₹100 per meal day, broken down
₹2,600 for 26 meal days is ₹100 per day for two meals. The arithmetic is deliberate, not aspirational.
What ₹100 buys you
- Brunch (~₹50): 200–250g of cooked rice, a generous cup of dal, the protein of the day (chicken / fish / paneer / egg) with curry, plus a seasonal vegetable side. Always served between 8:30 and 10 AM.
- Dinner (~₹50): Four hot rotis, a seasonal vegetable curry, and an egg (boiled, omelette, or bhujia depending on the day). Thursday dinner is the "special": pulao + dum aloo or rajma + roti.
Where ₹100 goes (ballpark, per meal day)
Ingredients (groceries, daily fresh) ₹52
Cook + helper labour ₹22
Gas + electricity + air-fryer power ₹6
Container wear, packaging, replacement ₹4
Delivery fuel (BLPGA = ₹0) ₹0–25
Kitchen overhead (rent share, water) ₹8
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₹92–117That's the operator-side picture. For a BLPGA-resident customer, ₹100 lands inside the band with a thin margin for the business. For home-delivery customers we quote a per-day delivery fee on top of the ₹100 — typically ₹20–₹40 depending on distance — because we'd rather be transparent than pretend delivery is free.
What ₹100 explicitly doesn't pay for
- Marketing spend on Zomato-style listings. We have a website. You found us.
- A 15% "convenience charge" that appears at checkout.
- Aggregator margins to Swiggy / Zomato / Magicpin.
- Surge pricing during exam week. The rate is flat, in writing, for the month.
The ₹250 deposit
Self-pickup and home-delivery customers leave a one-time, refundable ₹250 deposit — that covers a small tiffin container (₹25), a medium (₹50), a lid (₹50), a large (₹100), and the carrier bag (₹75). Lose anything, the cost comes out of the deposit and we email you a photo of what broke. Hand the containers back clean on exit and the full ₹250 returns to your UPI.
Why we don't go lower
We could cut the protein in half and serve ₹70 meals. We could go fully veg and serve ₹60 meals. We have chosen not to, because we'd rather feed 23 students well than 50 students badly. If we ever raise the price, you'll see the breakdown change first, and you'll know exactly why.
Two meals a day, Mon–Sat. Self-pickup, home delivery, or on-site at BLPGA. See pricing →
- Stop cooking, start living — why we built Bhuk FoodsA founder's note on India's first kitchen substitution service, the BLPGA kitchen at 43 Matangini Hazra Pally, and why we don't call ourselves a tiffin service.
- What is a kitchen substitution service?Not a tiffin service. Not a cloud kitchen. Not a meal-kit subscription. A kitchen substitution service replaces the entire act of cooking — and that changes the math.
- The 4 PM rule — how skip-a-day works without losing a rupeeCancel any meal day before 4 PM the previous day and you're not charged. The day extends to the end of your plan. Here's why the rule is exactly this strict, and exactly this generous.