Meal Kit Boxes: Yes Please or No Thanks?

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Sometimes there are little splurges that make all the difference in your life and a few of my team members are big fans of meal kits. Honestly, I just haven’t embraced these yet. It seems like a lot of money and it makes my deal lovin’ heart panic a little to think of paying full price for items I still have to take the time to prepare.

However, quite a few team members love the convenience, love being able to try new recipes that they wouldn’t try otherwise, and also love that nothing goes to waste since the ingredients are all perfectly portioned for each recipe.

With that said, I’m excited to let you all know that a few team members and I will be trying out THREE different meal boxes on a Facebook live tonight! 😮

Can they convince me that it’s worth the money?

Follow along on our Facebook Live Video HERE to see what we’re cooking up and how the whole process goes.

Want to grab a box of your own?

Marley & Spoon

Save a whopping $30 off your first box when you click through this link. There is no promo code needed – just click the yellow “Claim My Offer” button and the discount will be applied at checkout.

If you choose the 2 person plan for 2 meals per week, your total will be only $18 shipped after the $30 credit – that’s less than $5 per person per meal, which is a GREAT deal considering you’ll get things like grass-fed beef, Berkshire pork, American-caught shrimp, and artisan cheeses for your recipes! YUM!


Blue Apron

Blue Apron is currently offering new customers $40 off your first two boxes delivered straight to your doorstep!

To order, go here and click on the “Redeem Offer” link at the top and enter your email address. Next choose the 2-person plan where you’ll receive $20 off your first week at checkout and pay only $31.95 shipped (regularly $59.94) for TWO different recipes with enough food to feed 2 people per recipe.


Home Chef

Home Chef is offering $30 off your first box for new subscribers. Click on the link and  you’ll pay just $19.80 shipped for your first box.

I was excited about Home Chef as this one gives you the option to select low carb meals, perfect for my Keto lifestyle.


Note that all of these offers are for new subscribers only and you will be subscribing to future deliveries. BUT, you can cancel at any time. So try out a box and cancel if you don’t love it! Note that the Blue Apron offer requires the purchase of two boxes.

Have you tried a meal kit? Have you found it worth the cost?
Join The Discussion

Comments 77

  1. MrsG

    We tried Marley spoon and hello fresh. We loved most of the recipes from both and the ease of it all (no measuring or shopping. But it was way too expensive for our family!

  2. ctw10050210

    They are completely worth the money…..with the promo codes. Without I would not buy because I can buy a weeks worth of meals for the price of one box. Awesome way to try new things though. I have even incorporated some of the foods I have made from the boxes into our meal rotation. Worth a try if nothing else.

  3. LinMar

    They sound great! I just can’t justify the cost.

  4. misssosoup

    I like hello fresh best. Otherz arrived ruined melted hot. Debating on trying pantryboy. The recipes are neat convenience along with the precut food.

  5. Abi

    I’ve tried Gobble and Blue Apron. I agree with other comments that these meal kits are too expensive without the promos. But with my busy day as a full-time working mom the convenience outweighed the cost to a certain degree. After trying for several months on both services, I realized that the quality of produce was not top notch, flavor was not great and it took longer than 30mins to prep. With those 3 cons, I stopped using and opted back to making home cooked meals.

  6. Mhambrick25

    I’ve tried a few of the services with half off promo codes. I did like the convenience of not having to think about what to fix for dinner. The individual servings of spices and herbs is nice also. Blue Apron was our least favorite, Hello Fresh is good and I think the most affordable, Home Chef had the best quality food/recipes. We would only order again with a promo code. On that note Kroger Prep+Pared meals are good too and they are bogo until 5/15!

    • Amanda

      What are these meals from Kroger you speak of?! I haven’t seen those yet!

      • *Angela-Miles*

        They are located by the deli in a big refrigerated case. Start out at like 14 and some change

      • Gail

        The BOGO on the Kroger meals make them a reasonable deal. These are also good if you want to have an older child or teen learn to cook – the recipe and all ingredients are there. I still think I can make meals cheaper on my own but a new recipe is nice and you don’t have to buy special ingredients for something to try one time.

