Why Blue Apron/Hello Fresh don't tempt me
In the last year or so, several ingredients-in-a-box services have been popping up (I see them on blogs, in ads, and so on.)
When I saw a discount coupon for one, I clicked on over because I thought maybe it would be a good deal if I had an introductory offer in hand.
But when I saw the prices, I was a little taken aback.
At $8-$12 a person, the price to feed the six of us is $48, minimum.
For $48, I could buy a whole lot more than one meal's worth of groceries. In fact, I could feed us for several days with $48.
I could also buy a pretty decent meal out for us.
(If I'm going to spend $48 on a meal, I'd really like to not have to cook said meal!)
So then I thought, "Why would I buy this? If I want to bother with cooking, I can just buy the ingredients myself. And if I want something quick and easy, I can get carryout or just eat out with the money."
I'm clearly not the target market for this service, but I do wonder how many people want to spend that much on a meal they still have to cook.
I mean, obviously there are enough customers, given that these services haven't gone out of business, but it does surprise me.
In pondering this, I've decided that ingredient-delivery services might be geared toward:
A) people who don't already know how to cook
B) people who have households smaller than mine
C) people who can afford takeout but want a healthier option
D) people who can afford takeout but want the experience of cooking
E) all of the above
But since I do know how to cook and since I have to feed six people, boxed meal services are pretty not-appealing to me.
However, I do understand why you might pay a little extra for a service because it provides value that's not immediately obvious.
For instance, I subscribe to a $30 every-other-week produce box. I haven't done the work of calculating everything out, but I'm guessing that I could obtain the produce more cheaply through other means.
But I keep paying for the box because I get a much wider variety of produce than I'd be prone to buying on my own.
(to wit: I don't think I'd ever buy cabbage on my own.)
Because I don't like to waste food, I make a big effort to prepare and serve all the produce. This means the net effect of the box is that we eat more produce overall, and the produce we eat is more varied.
So, I don't pay for the box as much for the food value as I do for the way it forces us to eat a healthier diet.
ePantry's appeal is a bit like that too...the advantage is the not-leaving-the-house (homebody here!), and the not-having-to-stop-at-Target-or-the-non-Aldi-grocery-store more than the actual financial value it provides.
(Except if you are an impulse shopper, in which case it would provide actual financial value.)
Anyway, when I think about it like that, I understand better why meals in a box could be a good value for some people.
But they're still not for me. And I do still think they are pretty darn expensive.
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Totally do not get the whole Blue Apron thing. The ubiquitousness of it is not surprising to me, since I know a LOT of people really don't know how to cook--or at least, don't know how to cook anything that would taste as good as something in a restaurant--but yes, the cost and the fact that you don't get any actual break or ease for all that money seems . . . well, silly. Plus, I like my own food way better than anything I can ever buy, to the point I cook my own birthday dinner rather than go to a restaurant because my spaghetti and meatballs can't be purchased out.
That said, I do spend more than some might on the food I cook. The raw ingredients that is. Because we live in an agricultural paradise and I can get incredibly high-quality ingredients right here. Then all I have to do is not screw them up when I cook. 🙂 So we buy whole cows and pigs, real heavy cream, and farmers market vegetables. Might be cheaper at a grocery store, but no way would it taste as good. And since eat out about two times a year, I don't feel our overall expenditure on food is out of line.
When I heard of these services, I looked them up. To me it would be fun but they are out of my price range. What I would enjoy is that everything is included and the right amount. Sometimes when I cook something new I have a lot of extras of something I need to find a way to use. Using the service I would also try cooking things I might not try on my own. That said, I am like you. For that amount I could buy a lot of food. It would never be practical for me.
I think the service is probably aimed at busy people who love to cook but it is hard to find the time to. Everything is in the box so they don't have to worry about shopping or looking for new recipes. For someone who routinely goes to restaurants or gets takeout the price wouldn't seem as expensive.
Thank you for such a lovely post. You perfectly articulated what I was thinking and feeling. I also don't get it, unless it's as a treat now and again (then again, I'd rather go eat out at a restaurant).
We have similar services here. I looked them up and thought very similar things. However, I could see it would be a way to extend the foods you try and cook but it is an expensive method.
My sister uses BA regularly, and she offered a free week to both my mom and myself. It wasn't for me because I have a larger family than what the largest meal feeds, my kids aren't so flexible that I wouldn't have to be cooking around someone given the set menus, and it was expensive. My mom tried it about once a month for 3-4 months. She liked that she was forced to try new ingredients and new dishes but disliked the wasteful packaging and the expense. It works well for my sister because she and her husband are both busy professionals, and BA saves her time in meal planning and shopping, and with a dual income and no kids, the health/convenience factors out weigh the cost.
I've recieved coupons for these companies several times, and I've been tempted to try them just for new recipes. (I'd never buy them because they are expensive. I'd just use the free meals and cancel.) We live in a food desert, so accessing fun new things to cook is incredibly difficult. When I consider that I'd be cooking the boxed meal for husband and myself and something different for my kids, the effort isn't worth it.
I believe that both Blue Apron & Hello Fresh have recipe archives where you can download all the recipes.
ALL of Hello Fresh recipes are online!! (With amounts and everything!) great way to “try them out”, and get out of a food rut. These services are mystifying to me! I prepared a few of their meals and calculated MY cost to buy the ingredients —- quite a difference! $10 per person from them— 1.85 per person from me! ( this was a more expensive option... some can be knocked off for less than a buck!
I have looked into those because, like you say, the advertisements for these type of companies are everywhere. I came to pretty much the same conclusions as you (though we have a smaller family).
About 10 years ago, there were places that cropped up where you could go and they had all the ingredients prepped for you to make your own freezer meals. They were pretty expensive per dish, but the benefit there was that the onions were all chopped, everything was ready to go - you just assembled it. I didn't do that either. 😉
These services do tempt me, and would possibly save me money, because I have a hard time sticking to my list, and the fewer trips I make to the grocery store the less I spend (I've gotten better, but I know this about myself so I still try to limit trips). I do know how to cook, but I don't enjoy it (which is why our grocery budget is high enough we could save money subscribing) and so I tend to stick with the same recipes. And I simply don't care enough to start making these recipes on my own (I tried a meal planning service but that's when I found out how much I really don't enjoy preparing food or the shopping that goes with it) but I'd be more likely to follow through if I was paying that much money. I haven't switched over because I'm a picky eater, my husband and kids even more so, and I'm concerned I myself wouldn't like the meals and I still have hope that we can reduce our grocery budget to the point where it wouldn't be feasible.
