Add up ingredient costs for a batch of prepped meals — see cost per meal, per person, and a weekly projection.
Cost = what you paid for the package. Servings = portions used for this prep.
Total ingredient cost
$26.00
Cost per meal
$4.33
Cost per person
$2.17
Weekly cost (if daily)
6 meals × 7 days
$30.33
Meal prep savings come from buying in bulk and using every serving. Enter what you paid for each ingredient and how many servings you’re actually using from that package — half a rice bag is half the cost.
Compare cost per meal against takeout ($12–18 typical) to see your margin. If you’re above $6/meal, check for expensive proteins or wasted portions.
total_cost= sum of every ingredient’s cost
cost_per_meal = total_cost ÷ meals_prepared
cost_per_person = cost_per_meal ÷ people_per_meal
weekly_cost = cost_per_meal × 7
Recipe Scaler
Scale any recipe up or down — halve it, double it, or fit a specific serving count with the original yield intact.
Kitchen Unit Converter
Convert between grams, ounces, cups, and tablespoons — with ingredient density for accurate volume-to-weight swaps.
Cost Per Serving
Break a recipe or product cost into per-serving and per-unit pricing — foundation for profitable menu pricing.
List every ingredient you bought for a batch — chicken, rice, vegetables, oil, spices — with its purchase price and how much of it actually went into the cooking. The calculator sums real used cost (not pack price), divides by the number of meals you produced, and again by the number of people eating. You also get a weekly projection so you can see what a Sunday-prep habit costs over a month. Pantry staples like olive oil and salt let you enter a fractional cost — 10% of the bottle, not the whole bottle — so the per-meal number reflects what you used, not what is sitting in your cupboard.
Meal prep only saves money if you actually count it. A $40 grocery run that produces 8 servings is $5/meal — competitive with a fast-food combo, cheaper than most restaurants, and the math gets dramatically better when you buy direct from a producer in bulk. This number is also the honest answer when someone asks "is brothh actually cheaper than the supermarket?" If you do not know your cost-per-meal, you cannot answer.
Cost is what you paid, not retail value of leftovers. The calculator does not include utilities, labor, or container amortization — those are typically <5% of food cost for home prep and add noise. For commercial kitchens use Cost-Per-Serving instead, which layers in yield loss and labor. Weekly projection assumes you cook the same batch the same number of times per week. If you swap a key ingredient (chicken for tofu, frozen for fresh) the numbers shift — re-enter rather than mentally adjust.