    • J

      Glad you like them so much. I work for one of the suppliers to make the kit. We are getting slammed with the BOGO going on but more than happy for all the work. All fruits and veggies we do . We never see the end product after they are boxed up . I was always wondering.. do you know if it says on the meal that has the black beans.. does it say that it’s Bushes low sodium? Just wondering since we have to special order them.

      J

  7. couponer

    Nice concept but not priced affordably. Might as well just go out to eat.

    • JA

      That’s what I said! For that price I still have to cook it and clean up? I’d rather go out.

  8. jo

    With our son having food allergies..I am a big no at buying them!but before my son I was all for it. If I could find a company that was just a food allergies special I would probably buy mybe .

    • AZinOZ

      Same here! I’ve looked into a few but can’t get the allergens out of the meals completely it seems.

  9. Carrie

    Kroger has 4-5 different meal boxes. We have tried two and they were great. They feed two people and range from $14-$18, but were BOGO this week.

  10. Michelle

    I LOVE them! They are a bit pricey but worth it to not have to hunt down ingredients in a store and still be able to try new and unique recipes. That really came in handy during the holiday season! If you are a Costco member, they have $100 in Blue Apron gift cards for $65 through the 13th!

  11. Taylor S.

    Waaayy too expensive! Food is great, but portions are small and I can not justify paying that much more just for “convenience”… even though I still have to go to the grocery store for every other meal for the week, so it doesnt really seem too beneficial.

  12. Ph

    Costco is supposed to start carrying blue apron at a reasonable price.

  13. Kim

    I have tried 5 different meal subscriptions companies and I have found that you are paying for the convenience. Recipes and ingredients are simple and, sure, you could probably handle the meal planning/prepping on your own and save money. However, when things get busy or motivation is lacking, isn’t it nice to just have what you need delivered to your home? I only order these meals when I know I won’t have time to meal plan and prep, like when I get back from a trip or I know I will be working overtime. There are so many subscription services that I never had to pay full price for any of them.

  14. angeld001

    I am way too picky to use any of these.

    • *Angela-Miles*

      Sounds just like my brother Lol. He will not eat hardly anything during family get togethers because he’s so freakin picky haha.

  15. brenda

    My sister tried Hello Fresh & then tried to cancel but they keep sending it & charging her. They gave me one of their meals because they had too many and not enough time to cook it before it spoiled. I liked the food but thought was way overpriced for small portion. I didn’t know about Kroger that seems more reasonable I would be willing to try that thanks for the info!

  16. Cat Lady

    Big no! Way too pricey and not worth it.

  17. KJo

    Ive tried blue apron and the meals were pretty tasty but I find that there is a lot of waste with these meal kits. I do think they’re getting better with using more recyclable materials but I wonder how much of it ends up I. The trash.

  18. Mothball

    I have tried Marley and Spoon, Home Chef, Blue Apron and GreenChef. If you are on Keto, they actually have an entire weekly Keto menu. That said, I personally love Blue Apron overall, but BEST meal was from Home Chef. 🙂

  19. Mothball

    GreenChef has the Keto menu if that post wasn’t clear. 🙂

  20. MAITE740

    No thanks, we are a large family and it comes out to expensive to feed 7! 😊

  21. Candace Parker

    We tried Gobble and Hello Fresh. I can’t justify paying full cost, because I can get at least a week’s worth of meals for the cost of one box, but it was fun to try. Gobble was really easy to cancel, and they sent me three emails over the course of one month showing what their current meal lineup was, and asking me to come back. Easy Peasy. Hello Fresh, on the other hand, I canceled online, and then got a phone call, and she WOULD NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER. She kept pushing and pushing, offering me $5 off one box, then two. Even when I told her that the food wasn’t our type, and told her I had to get off the phone. And she wouldn’t let me talk, she kept interrupting me and talking over me, until I finally just had to hang up on her. I understand she was probably under pressure not to talk no for an answer, but I don’t want to do business with somewhere that is going to try to railroad me.

  22. Amanda

    We’ve tried Hello Fresh and Home Chef. Hello fresh was our favorite! We did the veggie meals for some new ideas getting more veggies and loved every meal. Home Chef came late and missing or messed up items every single time.

  23. Nina

    I just don’t get this concept. With all the shopping options out there now and even home delivery of groceries couples with easy recipe ideas online and all over the place, this just sounds gimmicky to me, but hey there’s a customer for everything out there nowadays it seems. So to each his own.