My groceries budget is 500$/month at the moment, for the 4 of us, so 48$/meal?? I don't think so!
Yeah that is pretty much way too expensive. I think if you are in a total rut it would be nice to have these sometimes...but not for that price.
Since the hubs and I both work insane hours - frequently including weekends - we've done the Blue Apron thing on occasion. With church and a real effort to observe the Sabbath on Sundays, the only time available to do laundry, dry cleaning, grocery shop, pre-cook for the week, get to the post office, clean, etc. is Saturdays. And sometimes I just hurt too much (lupus) to haul bags of produce. We don't eat fast food or frozen meals (we eat soups and casseroles that we've made and frozen, but we don't purchase Lean Cuisine or the like).
[The obvious answer here is to send the hubs to the farmers market & supermarket. He is a TERRIBLE food-shopper and buys on impulse, buys 3x more than we need, etc. A list means nothing to the man. He's grounded. 😉 ]
What I like: not having to shop, the chance to try a new ingredient without committing to a large purchase, the quality of the meats and produce is excellent. A friend in a rural area is unable to get many ethnic and specialty ingredients in her small town and does a BA box on occasion for variety.
What I don't like: of course, the expense. Although there is some great produce they're generally not the most healthful recipes, and whichever of us is cooking makes some modifications to cut fat and salt. And for heaven's sake, why don't they label and date the fish? One translucent tray of frozen fish looks pretty much like any other translucent tray of frozen fish, and when we popped some in the freezer we couldn't identify the fish types later.
I really like the idea behind it, plus all the delicious recipes they have, but I can't convince myself to actually pull the trigger, because while my mom and I would think it's amazing, my dad and my sister are notoriously picky eaters, and these are just a bit too weird for them. Blue Apron does have recipes on its website, though. Haven't gotten around to trying them, but I hope to soon. Also, the price is a bit jaw-dropping.
We have a friend who uses it, and it's been wonderful for him. They used to literally eat takeout for every meal since he couldn't cook and didn't want to "waste" ingredients learning. Blue Apron was perfect for them, and now that he's a more confident cook, they've been able to wean themselves off the service and on to "real" cooking. I think they made pasta from scratch the other day!
I'm not tempted by it for myself, as I'm a fairly strong cook, but I would dearly love to see my husband use it. After much haranguing, he's now in charge of dinner two nights a week. The problem is, he's an atrocious cook. He can follow directions on a recipe, but is really terrible at choosing a recipe in the first place. And he's sadly not getting any better. Two YEARS of virtually inedible food two nights a week. I'd happily pay Blue Apron's prices to keep the peace.
That's one way to look at it...like a cooking class. At that price (for a small family or single person), it'd be a pretty cheap cooking class.
The pricing gets out of hand when you have a larger family. $10/person doesn't seem nearly so bad until you multiply it by 6!
I'd get hubby a couple simple cookbooks... like one for Crockpot cooking. If he has any interests(like Star Wars or super heroes...they have so many different types of books). Also YouTube helps w a lot of recipes. I love to read and watch someone make something. I've looked up jam/jelly making. I've really gotten into Clara and her Depression cooking. Won't necessarily try all the recipes, but definitely gives you ideas. Need to help him learn about 10-12 good simple recipes. Library is an awesome way to check out books. They sometimes have videos also.
I really like the idea of this for my husband!! My kids stay at my mom's house several times a month. It would be really cool for him to cook a meal for me for a date night. It would only be two of us so it wouldn't be that much. Cheaper than eating out, then we could watch netflix.
I try to teach him how to cook but we think so differently (visual thinker vs think in words plus he needs way more details and reasons why) that my lessons aren't always helpful to him. He hates meal planing and shopping.
Great idea.
I am doing Home Chef right now. I use it for 2 meals x 2 people/week and I am doing it about 2 times a month (you can skip weeks). I have a family of four, and we're basically using to replace takeout at this point, because I want to learn to cook. I stretch the meal into a meal for 4, but throwing in other things (fruit, rice, etc). I basically didn't start cooking until I had kids (5 years ago) and I work a ton so I don't have time to research/learn on my own because I'd rather play tag with my kids. But I am super bored with the 10 meals I know how to make, so I want to mix it up. I do agree it isn't frugal, but it is fun, and I am learning. I cooked parsnips for the first time!
As a working single, I am tempted by Blue Apron. The small quantities are appealing to me. If I buy ingredients and put in the effort to make a nice meal, I usually end up having to eat it all week because it makes so much. BA would allow me to have a healthy variety of meals and still be able to cook. The price is usually what stops me.
You should check out Budget Bytes: http://www.budgetbytes.com/
Most of her meals are smaller portions to feed herself (and her boyfriend) for a week at a time. She tends to make 2-3 meals per week and does it on a pretty tight budget. She's a big proponent of planning meals around specific ingredients so that what she shops for will be used in more than one meal (does that make sense?) to limit waste. At the very least, she will tell you how best to freeze/store leftover ingredients to use later.
I'm not frugal or budget minded, but I love her site, her recipes and her philosophies. I really can't recommend her site enough.
I completely agree...love Budget Bytes
Buy divided freezer containers with a snap on lid.... portion out your meals and stick them in the freezer... next time, cook something different.
Homemade TV dinners...
I usually do this with meat... it's just myself and an adult child. There will be baggies of cooked, seasoned meat in the freezer... then I defrost, and add to rice/noodle/bread.... add in veg (or if making a sandwich put some veg on it)... instant dinner.
I have used them regularly because a) I have no children, b) my husband and I are both professionals working long hours, c) finding time to meal plan and shop is difficult and d) I'm eating something healthier than takeout after a long day and it's a home cooked meal. I totally get that's it's not a money saver or particularly something for families with children (given the types of ingredients that I'm sure on average most children wouldn't eat), but it can be a life saver for those of us working outside the house. That said, I've pretty much stopped using them because right now I am trying really hard to save money for the adoption of a newborn. So I definitely see both viewpoints on these services.
