Food · Eating out audit
Eating Out Budget Audit
How much is dining out, coffee shops, and workplace lunches actually costing per month — and is that proportionate to your household income?
Instant result
Plain-English why
Copyable takeaway
What this means
This tool adds up restaurant meals, coffees, and work lunches to produce the monthly and annual total, then shows what proportion of income that is.
Formula used
Monthly eating-out cost = (restaurant occasions × avg spend) + (coffee occasions × avg coffee spend) + (work lunch occasions × avg lunch spend). Annual total = monthly × 12. Proportion = monthly cost / monthly income.
Worked example
3 restaurant meals at £40 + 20 coffees at £4 + 20 work lunches at £8 = £360/month. At £3,500 net income, that is 10.3% of take-home — leisure territory. At £1,800 net income, the same spend is 20% — that is where the budget is collapsing.
Common questions
What proportion of income should go on eating out?
There is no universal rule, but under 5% is generally comfortable, 5–15% is a meaningful leisure category, and above 15% of take-home income is where eating out often becomes the reason a savings target is not being reached.
Should I include coffees and work lunches?
Yes. They are the part most people leave out and the part that adds up fastest. A daily £4 coffee and £8 work lunch is £240/month before a single restaurant meal.
Plain-English summary
Enter your eating-out habits to get the annual total and a verdict on whether it is proportionate.
This section translates the result into a short, direct takeaway rather than leaving the page at a bare number.
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