Advanced options
The honest comparison isn't box vs supermarket price (the box loses on price: organic + delivery + small-farm supply chains cost more than volume retail): it's box vs what you'd actually buy and eat. Boxes win when they change BEHAVIOUR: households that cook to the box eat more veg, waste less of what arrives (misshapen but fresher, often days from the field), and stop the trolley-drift where veg shopping becomes snack shopping. The usage input above is doing the real work: a box 60%-used is paying full price for 60% of the food.
What The Veg Box Calculator Works Out
- Verdict: (box price minus your supermarket estimate for the same produce) x 52. Small weekly boxes run about GBP 14, medium GBP 18 and large fruit-and-veg GBP 26; the box loses on price because organic certification, delivery and small-farm supply chains cost more than volume retail.
- Effective cost of the veg you use: the box price divided by the share you actually eat. An 80%-used box is paying full price for four fifths of its food; a 60% box turns a modest premium into a large one. This number decides subscriptions.
- What you're actually buying and making it work: freshness measured in days, seasonal UK sourcing, the doorstep and the behaviour change (more veg eaten, less trolley-drift), with the retention playbook: customisable boxes, size down, pause for holidays, learn soup, traybake and stir-fry, audit at week eight.
- Your box price and delivery fee (advanced): type the exact price from your scheme and any delivery charge (many are free over a minimum, some charge GBP 1 to GBP 3).
- Weeks a year (advanced): pausing for holidays and the roots-and-brassica months reduces the annual bill; summer boxes routinely out-value winter ones.
- Box spend per year (advanced): boxes x (price plus delivery) beside the supermarket cost of the same produce over the same weeks.
- Cost of the waste per year (advanced): the share you compost, priced, and the kilos it represents. If the same items keep dying, downsize or switch to a swaps-allowed box.
- Per kg of veg you eat (advanced): what the produce you actually consume costs per kilo against the supermarket's price per kilo for the box's weight (a medium box is about 4 to 5kg). Enter the kilos from your scheme's description.
- Per person per week and break-even usage (advanced): the box shared across your household with the daily 80g portions it supplies, and the hypothetical usage rate at which the eaten veg would cost the same per item as the supermarket's. Above 100% means the box simply beats your estimate.