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Spent $120 on a meal prep service that was pointless | Budgeting Wins - Opinions Matter

Spent $120 on a meal prep service that was pointless

Honestly I thought meal prep boxes would save me money and time. I signed up for one of those services where they send you ingredients and recipes every week. After three weeks I realized I was spending way more than just buying groceries myself. The portions were small and I still had to cook everything which took the same amount of time. The kicker was when I added up the cost per meal it came out to like $14 each. That's restaurant prices for food I had to prepare myself. I cancelled after the first month and lost about $120 total. Has anyone else tried these and felt ripped off?

3 comments

3 Comments

simons285mo ago

Oh man, $14 per meal is steep. @xena_fox39 you're learning to cook which is cool but for folks who already know their way around a kitchen these boxes really are just expensive convenience.

phoenix1985mo ago

Six months of HelloFresh and you're still calling yourself a terrible cook? That's the real kicker right there. People sign up for these services thinking they're buying a solution, but really they're just paying a middleman to hand them the same problem with a pretty box. It's like gym memberships in January, everyone buys the equipment or the prepped meals and convinces themselves this time will be different because they spent money. Then life happens, schedules get tight, and suddenly you're staring at a pile of overpriced garlic butter and wondering why you didn't just grab a frozen pizza. The pattern is everywhere: we pay to feel like we're taking control, but the actual work of cooking or exercising or whatever never goes away, it just costs more now.

xena_fox395mo ago

Wait, did you actually cook all the meals or were you just throwing the ingredients in the trash? Ngl, I've been using HelloFresh for like six months and it's been a lifesaver for me. I'm a terrible cook and having everything pre-portioned means I don't waste food or money on random stuff I never use. Yeah, it's $12 a meal, but that's less than takeout and I'm actually learning how to make stuff I'd never try on my own. Tbh, if you can't be bothered to use the service properly, that's not really the company's fault.