Takeaway Cost Calculator
See what ordering takeaway really costs over a year compared with cooking the same meals at home — including how much of your order goes on delivery and service fees.
Estimate only. Prices are editable examples — real takeaway prices, delivery fees and home-cooking costs vary by restaurant, platform and location. This is an estimate, not financial advice.
Is a subscription worth it?
- Your average orders per month
- 8.7
- Orders/month needed to break even
- 2
At your ordering frequency, a subscription would pay for itself in waived fees.
Ways to save more
- Collecting your order yourself usually removes the delivery fee entirely — worth it if the restaurant is close by.
- "Fakeaway" recipes (homemade curry, pizza, fried chicken) recreate the takeaway taste for a fraction of the price, and freeze well for another night.
- Only subscribe to a delivery app if you order more often than the break-even shown above — otherwise you're paying for a discount you don't use enough to justify.
- Ordering with housemates or family to hit a free-delivery minimum spend once, instead of several smaller orders, cuts total fees paid.
Invest the saving instead?
If you cut back on takeaways and invested the saving every month rather than spending it, here's roughly what it could grow to.
| Years | Projected pot |
|---|---|
| 10 | £16,149 |
| 20 | £42,748 |
| 30 | £86,555 |
Illustrative only, not investment advice — growth is never guaranteed and real returns will differ.
How this is worked out
Your weekly takeaway order is multiplied by 52 weeks to get an annual figure, then compared with the cost of cooking the same number of portions at home. A typical delivered order comes to around £22, of which around £5 is delivery and service fees rather than food — those fees add up fast if you order often. The calculator also checks whether a delivery-app subscription is worth it: subscriptions usually waive the delivery fee per order, so they pay for themselves once you place enough orders in a month to cover the monthly price.