We did one for a while... can't remember which one. The ingredients were always decent and the meals were generally good. My wife kept all of the recipe cards and now we source the ingredients and make them ourselves.

It was a decent way to force us to try some things that were out of our standard rotation of meals.

Another upside to the Hello Fresh meals is many come with unique sauces in packets which contain just enough needed for the recipe. To make these meals otherwise you would need to buy bottles of these sauces or the ingredients to make your own. Either of which usually winds up in waste.

The portions were just right for the wife and I. Kept you from over eating and no leftovers. We are usually not great at using leftovers.

We're constantly adding new recipes to our routine and trying things out so no, we'll probably never use on of these services.

Besides, it can't be anywhere near as cheap as doing it yourself if you consider their labor costs and shipping and packaging costs.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
We're constantly adding new recipes to our routine and trying things out so no, we'll probably never use on of these services.

Besides, it can't be anywhere near as cheap as doing it yourself if you consider their labor costs and shipping and packaging costs.

Each 2 person serving came out to about $10 per serving. You certainly are not going out to eat for that and a trip to the grocery store and time spent shopping probably easily adds up to $10 a serving if you are preparing a entree of the same kind you get with these delivered meals. Besides back when we were using it was the height of the mask silliness and it was worth it to stay out of the stores and avoid all that drama.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
We're constantly adding new recipes to our routine and trying things out so no, we'll probably never use on of these services.

Besides, it can't be anywhere near as cheap as doing it yourself if you consider their labor costs and shipping and packaging costs.

We've found it's very economical actually. We use Hello Fresh and love it. It's not a good deal if you tend to cook the same things over and over, but we like to try new things all the time. I've got a pretty extensive spice collection, but I see stuff all the time I want to cook and end up having to buy $20 worth of herbs and spices to make it in addition to the main ingredients. I end up leaving the grocery store with $40 in that one meal.

We find the portions are perfect for us, but that wouldn't have been true a few years ago before my metabolism slowed down. I eat a little more than half, my fiancée eats a little less than half. There are no leftovers, but neither of us walks away hungry either.

They source their ingredients locally, so YMMV on produce freshness. Ours has always been so good we wish we could buy it separately- it's typically better than what we find in the grocery stores around here. On the rare occasions something is left out or isn't good, we call them and they have always taken care of us quickly and without hassle.

we looked in to several of them but they were all out of range for us,
I live in a semi rural part of the county just outside of the delivery area

I did notice a few days ago that a neighbor has one them,, not sure if delivered home or not, I'll have to ask,
found the box in my yard after a windy morning , blew it out of the recycle bin,,

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Each 2 person serving came out to about $10 per serving. You certainly are not going out to eat for that and a trip to the grocery store and time spent shopping probably easily adds up to $10 a serving if you are preparing a entree of the same kind you get with these delivered meals. Besides back when we were using it was the height of the mask silliness and it was worth it to stay out of the stores and avoid all that drama.

We mostly don't eat out except for when we're traveling, but I guarantee you we don't spend anywhere near $10.00/meal plus shipping.

I've done the math numerous times over the years and while it continues to go up, it's nowhere near those numbers, perhaps 2/3 of that is what we pay. At $10.00/meal, 2 people eating twice a day it would cost $960.00/month plus shipping to eat these prepared meals, so call it a thousand. In addition, while I've never eaten them I guarantee you they don't have the same quality of meat that we're buying. The places selling these things are in the business of making a profit and that demands lesser quality meats.

OTOH, we buy virtually all our meat in the Managers Special section, usually 40% off their normal price and we buy the rest in the BOGO or BOG3 sales when they come up and freeze the majority of it.

Edited to add:

Wanted to make sure I wasn't full of feces on my prices, so I just went through January's credit card statement for the card we use for food. We spent a total of $486.00 on food for that month and that includes condiments like mustard, ketchup, salt, papper, pickles for Hamburgers, napkins, paper plates, all of that stuff. I didn't subtract the rewards as I didn't consider it very significant for this post, but obviously I was pessimistic when I said we were eating for 2/3 of what prepared cost. It was more like half and I want to add one more thing. We eat steak around 8 meals a month every month, and it's strictly Tenderloins, Rib Eye and New York Strips, none of the cheaper cuts.

We've not tried this service. My wife is excellent at planning meals. None are expensive. Staples are; Soup and salad, taco's with some sides, breakfast for dinner, burgers on the grill, steak on the week end, and a chicken with sides. Pork chops on the grill, Italian day, some sort of pasta, meat and cheese. One day is fish, usually salmon, and sometimes just a simple fish sandwich with frozen fish filets with a slice of cheese. We order out 2 - 3 times a month.. maybe a pizza or a salad from the salad drive through we have near us. I guess with being retired with a bit of time, and somewhat picky eaters, this meal service deal would just not fit our life style at this point.

My wife and I started with the meal kits at the start of Covid and liked it so much we continued. We do 5-6 meals a week, and in the past used to cook 3-4 meals a week and go out to nice restaurants 3-4 nights a week. So it ends up being very economical compared to even buying the ingredients in the grocery store.

We rotate through Marley Spoon, Hello Fresh, and Blue Apron. Generally we do Marley Spoon for the entire week 2 out of 3 times. Marley spoon has the best selection, no upcharge meals, and great recipes. The other times we'll do 2 different companies. We love it and when you factor in the fresh spices and ingredients, it's hard to make the same dish for the same money.

I generally eat 2/3 and my wife eats 1/3 of the meals, but other times 1/2 and 1/2 depending on the dish. But the variety is so good, we don't even want to go out to eat anymore, unless it's something we can't make at home such as sushi.

I'd suggest anyone to try it, the first few weeks are virtually free almost with offers and you can cancel at anytime and try all of them..... It comes out to about $120 for 6 nights of dinners for 2 people.

Sunbasket here. We do 2/week..
I agree with tatortodd, don’t get their steak- not worth it.
I do get pollock pieces and fry them up for the little guy. We shut the service off every time we go out of town, and I don’t use it nearly as much in summer because I grill quite a bit then, but winters when we have youth sports commitments at least 3 nights/week after work, it can be a godsend.