar month can be slightly different.
- Nutrition. This is a cost tool. It does not say whether a week of meals meets anyone’s nutrition needs.
Enter your meals, check the most expensive one first, and use the weekly meal budget calculator again whenever your costs change.
Frequently Asked Questions
Find the cost of one serving of each meal, multiply it by how many servings you eat in a week, then add up every meal. In the example, dal chawal at Rs 90 four times, chicken karahi at Rs 320 once, vegetable pulao at Rs 120 twice and paratha with egg at Rs 70 three times come to Rs 1,130 a week.
Add up what the ingredients cost for the amount you used, then divide by the number of servings the recipe makes. Our recipe cost calculator does this sum for you, using pack prices and the amounts in your recipe. You can also divide a restaurant or takeaway receipt by the number of people who ate.
A year has 52 weeks but only 12 months, so the average month is 52 ÷ 12, or about 4.33 weeks. Four weeks would make the monthly figure about 8% too low. This calculator takes a year as 52 weeks and a month as one twelfth of that year, so Rs 1,130 a week becomes Rs 4,896.67 a month.
It means you eat the meal every other week, which is 26 servings a year. Use 0.25 for once every four weeks. Decimals let the calculator include meals you have only now and then, such as a weekend treat, without pretending they happen every week or leaving them out.
The calculator shows the amount over budget as a plain number in your currency, not a percentage. With a budget of Rs 1,000 and a weekly cost of Rs 1,130, you are Rs 130.00 over. To close the gap, look at the most expensive meal first, or lower how many servings of it you eat.