How much $ for meal prepping

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tiana774
tiana774 Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
hi, I'm really busy and can't meal prep like I want to. I go to school and have 2 jobs. How much do you meal preppers spend a month for 1 person? There is a meal prep service that has 15 meals for $89 with $15 delivery fee. I would purchase that twice a month so it 30 meals for one month and go grocery shopping for the other meals to supplement it like protein salad, overnight oats, etc. not sure if I wanna do it myself or go with the meal prep service. Thank u

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  • nikkib2115
    nikkib2115 Posts: 5 Member
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    Only one meal a day?
  • Queenmunchy
    Queenmunchy Posts: 3,380 Member
    edited July 2015
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    I make a bunch of one pot dishes on my day off (soup, chili, stew, stuffed peppers, burritos, curries, meatballs, chicken nuggets, mini meat loves and mini chicken pot pies, and more) to freeze and I save so much money. I also make a frittata, egg bake, and/or mini egg muffins for breakfasts. It's so much cheaper because you only expend the heat once and you don't waste anything.
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
    edited July 2015
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    In a Tupperware add; 1 Can of beans, 1 lean chicken sausage, raw or frozen broccoli, raw or frozen bell pepper, 1/2 cup salsa, tsp olive oil or 1/4 avocado.

    Throw in microwave for 3 minutes.

    Cheap, nutritious, good macro profile, fast. You can mix up the veggies, meats, and fats too.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    Crockpot! 15 minutes of prep time for several meals worth of food.
  • 4whirlygigs
    4whirlygigs Posts: 11 Member
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    So roughly $5 per serving. That is a good price. I use a meal prep service in my town that works out to $7.50 per serving. She does gourmet, healthy type food that just needs to be reheated. It's a different meal plan every week.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    How much are you paying per hour for that meal prep? I won't use those services, since based on how fast I can prep what I need it costs $50-200/hr depending on what was delivered. I don't make that much, nor would I convert that food prep time into an income source, so it makes little sense to pay for such a service.
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    http://www.budgetbytes.com/2013/04/multi-purpose-shredded-beef/

    this recipe cost about $18... not counting the price of a slow-cooker if you don't have one. it makes roughly 8 servings of shredded beef, so basically 8 meals. so for less than a quarter of the price of this delivery service you have food for 8 meals.

    what are you going to do with just shredded beef? well, you can make her version of philly cheesesteak http://www.budgetbytes.com/2013/04/not-philly-cheesesteak-sandwiches/

    for the equivalent of $10 (counting what you already spent on the beef) you can make four philly cheesesteaks. bam, lunches for four days.

    a lot of good crockpot meals from that website. soups, stews, shredded chicken, etc etc. a lot of meal prepping involves eating a lot of the same things, but it helps save time... and money.
  • tiana774
    tiana774 Posts: 3 Member
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    Thank you everyone that answered. I'll try crockpot meals. I also downloaded the fit men cook app and he had a few good meal prep recipes
  • A_poetiq
    A_poetiq Posts: 52 Member
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    I wasn't aware that there were meal prep services. In situations i have been in, this would have been very useful. Thanks for that info.
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
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    tiana774 wrote: »
    Thank you everyone that answered. I'll try crockpot meals. I also downloaded the fit men cook app and he had a few good meal prep recipes

    May I suggest skinnytaste.com. She has a ton of crock pot recipes with calorie counts & nutrition info.
  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,691 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Depends on where your shopping and what you're buying. I try my best to compile budget savvy recipes as well as buying in season produce to keep numbers lower. I also shop at Aldi for most items and Giant Eagle for anything they don't happen to have. When I was living by myself, for 1 week (5 or 6 days for most recipes), of breakfast, lunch, two snacks, and dinner is usually around 50 bucks. These days I don't really plan my dinners so for everything else its in the neighborhood of 30 dollars, which I don't think is half darn bad.


    ETA: If you want to, you can make time to meal prep like you want to. I work full time and about to add another onto it, and a full time college student. There IS time.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    Is this something like Blue Apron? I have a friend the uses it and loves it. She says not only is it easier but she's tasted some foods she would never have known what to do with (she's never been much into cooking), and really liked all the recipes.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,251 Member
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    I don't spend money on food prep services because it is a total waste. It doesn't take very long to do at all. When you first start it may cost a bit extra in time and money, but once you have everything on hand, it's SO easy.
  • mistress8956
    mistress8956 Posts: 265 Member
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    I spend roughly $400-500 a month ( 5 people, 5 cats, 1 dog and 1 hamster lol) that's my total budget not just food. So personally I think that is a lot of $ for what's being provided for only one person. It all come down to how much is your time worth to you. I spend about 2 hrs in the kitchen a week, and maybe another hr grocery shopping. Pre planing/ packaging food for two people for all meals, and cooking dinner for all 5.

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