Meal Kit vs Groceries Cost Calculator

Articles compare meal kits to groceries with someone else's numbers. This calculator uses yours — how many meals you cook, your box's real per-serving price and shipping, your honest grocery cost per serving — and shows the weekly and annual cost of each path, the difference, and (optionally) what your time is worth. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

How much cooking?

Dinners is the typical case
People eating each meal

Meal-kit side

Chips are typical published tiers — estimates, not live prices. Check your own plan and edit.
Commonly ~$9–11 per weekly box

Groceries side

Home-cooked dinners typically land around $3–6 per serving — varies a lot with protein, region and sales. Edit to match your receipts.
Extra groceries bought that end up tossed. Groceries only — kits arrive pre-portioned. Set 0 to ignore.

Value your time? (optional)

Shopping + meal planning a kit replaces
This is a framing device, not cash — skipping the store doesn't put dollars in your pocket. It's off by default; turn it on only if that trade matters to you.

Result

—
Weekly food cost at your per-serving prices, before the optional time adjustment. Difference = meal kit minus groceries.
Dinners/weekMeal kit /wkGroceries /wkDifference /wk

Related tools

Recipe Cost Per Serving · Protein Per Dollar · School Lunch vs Packed Lunch · Espresso Machine Payback · Dishwasher vs Hand Washing Cost

What meal kits actually save (and cost)

Meal kits rarely win on raw dollars. What they genuinely save is planning and shopping time and food waste — ingredients arrive pre-portioned, so there's no half-used bunch of cilantro dying in the crisper. Whether that's worth the per-serving premium is exactly what this page lets you decide with your own numbers.

What do meal kits typically cost?

Most mainstream services publish prices around $9–13 per serving depending on plan size (bigger boxes are cheaper per serving), plus roughly $9–11 shipping per box. Heavy first-box discounts are common but temporary. The preset chips above are editable estimates from published pricing at the time of writing — not live prices — so always check your actual plan.

Why does the grocery cost per serving vary so much?

A lentil curry can cost under $2 a serving; a steak dinner can pass $10. Region, protein choice, sales, and how you amortize pantry staples (oil, spices, condiments) all move the number. The $3–6 default range reflects typical home-cooked dinners, but your receipts are the real source — divide a normal week's dinner-grocery spend by servings cooked and use that.

Is the time-value toggle fair?

It's optional framing, off by default. Valuing 90 saved minutes at your hourly rate is a reasonable way to think about convenience, but it isn't money you'd otherwise earn or spend — that's why the raw dollar totals are always shown separately.

Do you get paid by meal-kit companies?

No. This page currently has no affiliate relationships and no sponsorships with any meal-kit or grocery company. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed here plainly.

Is anything uploaded?

No. The page is fully client-side; your numbers never leave your browser.