Good luck on your adoption! We adopted our son almost 13 years ago! It's a long process, but so very worth it!
I looked at it with the coupons and laughed my self silly- cooking for 5 with large appetites here! A friend does get it occasionally and said that she uses the coupons.. and although a but pricey, not totally absurd for them financially because they would go out to a restaurant and pay similar for a meal. They don't have the financial constraint and their 2 kids are small eaters so there is plenty of food and she likes the challenge of trying something new- occasionally.
That is why I love blogs- especially food and savings blogs. Lots of photos, new ideas and recipes to challenge.
I bought a small Blue Apron plan for my Brother in law for Christmas. I know that he and my sister are on a limited budget, and I thought this would be a nice treat for them. He likes to cook, and I liked that he could chose the meal, and when he wanted it. For a gift, I think it was worth the cost, but I dint think I would order it myself.
Have a Happy New Year!
That's another good point...it would make a fun gift, like a lot of other subscriptions services.
When you say the six of you can eat out for $48.00 are you including a restaurant with a waitress? That seems impressive if so:)
I have never tried these because you can not select exactly what you get. I eat pretty much everything, but if I ended up with salmon or a vegetarian dish no one else would eat it. I have thought about it though. After working all day it is really hard to come home and get a healthy dinner on the table. I do try to plan and prep etc, but the weekend is crazy too. I think this can be good if you are comparing it to dragging everyone out to a restaurant. Even take-out gets pricey and is not that healthy.
I love that you buy a produce box. The health benefits far out way your cost.
My service I pay for is grocery shopping. When I am crazy busy I order my groceries. I frequently use Pea Pod or another local grocery chain. There is a charge, and Pea Pods prices can be higher than their stores, but if I can take grocery shopping off my list it opens up more time to do things like cook!
Oh, no, I meant doing something like a sandwich shop, a medium-priced burger place, etc. If we all go out to somewhere like TGIF or Buffalo Wild Wings, it usually costs more than $48.
FG, the appeal of these services is limited.
People who do not have a readily access to produce or can afford to eat out are probably drawn to this service for the "newness".
Just like snacks in the mail, are you kidding me.
I've seen the snacks in the mail service, and I think maybe the appeal of those is the sampling of new things. Otherwise, it's pretty crazy pricey.
Kristen, snacks in the mail are a good way of trying new things. They do look good. Has anyone tried them?
I might one day.
Try Graze! You can find a coupon online or in print ads for the first box free. After that one, when I cancelled my subscription, they offered me a second box for half price, which I accepted. And then I really cancelled. It really was super fun to try their snacks and they were excellent.
Bettypants, did you like the snacks? Do you think instore snacks are cheaper?
When I hear these companies on the podcasts I listen to I always think that the demographic is a single person/couple who live in large city, are very busy and do not have the skills to meal plan. The beauty of these boxes is that they send you exactly what you need and nothing more so there is no waste. No need to meal plan or shop but you get a great meal for less than the cost of going out.
I would not order these as they aren't right for my family (I LOVE to meal plan!) but I do have a few friends who I could see these being perfect for.
How timely this blogpost ! I literally just spent some time this morning checking out several of these companies. I looked into a local company as well which provides the meal ready to be served on day of order. But I still can not justify the cost for the 3 people in our family, even though the convenience of just picking up dinner is appealing. The menu they offered was definitely in line with what we generally eat and more appealing than restaurant takeout. So now back to pinning crockpot recipes !
Like you, I checked out the website when I heard about it and decided immediately that it wasn't for us because of the price. However, my brother and future sister-in-law use it and love it. They say it DOES actually save them money, though, in part because of where they live (Washington, DC) and to what they're comparing it. They both work long hours, and their dinner alternative is often not a home-cooked meal with ingredients purchased at the grocery store but going out to eat after work, so they're comparing the cost of a meal-in-a-box for 2 with the cost of dinner out in an expensive area.
You've got me with B, C, and D! My husband and I live in an urban area and work long hours. We try to avoid takeout (other than occasional pizza Fridays!) because most options are so unhealthy, but I have a hard time shopping for and cooking interesting meals when I rarely get home before 7pm so we were eating a lot of repetitive, basic meals during the week that were easy to shop for over the weekend and quick to prepare. Being able to try new, relatively healthy, recipes with just enough to make the recipe for two is perfect for us, especially when some of the ingredients would otherwise be challenging to use if I bought the full package. You have the flexibility to skip any time you want so we don't get it every week, but it gives us some fun variety that is healthier than takeout, easier that grocery shopping for specifically portioned ingredients and far cheaper than restaurants.
These services are not for my family right now, but I believe they could be a wonderful option in several situations:
An older person who has arthritis (hard to transport stuff from the store) but who still likes to cook and entertain a few friends.
A person who lives in a big urban area, where it's logistically hard to get to a store.
A grandparent who wants to have an easy, fun cooking afternoon with a teen or adult grandchild.
As a gift for a friend or relative who is recovering from a loss, depression, etc. who enjoys cooking but who just doesn't have the energy to take all the steps involved in planning, shopping, unloading, preparing produce, etc.
In other words, people in special situations; otherwise, I agree with The Frugal Girl: For the cost, why not go out to eat?
Because the quality of the restaurant food is usually lower than homecooked. The only way to find healthy in a restaurant is to go to something high-end, or cold food like sandwich shop/salad buffet. Otherwise, even in mid-level places, you don't know what they put in the food, how much of it was just frozen and reheated (I hear Olive Garden does that, and if so, I bet they are not alone), how much fat, sodium, high-fructose corn syrup, etc, is in the ingredients, and how many calories you will consume. And even if the cost of pricey but healthier places was not an issue, once you eliminate unhealthy restaurants, you are left with a slim selection, and you will get bored.
The mail-meal places produce one of the solutions. Undoubtedly, the ideal is: to have time, be good at planning and stocking, not be too tired to cook regularly, and get help with cleaning up.
I think it would be nice not to have to plan meals/grocery shop/prep large quantities of food/use up extra ingredients. It would also be nice to try new meal ideas. For me, the cost of these services prevents me from using them, but for some people the convenience of the box outweighs the cost.
I looked at Blue Apron as an alternative for our Takeout Tuesday nights. We've got two kids under 4 years old and the trip to pick up takeout is a hassle no matter what, so I liked the deliver-it-right-to-you idea. As a day to day thing, though? No way. They're so expensive!
