How Much Does Meal Prepping Actually Save You?
Thrifty Plan
~$71
per week per person
Eating Out
~$76
per week per household
Food Waste Saved
~$1,456
per year (family of 4)
Sources: USDA FNS (Jan 2025), BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey (2024), EPA (2025)
Weekly Grocery Benchmarks
The USDA publishes four food plans with monthly budgets for nutritious meals prepared at home. Here they are converted to weekly figures for a single adult male (19–50).
| USDA Plan | Monthly | Weekly | Per Meal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thrifty | ~$309 | ~$71 | ~$3.43 |
| Low-Cost | ~$371 | ~$86 | ~$4.12 |
| Moderate | ~$465 | ~$107 | ~$5.17 |
| Liberal | ~$566 | ~$131 | ~$6.29 |
Weekly and per-meal figures derived from USDA monthly data. Source: USDA FNS Cost of Food Reports, January 2025
Meal Prep vs Eating Out
The BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey (2024) shows the average household spends roughly $120 per week on groceries and $76 per week on food away from home.
If you meal prep even four dinners per week instead of eating out, you could save $40 to $60 per week depending on restaurant choices. That is $2,000 to $3,000 per year — before accounting for food waste savings.
Restaurant prices are also rising roughly twice as fast as grocery prices. According to the BLS Consumer Price Index, food-away-from-home prices rose 4.1% in 2025 compared to 2.4% for groceries. The gap keeps widening.
The Hidden Savings: Less Waste
Meal prepping does not just save money on restaurant bills. It also reduces food waste, which is a hidden drain on household budgets.
The EPA reported in 2025 that a family of four wastes $2,913 per year in discarded food. Cutting that by 50% through better planning saves an additional ~$1,456 per year.
Research backs this up. A 2023 study in Resources, Conservation and Recycling found that meal planning reduced food waste by 27 to 33% compared to households without a plan. When you know exactly what you need for the week, you stop buying “just in case” items that end up in the back of the fridge.
Total potential savings (family of four)
Restaurant savings assume replacing 4 meals/week. Waste savings assume 50% reduction per EPA data.
The meal prep toolkit
From saved videos to a full week of meals at a fraction of the cost.
Merged Shopping Lists
Select your weekly recipes and Preplo combines every ingredient into a single list. Duplicates are merged, quantities totaled, and you get an estimated cost before leaving the house. No more buying three bags of spinach when you only need one.
Cost Per Serving
Every extracted recipe includes an estimated price per serving. Compare a $2.80 pasta to a $5.50 salmon bowl and make budget-conscious decisions before you spend a dollar.
Weekly Meal Prep
Cooking Streaks
Build a meal prep habit with Duolingo-style streaks. Cook at least once per week to keep your streak alive. Levels from Beginner Cook to Chef Legend turn Sunday prep into a routine you stick with.
Recipes from Videos
Find a meal prep idea on YouTube or TikTok? Paste the link and get a full recipe with ingredients, costs, and step-by-step instructions. No more pausing, rewinding, and guessing at quantities.
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Related guides
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Meal Prep Savings FAQ
Common questions about how much meal prepping saves.
Based on USDA food plan data (January 2025), an individual following the Thrifty Food Plan spends about $71 per week on groceries. The Moderate Plan costs about $107 per week. BLS data shows the average household also spends about $76 per week eating out. Replacing even half of those restaurant meals with home-cooked meal prep can save $30 to $40 per week.
Yes. A 2023 peer-reviewed study in Resources, Conservation and Recycling found that meal planning strategies reduced household food waste by 27 to 33 percent compared to control groups. When you plan your meals and buy only the ingredients you need, less food ends up in the trash.
According to a 2025 EPA report, a family of four wastes approximately $2,913 worth of food per year — about $56 per week. Reducing that waste by even 50% through better meal planning saves roughly $1,456 per year.
The USDA Thrifty Food Plan is the lowest-cost option that still meets nutritional guidelines. As of January 2025, it costs approximately $309 per month for an adult male and $247 per month for an adult female aged 19 to 50. For a family of four, the Thrifty Plan costs about $994 per month.
Preplo extracts recipes from cooking videos and includes estimated ingredient costs per serving. When you select multiple recipes for the week, Preplo merges all ingredients into one shopping list and shows the projected total. You can compare recipes by cost and swap expensive ones for cheaper alternatives before you shop.
Yes. USDA data shows an individual can eat well on $71 to $131 per week depending on the food plan, which comes to $2.74 to $6.29 per meal. Restaurant meals average $10 to $25 per person. Even meal prepping three to four dinners per week can save a single person $50 or more weekly compared to eating out.