  24. Casey

    I did hello fresh for 2 weeks at a discount (think it was 35/week) and it was well worth it for the discounted price. I found it easy enough to cancel, but I’d heard horror stories so I was careful. Haven’t been hassled. I heard from a co-worker that they try to get you back in with coupons, but I’ve yet to get any. Which is a shame, because that’s the only way I’ll come back. It’s just too much money otherwise. High quality food and I was very impressed with packaging.

  25. Xna

    OK I want to try these. Does any have a free box to give or special code. I remember a friend said she had credits to give away when she first did it. I forgot which subscription it was

  26. Mrs.W

    Meal boxes are not for me. I’m a stay at home mom who likes to save money on groceries and plan my own meals. However if I would be going to work everyday these boxes would be great!

  27. Kaylee

    I have tried blue apron and hello fresh with coupon codes that made them pretty affordable comparatively, but not as cheap as the store. Also, I have six kids and none come
    Close to feeding all of us so I had to supplement

  28. gabi

    Somewhat off topic…what brand are the stove and refrigerator used for cooking these meals (as featured in the video)?

    • Collin (Mrs. Hip)

      Hi Gabi! They are the Viking brand! 😉

  29. Jennifer Lopez

    We tried Hello Fresh. I was not impressed at all. We had a coupon to try it free so we paid nothing for three meals. Some of our veggies were rotten or wilted. I would not have purchased such low quality produce at my supermarket. The packaging was so over the top ridiculous. Not at all environmentally friendly. I can’t imagine feeling good about creating that much waste weekly. We enjoyed one of the three recipes but the other two just were not our style. The cost for these tiny meals and the huge amount of trash generated by the packaging made this a firm no for us.

  30. Brittany

    I tried Hello Fresh and loved almost every meal we tried. I couldn’t justify the cost though and had to cancel.

  31. Miriam

    If something is going to be delivered to me, I’d rather it be a fully prepared meal like takeout. If I’m gonna dirty dishes and have to clean up, I might as well cook something simple and affordable myself. 🙂

  32. Alysha M.

    I really want to try Green Chef because it has a certified gluten free plan, but it’s almost $90 per box.

  33. Joni

    I know a lot of people are talking about how expensive it is and it is more than going to the store each week and meal planning. BUT it is less than going out to eat for me. My kids are young so I don’t have to buy 4 servings and one of my kids has sensory issues so she won’t eat much of anything. We use Home chef and it’s improved our quality of life. I’m not saying I’ll do it long term but for now it’s been a life changer. Yes, I’m paying for convenience but it saves me time and that’s worth it to me. My husband has gotten more confidence in cooking too so it’s been great for when he cooks dinner. I’m very curious about these Kroger boxes though! I might go check it out! They do sound more cost friendly!

  34. Sue

    We tried this for 6 months, the recipes are gross. They have weird ingredients that they don’t sell at my local grocery store. Multiple times the produce in my kit came moldy. And several times the eggs came broke. We chose to try blue apron. The price did not bother us. We bring restaurant food home almost every night to eat. There is not much cooking done at my house. My daughters catch the bus at 6:45 AM and their father is home at 5:15 they go to bed at 7:00 PM. Very little quality time for family. So we are restaurant junkies. Flip a coin family time or cook, clean up? Even if we had the time to cook more of these boxed dinners the food cooked has weird ingredients, that my 4 kids won’t eat. (more then half the time I ended up not eating it) the meals look yummy then you get it and it’s full of little weird ingredients. This is just our experience. These are probably great for people with lots of time on your hands and love to cook. Maybe great for single people with no kids? Good luck with your boxes also kroger carries their own selection of these.

  35. Bailey Dial

    I have tried a ton of these and love them! I only order when they send me a discount code. Its easy to skip weeks or cancel your subscription and there are several recipes to choose from. There is always plenty of food for myself, my husband & my two year old. It’s a great way to switch up and try new recipes. While its not cost efficient all of the time, its definitely affordable occasionally. My grocery bill is significantly less on the weeks they come!

  36. ecroston

    We’ve tried Hello Fresh and Home Chef, and Home Chef blows Hello Fresh out of the water. HF had odd ingredients, took like twice as long to make as it said it did, the veggies always came wilted or rotten already, and they had weird meals to choose from. The portions were tiny also and barely fed the two of us. I cancelled online and was bombarded for days, weeks afterwards.

