Are Meal Delivery Services Worth It? Time & Cost Benefits
Meal delivery services are a convenient way to have fresh healthy meals at home without all the hassle of shopping and cooking. With a service like Gobble, you choose meals from a rotating menu of diverse options each week delivered straight to your door. There’s no doubt that this can save you time, but are meal delivery services worth it?
Whether meal delivery services are worth the money will depend on a variety of factors unique to you and the meal plan you choose. In this guide, we’ll break down the things to consider to determine if meal delivery services are worth it for you.
Time-Saving Benefits of Meal Delivery Services
The primary way that a meal delivery service saves you money is by saving you time. As we all know: time is money. If you’re a busy professional, student, or full-time caregiver, you probably don’t have much free time on your hands. As a result, you may end up eating out a lot — which can be very expensive. Or, even worse, you eat cheap junk to fill your belly!
A meal delivery service can free up hours that you’re currently wasting on figuring out recipes, shopping, and preparing and cooking meals. With that precious time back, you now have more time to spend on more productive things.
Less Time Recipe Hunting
Unless you are willing to eat the same thing every day for the rest of your life, a good amount of effort goes into recipe hunting. Figuring out what to eat every day is part of the mental load of maintaining a house. This work primarily falls to women in the home, but it’s a drain no matter who is stuck doing it. With a meal delivery service, you don’t have to worry about coming up with something new and creative every day.
Less Time Meal Planning and Prepping
Did you know that Pew Research found that the average US mom spends nearly eight hours per week on meal prep? Even in households with no kids, people usually spend 30 mins to an hour per day planning and preparing meals.
With a meal delivery service like Gobble, each meal only takes 15 minutes or less to prepare. For a busy mom, this could add up to over six hours spared per week!
Less Time at the Grocery Store
All that time preparing meals doesn’t even include the time it takes to grocery shop. The average American spends over an hour per week at the grocery store — time that you save when using a meal service delivery plan, according to research from Spend Me Not.
Meal delivery services do all the shopping for you. All you have to do is choose your meals each week from a rotating selection. Every meal is prepared by a chef, and the ingredients are always listed so you know exactly what you’re eating.
Do Meal Delivery Services Save You Money?
A lot of people wonder, do meal subscriptions save you money? And that depends on how much you think your time is worth and which plan you choose.
On average, meal delivery services cost between $9 and $13 per serving. Some meal services are more expensive than others, but this is not the most important factor.
Few meal delivery services are worth it just based on the cost of the ingredients alone. Home-cooked meals typically only cost about $5 per serving. But, if you are currently eating out to save time, a meal delivery service is almost certainly going to save you money. As reported by Forbes, on average eating out costs over $20 per meal — twice the cost of most meal services.
But when you look at the time saved, the value of a meal delivery service is obvious. This is especially true for busy people who want more time to focus on their careers or family.
The Cost of “Cheap” Food
The average hourly wage is about $30/hour in the US according to Indeed. If you spend nearly ten hours each week on meal prep and shopping, this is about $1,200 per month of lost time!
Of course, some things are worth more than money. Time with your loved ones, on a hobby, or spent taking care of your mental health is invaluable.
Likewise, the value of your health is hard to measure. If you feel overwhelmed by the idea of cooking healthy, fresh meals every single night — a meal delivery service may be worth it for you! Gobble’s Lean & Clean plan, for example, helps you eat meals that are both healthy and delicious without all the effort.
In the long run, the cost of failing to eat well is enormous. Harvard’s School of Public Health estimates that nearly 20 percent of all healthcare costs in the US ($50 billion) are linked to poor nutrition.
Takeaway: Are Meal Delivery Services Worth It?
So are food delivery services worth it? When comparing meal delivery services you first need to figure out what you value There are certainly cheaper ways to eat, but those meals come with their own costs: your time or your health. The benefit of a meal delivery service is usually that you pay a little bit more to save enormously on the time it would usually take for such a healthy and delicious meal.
Find The Best Meal Delivery Service For You
When choosing the right meal delivery service to meet your needs, consider the quality of food, freshness the number of options, and available diets. With Gobble, you can choose from multiple meal options each week. Every selection also includes vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. Reclaim your time (and money!) with a flexible meal delivery service like Gobble.
If you want to give the gift of food consider sending friends or family a meal delivery service gift card.