I do love ePantry, because they enable me to get Mrs. Meyer's products and "green" diapers (we used to use cloth but had to stop because my daughter's in and out of the hospital and they don't allow cloth). In rural Wyoming, those things don't exist!
My daughter (age 9) was just gifted a four-pack of BA meals as a Christmas gift, and she made the first one last night! Afterward she declared that this was her favorite present. She really, really wants to learn how to cook, and I have limited patience, particularly at dinnertime, for teaching, so this is a perfect scenario for us. The packaging and recipes are beautiful (although, yes, definitely wasteful when you think of the shipping as well). We had a pork recipe for four, but my parents are in town, and it ended up feeding all six of us without any problem.
I can see us using BA a few times a year when things are really busy. Like some previous posters, I am a very competent cook out of necessity, but I really don't enjoy it, so to have someone else do the planning and shopping is a huge treat for me.
I will echo that I think these types of services certainly cater to a busy/urban family of two who are both working full-time, and whose alternative is unhealthy/already expensive eating out. We recently moved closer to downtown in a large urban area, and I was shocked to discover that the closest grocery store is four miles away! That may not seem that far, but when every mile driven adds 15 mins to your commute, a "quick trip" to the grocery store after work becomes less appealing than takeout or pb&j. 😉
Kristen, I have a question related to this: does your produce box come with ideas or meal suggestions of how to use your produce? I am very interested in getting a produce box, but hesitate to because I'm a beginner cook and not very creative. I also don't want to make a bunch of extra trips to the grocery store to buy supplemental ingredients. Curious to know your thoughts.
Thanks for the post!
Mine does not, but I know a fair number of CSA boxes do. I consult google (and you guys!) and Cook's Illustrated when I'm stumped.
I also know there are some sites/series out there called WTF CSA (;)) that are devoted to helping you figure out what to do with weird things that come in CSA boxes.
My CSA farm had a website with ideas for how to prepare produce typically in their weekly shares, which was useful. Except that it didn't matter what I did with the beets....still not a favorite!
My technique for that sort of thing is to just go to Google and type the word "recipe" followed by the ingredients you want to use. You'll get a whole pile of ideas. I usually end up creating something that's a hybrid of several recipes.
Thanks for the tips, everybody! 🙂
Great post! I am the PERFECT person for Blue Apron, and I'm a long-term subscriber. I've found it's useful to me for the following reasons:
1. Reducing food waste - Since there's only 2 in our household, it's actually hard to buy small quantities of food to make interesting meals without creating food waste. It's nice that there's absolutely no waste from Blue Apron, and almost all of the packaging is recyclable
2. Long hours - My spouse and I work long hours, so not having to go to the grocery store is a HUGE benefit. We still have to spend time cooking, but the food is much healthier and tastier than take out!
3. I'm a boring cook - The staples get really old, so this has taught me how to use interesting ingredients including celeriac, parsnips, and loads of ginger!
4. Cost - I live in a major city, and the only grocery store close by is a Whole Foods. When we calculated the cost per meal per person, we are spending the same and sometimes less than we did previously. The portions are large and we can often make each serving last for two meals (dinner and lunch the next day), saving even more per person per meal.
So, for my situation Blue Apron helps me achieve some of the frugal goals I like to carry out. Probably the 30-something hard working 2-person urban family is the best demographic for these services.
Agreed with these points. I tried out BA for a one-time free trial (can't get cheaper than that) with a code from a coworker. It worked out well; I got back from vacation and had food sent to my door. Another point -- I strongly dislike grocery shopping. I take forever because I am so particular and terrible at finding things. I doubt I will do the service with any regularity. I think the biggest thing is - if I have time to cook the meals, then I have time to enough to go to the grocery store.
I'm thinking these might be a fun gift for a teen that wants to learn to cook.
Yes! As a gift, I can totally see the appeal. And it's cheaper than a bona fide cooking class for sure.
I've reached the same conclusion about these services: for my family of four it's just too expensive. However, if such a thing had existed when I was single, or when it was just me and my husband, I would have gone for it. I had a very hard time cooking for myself and not wasting food, or wanting to put in the effort to shop and cook when I was the only person eating it. I ate out way too often in my early 20's. Something like this would have helped me eat healthier and avoid a few extra pounds ;-).
I use Blue Apron very occasionally (maybe 3 or 4 times per year). It is a treat, because the cost of a box is a bit more than my weekly food budget. I tried it the first time for free when a friend earned some freebies and gave me one. Here are my pros and cons:
Pros:
Even though I am a fairly experienced cook, I have learned new techniques from Blue Apron.
Much like your produce boxes, it has encouraged me to try certain foods and recipes I would not otherwise have eaten - to my benefit.
I have had a couple mediocre meals, but the vast majority have them have been unbelievably delicious!
I am single so a box provides dinners for the entire week since some of the recipes (especially the vegetarian ones) are really more than two servings for me.
The quality of food they send has been excellent. The one time there was a mishap with the packaging on something, they credited my account for a whole meal.
You get a nice recipe card, so you can recreate meals you liked. Recipes for the meals are also on the website, and you don't need an account to access them.
They have really good customer service.
Saves me a week of planning and shopping, which I don't mind doing much, but its nice to have a break.
Its fun!
Cons:
These meals take work! Much more chopping and prep than I typically go to the trouble too on a weeknight. I do the harder ones on weekends and save the easier ones for the work week.
There is an awful lot of packaging - all recyclable but still.
You can pick your meals to a certain degree, and choose to exclude certain types of proteins, but I would like the freedom to choose from any of the omnivore or vegetarian meals each time.
I don't get blue aproneither. We have a family of 3 and at $10/person we can almost go out to eat for that much. I might splurge on a special occasion and buy ribeye steaks, salmon, nice wine, etc. but even then I'm making a meal that is under $30
The meal boxes are way too expensive for me, but we did have a CSA box for a year. Like you, it made us eat some vegies we had never seen before, so that was a great experiment. Maybe the box meals would be like that too, and you would make something you normally wouldn't. It would be a fun gift to give to someone.
This is the first I’ve heard of ingredients-in-a-box services. (I don’t get out much I guess). The first thing that came to mind when I saw your photo of the boxed ingredients was “what a case of wasteful packaging?” All those little clamshell containers and zip lock bags would add up to a huge pile of trash in no time.
