How to calculate the meal rate in a mess

Last updated 2026-10-04

The meal rate is what one meal cost the mess this month. Every mess works it out the same way, and once you have it, every member's share of the food bill is one multiplication away.

The formula

Meal rate = total bazar (grocery) spend for the month ÷ total meals eaten by everyone that month.

That is all of it. The bazar total is every shopping trip added together: rice, fish, vegetables, oil, spices, gas cylinder refills if your mess counts them as food. The meal total is every member's meal count added together, including guest meals.

One person's food cost is then their own meal count × the meal rate.

A worked example

Five members shared a kitchen for the month. Their shopping came to 15,000 taka. Rafi ate 70 meals, Nayeem 65, Tanvir 60, Sakib 55 and Imran 50, which is 300 meals in total.

Meal rate = 15,000 ÷ 300 = 50 taka per meal.

Rafi's food cost is 70 × 50 = 3,500. Tanvir's is 60 × 50 = 3,000. Imran, who ate least, pays 50 × 50 = 2,500. Add the five together and you get 15,000 again, which is how you check you have not made a mistake.

What does not go into the meal rate

Rent, electricity, gas line bills, wifi, the cook's salary and the cleaner are not food, and they do not get cheaper when somebody skips dinner. Split them per head, or by room share if some rooms are bigger. Folding them into the meal rate makes whoever eats least subsidise whoever eats most.

Most arguments over a mess's numbers come from mixing these two kinds of cost. Keep them in separate columns from the first day of the month.

Half meals, guest meals and meal off

Many messes count breakfast as half a meal and lunch and dinner as one each. That is fine as long as everyone agrees before the month starts and the same rule is used for every member.

A guest meal counts as a meal for the member who brought the guest. It goes into the total like any other, so the rate stays honest.

A meal off means zero for that slot, not a blank. A blank page in the khata becomes an argument at month end about whether the person ate or not.

Rounding

Keep the meal rate to at least two decimal places, 62.40 rather than 62, and round each person's total only at the end. Rounding the rate first can leave the mess a few hundred taka short or over once it is multiplied across three hundred meals.

Doing it without the arithmetic

The free meal rate calculator on this site does the division for you with no signup. If you want the whole month kept for you, Mess Ledger records every meal and every bazar entry as it happens, works out the rate at any point in the month, and shows each member the rows that produced their number.

Have this done for you every month

Mess Ledger keeps the daily meals and grocery runs, then works this out for everyone at month end.

Start free Meal rate calculator