Wasted $200 on a meal kit subscription I barely used

Signed up for one of those meal kit boxes back in March because of a promo code. Got the first box, cooked two meals, then the rest of the ingredients just sat in my fridge and went bad. Forgot to cancel after the trial ended and got charged for three more boxes I never even opened. Has anyone else fallen for this and actually found a way to meal plan without wasting all your money?

3 comments

3 Comments

rubyk261mo ago

Oh man, this is literally my story from last year? Signed up for HelloFresh because of an Instagram ad and the first box was actually pretty good. Then life got busy and I had three boxes in a row where I just threw out bags of rotting vegetables. Forgot to cancel and got hit with like $160 in charges I had no idea about. What worked for me was just making a simple list of 5 dinners for the week and buying exactly what I need at the store. No subscription, no waste, just a 20 minute trip to Aldi on Sunday.

the_anthony1mo ago

Not sure I agree with that take, @rubyk26. The meal kits actually saved me money because I was tossing way less food before I started using them. People forget their own discipline matters just as much as the service you're using.

betty_wells1mo ago

The whole subscription model thing feels like a trap sometimes, honestly. My sister did the same with Blue Apron and ended up with a fridge full of sad basil and half-used spice packets that just took up space. What finally clicked for her was meal prepping on Sundays with a friend, splitting the cost and the labor so neither of them got bored or wasteful. Meal kits are great for people who have the time and memory to stay on top of them (I honestly don't have either). But if you're the type who forgets to cancel a trial, it's probably not a money saver in the long run. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.