Recipe Cost Per Portion Calculator

Who this is for

What a dish really costs to make. Enter each ingredient's pack size and price as you bought it and how much the recipe uses, and the sheet works out the cost of each line, the whole recipe and one portion.

Household cooks comparing one meal with another, anyone setting a food budget from real recipes, and people wondering whether cooking from scratch is cheaper for them.

What this helps you track

• The cost of the amount of each ingredient the recipe actually uses
• The total cost of the recipe from your own shop prices
• The cost of one portion at the servings you make
• Which ingredient costs the most
• What a portion would cost if you stretched or cut the servings

How to use it

1. Write the recipe name, where it comes from, the date you costed it and how many servings it makes.
2. For each ingredient enter the pack size, its unit and the price you paid for the whole pack.
3. Enter the amount the recipe uses in the same unit as the pack, so grams against grams and millilitres against millilitres.
4. The cost of each line, the total and the cost per portion are worked out in the browser and the workbook; on paper, divide the pack price by the pack size and multiply by the amount used.
5. Put a different number in the alternative servings field to see a portion's cost if the dish fed more or fewer people.
6. Re-cost the recipe when your prices change, keeping the old sheet to compare.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Where do the prices come from?

From your own receipts or the shelf label where you shop. No prices are supplied, because they change by shop, country and week, and the point is to cost the recipe as you actually buy it.

How do I cost something I only use a pinch of?

Estimate the amount in the pack unit, such as a few grams of a spice, or leave it off and add a line for store-cupboard extras with a small figure of your own. Note what you did so the next costing matches.

Does it include the cost of cooking it?

Not unless you add it. You can put a line for energy or anything else with its own figure, using your own tariff or estimate. The sheet does not supply one.

Can I scale the recipe up or down?

The alternative servings field shows the cost per portion at another count from the same ingredients. To change the quantities themselves, the recipe scaling calculator is the one to use.