In today’s busy society, home-cooked meals aren’t very convenient. This is because we all live busy lives and taking time out to shop for and then cook food from scratch requires a lot of time and effort.
Meal delivery services have been growing, improving, and evolving for many years. They offer portion-controlled and highly nutritious meal kits that can cater to just about every palate.
Recently, the demand and interest in meal delivery melbourne have risen exponentially, especially because more people are trying to eat at home to save money than ever before.
The popularity of these services shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. So, whichever way you feel about them, meal delivery services are here to stay!
If you’ve ever wondered whether meal delivery services will be more forgiving to your wallet instead of home cooking, you’ve come to the right place!
Meal Delivery Services vs. Buying Groceries
There are quite a few different meal delivery services that can work out to be pretty expensive. Despite this, there are a couple of budget-friendly options that will only cost you around $5 for each serving.
If you were to compare dollar to dollar, these types of meal kits do work out to be slightly more expensive than buying groceries for a single meal and home cooking.
Though this is true, many factors help to justify spending a little extra on a quality meal delivery service instead of home cooking. We’ll break these down below for you.
A Breakdown Of Meal Delivery Services Cost
You cannot deny that putting in the effort to go out and buy your groceries will work out to be cheaper than using a meal delivery service. However, you must also remember that you get a lot included in the cost of a meal delivery service including fuel, expertise, and carefully measured out and utterly delicious ingredients.
This is because there is a load of things that the food service professionals working at these services will do for you.
Some of the main things they’ll take care of are:
- Developing creative and highly delicious recipes that can be prepared by anyone.
- Sourcing ingredients. These are often organic.
- Measuring portions and packaging all ingredients to minimize packaging and food waste.
- Monitoring and operating a supply chain to deliver meals directly to your doorstep.
Fuel Cost
With the cost of living increasing drastically each year, home cooking is becoming a much more expensive option for people everywhere. This means that in many circumstances, meal delivery services might very well turn out to be the most budget-friendly option!
Rather than embarking on regular trips to your local store, and having to resist the temptation to buy those novelty items at the checkout, a food delivery service will ensure your meals are delivered directly to your front door.
Some meal delivery options offer free or discounted shipping whereas others will charge a small fee. However, this depends on your location.
Food Waste
By using recyclable packaging and eliminating as much food waste as possible, meal delivery services work to reduce your carbon footprint. If that wasn’t enough, pre-portioned meals will save you having to purchase lots of ingredients that will only end up being thrown to the back of your fridge after being used once or twice.
A meal delivery service provides you with the exact ingredients you need for a specific recipe which means you won’t be leaving lots of leftovers!
So, Are Meal Delivery Services Cheaper?
Even though grocery shopping might cost you less money for every single instance where you shop, meal delivery services will likely save you the most money over longer periods.
This is because you are not wasting any of your ingredients and are using them in your recipes, which may not be the case for the vegetables or bottles of sauces that you bought from the grocery store.
Even the very cheapest meal delivery service out there provides delectable restaurant-quality meals without the need for planning, shopping, prepping, or actively cooking.
Plus, having your meals sent to your doorstep takes less time than a trip to the grocery store would, and you also don’t need to waste fuel.
Summary
In theory, when adding up the cost of ingredients bought, meal delivery services are not always cheaper than home cooking. But if you factor in everything else such as convenience, fuel costs, and a lack of food waste — meal delivery services might very well work out to be cheaper over time!