I compared 3 meal packages with the cost of groceries in 2024

Recent survey data, including from CNET, shows that groceries remain the biggest cause of sticker shock among U.S. shoppers. These sticky high prices continue eggs, bacon And bread we’re wondering where the good food deals are hiding in 2024, and we may have found them in an unlikely place: meal kits.

Meal kits, once considered a splurge, have not seen the same level of inflation as typical groceries. The reason? Meal kits cannot afford to lose customers by jacking up prices. The result? Meal kits are a better deal than ever compared to the cost of buying the same groceries.

You may have thought about a meal kit service, such as Every plate, Blue apron or HelloFris to save time, but you probably didn’t think it would save you money. To see this, I did the math to see how much meal kits will actually cost in 2024 compared to buying groceries at an average supermarket.

It turns out it’s not just about meal kits payable in 2024but some recipes are just as expensive or even cheaper than shoppingdepending on the service you enable.

Here’s an overview and how I came up with these numbers.

How I calculated

To see how much Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and EveryPlate meals cost to make, I calculated the ingredients for two real recipes included with a standard subscription.

When choosing groceries, I used the cheapest version of the same or a similar ingredient I could find at Shop-Rite, a budget-friendly grocery store near me. Because meal kit recipes only contain the required amount of ingredients, I prorated the cost based on the amount you would actually use for a recipe, rather than the full price of the bottle, jar, box or bag.

I chose simple, non-organic products, unless otherwise stated on the recipe card or website of the meal kit.

How I chose the recipes

If you are looking for meal kits like value propositionyou have to be smart about the recipes you choose. Steak, chicken and fish are usually more expensive to prepare at home than plant-based meals, so I specifically chose recipes that include these proteins. (I also recommend you take advantage of this if you sign up for a service).

Not all services include steak recipes without a surcharge, but HelloFresh and Blue Apron do. Blue Apron typically offers at least one fairly high-end beef cut sirloin steak at no extra cost.

HelloFresh offers one or two beef recipes per week, but usually it’s one cheaper cut like chuck steak. Seafood options are limited with a simple HelloFresh, but I found one Barramundi recipe on this week’s menu, next to the ranch steak with Caesar salad.

Budget-friendly services, including EveryPlate, typically don’t offer steak or seafood, keeping consumer prices low. For my EveryPlate analysis I chose one cherry beef meatball And chop recipe.

Blue Apron offers the best value

Blue apron has the highest quality recipes of the three I chose to analyze. I chose a recipe with sirloin steak and another recipe with fresh trout fillets.

When I paid for the groceries to make these meals, they came to $11.26 and $8.23 respectively, with an average price of $9.75 per serving. Both meals turned out to be more expensive to buy at the grocery store than the $8 per serving cost for the largest (cheapest) Blue Apron plan.

As good as that sounds, Blue Apron’s largest plan consists of as many as five meal kits per week with four servings each, and is probably practical for most people. If you choose a more reasonable plan – let’s say three meal recipes with four servings each – the price per serving jumps to $9.50. That’s still cheaper than the cost of buying the groceries, but only by a little.

Add in the $11 weekly shipping fee and the Blue Apron creeps up on the cost of buying the groceries, but only slightly. When you look at the convenience that a meal kit provides, it’s hard to argue that Blue Apron isn’t a good value in 2024.

HelloFresh was the worst value of the three

HelloFris may be the most popular meal kit service, but it was also the worst value of the three. I chose a barramundi recipe and a chuck steak meal kit to compare with local supermarket prices.

By my calculations, HelloFresh meal kits would only cost $1 $6.55 per portion to do the shopping and make the meals yourself. That’s about $3.50 cheaper than HelloFresh’s cheapest meal plan at $10 per serving, and that’s all before you factor in the $11 weekly delivery fee. If you were to spread the shipping costs over two or three meal kits, the actual cost per serving would be closer to $11 to $12.

HelloFresh may have one of the largest weekly meal kit menus and an easy-to-use ordering interface, but it turns out the popular service doesn’t offer as much value in 2024 as some other meal kit companies.

EveryPlate is a good deal, about the same as buying groceries

From every record two meal kits cost $4.98 and $5.82 when purchased a la carte at the grocery store, which averages out to $5.40. That’s just 60 cents less than the per-serving price of EveryPlate’s meal kits, which cost $6 per serving regardless of which plan you choose.

Add in the $10 shipping fee per box and the cost for the meal kit goes up a bit, but it’s still about the same price as buying all the groceries yourself.

EveryPlate’s meal kit menus don’t include much steak or seafood, so you can expect more budget-friendly proteins like chicken, ground beef, and pork chops. EveryPlate meals are also easy to make and satisfying, making it our best cheap meal kit service in 2024.

To get the most out of your meal delivery business, check out my guide to hacking a meal delivery subscription in 2024.