A competitor's monthly price is not enough to decide your own. Your ingredient choices, portions, delivery area and cooking capacity may be different. Start with your own costs, then test whether customers in your target area will accept the resulting offer.
The figures below are illustrative, not market averages or a recommendation for every kitchen.
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Tiffin Service & Daily Delivery: DAM App Full Tutorial
Watch DAM’s tiffin and daily-delivery tutorial to understand the app workflow alongside this guide. For planning topics such as pricing, menus and marketing, use the article’s examples; the video demonstrates the app rather than every business process.
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Include costs that are easy to miss
For a meal batch, record ingredients actually used, packaging, variable delivery costs and cooking fuel. Account for usable yield rather than treating the entire purchased quantity as edible servings. Add labour, including a reasonable allowance for your own time, and allocate fixed overhead consistently.
Do not count the same expense twice. If a delivery rider's wage is in labour, include only additional delivery expenses in the delivery line.
A worked per-meal calculation
Suppose a kitchen supplies 100 meals in a day:
| Cost component | Batch cost | Per meal |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients | ₹3,000 | ₹30 |
| Packaging | ₹500 | ₹5 |
| Fuel and variable delivery | ₹1,000 | ₹10 |
| Labour and allocated overhead | ₹1,500 | ₹15 |
| Total | ₹6,000 | ₹60 |
At an illustrative selling price of ₹80, the contribution over the listed ₹60 cost is ₹20 per meal. If the costs include all relevant allocated expenses, that is a simplified operating surplus, not necessarily final after-tax profit.
Understand margin and markup
Adding 25% to ₹60 gives ₹75. The ₹15 difference is 25% of cost but 20% of selling price. To target a 25% margin on the same assumed cost, the arithmetic is ₹60 ÷ 0.75 = ₹80. Actual pricing also depends on demand, capacity and what the package includes.
Check the monthly-plan promise
A 26-meal package at ₹80 per meal has a nominal price of ₹2,080. Define whether skips reduce the price, preserve credits or follow another agreed rule. Lunch-plus-dinner packages need both meal counts; “26 days” might represent 52 meals.
Review your costs regularly and document when a new rate starts. Keep old deliveries at the agreed historical rate. DAM can hold meal prices and billing records; it does not replace a complete kitchen-cost calculation.
Related: advance plans and business setup.
Should I charge more for distant delivery?
Assess the actual extra cost and explain any delivery fee before signup. Avoid hiding it in a bill the customer has never agreed to.
Use DAM to keep agreed prices and customer charges organised.