A Frugal Mom's Experience With Hello Fresh

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Well, hello! Look at this lovely box at my door that means less shopping, measuring, guessing and lots of things I don’t like about cooking.

And it means more of what I do like about cooking… creating a beautiful dish and good tasting food. Plus it adds extra ease and convenience.

How It Fits Into My Budget

I have wanted to try a meal service for a LONG TIME. But I was hesitant, mainly because of the price. But once I figured it into my budget and offset it with how much I would save at the grocery store each week, it seemed much more manageable.

For example, I budget $200 per week for food, which includes groceries, eating out, etc… any food needs. So if I order a Hello Fresh box with 3-4 meals for around $100 (which factors in using those meals for at least one night of leftovers) I only need to buy an additional 2 meals plus snacks and staples (milk, eggs, juice, etc.) at the grocery store, which easily comes in under $100.

One reason I can work it into my budget so well is that they have different options to allow you to customize it for your life.

Lots Of Ways To Customize Each Order

You can customize how many meals you get each week. You can choose 2, 3, 4 or more meals to cover your whole week, or just supplement a few days of your meal plan. And you can change up this choice as often as you like.

You can also customize how many servings you get, and you can vary the servings by each meal. For example, for the meals I think my whole family will enjoy, I get 4 servings. But some meals I just know my kids won’t eat, so I only get 2 servings of those and supplement something more kid-friendly for them. Or I’ll go ahead and get 4 servings of a meal I know my husband and I will love and plan to eat the leftovers on an additional night.

If you predominantly prefer vegetarian meals, you can indicate that in your settings. I’m more of a flexitarian, so I set my profile for vegetarian options, but I occasionally add in meals with meat.

It’s not just full meals. You can add on lots of other sides, extra meat, bread, salads, etc. This is a really cool option that allows you to fill out your whole week’s meal plan if you wish.

You can also skip a week whenever you want. There are no monthly or yearly subscriptions, you decide when you want a box and when you don’t. You just need to decide by each Wednesday, so your box can be delivered the following Monday.

Mostly Recyclable Packaging

I was also hesitant because of the wasteful packaging that I was afraid would come with a boxed meal service. Would every small thing be wrapped in plastic? This would have definitely been a deal-breaker for me.

But I was actually pretty pleased. There was minimal packaging, with most items included in one large, recyclable bag. The seasonings were in glass jars and only a few items were in plastic.

Also, the ice packs and the soft material covering the inside of the box was all recyclable.

Easy To Make, Delicious Meals

Each meal comes with an easy to understand recipe card and all ingredients are already measured out. It’s super easy to make the meals so they turn out delicious.

My first box included three meals. I made two of them on busy nights, without much stress or clean up. And they both tasted delicious.

My husband handled the third meal while I was shuttling the kids around to activities and he also loved the ease of the recipe. And it again turned out delicious.

This post is not sponsored by Hello Fresh and I did not get anything for free. But I did take the leap and try my first box because I got a great coupon for $40 off. And here’s one for you!