| Item | Category | $/lb | Share % |
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This tool estimates what a carnivore or meat-based diet costs by projecting your daily meat intake and local prices into daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly totals. Budgeting is one of the most practical challenges for anyone starting or maintaining an all-animal-foods diet, and vague guesses rarely help you plan. By turning your real portion sizes and your own store prices into a running total, this calculator makes the true number visible before your budget finds out the hard way.
The math is deliberately simple and transparent. You set a total daily meat target, then split it across the cuts you actually eat using a share percentage for each. The daily cost of a cut equals its price per unit weight multiplied by the weight you eat of it, which is your daily target times that cut's share. Adding every cut together gives your daily total. The calculator then multiplies by seven for a week, by your chosen days per month for a month, and by 365 for a year. In plain language: daily cost equals the sum of (price times daily amount) across all your cuts.
Suppose your daily target is 900 g / 2 lb of meat, split as 70 percent ground beef and 30 percent eggs. Using clearly hypothetical prices for illustration, say ground beef is 11 per kg / 5 per lb and eggs are 5 per kg / 2.27 per lb. The beef portion is 0.63 kg / 1.4 lb, costing about 6.93 per day. The egg portion is 0.27 kg / 0.6 lb, costing about 1.35 per day. Your daily total is about 8.28. That is roughly 57.96 per week, about 248 for a 30 day month, and about 3,022 per year. Swap the beef for a cheaper cut at 7 per kg / 3.18 per lb and the daily total falls to about 6.36, showing how much cut selection drives the bill.
Enter your daily meat target and the number of days per month you follow the diet. In the items table, add each cut, assign a category, enter a price per unit weight from your own receipts, and set the share of your daily intake it represents. Shares must total 100 percent. Choose your currency and weight units, then press Calculate to see the breakdown by day, week, month, and year, plus a category-level summary.
This is a planning estimate, not a guarantee. Prices vary widely by region, season, store, and sales, so the totals are only as good as the numbers you enter. It does not account for waste, cooking loss, tax, delivery fees, or foods you eat outside your usual pattern. It also says nothing about whether a given diet suits you. For nutrition or medical guidance, speak with a physician or registered dietitian rather than relying on a budgeting tool.
Can I add multiple meat types? Yes. Add as many cuts as you like and adjust each share percentage until the shares total 100.
Are the prices accurate? Prices come entirely from what you enter. Update them regularly to reflect your local store or butcher so the estimate stays grounded in what you actually pay.
Can I model buying in bulk? Yes. Enter the lower per unit price you get from bulk buying and keep the same daily target to see the savings flow through every total.
Does it include non-meat items? You can enter any food with a price and a share, including eggs, dairy, or organ meats, so it flexes to how you actually eat.