Is it cheaper to make smoothies at home?
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By a lot. Our strawberry banana yogurt glass costs about $2.73 at US average prices, so three $8 chain smoothies a week cost about $820 a year more than making the same three at home. The home glass also has 30 g of protein and no added sugar.
An $8 smoothie doesn’t feel like a big purchase, and a tub of powder or a bag of chia seeds feels like a lot at the checkout. The cheapest good glass at home doesn’t need either of those, just milk, yogurt and fruit, and all four of its ingredients have a federal average price you can check.
What we’d do
Make the everyday glass at home, and keep the chain smoothie for a treat or a road trip. Start with the four-ingredient strawberry banana yogurt glass, since it’s the home twin of most chain fruit smoothies and you can price every part of it.
Think of a takeout smoothie habit as a subscription. Twenty-four dollars a week slips by, and the yearly bill is what surprises you.
The home twin
About $2.73 A
30 g protein, no added sugar
Three a week from a chain
$1,248 a year
$8 each, 156 a year. The same three at home come to about $426.
What does the home glass cost?
| Ingredient | Amount | Cost | Price we used |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2% milk | 1 cup | $0.26 | whole milk, $4.101 a gallon (BLS, October 2026) |
| Banana | 1 medium | $0.17 | $0.655 a lb (BLS, October 2026) |
| Strawberries | 1 cup (5 oz) | $1.24 | $2.806 for 12 oz, fresh (BLS, October 2026) |
| Plain Greek yogurt | 7 oz | $1.07 | $4.87 for 32 oz (USDA, November 6, 2026) |
| The glass | $2.73 |
The government doesn’t track a price for frozen strawberries, so we used the fresh price, and 2% milk is priced at the whole milk average, as in our calculator. USDA’s yogurt price is an advertised price from grocery circulars, so it leans toward sale prices.
What does that come to in a year?
No chain publishes a national price, so put in what you pay. Here’s a spread.
| Your order | Times a week | Takeout a year | Home a year | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $6 | 3 | $936 | $426 | $510 |
| $8 | 3 | $1,248 | $426 | $822 |
| $8 | 5 | $2,080 | $710 | $1,370 |
| $10 | 5 | $2,600 | $710 | $1,890 |
| $8 | 7 | $2,912 | $993 | $1,919 |
The takeout or homemade calculator does it for your order, your price and your week, and fills two jars with coins as the weeks go by.
What else do you save?
Added sugar, for one. A 20 oz Angel Food at Smoothie King has 50 g of added sugar (its menu, November 2026). Three a week is about 17 lb of added sugar a year, more than four 4 lb bags from the grocery store. The home glass has none, since the sugar in fruit and plain milk isn’t added sugar under the US guidelines.
You also gain protein, 30 g in the home glass against 5 g in the Angel Food.
What about recipes with powder?
Whey, chia, flax, oats, cocoa, peanut butter and plant milks have no federal price series, so there’s no average to quote. The calculator asks for your own price for those. Our cottage cheese berry glass is fully priced at about $3.51, with 33 g of protein and no powder.
4 sources
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price Data, US city average, October 2026 (bananas APU0000711211, strawberries APU0000711415, whole milk APU0000709112)bls.gov
- USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, National Dairy Retail Report, Vol 93 No 45, November 6, 2026ams.usda.gov
- Smoothie King, Angel Food, nutrition facts and ingredients, 20 oz, opened November 14, 2026smoothieking.com
- US Department of Agriculture and US Department of Health and Human Services, Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025 to 2030, January 2026cdn.realfood.gov
