Tiffin Price List: How to Set and Share Yours

A tiffin price list is a short page or message that tells each customer what one box costs, what is in it, how you bill (per delivered day or per month) and what happens on leave days. To build one, work out your cost per box, add the margin you need, name two or three plans, and write the billing and leave rules in the same place as the prices.

This post walks through that with an example in rupees. It is written for people who cook and deliver tiffins from a home kitchen or a small service in India. All numbers below are examples to show the arithmetic, not market rates; your own costs and your area decide your real prices.

What should a tiffin price list contain?

Customers ask the same questions before they subscribe, so answer them up front:

• The plan names and what each includes (for example Normal and Deluxe, which meals, how many rotis or how much rice).
• The price per box for each plan.
• Whether you bill per delivered day or a fixed monthly amount.
• Delivery area, and any extra for a distance outside it.
• How leave works: the cut-off time and how many days before.
• How and when to pay (UPI, cash), and when dues are reminded.

If a customer has to message you to learn any of these, the list is incomplete. Keep it to one screen.

How do I work out the price of one box?

Start from cost, not from what the kitchen next door charges. A simple method:

1. Add the ingredient cost of one box (grain, vegetables, oil, spices, the extra item in a Deluxe box).
2. Add a share of fuel, packing, and delivery cost per box.
3. Add a share of your own time. This is the part home cooks most often leave out.
4. Add a small buffer for wastage, since some boxes are cooked and not taken.

Here is an example with made-up figures for a Normal lunch box:

Change every row to your own figures. Track your real ingredient spend for two weeks before trusting any row, because one expensive vegetable week can move the total.

How do I price Normal and Deluxe plans?

Price the difference, not a second menu from scratch. If the Deluxe box adds a sweet, a second sabzi or paneer, cost that extra item on its own line and add it to the Normal box. In the example above, an added item costing Rs 25 plus its handling would take Deluxe to roughly Rs 120 (example only).

In our view, two plans are easier to explain and easier to count. For how the plans affect what you cook each day, see How Many Tiffins to Cook Each Day.

Should I charge per day or per month?

Both work if the rule is written down.

• Per delivered day: the customer pays price per box times the days you actually delivered. Leave days drop out automatically, so there is less to argue about.
• Fixed monthly amount: simpler to say, but you must decide in advance what happens when someone is away for a week.

A worked example of per-day billing (example figures): a Normal box at Rs 90, a month with 26 delivery days and 3 approved leave days gives 23 delivered days, so 23 x Rs 90 = Rs 2,070 due. Showing this calculation in your list tells customers the bill is fair before they ever see one. The help guide explains the billing screens.

How do I put leave rules next to the prices?

Price and leave are one decision. If leave is free only when it is told before a cut-off, say so beside the price, for example "leave told before 8 pm the previous day is not billed" (example wording). Without a cut-off you cook for empty doorsteps and absorb the cost.

How do I change prices without upsetting customers?

Ingredient costs go up, and a price list that never changes eventually loses you money. A fair way to change it:

1. Tell customers in writing before the change, with the new price and the date it starts.
2. Apply it from a clean date, ideally the first of a month, not mid-month.
3. Never reprice days already delivered. A customer who ate on the 12th at the old price should still be billed the old price for the 12th.
4. Keep the old list somewhere, so you can answer "what was the price in October?"

On paper this means keeping dated price lists and checking every bill against the right one. In MyTiffin the price per box is set in Settings as an optional field used for reports, and billing uses the price in force on each delivered day, so a later change does not rewrite earlier days. Confirm how this works on your own account before relying on it; the help guide explains the billing screens.

Where should I publish the price list?

Put it wherever customers already look: a pinned message in your WhatsApp group, a printed card in the first box, and your listing if you have one. Keep one version only. If the list exists in three places, one of them will be out of date.

If you list your kitchen on the MyTiffin marketplace, the kitchen page shows your prices to customers searching nearby. The marketplace listing is the only paid part of MyTiffin: Rs 500 a month by default, set by the admin, per the product's help guide. Listing is visibility, not a promise of customers.

Frequently asked questions

Should I show my tiffin price list publicly?

Yes, in our view. A clear list answers the first questions a new customer has and saves back-and-forth messages.

Should I copy a nearby kitchen's prices?

Use them as a sanity check, not a starting point. Their rent, portion size and delivery distance differ from yours, so copying their price can leave you under-charging without noticing.

How often should I change my tiffin prices?

Review them once a quarter and change only when your costs have really moved. As advice, one clear change with notice is easier on customers than frequent small ones.

Do I need an app to keep a price list?

No. A written list and a notebook work at small size. An app helps when you have many customers on different plans and need bills to follow the price in force on each day.

What this advice does not cover

The figures here are illustrations, not averages or recommended prices. This post does not give tax, GST or food-licence advice; for those, use the official FSSAI and tax department sources. If you want to try the billing and dues screens yourself, you can start at MyTiffin sign up.