Is Grocery Shopping And Cooking Affordable For 1 Person

Meal Kits vs. Groceries: A Dollar-to-Dollar Investigation

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Meal kits are certainly convenient, and they're too not as wasteful as you might think, only are they ever a good deal? To notice out how meal-kit costs compare to traditional groceries, I ordered kits from Green Chef, Purple Carrot, and Hello Fresh, and then I went shopping for the same ingredients at the supermarket.

Here's what I discovered about the differences in toll between repast kits and the groceries it would take to supersede them — information technology surprised me, and may surprise you too.

How I Compared Meal Kits to Groceries

Hither's a piffling more explanation of how I went about comparing meal kits to regular grocery shopping. It can exist tough to practise a one-to-1 comparison, since meal kits don't ship y'all a whole jar of soy sauce or spices; they send you that tiny packet. Here's how I tried to make them match up.

Apples to Apples (or Organic Egg to Organic Egg)

In order to exercise an apples-to-apples cost comparison, I relied heavily on the majority spice area of the store. The good news is that it's really possible to purchase a half a tablespoon of curry powder or a teaspoon of mustard seeds!

But things got complicated when information technology came to getting verbal measurements. While I certainly wouldn't recommend purchasing half a teaspoon of anything at a fourth dimension, in the future, I'd bring my own measuring spoons and cups to avoid guesswork.

In my shopping excursions, I also paid attending to the quality of the ingredients. These days, we know that a lycopersicon esculentum isn't just a tomato and ground beef isn't merely ground beefiness. How our food is grown is of import, and in some cases (such every bit with Green Chef) the ingredients' purity is a selling betoken. So, if the kit included an organic egg, I bought an organic egg.

In some cases the exact ingredients weren't available and required substitutions. A Light-green Chef cornmeal cakes & sausage kit included "cornmeal cake dry mix" and "organic spiced maple syrup." Rather than look upwards a recipe for cornmeal mix, I picked up some Cherryvale Farms cornbread mix and, as for that pre-spiced maple syrup, I just went with the regular stuff.

For the sake of science, non being able to compare the meals exactly was annoying. Only every bit a consumer, having the ability to sub chicken sausages for pork sausages is something that gives good ol' grocery shopping an edge (+ane groceries!).

Shopping Struggles: Time Is Coin

In the process of grocery shopping to replicate the kits, I truly began to appreciate the magic of having everything I needed sorted, labeled, and delivered to my doorstep (+1 meal kits!). I paid shut attention to the corporeality of fourth dimension it took me to do some of the things provided by the companies.

Pulling together what I needed for each set of 3 recipes was alike to prepping for a dinner party (total time, about twenty minutes). I had to expect at each recipe and see if there were any overlapping ingredients, add them together, and develop the listing.

Of the three kits I tried, this process was the most difficult with Green Chef, whose recipe cards do not include the quantities of any of the ingredients. This meant that as I cooked, I had to measure out each ingredient. The other 2 kits included quantities on the recipe cards. (And hats off to Hello Fresh for going above and beyond by providing details for both 2 and four people.)

My grocery shop trip definitely took longer than it commonly would (well-nigh 40 to 50 minutes). There'south time lost in breaking with in-store traffic patterns. As consumers, we typically traverse the grocery store in a pattern, circling the store to get everything nosotros demand in 1 expanse earlier moving to another. Most people (myself included) typically start with produce. For kits that provided recipes with measurements, it took some in-store system, looking at iii different recipe cards to make sure I'd purchased all the vegetables for each recipe before heading over to dairy.

(Image credit: Ariel Knutson)

The Price Breakup Between Meal Kits & Groceries

Carnivore Box: $89.94 | Grocery Cost: $83.87

This ingredient-driven meal kit service provides three standard meal plans (vegetarian, omnivore, and carnivore) as well equally ii special plans (gluten-gratis and Paleo). Their meals are priced per meal, per person and range from $x.49 to $14.99 each, with a $ix shipping and handling fee.