My husband and I have used Blue Apron regularly for almost a year, and I think it's a great value for several reasons:
- We both work full time outside the home, and this helps us avoid the temptation to buy takeout after a long day
- In the area where we live, takeout from most decent non-fast-food restaurants is at minimum $30 for two people, so BA is actually cheaper at $20 per meal for two people.
- The portions can be pretty large, meaning that we often end up with leftovers for the next day's lunch for one of us. This makes the net cost per meal a little less.
- The ingredients are perfectly portioned for the meals, so we never end up with 90% of a bunch of cilantro that we don't know what to do with -- this has really cut down on our food waste.
- The recipes are quite diverse in terms of ingredients and style of cuisine. We have therefore tried many dishes and ingredients that we never would have thought to try -- and loved them!
- This service has reduced the time and effort we have to spend on grocery shopping and meal planning.
Overall, BA is actually a frugal option for people in our situation because it saves us time and money. We really value the time we have to cook together at the end of the day so it has strengthened our relationship as well.
Great points!
I completely agree with you that Blue Apron is unappealing. I would add a few categories of people to whom it might appeal:
People who like to cook or the idea of cooking but have no talent or energy for planning meals or picking recipes.
People who do not factor financial cost into the transaction. It seems odd that people like this are out there, but I'll bet there are lots who just prefer not to think about money.
Moms of grown children who think their kids need to cook more.
People who buy things that bloggers/celebrities/cooler friends tell them to buy. I'm looking at you Longaberger basket owners.
One of my favorite things about your website is that the comments never fall into shaming and name calling. There's good arguments for both sides.
I tried one of the services when both husband and I were working. The results were tasty, varied and easy to prepare. On the downside, the over packaging (1/4 tsp sesame oil in a tiny bottle!), expense, and the fact that I STILL had to cook dinner. For the money, I'd rather eat out.
One thing you can do is peruse the websites looking for new meal plans, often the recipes are posted. Or you can read Bon Appetite or any other foodie magazine and do the same thing.
While I'm not the most frugal person, I do read my cooking magazines on line free with my library's service--including Cook's Illustrated.
I got an ad for one of these services a good while back, and I read it, saw the pricing, and tossed the ad with its coupon. That's just too much money for me, even though there's just two of us here to eat. I could see it working well for some people, but not for me.
I didn't get onto the website, so I don't know -- do they offer organic foods and pastured meats? That's what we eat, so I wouldn't pay that much money to get conventionally farmed/raised food delivered to my door, if they don't offer organic/local/free range. I shop local farms as much as possible, yet I still spend less than Blue Apron's pricing on meals. My daughter uses Budget Bytes and loves it. It's expanded her menu and skills but she can shop for various recipe ingredients with her own budget in mind.
I don't mind cooking, although I get really bored with meal planning, but I think a meal planning website would take care of me without ordering the meal in a box service. I also have a special dietary needs spouse, so unless they offered menus to accommodate that, a meal in the box service wouldn't help us anyway. Do they offer special diets?
I was given a week's service of Blue Apron from a colleague, and I totally loved it for the fun of trying new things and cooking techniques and not having to plan my meals and shopping. There were a lot of ingredients that I can't generally afford that were fun to try out and see how it enhanced flavors. I'm a decent cook, but it broadened my horizons and I've used some of those recipes since then now that I feel more confident in the ingredients/technique.
But I could never justify spending that kind of money, even as a single person when I could cook similarly for substantially cheaper. That would at least triple my weekly budget, which is just not worth it. And while there wasn't ridiculous amounts of packaging, it still was a lot with the tiny little bottles of sauces, etc.
I did enjoy the one week experience of it though!
These do not tempt me either. That is a lot of money per meal if I still have to cook it myself!
I do know how to cook, but I don't particularly enjoy it. At all. (Maybe I will enjoy it more when I don't have a one year old and a clingy three year old.). So I do gravitate toward spending more money on our meals... Because I am willing to cook less from scratch; it saves me time and frustration to open a box of frozen salmon burgers rather than having to actually make the salmon patties myself, or heat up a healthy frozen veggie pizza rather than making dough and having to chop all the veg.
So if I'm gonna fork over the extra cash for our meals, it sure isn't going to be for food that still has to be chopped and prepped and measured!!
I'm sure this would be a desirable service for someone who enjoys cooking and wants to avoid having to come up with their own meal ideas.
I saw a blog recently that looked at it from the perspective of how much waste they create... A meal might have 15-20 plastic bags! There was even a plastic clamshell for a one ounce pat of butter (as well as several other clamshells in the meal). I am vegetarian, so I wouldn't be tempted anyone, but the amount of garbage seems staggering.
It's not for me enjoy going to the supermarket, planning my menu & getting the ingredients. Try to vary it as much as possible. Then again I am very lucky I finish work everyday and am home at 4:00 in the afternoon so have no excuse. Can see how these services would be very practical for someone working crazy hours with plenty of disposable income.
I did a Blue Apron trial just because it was free. I also found it to be incredibly expensive for just a few dinner, especially when I spend $100 per week to feed my family of five. Although the meals tasted good, it would have been easier, just like you said, to pay that money to a restaurant if we didn't want to cook but still have a nice meal. The amount of plastic waste was huge, too. I felt guilty throwing it all away, and can't imagine doing so every week.
That said, my boss raves about Blue Apron. She is a director and her husband has a demanding job as well. They are empty nesters. They were eating out every night, plus lunch as well. They were eating a lot of unhealthy food, but had very little time to shop (she works 7 days a week, often from sunup to sundown on weekdays). She loves the convenience, the food is fresh and healthy, and they are spending less than they had been eating out so much. It makes sense for them, but definitely not for me. I work only a few days per month, and have time to shop and prepare food from scratch.
I received one of these boxes for free as part of a special bonus on a purchase I made. I was disappointed in the portion size and uncomfortable with the shipped chicken. This option is way out of my budget, especially when the serving size would not satisfy anyone in my family. I also would rather spend that amount of money on a restaurant meal. I have returned to school late in life and my resources are limited. My budget is 150.00 a month for a family of 4. As a couponer ( of course) we eat very well. With 48.00 I can feed my family for a while. This is a luxury item we will pass on.
