Years ago, I remember receiving a postcard in the mail to get my first meal from HelloFresh for free. It sounded super appealing. At the time, I didn’t have children and I was tired of having to do the whole meal planning, grocery shopping, and making dinner every single night. It felt like I was in a rut.
The recipes sounded amazing, so I opted in and tried it. It was fun to get a recipe that I had never tried before and I loved that everything was packaged precisely to what I needed. The cooking took longer than I expected, but it felt like a fun adventure in the kitchen – and it was right at my doorstep!
I never became a subscriber, for a few different reasons that I’ll get into detail later. Meal planning has always been a better fit for my lifestyle, budget, and goals.
Life looks a lot different now that I’m older and a mom, where I don’t need one more thing on my plate even if it is something cool or adventurous. Which is why we built Weekly Table.
So, let’s get into it: are meal kits still worth the hype and the price tag?
What to Know About Meal Kits
Let’s be real, meal kits wouldn’t be around to this day if they weren’t doing something for someone.
They promise convenience.
They help switch things up during the midweek dinner slump.
And, they give you everything you need – packaged and ready to go. Delivered to your front door step, so you literally don’t have to do anything but cook and eat.
There are some things to consider if you are going down the path of meal kits like HelloFresh. Often times, there are some affordable promotions that make it quite appealing – whether you are a busy professional or a family looking for some variety. Once the promotions end, the per portion cost (upwards of $10 per serving) can be quite expensive – especially for a larger family.
The perfectly curated ingredients make everything easy, but they present some challenges. What if something doesn’t turn out or you spill some (very common reality in my home!)? Some who have used meal kits complain about the portion sizes, which also make it hard to have leftovers to keep lunches affordable and easy the next day.
On top of that, it’s one more thing for people who are already overextended to manage. Another subscription that must be skipped, or you get charged. Only this time, you get charged for perishable items that you will not use – and thus, you see your money go straight into the garbage.
Cost Breakdown: The Real Numbers
We did some digging into the cost of HelloFresh. At the time of the writing of this blog, for three meals for four people per week, each serving costs $11.29. This is for the family favorites, prepared in under 20 minutes with meats and vegetables.
While promos cut that in half for your first delivery, you quickly go back to full price – running more than $540 a month for just three dinners a week.
Compare that to cooking with real groceries:
- The average home-cooked meal for a family of four costs roughly $3.50 to $4.00 per serving – even less if you shop store brands or buy in bulk.
- For those exact same 12 meals a month, buying your own groceries costs roughly $170 to $190. That’s over $350 in savings every single month.
When you factor in your Weekly Table subscription, you add about 50 cents per planned meal. Because our automated grocery lists eliminate impulse buys and food waste, users see their overall grocery bills drop up to 30%.
And the true difference between meal kits and Weekly Table go far beyond just the dollars spent at the grocery store.
Try Weekly Table, On Us.
Your 14-day free trial gets you started. Use code ITSONUS at checkout and get a full month, free. That’s six weeks of getting your evenings back.
The Flexibility Factor (Your Food, Your Rules)
We’ve all been at the grocery store with a family member or a friend, who picks up a different brand than what we typically buy. Maybe you don’t say anything, or maybe you argue it. When we grocery shop, we lean on our favorites and preferences to guide our decisions.
Meal kits don’t give you the option to choose your favorite brands. You don’t have the option to control the spice level (after all, Midwest spicy is much different than Texas spicy!). And, if you do have to manage around allergies, it makes it challenging to know with absolute certainty that nothing has been contaminated.
There is also the unpredictable reality of family schedules. Some nights, soccer practice runs late. A partner works through dinner. Or your kid pulls a face and refuses to eat what’s on the table. Meal kits lock you into rigid two- or four-serving boxes. If youre plans change, that gets expensive.
With Weekly Table, you get flexibility.
- Adjust serving sizes within your account, and by recipe, so you can cook for three people on Tuesday or six when friends visit on Friday.
- Buy the ingredients that your household actually likes and loves – your grocery list tells you what to buy, and organizes by category, so you can pick your preferences in the store.
- Add notes to your recipes, making it easy to swap out proteins, adjust seasonings, or cater to food sensitivities without having to figure it out every cooking attempt.
How Weekly Table Replaces the Magic of Meal Kits
The true appeal of meal kit delivery services like HelloFresh was never the insulated box. It was always the mental relief of not having to answer what’s for dinner every single night.
Weekly Table gives you that exact freedom, but built around real life. And real life routines.
Within Weekly Table, you have the option to upload your favorite recipes – but you also have the option to browse our library of mom-tested recipes. More than 100 of our favorites recipes are in the library, organized by category and giving you an option to expand your digital recipe box without having to mine through untrusted (or AI) recipes on the internet.
From there, your weekly meal plan is automatically delivered. Each week, your meal plan gets built and emailed to you. Give it a quick thumbs up. An instant, categorized grocery list makes it easy to shop for your ingredients. All that’s left? Cooking – which doesn’t feel overwhelming like it does when you spent several hours before thinking about what you should make.
For Weekly Table users, Weekly Table takes on the deciding and delivers the meal plans. No need to manage an extra subscription so random ingredients don’t show up at your doorstep. No need to spend three times more per serving for convenience.
If you’re someone who never wants to step into the grocery store, a meal kit service like HelloFresh works great. But, if you’re a busy professional or family that simply wants to end the stress around meals – while still getting flexible meal plans and saving money along the way – Weekly Table is a clear choice.
Start your free trial of Weekly Table today and see how easy real meal planning can be.