I opted for the carnivore box, which included cornmeal cakes and sausage; tamari-glazed chicken; and pan-fried cod with fennel and navy beans. On the whole, I found Green Chef's recipes to be filling and good. In one case, I had plenty of leftovers for the next day — something that isn't typically the case with meal kits.

The employ of almost all organic ingredients bumped up the cost at the grocery shop. And, of the 22 ingredients on my shopping list, ix left me with "waste matter." Some were pretty much shelf-stable, similar syrup, an organic cider vinaigrette, and eggs. Others — like thyme, fennel fronds, and buttermilk — required new uses relatively rapidly.

The verdict: The grocery cost and the kit cost were super close, with groceries only slightly cheaper, and I actually wanted to make two of the iii meals again. I'd definitely select Greenish Chef for decorated weeks.

Classic Box – $69 | Grocery Price – $44.58

This repast kit company focuses on healthy ingredients and has a relationship with Jamie Oliver. Consumers can cull between an omnivore box ($69), an herbivore (vegetarian) box ($59), and a box sized for families, with kid-friendly recipes. Shipping is included in the price.

My classic box included meal kits for mushroom and lentil curry with tomato; cilantro and lemony rice; bone-in pork chops with roasted pears, collards, and shallot cream sauce; and Korean-style beefiness stir-fry with broccolini, brown rice, and sesame. The recipes were simple to make the starting time time, and fifty-fifty easier the second fourth dimension. They didn't require a lot of boosted ingredients and utilized straightforward techniques.

I wasn't able to buy v of the thirty ingredients — soy sauce, hoisin sauce, scallions, sour cream and chicken stock concentrate — in verbal measurements. That said, this was, by far, the easiest kit to shop for. Information technology was also the one with the largest difference between in-store and out-of-the-box cost.

The verdict: If dinner is your goal, research some recipes (Jamie Oliver publishes plenty right here) and hit the grocery store. If yous do decide to requite Hello Fresh a endeavour, pick the fanciest-sounding dinners, equally the cost is the same no matter what the ingredients.

Meal Kit Cost: $68 | Grocery Price: $68.06

The nature of Regal Carrot — a vegan meal kit service — makes for very petty selection in ordering. Customers can select a two-person box ($68) or a family unit box ($74). Shipping is included in the price.

Of the 3, this vegan meal kit — with ingredients for Spanish white potato-pepper-olive tortilla with garlicky escarole; carrot and tomato linguine; and fried pearls — was the nigh challenging in a few ways. Because so many ingredients are included in each meal (an boilerplate of 14), many of the steps in the directions required working on several parts of the meal at the same time.

Of the 38 ingredients used in these meals, I was forced to purchase full-size versions of 11 separate ingredients, including sesame oil, rice vinegar, and chickpea flour. Almost of these are shelf-stable and tin be used for many other dishes.

The verdict: The pricing is the same in-store and through the service. A pasta dish seemed to exist made upwards of ingredients that I'd ordinarily take around (a tin can of beans, carrots, capers), but this kit besides introduced techniques and ingredients that were new to me — using a vegetable peeler in place of a mandoline for potatoes, and cooking tofu, catamenia — which made the kit worth it for me.

The Lesser Line

You may exist surprised by how meal kits and groceries actually compare on a dollar-to-dollar ground. From a purely financial perspective, the difference in ii out of the three examination kits was negligible. And while the dinners provided by Hello Fresh were considerably more expensive than if you had gone to the grocery store, in that location'south also the thing of time — your time, and that of anyone else who cooks. Is that extra hour (or more) of planning and shopping fourth dimension worth the $24 price divergence?

What do yous think? After seeing the toll comparison, are y'all more or less willing to endeavor a meal-kit service?

Jill Moorhead

Contributor

After 15 years marketing supermarkets and consumer packaged goods, it'southward safe to say that Jill'south kind of obsessed with all things grocery.