My New Favorite Meal Kit

A couple years ago meal delivery kits started becoming popular and, while pretty expensive, they have good deals on your first trial which is a good way to get some cheap food for a while.  I wrote about each of the kits I tried in this post here.

Then almost a year ago, I discovered a cheaper meal kit called Dinnerly that I have been using regularly since and wrote about that here.  About a month ago, I heard about another meal kit that was just as cheap as Dinnerly called EveryPlate.  Well not only do I like to try out new meal kits for the deal you get on your first box, but I was interested to see how it compared to Dinnerly as a regular service.

I actually got a Groupon for my first box that was $17 for my first box of 2 servings of 3 meals (including shipping).  EveryPlate actually has a premium meal option each week of a more expensive meat like steak or shrimp which is generally $3 more per serving.  Since we were saving so much money on this box, I decided to get the premium steak meal so in total, I paid $23 for 3 meals for 2 people and one was a steak dinner.  Not bad at all.  I cancelled after the first box, of course, and right away they offered me $10 my next three meals if I came back so I've been enjoying these for a few weeks now.

I REALLY love this option they have of the premium meats.  After receiving Dinnerly meals consistently for almost a year, we've noticed two things that we don't really care for.  One is they have a lot of burgers as the meal option and since I can be a bit picky at times, we can end up having burgers a lot.  The second thing is they only have chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, ground pork, and sausage as meat options.  We miss having shrimp, fish, steak, and pork not ground so having the option to chose to upgrade to some of these is nice, even if you have to pay a little more for it.  Though I will note that I've had pork chops from EveryPlate that was not any extra. (The best pork chops I've ever had btw!)

The meals from EveryPlate have been much tastier than Dinnerly as well.  Dinnerly is cheaper by having less ingredients so sometimes the meals are a little lacking.  They are good, don't get me wrong but just having one or two more ingredients could make it go from good to great.  I don't know how EveryPlate can offer such cheap meals while still being able to give you more ingredients, but they are, at least for now.

EveryPlate also offers a referral program (get $20 off your first box and I'll get $20 in credit!) which Dinnerly doesn't do so that makes it a little nicer too.  I think I am going to be switching to EveryPlate to be my regular delivery instead of Dinnerly.  Or maybe I'll keep both going every week so I only have to plan one dinner a week.  We'll see.  But either way, I definitely recommend EveryPlate!

Dinnerly is the Cheap and Easy Way to Make Dinner

A while ago I wrote a blog about meal kit delivery services (read about it here).  These are companies that mail you ingredients to make healthy meals.  I love this idea because it saves time by not having to go grocery shopping and it delivers fresh produce but just the right amount needed so nothing goes to waste but most of the services are quite expensive.  When I heard about a new company, Dinnerly, that claimed to be the cheaper option, I was interested.

Dinnerly offers 3 meals of 2 servings for only $30 plus $8.99 shipping.  Most other meal kit services are twice that price.  With the shipping factored in, that's only $13 a meal.  My husband and I often have leftovers as well, usually enough for one lunch.  Granted I can make meals for much cheaper than that, but as I said, not having to buy the groceries or plan saves time and energy which is worth something.  Plus you get to try new things that you might not have before. 

Why is Dinnerly so much cheaper?  They provide digital recipe cards instead of paper and have simple packaging which means less production costs.  They also have fewer ingredients per dish which cuts back on cost.  They also don't spend a lot of money on huge marketing campaigns.

Another thing that I like about Dinnerly is it is simpler than most other services.  With fewer ingredients, the dishes don't take as long to prepare and cook.  Most of their meals can be made in 30 minutes or less.

I have been getting the boxes for 3 weeks now and I have really enjoyed most of the meals.  They are tasty, simple to make, and cost effective! 

If you want to try a free box, comment below and I'll respond with your unique code!

I Just Made Dinner for 2 for $3

Second post of the day?  What?!  I just HAD to share this.  Last night I made dinner for myself and my husband for $3!  And it was tasty and filling too!

This is what we had:

I got each of these at the Dollar Tree.  My husband loved the biscuits, I thought they were okay, and the soup was really tasty (though I did add some shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream).

Thanks Dollar Tree!  See my post, First Tip: THE DOLLAR STORE!!!, for more things to buy and save at the dollar store.