Meal Strategy — Interactive Analysis

Compares ~25 ready-meal strategies on cost, calories, protein and active prep time · all your settings save in your browser

Optimise rankings for

Your circumstances — saved in your browser

£ / hr
Whatever number captures it — your post-tax wage, your freelance rate, or just what you'd pay to skip an hour of cooking. Drives every break-even.
meals
21 = 3/day. Lower if you skip breakfast or eat out often.
min/meal
Active prep + cleanup. Batch cooker? Divide your weekly total by meals (e.g. 2 hrs ÷ 21 ≈ 6 min).
min/trip
Round-trip drive + time in store. Applies to anything you'd shop in person.
min/wk
Time per week confirming your recurring Tesco/Ocado slot. 0 if you don't use them.
Colour key: DIY (cook from scratch) Meal-deal hybrid Supermarket ready meal Delivery service Not justified at your rate "Always worse" option
Per-store settings — drive time, delivery fees, availability

Override defaults per option. Edits save automatically. Untick Available? for any service that doesn't deliver to your area — it'll drop out of the rankings.

Scraped catalogue freshness: loading…

Option Type Available? Drive (RT min) Delivery £/order Free over £ Min order £
Your hourly rate
£17.23/hr
DIY active time/wk
2.80 hrs
Ready meal active/wk
0.18 hrs
Max time saveable
2.62 hrs/wk
Value of max saving
£45/wk

Net Weekly Surplus vs DIY Farmfoods — comparing both shopping scenarios

Delivered or recurring order (no shopping trip)
You do the shopping (adds the trip time)
Not justified at selected time value
Dominated

Solid bar = no shopping trip (delivered or recurring online order). Faded bar = you do the in-person shop (adds the trip time). Gap between them = value of skipping the trip yourself. Positive = justified upgrade from the DIY Farmfoods baseline.

Cost vs Active Time (no shopping trip)

Hover any dot for the option name · scroll to zoom · click + drag to pan · double-click to reset

Break-even line slope = your hourly rate. Points below the line = better value than DIY Farmfoods.

Break-even Time Value Required (net £/hr) — fixed by costs

Each bar = the hourly rate at which the option becomes worthwhile. Amber line = your rate. Bars to the LEFT of the amber line are justified at your rate (coloured by category — see legend at top); bars to the RIGHT are red because they cost more than your time is worth.

Full Comparison Table — data from meal-data.js

Option £/meal £/wk Active time (no trip) Active time (self-shop) Surplus (no trip) Surplus (self-shop) Break-even net Kcal/meal Protein/meal £/100kcal £/10g protein Data quality Justified?

Data quality: ● verified from published sources · ● estimated reasonable guess · ● unknown needs checking