If you’re resolving to eat better and cook more at home in the New Year, meal kits can help. Meal delivery services offer plans to accommodate special diets and nutrition goals including keto, paleo, Mediterranean Diet and low-sodium. I’ve tested all the top purveyors and these are the best.
Before you settle on a meal kit service, I suggest trying a few of them using the sly method outlined below. This meal-delivery discount hack will let you taste the best meal kit services, including HelloFresh, Blue Apron, Purple Carrot Review and EveryPlate, for as much as 75% off the regular prices.
After years of testing and subscribing to every meal kit service, I’ve devised a list of ways to get the most out of your meal kit subscription. No single tip is more fruitful than taking advantage of meal kit signup offers for massive discounts on months of meals.
With a little organization, this semisecret will allow you to try months, even up to a year of meal kits and prepared meal delivery for far less than it would cost to buy the groceries yourself. Here’s how to do it (hint: It involves taking advantage of promo deals and canceling at the right time) and a snapshot of how much you’ll save.
How to get months of discounted meal kits
Nearly every meal kit I’ve tested (here’s how CNET tests meal kits) allows you to try several weeks of meals for a super cheap promotional price, typically about 50% off the normal price. These hugely discounted sign-up offers are often as low as $5 or $7 for a full recipe that will feed two, four or even six people. That’s about $2 to $5 per serving and about as cheap a meal as you’re going to find during days of inflation.
Snapshot of savings
Gobble’s deal is shorter but just as tempting. That service lets you try your first six servings (three meal kits) for just $36.
There’s the mother of all cheap meal delivery services, EveryPlate. This budget-friendly brand will send your first few boxes for an impressively low price per meal. It varies by week but right now, your first box will come in at under $2 per serving.
Make sure to read each offer carefully. Often the deal is spread out over a few deliveries so you’ll be committed to a few weeks of meals. You can always cancel or pause after the discount ends.
Don’t forget to cancel after the promo ends
The big catch is that if you don’t cancel after the initial promotion ends, the service will almost certainly keep sending you boxes of meals but at the full price. Some will let you cancel right after you place your order while others will make you wait until the promo boxes have all been delivered. In cases where they make you wait, I’d suggest setting a reminder to cancel at the earliest possible time.
Sunbasket is around $12 or $15 per serving, but way cheaper if you take advantage of a trial offer.
Prepared meal services have promo deals, too
If you don’t have an interest in cooking, many of the top prepared meal delivery services have sign-up offers too. I’ve found that the discount by percentage isn’t usually as good as with meal kits, but there are still some cheap meal options. Much like meal kits, you’ll be able to cancel your service after you’ve taken advantage of the deal — or keep ’em coming if you like what you get.
Even online butchers such as ButcherBox and grocery delivery services such as Thrive Market and Hungryroot have some hefty new customer deals. I say try them all and let everyone else pay full price.
