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Money · Food waste cost

Food Waste Cost Calculator

How much money does your household throw away each week? Most people significantly underestimate food waste. See the annual and lifetime figure.

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Food waste cost

Describe roughly how much food your household wastes by category. Podge returns the weekly, annual, and lifetime cost.

What this means

No waffle. Just the number and how it was worked out.

Formula used

Weekly waste cost per category × household size × 52 × years remaining.

Worked example

A two-person household throwing away some fresh produce and regular cooked food wastes roughly £20/week — £1,040/year, over £40,000 across an adult lifetime.

Common questions

Why does the lifetime figure look so large?
Because food waste is a recurring cost that compounds over decades. The weekly number looks small; the 40-year figure makes the habit visible in a way that tends to actually change behaviour.

Plain-English summary

The result summary for this calculator will live here.

This section translates the result into a short, direct takeaway rather than leaving the page at a bare number.

Disclaimer: Estimates are based on average UK food costs per category. Actual costs depend on shopping habits and local prices.

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