Are Meal Delivery Plans Worth It?

The one thing we all need daily is food. Every household has a grocery budget, and if they don’t, they probably overspend at the store. Having meals delivered won’t eliminate shopping because it’s for meals only and doesn’t include breakfast, lunch, snacks, coffee, bread and milk.

Meal delivery plans aren’t for everyone and they’re certainly not for saving money on your shopping bill. You will pay a premium, but how much is too much?

It depends on what you value…

The Price for Convenience

Meal delivery plans save you time. You don’t need to plan a meal, go to the store to shop for ingredients, then prep them into the right quantities.

Meals are delivered with the prep work done and that can be a blessing in disguise because shopping for ingredients on any recipe list almost always involves buying more than you need. Like buying a whole garlic bulb when you only need a single clove.

The downside: You’ll almost never have leftovers. If you love a dish, don’t expect there to be enough to for seconds.

Great for Serving Size Control, Terrible for Leftovers

Where meal delivery plans really shine is for portion control. Especially, if you’re trying to figure out healthy eating for the first time.

All diet plans work by reducing calorie consumption. Food labels tell you the serving size but for dieters, there’s math involved. Take, for example, Honey Nut Cheerio’s… The nutrition label tells you the serving size is 28g and per container there's around 22 servings. All other nutrition facts on the food label are only applicable if you stick with 28g per serving.

Meal delivery plans eliminate guesswork. If you order a meal plan for two people, you’ll get enough ingredients for two servings. No more, no less.

It’s a great helper for your waistline, but that’s only applicable if you’re dieting and need help in the portion control department.

The thing with serving sizes is they are smaller than you’d be serving if you weren’t paying attention. In family homes, the leftovers can be in quantities big enough to make more meals. Like tossing it all in a pot with some pasta and adding sauce. Not all leftovers are food waste. Some can be repurposed into leftover meals.

Meal plans will eradicate waste food, because you’ll treasure every milligram of ingredients they send.

Are Meal Delivery Plans Worth It?

• For dieters, they can be.
• For an affordable date night once or twice a month that’s cheaper than dining out, for sure!
• For families needing to save some time on meal prep - yes.

Convenience, healthy eating, portion control and the fact that the recipes come included can make meal delivery plans worth it for those who need help with meal prep, either to eat more healthily or to save time planning meals, or shopping for individual ingredients that are of high quality.

With a meal delivery plan, it’s easier to have organic produce shipped to you fresh than it is (usually) to source locally and know it’s of high quality.

They aren’t a replacement for all your shopping, but they can be creatively used for the odd date night a few nights per month, a couple of months on a restricted carb diet, or to help ease you into portion control to get started on a healthy eating plan with the size of servings high on the agenda.