I wouldn't use either service but I do love Fresh Direct, a grocery delivery service. Living in Manhattan makes major grocery shopping a pain and hassle most of the time. Fresh Direct saves me time and the prices are comparable to local stores. Occasionally we stop at our local store to pick up items we use up often or if there is a special sale. We are both good cooks, (hubby makes the best roast chicken, lucky me!), and we like to cook big on weekends and "reinvent" the leftovers during the week. Sometimes dinner is as simple as scrambled eggs and toast with a salad.
Well, I think these services probably appeal to people who are more pressed for time than money. I also think that they probably work well for people who are "recipe followers" rather than actual cooks. I think for a lot or people, "cooking" means you first find a recipe that you want to make, then you go buy all of the ingredients for that recipe, then you follow the instructions. If that's the way you cook, I could see how these services would have some appeal.
For me, I find no joy in that approach. I prefer to buy whatever's fresh, in season, or on sale, and then create meals from there. I sometimes look up a recipe as a guideline, but almost never follow it strictly. I can totally see the appeal of your produce box subscription, because it would constantly give you new opportunities to get creative in order to use up everything in the box. I used to belong to a CSA farm, and my cooking skills expanded tremendously through that process.
Alas, there's another reason that none of these things will work for me, and that's food allergies. Recipes, produce boxes, etc - they're all just exercises in frustration when a good portion of the box or ingredients are off limits due to allergies.
I had the exact same reaction when I looked at prices even with introductory offers. We also do Bountiful Baskets every other week for $35/organic box. That way I don't have to think about what fruits and vegetables to get, we just get a random assortment.
I tried a similar service called Green Chef a few months ago, since they sent me a coupon and I liked the emphasis on organic food and special diets (vegetarian here). I ended up paying about $12 for three meals, or else I would not have tried it! It was even more per meal than Blue Apron! Haha
Pros
- Since there are only two of us, it was nice to not have to buy something like an entire package of mint just for one sprig
- This particular service was mostly organic, and that meant we ate more organic produce than usual
- I struggle with anxiety and it was nice to skip a lengthy trip to the store
- Having a more elaborate meal on a weeknight was also nice - you just follow the recipe, which doesn't require much thought, and is nicer than pasta with plain sauce
- I get stuck in cooking ruts, and this was a good way to try something new
Cons
- So expensive at normal cost, I would also prefer to just go to a restaurant if I'm paying $9/person
- Even this "green" service had a ridiculous amount of packaging. Like so much packaging. Imagine a lot of packaging, and then triple it! Hahaha A lot of it was recyclable, but it would still be better for it to not have been made to begin with
- My fiancé is a bottomless pit and was not satisfied with the serving size of any of the meals
- Green Chef sent you pre-mixed sauces, dressings, etc., but not the recipes! I really liked one meal and would have liked the actual recipe to make in the future
We have used Blue Apron off and on this past year. Yes, it was expensive, but I liked that I could skip weeks when the menus did not look appealing, and I only ordered the ones that looked amazing. And they were!
It was a fun way to try new recipes without having to buy large packages of ingredients that we may or may not want to use again.
I still make the recipes of our favorites, but will probably not subscribe again. Just took it as a fun treat and a new cookbook during a very busy period of our lives.
One thing... I didn't love the way they wrote out the instructions. I'm not a chop-and-prep-everything-beforehand kind of cook.
Frugal? no
Fun for a season? yes
These meal services don't tempt me at all. Beyond the cost factor, there is so much trash involved having everything packaged separately like that. I did try an organic produce delivery service for awhile. It was okay. Most of the produce arrived in good condition, but the price was too high once my introductory deal was over to consider continuing. I think if I lived in a different area, the price might be reasonable, but a lot of the produce I priced out was considerably cheaper to buy locally myself.
Maybe someone has pointed this out already (not enough time to read all the comments today!) - these meals are not so expensive if you consider the cost of your time to shop, your gas to get to and from the grocery store, and the time to find a recipe (or more than one, if you'll need to use up excess ingredients). All of those are things you weigh if you are working long hours but want to eat something healthy and perhaps a little different at the end of a working day.
As a reo person retiree household , I can see the advantage for many people. It would not work for us, as I do not love to cook, and have no desire to be better. I especially do not want to plan what to cook. Instead our solution is the grocery prepared foods and deli counters and the local place that sells prepared, frozen meals that are actually mainly delicious.
I was gifted 2 weeks of Blue Apron and was super excited. However, the first box arrived and the tilapia filets had defrosted and leaked through their packaging thus making the rest of the box a less than pleasant experience. I rinsed and rinsed but mercy me, my kitchen reeked long after that. 🙂 On a side note, their customer service was less than stellar and despite my polite insistence, my melty, drippy fish was not something they seemed to want to fix!
The next week's arrived and after checking it, I promptly offered it to a friend who was interested in trying it herself...I think I'll stick to my CI, BHG, and CSA surprises from here on out!
We are on our second week of HF and it is saving me time and money. I work four days per week with a strange shift pattern so I am not always home at dinner time. My husband is not a confident cook and so having all ingredients and a clear recipe means that he can cook dinner and feed everyone before I get home where he would often pick up takeaway or feed something unhealthy previously.
Also, if I ask him to pick up milk or a forgotten ingredient on his way home he impulse buys lots of things 'on special' that we don't need!
(He is a man of many and varied talents but cooking and budgeting aren't in there!)
Another bonus of these schemes is that my slightly fussy 13 year old would often refuse or pick at dinners I make if he feels he doesn't like it but with these I can just say 'not my fault, this is what they sent!' and he seems to eat much more variety!!!
All in all, it seems to be working for me and it's one of those things that even if it was to end up costing me slightly more, it gives me back time which is worth more to me at this stage in my life!
I'm in agreement with most of the folks here. I tried one week of Hello Fresh free through a friend who loves their service. I didn't find a reason to continue. I'm a full-time homemaker who lives in a suburban area with several well-stocked grocery stores within a reasonable radius of my home, and simply couldn't justify the expense. My friend, OTOH, is a full-time business professional who lives in a food desert in a very poor section of the country. Her nearest reasonably-stocked grocery store is over an hour drive from her home. Hello Fresh is the answer to a prayer for her. A talented cook, she frequently reconfigures the ingredients to make several more meals than the provided recipes suggest, making the cost a bit more inline with a "normal" food budget.
