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The Convenience Tax
Takeout Habit
Calculator
Food delivery is not just the order total — it is the premium you pay over cooking at home. Watch it drain in real time.
// spent on takeout so far today
$0.00
based on your weekly average
updating every second...
// this year's orders, piling up 0 orders
watch the pile grow as you adjust your habit above
// your habit
Cost per order (food + fees + tip)$35
Orders per week3
Cost to cook the same meal at home$6
If the premium was invested, return (% /yr)7%
—
Per day
—
Per week
—
Per year
—
Orders this year
// convenience premium, invested over 30 years
—
at 7% compound annual growth
10 years: —
annual premium: —
// cumulative takeout spend vs cooking at home
🥗 Cooking more at home? Check the label first. FoodLabelReader.com scans what is actually in the groceries you buy — free, no signup.
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The real cost of a takeout habit

A $35 delivery order does not feel like a big decision in the moment. But three orders a week is $105, which is $5,460 a year — and the same meals cooked at home might cost a fraction of that. The difference is not really a food cost. It is a convenience fee, paid order by order, that rarely gets added up.

This calculator does not say takeout is bad. Sometimes it is exactly the right call — a late night, a celebration, a day with nothing left in the tank. What it shows is the real annual size of the convenience premium, so the choice to order (or not) is an informed one rather than an invisible one.

The live ticker at the top shows takeout spend accumulating in real time, down to the cent, and the pile below turns the year's orders into something you can actually see.

Frequently asked questions
Is food delivery really that expensive?
A typical delivery order with fees and a tip often lands between 3 and 5 times the cost of the same meal cooked at home. Ordering 3 times a week at that premium can add up to several thousand dollars a year — money that is paying for convenience, not the food itself.
How much could I save cooking at home instead?
The gap between what you pay for delivery and what the same meal costs to cook is the convenience premium. Invested instead of spent, even a modest weekly premium can compound into a significant sum over 10 to 30 years — this calculator shows the exact figure for your own numbers.