That meal kit subscription drained $120 before I caught on

Signed up for a meal kit service back in January thinking it would save me grocery money. After 6 weeks I noticed my credit card had $120 in charges I hadn't tracked. I was only cooking 2 of the 4 kits each week and tossing the rest. The price per meal ended up being $14 which is way more than buying my own ingredients. I canceled it last month and went back to simple meal planning with a list. Anyone else get tricked by those intro deals?

4 comments

4 Comments

sage3082d ago

You said "it would save me grocery money" and that's where I gotta stop you. Meal kits aren't about saving cash, they're about saving time and brain space. If you're tossing half the food that's a you problem not the service's fault. I've used them for years and my grocery bill actually went down because I stopped impulse buying at the store. Sounds like you just needed to pick smaller plans or actually cook the meals you ordered.

phoenixw112d ago

My neighbor tried one of those meal kit services for a couple months and what ended up happening was she'd have this bag of fancy cheese that was supposed to go with some specific dish, but then life got in the way and she didn't cook that meal. That cheese wasn't something she could just toss into a sandwich because it was some weird herb-crusted thing that didn't match anything else. She ended up giving me half her boxes in the last week just so they wouldn't go to waste. I can see the appeal for people who are really disciplined about cooking every single meal, but for normal folks who have last minute plans or get tired, it seems like you're buying a problem.

diana5122d agoTop Commenter

Well! That's a whole other way of looking at it. I think you make a fair point about the impulse buying part - my husband is terrible about that. He can't walk into a grocery store without grabbing chips and cookies we don't need. But honestly, the waste problem with meal kits isn't always about not cooking. I tried a few different ones and found the portions were so specific that if you wanted to skip one night, you were stuck with a half-used packet of something you couldn't really use for anything else. It's not like you can just save a tablespoon of some special sauce for later.

ruby_jones2d ago

Not that deep honestly, meal kits have been around for years and the prices are listed right there. Kinda funny how people make this out to be some huge scam.