Before I had a child, I loved cooking. In my early 20s, I even worked for a food website, and I was surrounded by chefs and home cooks who were just passionate about really, really good food. Ordering out and going out to dinner was really only for the weekends or late work nights, but when it came down to it, I love standing at my stovetop, listening to my favorite music as I played with spice and tweaked recipes.
Once I had my son, it all changed. Meal prep and cooking were no longer my time of peace; they were a mere distraction from the one who really needed my attention. Combine that with a few unfortunate health diagnosis in our little family, and cooking became even more of a challenge.
I'd wander the grocery aisles trying to find something insanely quick that wasn't frozen.
But I also wanted something that would appeal to everyone ('cause mama ain't no short order cook). But I came up extremely short.
So much so, that the frozen meals I tried to avoid became part of the norm, as did buying a ton of groceries I didn't end up using and that ultimately ended up in the trash. Essentially, our chaotic life was resulting in me basically throwing my money away.
When inflation really started rising, I found myself in a genuine, broke quandary.
I was tired of fast food but I also had no time to think up, meal plan, and cook dishes that actually worked for everyone. I sat down with my husband and calculated that we were spending an ungodly amount on food (easy over $1K with both wasted groceries and ordered food), and clearly, something needed to change.
While I couldn't figure out a way to add more hours to my day, we did deduce that modern ingenuity did us a solid and brought meal planning services to our society. And it was time to at least try it out.
We landed on doing HelloFresh three nights a week after considering my family's dietary needs and food costs.
We looked at a number of plans before deciding. The HelloFresh plan costs us roughly $69 a week, and when you break that down, it works out to about $23 a meal, or about $16 a person.
My son, who is a picky eater (and we do not need to get into that right now), doesn't really participate in these meals but it's easy enough to whip him something up that it was worth it. And y'all, considering our takeout orders were upwards of $40 an order after taxes and delivery fees … It. Was. Worth. It.
I'm going to be 100% transparent here: Even if it didn't save me money (which it has), the mental load of figuring out every meal being lifted off my shoulders is well worth the price.
Once a week, I comb over my selections for the following week and just pick based on ease and dietary considerations. It feels so much more manageable working off of everything that is packed and there, ready to be made rather than hunting down ingredients and looking up recipes I have no time to make good on.
Some other bonuses are: It actually gives me a reason to have a half hour to myself again.
That 30-minute meal I work on is a great opportunity to clean up the kitchen while I cook and put my brain on autopilot. As a working mom, I cannot express how invaluable that is. And it also encourages my toddler to at least lick new foods.
So truly, a win-win for everyone.