These food services seem to have a lot of plastic packaging and transport miles. I couldn't get behind that.
I think most of them come with some sort of keep-cool packaging too, which probably is not recyclable. I'm pretty sure Blue Apron lets you send back your packaging for recycling, although I'm not sure if that includes cold packs/insulation as well.
I got a groupon for HelloFresh, and we really loved the recipes. I did feel like it was too expensive to keep up, we have a family of 4. When I cancelled the membership, they sent me a coupon for $25 off, so I did one more delivery. Again, we loved the recipes, but I was not only spending more than I would on my own but the meals took an average of 30-45 minutes to make. I guess I'm not used to spending that long making dinners because I really felt like it was too much. Again when I cancelled they sent me a fabulous offer (50% off) so I did it once more - again, for the recipes. But then I was done, really done. The whole experience made me realize that I'm doing better than I thought with fast, inexpensive meals for my family. I just need to crack open my cookbooks to get us out of the rut we seem to get in.
My parents just signed up for one of these - I was initially skeptical, but it makes a lot of sense for them. My mom has MS and can't stand long enough to cook, which leaves either my dad's cooking or takeout. My dad is capable enough, but not a creative cook and doesn't find pleasure in the process, so they do a lot of processed foods. (I grew up on Hamburger Helper and frozen chicken pot pies.) Takeout is also expensive and largely processed. They can have this delivered with all of the ingredients and step-by-step recipe included, making fresh food easy and accessible. Perfect for their scenario!
I haven't done this yet but it catches my eye for a couple of reasons. I like that you only have the ingredients you need. Like when you buy a bunch of green onions or cilantro and then have to figure out how to use it. This only gives you the amount you need. Also, it may be a good kitchen rut buster. Like the produce box. It may give you a good easy way to try a ingredient you think you would like but are unsure how to use.
Ha! I literally just did a post today on how I went from hating Blue Apron to loving it! I don't disagree with you but my love for them stems from a few different angles. I was catching up on my Bloglvin' feed and saw this post and couldn't help but giggle at the timing. http://missfrugalfancypants.com/blue-apron-year-end-review/
My 24 year old daughter loves Blue Apron. She is 6 months into a new job in a high pressure field and is single. Here's what she likes:
1. prep work is done
2. ingredients are fresh
3. there is usually enough for her room mate and/or left overs for lunch the next day
4. it helps with weekly meal planning (she doesn't use it every day)
5. she lives in the DC metropolitan area so the price is still cheaper than eating out
This is an opportunity to try new recipes and cooking techniques which she loves. I doubt she will be using the service when she is my age but it works for her now.
I used Hello Fresh because I got a coupon to try it for somewhere around $20 for my first box. We eat mostly vegetarian, so I chose that option for my box. It was very convenient to have the ingredients come packaged in just the right amounts, and I enjoyed not having to do major grocery shopping for a week. We ended up really liking one of the three meals, just sort of liking one of the meals, and disliking one of the meals. I also felt a little guilty about all the packaging, and I didn't like that there were no organic ingredients included.
I decided to stick with the service and just get the box every once in awhile for a treat. I ordered one more box and had the exact same experience with it. At $60 a box, I decided it just was not worth it. All the packaging waste and the lack of organic ingredients are not worth it for me. Also, it is definitely not worth it to not just love all of the meals you are cooking with it! I would rather stick with my tried and true recipes, and be able to shop for ingredients I feel good about feeding my family.
My husband and I used it for quite awhile last year and enjoyed it but ultimately decided too much was going to waste and many nights it required more time prep and cook than a simple and cheaper meal would involve. We both work long hours with long commutes. Our babysitter feeds our three kids dinner early each night and we are home to do homework and bedtime. It was nice for us since it allowed us a chance to have a nice dinner or 2 midweek (we only did couples meals, didn't do family option). But we eventually found the calories to be too high, too many carbs and meats weren't organic, which concerned me. They really do have some very tasty meals though and it gets you out of your typical repertoire of meals, I'll give credit where credit is due!
I am also not impressed by the meal delivery options. My mom and step dad tried Blue Apron at a promotional price for a few months and only ate 2 of the meals. They are pretty traditional eaters (meat and potatoes and a veggie) and the meals sent are sometimes pretty exotic. I can feed my family of 3 for $125-$150 per month if we don't eat out, these delivery services in no way would be a good deal for us!
I fall into the e) all of the above category. My husband and I are currently in a place in our lives where we can afford to purchase a Blue Apron box about once a month... and we love it. I've always cooked, but my recipes and cooking skills were pretty limited, and we'd get bored with my options and choose to go out to eat instead. With Blue Apron, we've learned a ton about cooking and about different foods we had never tried before. It's made it so I'm able to now come up with recipes on my own and am comfortable trying other recipes I come across because I now have more cooking 'knowledge'. The Blue Apron recipes are much more detailed in their directions than most other recipes I see and I find that level of instruction helpful across the board. The best part of all has been that my husband (who would prefer to make a bowl of cereal over trying to cook something) has learned a bunch about cooking now too. And he'll often offer to cook a Blue Apron meal himself so I can relax. I agree that its not for everyone, but for us, it has been wonderful.
We subscribe to Blue Apron and have done so for about 9 months now. We are a family of two (my husband and I). I'm a cook and love to shop for groceries and prepare my own meals. The reason we do it is: it allows my husband to cook which gives me a break, it's convienient when we don't have time to shop, we can skip weeeks, so we do it every other week, we like to eat variety of foods. Blue Apron helps break the redundant meals I tend to prepare, for comfort reasons. In addition, it helps with not having to purchase ingredients that we usually will not have in our pantry. Something that will eventually go bad which is a waste of money. Everything is recyclable and saves gas from going to the store for special ingredients.
Hope that's helpful
FG: So what did you do with that cabbage?!
We subscribe to a local farm, but so far I've shied away from signing up for their random produce box. I don't think my husband or kids would eat anything cabbage-y, for example, so I just order specific things each week. I'd love to branch out, but bringing the fam along with me is difficult. 😉
I'm still working through the red cabbage, slowly adding it to salads! Good thing cabbage lasts a long time.