    Home Chef is by far our favorite. The meals are similar to what we normally eat but different enough that we really enjoy it. The recipes are simple and quick; the ingredients are easy to find if you want to make the recipe again. We’ve actually added like 12 Home Chef meals into our regular rotation – that’s how much we like them. The portions are perfect for 2 adults and I’ve never had anything arrived spoiled. Sometimes the stuff is still frozen!

  37. Ann

    No Way & No Thanks!

  38. Mona

    So how can I see Hello Fresh’s menu choices without giving them all my info, including credit card?

  39. Mona

    I’m sorry, I mean Home Chef’s menu choices.

  40. Karen B.

    I won a Blue Apron gift card from a sweepstakes last year and I finally started using it last week. I just had surgery so it was wonderful to not have to plan meals for my family of 5. I bought the plan for 4 servings because I figured me a my youngest could share a serving. My husband and sons cooked the meals and they turned out great. I couldn’t believe it but we even had leftovers a few nights. It is expensive but it’s very convenient. I may continue to do a few meals a week after my gift card is used up.

    • rebecca

      i had a similar experience to you with portions. we tried 2 or 3 different ones of these services, and i have a family of 6. we only ordered the portion for 4 people, and we had leftovers each time. i think a couple times we added a bagged salad or a bit of extra rice to make it go further, but their ingredients (including meats, shrimp, veggies) were plentiful. we are average-sized eaters and my children are not too picky.

  41. Lisa

    We eat the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle, and I eat for my thyroid… so it won’t work. 🙁 Great concept, though!

  42. Sara

    I asked on FB if any friends had a Blue Apron free box offer to share and had a friend send me a link for 2 free meals. I was able to select 2 meals/4 person and both meals were enough for our family of 6 (with a few other items added in). My youngest daughter had a blast cooking with her dad! We tried some things that we normally wouldn’t try and the best part was I went through Swagbucks and earned 5500 SB back which equates to $55! So we got 2 free meals and got paid $55 to try them…can’t beat that! I’m looking forward to trying out some of the other companies when I can find a deal where there is little to no cost to try them out.

  43. Kristy

    The best meal boxes come from Sunbasket! Organic fresh produce and sources of protein. Packages is environmentally conscious and the box and ice pack can be recycled and composted. 16 meals to chose from each week with meals available for several unique diets!

    I love cooking with Sun Basket, and think you would, too. Click this link and get $40 off your first order.
    https://www.sunbasket.com/invite/Kristy1265400?utm_source=SMS_iphone&utm_medium=useremail&utm_campaign=referafriend

  44. Patricia Goff

    Right now my family is to large for the meals and the cost is to expensive. I bought from one company last year. The food was great but we forgot about the other meals in the fridge and weeks later had to toss them out. So was a waste of money in the end because of our stupidity. We never eat out but I do tend to throw stuff together when I get home from work so the one meal (used two meals because there is 7 of us) I made was pretty good. Without the codes to expensive especially if you forget what you have in the fridge. LOL

  45. LC

    I agree, way too expensive

  46. Suzanne H

    My family has tried Hello Fresh and Sun Basket. Hello Fresh had better recipes but the ingredients were so so quality wise. Sun Basket had high quality ingredients but frequently delivered late re: usually around 9 PM (resulting in the box sitting overnight on my porch) and their recipes were not that desirable. I ended up using the ingredients and making up my own dishes. My kid wouldn’t eat 99% of the recipes from either service. He’s pretty picky but neither seemed to be kid friendly either. Personally, while it’s convenient and I enjoyed making new things (with Hello Fresh), the costs were just too high.

  47. Flgrl017

    I’d go out to eat before I paid retail for a box of food that I had to prepare, cook, & clean up after.

    • Stace

      Agree!

  48. 5pink1blue

    Never used but my sister a trained chef has. She finds them expensive but a nice option when renting a house for vacation.

  49. Stace

    I do not think it is worth it, the quality of the products and price you can get much cheaper on your own.

  50. Maiyamac1

    We use home chef and Marley spoon rotating every other week and I actually feel like I save time and money.

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