Is meal-kit delivery still worth the cost?

Meal-kit subscriptions boomed in popularity in 2020, when more people were staying home and cooking than going out to eat during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies such as HelloFresh, Blue Apron and EveryPlate catered to customers looking for healthy meals with more variety, made with pre-portioned ingredients shipped to their door.

But now that restaurants and supermarkets are back to business as usual, some meal-kit users are wondering if their subscription is still worth the cost — especially after the promotional offers are gone.

Excluding promotions, meals generally run between $6 to $12 per serving, putting the cost on par with some takeout options.

For some customers, the most important factor in deciding whether to use a meal kit is the price. A subscription may cost more or less than you would typically spend on ingredients, depending on your budget for groceries and dining out, and household size.

"The intro offer pricing was equivalent to my usual weekly grocery budget, but a full-price box wasn't," said Nadia Russell, a health care analyst. She enjoyed the convenience and variety her subscription offered, but she canceled after the promotional period due to the cost increase.

"I could spend the same amount at the grocery store for a week's worth of groceries," said Emily Bird, an administrator for a music distribution company, about the cost of a weekly meal kit package.

But if you would otherwise be purchasing takeout or going to a restaurant, a meal kit could be a cheaper option. It could also be a more appealing option for a larger household: Most services offer a discount for a higher number of servings.

"I like to cook and try new recipes," said Christina McNichol, a full-time nanny. "It's way more expensive to try to make elaborate recipes when you have to buy all the ingredients separately; with a meal kit, I could pick my meals ahead of time and get the exact amount I needed."

Others benefit from the convenience of having pre-portioned ingredients delivered.

"I moved to a new city this year and didn't have a car, so I wasn't able to access groceries easily," said Russell, the health care analyst. "Using a meal-kit service for the first few weeks allowed me to cook a variety of meals at home without relying on someone else to help me get to the store."

If grocery shopping is too time-consuming or difficult to access, a meal-kit subscription can help ensure you are not sacrificing the variety or nutritional value of your food in exchange for convenience.

Cooking at home — without a meal kit — typically involves finding creative ways to reuse available ingredients throughout the week, resulting in meals with repeating elements or leftovers to limit food waste (think a fish and rice dinner, followed by fish tacos the next day). With meal kits, you can get a wider variety of meals without ending up with leftovers or extra items, since ingredients are divided into smaller amounts than what you would find in a grocery store.

"I definitely wasted less food," said McNichol. "Some of the recipes included ingredients I don't usually cook with, which would typically go bad if I couldn't use them for another meal."