To think meal prep box costs are hard to justify

[Dimsexy]

I finally decided to try one of those meal prep boxes. Always resisted due to cost but wanted to at least give them a try.

It was easy my to prepare, tasted nice etc but doing the sums just don't see how cost can be justified long term.

If I bought the ingredients in the supermarket individually it would be at least 50% less.

I know the whole point is paying for the convenience and not having to spend time shopping and meal prepping but the premium just seems sky high! We could afford it now if we wanted to but when I compare costs of 4-5 boxed meals for two vs what we'd get for same money in supermarket it seems insane!

I feel like I must be missing something as I know these boxes are really popular and I'm constantly bombarded by marketing messages for them - is it all just hype??

We've been using Gousto for a few years now.

I like that I don't have to think about meals and prepping. When the box arrives I sort in to containers for each meal and it's done.

I like the mental load being taken away.

Also I find I'm saving money by not popping to the shops. It makes cooking much easier

What do you mean "you're not really making anything"? It's not creative, no, but neither is following a recipe. The vast majority of day to day cooking isn't creative.

Personally I like a ready meal, but I can't get any that work for my family's dietary requirements, so Gousto is an alternative to my small repertoire of meals that work.

I generally hate everything about cooking from meal planning, buying ingredients, prepping, cooking and clearing up. The whole thing is a chore to me.
So these boxes take away the first two aspects, and reduce the third and last (as the portions are already worked out, you may just need to do a bit of chopping and mixing).
The good thing is that the recipe cards have ingredients listed as well as the recipe so you can easily recreate the ones you enjoyed eating and didn’t mind cooking so much.

Also less waste as you have just the right amount of ingredients generally. Sometimes I do find the portions, say of rice or pasta , too much for

You'd be surprised how many people have plenty of money and don't care about spending the extra for convenience.

I found hello fresh really overrated. The meals weren't very nice, although I'm coeliac which restricts me a lot. Definitely not worth it even with a discount code.

Me.
I don’t enjoy meal planning, I don’t enjoy cooking, and I don’t want to be creative. This allows me to eat a relatively healthy meal, that I haven’t had to spend more than 5 minutes thinking about.

I’d have once per week if they weren’t so expensive.

I prefer Simply Cook because I like to be able to choose good ingredients and I found the others weren't the freshest.

But the meals are lovely. We have one a week as a treat.

*If I bought the ingredients in the supermarket individually it would be at least 50% less."

But you're not just paying for the ingredients, are you? You're paying for someone to devise the recipe, source the ingredients, assemble them in the correct quantities, pack them, in packaging which also has to be paid for, and deliver them to you. Do you think the people who do all that don't get paid? Then there's maintaining and updating the website, dealing with customer queries and complaints, finance and accounts, staff payroll, and everything else that goes with running a business that has to be paid for, before there's any sniff of a profit.

I have never used them but I have always assumed they are for cash rich time poor people, and as such, a reas decision

Reasonable decision

Very few people can cook as well as Gousto makes the dinners, I know, having eaten at people's houses for a couple of decades. You are paying for the convenience, the wide variety and the chance to try new things- if you can make exactly the same cheaper, then do that!

They are great if you have never cooked. Friend is teaching himself to cook family dinners. He found meal planning and shopping totally daunting so this take s pressure off his partner

We cook a lot so have tons of store cupboard ingredients. Tried it and ‘ok’ but they don’t easily cater for gluten allergy and portions a tad small/no leftovers whereas I batch and freeze. Good for variety but overall not for me.

Well you're paying for the food. But then you're paying for the offices, all the staff, someone to plan the menus, someone to pack it all, make the cards that go with it, maintain the app if there is one, the website, HR etc it all adds up!

Plus i don’t always like the quality of the meat.

I use gusto and love it, for me it is totally worth it, planning what to make, working out what I need, going to the shop to get the ingredients is a real pain for me. It also encourages me to make new things & saves me buying a tub of sour cream for 2 spoonful's then throwing the tub out.

Well, I for one find cooking to be pretty joyless - and the thinking part is the biggest chore. At least with something prepackaged it takes away (pardon the pun) the daily "what are we going to have for dinner?" conundrum.

Yes to Simply Cook, they're brilliant (and cheaper than the others).

when you think about the cost of packaging, staffing to pack and deliver, the marketing, the cost of discount coupons....
of course it's more expensive than buying the ingredients from the supermarket

I have used Gusto and Hello Fresh once a week. I’m a perfectly decent cook, but life is busy and I am so bored of deciding what to cook for dinner. My two evenings off of just mindlessly cooking what’s in front of me are a real break- for us it’s an alternative to eating out, which we almost never do. It’s helped the kids broaden their palettes and several of the recipes have entered the rotation of meals I cook regularly. Also have ordered boxes on UK self catering holidays where we don’t necessarily want to eat out every day but definitely don’t have well stocked cupboards.

Have you heard of cherrypick? I used it ages ago when it was called lollypop (I think). It does meal planning for you. You pick the recipes and it adds the ingredients to your online supermarket shop. You can then remove any ingredients you already have and can add on whatever else you need. It's a but of a halfway house but keeps the costs down as you're buying from the supermarket like usual. There are various subscription levels but I can't remember the cost and I haven't used it since it changed to cherrypick so can't fully verify it but sounds like it's a cheaper option.

This is exactly what we do. I don’t really enjoy cooking and it’s full of short cuts you can take for prep and cooking time which I wouldn’t have thought of. We’ve had a break for a few months now but will probably go back to it.

They are expensive but cost effective to people who madly shop without meal planning and therefore waste lots. I'm pretty good about using things up but it was all the plastic that put me off. Lots of tiny packets of eg chilli flakes or oregano. Would rather they listed a few common herbs and spices to buy for their popular meals then they added the main vegetables and meat.

We have EveryPlate in Australia (it’s Hello Fresh but cheaper, same company) and we love it.

Its definitely cheaper than regular shopping and the portion sizes work for 4 adults. I love the reduced mental load and it genuinely saves me time.

My only issue is they never send enough garlic!!