Budgeting food and energy
What should food and energy cost per resident, and how fast will they rise?
Food and energy per resident a day, month by month, from the same model as the reports.
When people use it: When budgeting, and when energy or food contracts are up for renewal.
How it works, step by step
Per resident, month by month
Set food and energy growth to your own contract rises.
The views you will use
Ask the data in plain English
A real question and answer from Ask Orrery, the assistant inside the platform, for a care home owner in Kent (October 2026). It answers only from Orrery's data and the subscriber's own documents, and shows its sources.
In a typical 60 bed Kent care home, food costs about £6.14 per resident a day and energy and water about £4.45. That is roughly £10.59 a day together. (Source: Orrery cost model, Kent.)
Over the next 12 months, the model puts food at about £6.35 (3.5% a year) and energy and water at about £4.63 (4.0% a year). These are projections on stated assumptions, not forecasts. You can change the rises on the page to match your own contracts.
For the whole home, that is about £117,813 a year on food and £85,444 on energy and water. Together they are about 7% of running costs, but they rise every month. That is why margins are narrowest in March.
The figures assume 87.9% occupancy.
- Food and energy are a small share of cost but rise every month, so they eat into margin between Aprils.
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