Keep Above
Cook it or buy it
One meal, two prices: what a serving costs when you make it, and what the same meal costs when you buy it — fees and tip included. This calculator multiplies each by how many times a week the meal happens and reads both back per week, per month and per year. The difference is stated as bare arithmetic; no winner is declared, and money not spent one way is never called a saving.
Ingredients for one plate, waste included
All-in — fees and tip included, per person
Put in what one serving costs to make and what the same meal costs to buy, all-in. Nothing here is read from your accounts, and nothing is saved.
| Cooking it | Buying it | |
|---|---|---|
| One meal | — | — |
| A week | — | — |
| A month | — | — |
| A year | — | — |
This is one of the tools built into Keep Above
Keep Above is a budgeting app where you enter your bills and income and it works out the balance you need to keep — so you can see what's safe to spend. No bank connection, no ads on your data.
About this calculator
What should the cooked figure include?
Everything that goes into one plate — the ingredients at what they actually cost you, including the half-bunch that wilts and the sauce opened for one recipe. A per-serving figure that ignores waste flatters the cooking side, and then the comparison isn't telling you anything.
What should the bought figure include?
The all-in price of having it — the menu price plus any delivery fee, service fee and tip, divided by how many people it feeds. A bought figure that stops at the menu price flatters the buying side the same way.
Why does it have to be the same meal on both sides?
Because the comparison only holds if both figures describe the same thing. A home version of a dish against the bought version of it is a real comparison; beans on toast against a restaurant steak is two different meals wearing one chart.