I Compared 3 Meal Kit Services With the Cost of Groceries in 2024 | Global News Avenue

Recent survey data, including CNET’s ownshowing that groceries remain the biggest source of price shock for U.S. shoppers. These sticky high prices egg, bacon and bread Leaving us wondering where the best food deals for 2024 are hiding, we might have found them in an unexpected place — meal kits.

Meals, once considered a splurge, have not yet reached the same levels of inflation as typical groceries. What’s the reason? Meal kit services cannot afford to lose customers by raising prices. The result? Compared to the cost of purchasing the same groceries, meal kits are more cost-effective than ever.

You may have considered meal kit services such as per plate, blue apron or hello fresh To save time, but you may not think it can also save you money. To understand this, I did the math to see how much a meal kit would actually cost in 2024 compared to buying groceries at a regular supermarket.

It turns out that it’s not just meal kits Affordable by 2024but some recipes cost the same or even cheaper than grocery shoppingdepending on the service you requested.

Here are the details and how I got these numbers.

How did I calculate

To get an idea of ​​how much it costs to make meals from Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and EveryPlate, I listed the ingredient prices for two real recipes included in the standard subscription.

When choosing groceries, I used the cheapest versions of the same or similar ingredients I could find at Shop-Rite, a budget grocery store in my area. Since meal kit recipes only include the quantities of ingredients needed, I prorate the cost based on the quantities you actually use for the recipe, not the full price of the bottle, jar, box, or bag.

I choose basic non-organic options unless otherwise stated on the meal kit recipe card or website.

How I choose my recipes

If you are looking for meal kits as value propositionyou have to choose the recipe you choose wisely. Cooking steak, chicken, and fish at home tends to be more expensive than plant-based options, so I specifically choose recipes that contain these proteins. (I also recommend taking advantage of them if you’re signing up for a service).

Not all services offer free steak recipes, but HelloFresh and Blue Apron do. Blue Apron typically offers at least one fairly high-end cut of beef, e.g. sirloin steak No additional charge required.

HelloFresh offers one to two beef recipes per week, but usually cheaper cutting Like chuck steak. Basic HelloFresh Seafood selection is limited but I found one Barramundi Recipe On this week’s menu, except Ranch Steak with Caesar Salad.

Affordable services like EveryPlate typically don’t offer steak or seafood, which is how they keep prices down for consumers. For my EveryPlate analysis, I chose Cherry Beef Balls and Pork Chops recipe.

Blue Apron presents best value

blue apron Has the most high end of the three recipes I chose to analyze. I chose a recipe that featured sirloin steak and another that featured fresh steelhead trout fillets.

When I priced the groceries used to make these meals, they came in at $11.26 and $8.23, respectively, for an average price of $9.75 per serving. It turns out that buying both meals at the supermarket is more expensive than the $8 per serving on the largest (cheapest) Blue Apron plan.

Sounds great, and Blue Apron’s largest plan offers up to five meal kits of four servings per week, which may be practical for most people. If you choose the more reasonable plan (assuming four servings of each of the three meal recipes), the price jumps to $9.50 per serving. That’s still cheaper than the cost of buying groceries, but just a little bit cheaper.

Combined with the $11 weekly delivery fee, Blue Apron’s cost is slightly higher than the cost of buying groceries, but only by a small margin. When you consider the convenience meal kits offer, there’s no doubt that Blue Apron isn’t a good deal in 2024.

HelloFresh is the worst value of the three

hello fresh Probably the most popular package service, it’s also the worst value of the three. I chose the barramundi recipe and the beef shoulder steak combo to compare with local grocery prices.

By my calculations, HelloFresh meal kits cost only $6.55 Buy groceries per serving and cook your own meals. That’s about $3.50 cheaper than HelloFresh’s cheapest meal plan ($10 per serving), and that’s before taking into account the $11 weekly delivery fee. If you spread the shipping costs over two or three packages, the actual cost per portion is more like $11 to $12.

HelloFresh may have one of the largest weekly meal kit menus and a user-friendly ordering interface, but it turns out that in 2024, the popular service doesn’t offer as high a value as some other meal kit companies.

EveryPlate is a great deal, about the same as buying groceries

for each plate When ordered a la carte at the grocery store, two combo meals cost $4.98 and $5.82, with an average price of $5.40. That’s only 60 cents less than the price per serving of the EveryPlate meal kit, which is $6 no matter which plan you choose.

Add in the $10 per box shipping fee, and the cost of the meal kits goes up slightly, but is still about the same price as buying all the groceries yourself.

EveryPlate’s prix fixe menu doesn’t feature much in the way of steak or seafood, so you can expect more budget-friendly proteins like chicken, ground beef and pork chops. EveryPlate meals are simple and satisfying to make, making them our top pick for the best cheap meal kit services of 2024.

To get the most out of food delivery services, check out my guide Hacking Food Delivery Subscription Services in 2024.