I have been using Blue Apron for about 4 months now. I really enjoy it. Its just me and my husband that I'm feeding. I believe we are the targeted market for this because we have busy schedules, so pretty much only make dinner 3 nights a week at home. Because we are only home around 3 nights a week, I don't have to do any meal planning for dinner. I actually don't even have to think about what's for dinner because it just arrives at my doorstep. This might not work for some people, who are more picky then I am. I really don't care what I eat, as long as its good for me and easy to do. Through Blue Apron I have learned to cook, which is extremely valuable to me. I pay $60 a week for these three dinners which results to $10 per serving. For the convenience, this is totally worth it. And it is cheaper than eating out (unless your eating fast food, which I don't really want).
I wanted to come back to this post, because I remembered your comments on meal subscription services, and that I agreed with them. This summer, though, a friend gifted us a week of Blue Apron meals (3 meals), I figured I would try them because... free food...
By the time the date I had signed up for Blue Apron rolled around, we were in the midst of what has been one of our craziest summers ever (good stuff & some really bad stuff). These planned meals were a total dinner-saver for two or three weeks, and now I will go back to my regular cooking & planning of meals.
So, I actually think they're a great (if pricey) temporary reprieve if you're in a situation like ours, where both parents work & suddenly lost several valuable weekends of meal prep time to other, more pressing family obligations. We won't use them forever, but 3 weeks was enough to get our lives back to some semblance of normal disorder.
I use Blue Apron and am an experienced cook. As a person who works a lot, this service is amazing. I don't have to spend hours planning meals and shopping for ingredients after a long day (because who really has the energy for that), only to forget a key ingredient at the store.
On fact, they could charge more and I would still pay. The meals are interesting with rare and fresh ingredients. I haven't had a single meal I didn't enjoy!
I buy cabbage voluntarily because my husband loves it. Orange poppyseed cabbage with rice was a recipe that he made up when we were on a very tight budget, and he still likes it.
As someone who is really frugal, I could never see myself spending money on this type of service. My boyfriend, on the other hand, had a coupon code (which made 3 meals for the 2 of us only $20 total!) and bought them. Calculating that, it is cheaper than what we would pay to get fast food and is also healthier. Not to mention if we went to the store to get ingredients for recipes, a lot would get wasted (it's hard to shop and cook for only 2 people!)
I think this is a good service (When discounted) for 2-person households. Anything larger and you would save a lot of money by just going to the grocery store. I would never pay full price for this service, though.
I like the idea of encouraging people to enjoy and become confident with cooking, but unfortunately the packaging is wasteful...the carbon footprint is high considering everything ships from only two distribution centers...food is not local... and of course the lack of vegan options signals a lack of care for animal lives...
Here's my review on Blue Apron from an animal rights and environmental activist point of view.
http://nynomads.com/2017/01/say-no-to-blue-apron-wasteful-no-vegan-options/
I've bought a couple of these using coupon codes (e.g. from Groupon), which has really driven down the cost. For example, I got a 2 person subscription for 3 meals per week for $49 for 2 weeks using Groupon; that makes 12 meals, so brings the cost down to approx. $4 per meal. A couple of them were big portions, so I actually got 3 meals out them, making it even cheaper!
There are 4 main appeals for me:
1. I travel frequently, so it's nice to schedule the box to arrive when I do, so that I don't have to go straight to the supermarket to pick up ingredients
2. I'm not tempted to get a takeaway when I've been working long hours
3. I can also choose recipes that are unusual (to me) without having to buy a bunch of expensive spices
4. I don't have a car, and bus service is limited to once per hour, so grocery shopping can be a hassle!
That said, it really is a treat for me to order these. I don't think I would at full price, but if I can get them at a discount, I'm all for it!
Kristen,
Thank you so much for this article! Very much on point.
I’ve seen the subway ads for these types of companies here in New York, and more recently, one of the families that I work with used a similar company for dinner one night. Expense is definitely one of the key issues, though there are a few others which you did not address:
1. Quantity—What if I enjoyed the side dish or vegetable more than everything else in the meal, and want more of it. It seems impossible with this system.
2. Leftovers—Regarding Item #1, if I cook my own meals, I can always store extra portions in the fridge or freezer, hence stretching the dollar value of anything purchased. Again, it seems impossible with this system.
3. Socialization—Going to purchase my ingredients in my local (or not so local) grocery store is a social experience, a very healthy social experience. Why would you want to take that away from someone?
4. Class distinction—I cannot help but consider the class distinctions that are apparent in these ads. Are they targeting parents who work 2 or 3 jobs to put food on the table, and who might rely more heavily on fast food restaurants? Whatever happened to normal ways of doing things, like making dinner?
In general, especially in light of our often stressed, overworked population, I question how “healthy” this trend is, and how long its staying power will be.
Thank you again for writing. I definitely want to read some of your other posts.
Jennifer
Hello.
There are good points and bad points to these types of services.
It depends on how you are aware of yourself and the world, and how you think of time.
I tried HF, and had a lot of fun trying out new recipes.
I had been in an extreme rut cooking.
It was only me and another person though.
I can see how it would not be financially viable for a family.
I did not like the huge freezer pack full of non-biodegradable goo.
Google this to find out more about the goo:
The Truth About Meal-Kit Freezer Packs
To me, TIME is the one thing we can never get back.
It is priceless.
Because I know and appreciate that fact, things that save my time are valuable to me.
There are times where I am extremely focused on something, and I don't have any thought energy left to consider what to make, so this is good for those times because the meals are so carefully laid out.
I agree with the above about the difference between the quality of foods at restaurants and home, especially if you are sensitive to certain ingredients like me. Restaurants rarely completely understand things and frequently tell me their product doesn't have something in it, unless I say "It will put me in the hospital." Then they say "I'm not sure." Since everything is transparent with these delivery services, this may be more beneficial for you if you have allergies.
How do you value your time?
If you value it at $100/hour, and it takes you a total of three hours to drive to the store, shop, drive home, unload, organize, and then cook the food, you spent $300
Do you LOVE driving to the store, shopping, and then driving home?
Maybe don't buy this service?
Are you a person who is highly sensitive to their surroundings and returns from the store with high levels of stress from the trip?
Buy this service?
Don't think I could reorder because of the freezer goo. 🙂
Have an excellent day...