The average DoorDash order comes to about $35 after fees and tip. That number doesn’t feel like much in the moment — it’s dinner, you’re hungry, it’s done. But over a month, those $35 orders stack up in ways most people don’t see until they actually add them up.
So what does cutting back — or taking a full month off — actually look like in real numbers?
The Math, Depending on How Much You Order
The savings depend entirely on your starting point. Someone who orders twice a week is in a very different position than someone who orders most nights.
If you order about once a week (4 orders/month), you’re spending roughly $140/month on delivery. The food itself might cost $40 if you’d cooked or picked it up instead. That’s about $100/month in delivery premium — the extra you’re paying purely for the convenience of having it brought to your door.
If you order 3-4 times a week (15 orders/month), your monthly delivery spend is around $525. The same food, cooked or picked up, would run maybe $75. That’s roughly $450/month going to fees, markups, and tips.
If delivery is your main way of eating (25+ orders/month), you’re looking at $875/month or more. The alternative cost is maybe $125 in groceries. The gap: $750/month.
| Ordering Pattern | Monthly Delivery Spend | What the Food Would Cost Otherwise | The Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~Once a week | $140 | ~$40 | ~$100 |
| 3-4x a week | $525 | ~$75 | ~$450 |
| Most nights | $875+ | ~$125 | ~$750 |
That “gap” column is what you’d save — not by eating less or eating worse, but by getting the same food without the delivery markup.
You Don’t Have to Go to Zero
Worth saying clearly: these numbers assume you stop ordering entirely for a month. That might work for some people, but for most, it’s not realistic — and it’s not really the point.
Even cutting back by a few orders a week makes a meaningful difference. If you’re a 15-orders-a-month person and you drop to 10, that’s five fewer orders at $35 each — $175 back in your pocket. No dramatic lifestyle change. Just five nights where you cooked, picked something up, or ate what was already in the fridge.
The savings don’t require perfection. They just require seeing clearly enough to make a few different choices.
See your real number
Deliverless shows you what you’re actually spending on delivery — no judgment, just clarity. We’re launching soon.
The Annual View
Monthly numbers are useful. Annual numbers are the ones that actually change how you think about it.
| If You Cut… | Monthly Savings | Annual Savings |
|---|---|---|
| 4 orders/month | ~$100 | ~$1,200 |
| 10 orders/month | ~$250 | ~$3,000 |
| 15 orders/month | ~$450 | ~$5,400 |
| 25 orders/month | ~$750 | ~$9,000 |
$1,200 a year from cutting one order a week. $5,400 from going from daily ordering to cooking most nights. Those aren’t hypothetical — they’re just the delivery premium, multiplied by 12.
What you’d do with that money is entirely up to you. We’re not going to tell you it’s a vacation fund or an emergency fund or a car payment. You know what you need. The point is that the money currently going to DoorDash fees could be going somewhere else — and most people don’t realize how much it is until they see the number.
Why Knowing the Number Matters
You’ve probably noticed a theme across everything we write: we keep coming back to awareness. That’s because it’s the thing that actually works.
People don’t usually cut back on delivery because they read an article telling them to. They cut back because they finally saw what they were spending — and that made the next order feel like a real decision instead of something that just happened.
That’s what Deliverless is built to do. Not to shame you into cooking. Not to set rules or track streaks. Just to show you your number, clearly, so you can decide what to do with it.