Wait, will meal kits be cheaper than groceries in 2024?

Meal Kits Help budding home cooks prepare healthy, tasty meals in no time. They're also fun, convenient and easy to use – but are meal kits really a good deal in 2024? If you are considering Blue Apron, HelloFresh or another popular meal subscription to save time and effort, we crunched the numbers to see how expensive – or cheap – these subscriptions are compared to inflated supermarket prices.

I tested every meal kit service (most of them two or three times) and my favorites in terms of flavor and ease of execution. In this exercise, I'm looking at the value offered by three popular services versus purchasing the same foods at a local supermarket.

To find the real cost of meal kits, I calculated the same price of groceries you would need to make meal kits from three of my favorite services: HelloFresh, Blue Apron and Each board. I then looked at the cost of the groceries needed to prepare each serving versus what these services are charging you.

Turns out it's not just meal kits accessible in 2024but some are actually cheaper than supermarket shopping. This is particularly true depending on the service you hire.

How I did the math

To see how much Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and EveryPlate meals cost, I calculated the price of ingredients for two real recipes that are included in a standard subscription.

When choosing groceries, I used the cheapest version of the same or similar ingredient that I found at Shop-Rite, a budget supermarket in my area. Because meal kit recipes only include the amount of ingredients needed, I prorated the cost by how much you would actually use in a recipe rather than by the total price of the bottle, jar, box, or bag.

I chose basic, non-organic items unless otherwise noted in the meal kit recipe card or on the website.

How I chose the recipes

If you're looking for meal kits like a value propositionyou'll have to be smart about the recipes you choose. Steak, chicken, and fish tend to be more expensive to cook at home than plant-based meals, so I specifically chose recipes with these proteins. (I also recommend you take advantage of them if you're signing up for a service).

Not all services include steak recipes at no additional cost, but HelloFresh and Blue Apron do. Blue Apron typically offers at least one high-quality cut of beef, such as filet mignon at no additional cost.

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

Budget services, including EveryPlate, generally don't offer meat or seafood, which is how they keep consumer prices low. For my EveryPlate review, I chose a cherry meatball and pork chop revenue.

Blue Apron presents the best value

Blue Apron It has the most sophisticated recipes of the three I chose to analyze. I chose a recipe with sirloin steak and another with fresh steelhead fillets.

When I calculated the price of groceries to make these meals, they cost $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 of the larger (cheaper) Blue Apron plan.

As good as it sounds, Blue Apron's biggest plan is five meal kits per week, with four servings each, and probably practical for most people. If you choose a more reasonably sized plan – 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 groceries, but just a little.

Add in the $11 weekly shipping cost and Blue Apron increases the cost of buying groceries, but only a little. When you consider the convenience a meal kit offers, it's hard to argue that the Blue Apron isn't a good value in 2024.

HelloFresh was the worst value of the three

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

By my calculations, HelloFresh meal kits would only cost $6.55 per serving to buy groceries and prepare meals yourself. That's about $3.50 cheaper than HelloFresh's cheapest meal plan at $10 per serving, and that's all before taking into account its $11 weekly delivery cost. this shipping fee for two or three meal kits, the actual cost per serving will be $11 to $12.

HelloFresh may have one of the biggest weekly meal kit menus and a user-friendly ordering interface, but it turns out the popular service doesn't offer as good a value as some other meal kit companies in 2024.

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

Each board two meal kits cost $4.98 and $5.82 when purchased a la carte at the grocery store, which averages $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 cost per box and the meal kit cost goes up a bit, but it's still the same price as buying all the groceries yourself.

EveryPlate's meal kit menus don't feature a lot of steak or seafood, so you can expect more budget-friendly proteins like chicken, ground beef, and pork chops. EveryPlate meals are also easy to prepare and satisfying, making it our best cheap meal kit service of 2024.

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