Money Management Tips
Money at 30: Why We Continue to Subscribe to a Meal Kit Service
It’s officially been over a year since my wife and I decided to sign up for a meal kit delivery service. At the time, I figured I’d take advantage of the free meals being offered as part of their intro deal, add a few recipes to our collection for future use, and (of course) get a review out of the whole thing. Yet, here we are months later and we’re not only still subscribers but also find ourselves adding extra meals with regularity. So what is it that hooked us — and are we prioritizing convenience over cost?
Why We’re Still Loving Meal Kit Life
Why We’re Still Loving Meal Kit Life
How much we pay
Before I share why we find our meal kit service to be worth it, I should probably share how much we pay for it. Technically, our EveryPlate plan includes three meals for two people per week. But, as I mentioned in my intro, I’ve been taking this up to four meals most weeks. Assuming we don’t get any add-ons or premium meals, our cost comes to $49.91 per box (shipping included). In other words, it’s about $6.23 per person, per meal.
Benefit #1: Variety
Prior to signing up for this service, my wife and I tended to rotate through maybe half a dozen meal options or so. As you can imagine, even though we obviously enjoyed these dishes, there were times when we’d be tired of our main selections and wanted to go out to eat instead. That’s why we’ve enjoyed mixing things up and trying different options. This isn’t to say that our meal kits are always completely original — indeed, in addition to seeing some of the same recipes pop up every few weeks or so, there also are others that are remarkably similar — but it’s certainly a step up.
Benefit #2: The convenience of not having to shop (as much)
Before we joined EveryPlate, we were regularly shopping at a few different stories. This originally included a mix of Aldi and Walmart Neighborhood Market before our Sam’s Club subscription mostly usurped the latter. In each case, we’d end up going to each store once a week or more depending on what we needed. Cut to today and, while we still find ourselves at Sam’s on a weekly basis, that’s pretty much the only food shopping we do as we have more than half our weekly dinners covered. While it doesn’t take a ton of effort to go grocery shopping, not having to is undoubtedly nice.
Benefit #3: The convenience of not having to think
This may be the absolute height of laziness, but I love that having four meals a week planned for us means that we don’t really have to put much thought into what we’re going to have most of the time. Yes, we still have the “What do you want for dinner?/I don’t know, what do you want?” conversation regularly, but the back and forth is much shorter once we realize we just need to head to the recipe cards and choose one at random. Also, even though I do have to put a bit more thought into the meal selection process (well, technically I could just let the service choose for me), I find this part to be fun since the deadline that comes with waiting on dinner isn’t there.
Benefit #4: It’s not that expensive
Perhaps this is due to us choosing one of the more affordable meal kits to begin with but, given that $6.25 serving figure, I don’t see our service as really costing us much more than we spend otherwise. While it’s true that we could certainly find meals to make that cost us $1 per service or less, I’d imagine the cost was much closer to our current average once all of the sides and such were factored in. Plus, although it might be a bit pricier than sticking to the grocery store, it’s definitely cheaper than eating out. So, I call it a win overall.
After a year of subscribing to EveryPlate’s meal kit service, I’m only now just realizing how much I actually enjoy it. In fact, on weeks when we’ve had to skip boxes because of travel, I find that I actually miss it! Ultimately, while it’s hard to say that it’s actively saving us money, I also don’t think we’re spending a ton more. Although this might not be the case for everyone, I can now say that the benefits are well worth it for us.
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