Are Meal Kits Worth Your Money?

Please note this post is not sponsored.

The pandemic saw an explosion in demand for meal-delivery services. With people being cooped-up at home pretty much 24/7, juggling work, home-schooling and domestic life became increasingly challenging.

Many of us turned to a meal subscription service to avoid catching Covid.

Fast forward 4 years and soaring grocery prices, do meal subscriptions still save time? And are they really worth the money?

Over the years, I’ve tried most of meal kits providers in Canada: Hello Fresh, Chefs Plate, Make Good Food and a bunch of local ones.

I’ve seen a lot of changes over the year, and not necessarily for the better.

First, What is a Meal Subscription Service?

When you subscribe to a meal delivery service, you agree to a schedule of ingredient deliveries right to your door step. Within these boxes, you’re getting everything you need to complete the meals.

It means that your meats, pastas, vegetables, and any other necessary ingredients for cooking will come right to your door in a cooler-style package. These boxes also come with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare the meals.

What I Liked About the Meal Kits I Tried

• Good choice of recipes: Most providers offer enough variety for most palates and dietary preferences/requirements.
• Delivered to your door; you don’t need to be there. Some providers offer Saturday delivery.
• I enjoyed the meals for the most part. They were tasty and satisfying.
• Limited food waste.
• Their platforms are easy to use: from ordering to skipping deliveries and cancelling the subscription, everything is straightforward.

What I Didn’t Like About the Meal Kits I Tried

• The recipes are very basic: this can actually be both a good and a bad thing. A lot of offerings are based on pasta, rice, potatoes, salads…You can buy the groceries and create these meals yourself, for a fraction of the price meal kits providers charge you.
• More elaborate or higher quality recipes cost more.
• Sometimes, the total portions were insufficient/too small.
• Meal-prep takes a lot of time: nothing is prepped and pre-portioned. You have to do all the work! This is what I least liked. You won’t save any time. It used not to be that way. All ingredients used to be prepped and portioned.
• Some waste with spices: the quantities of certain spices are too big, resulting in waste.
• Quality of ingredients left much to be desired, at times. Some vegetables didn’t look that great on a few occasions.
• I received a few packages where some ingredients were missing!

Verdict: Not Worth it For Me

At an average of CAD$ 12.00 per serving-at the time of writing, without a promo code-, I find the level of quality of ingredients and types of recipes are not worth that price. Not to mention I had to do all the prep work!

Even with a promo code, the price per serving is too high for what I got. And it didn’t make up for the lack of convenience either….which is what a meal subscription service is supposed to provide.

Who are meal kits for?

• People who eat-out a lot: if you’re constantly surfing Skip The Dishes or Uber Eats, you may want to give it a try. It will save you some money and some inches on your waistline.
• People who have a hectic schedule and don’t have time to figure-out their meals.
• People who really don’t know how to cook and want to learn/get started.
• People who can actually afford the cost and don’t mind spending the money on this.

And remember that most meal kits companies don’t provide breakfasts, fresh fruits, snacks and beverages. You have to buy and pay for these as well.