They come in microwavable containers and they can be refrigerated at home and eaten within two days according to Darryl, our local Wegmans deli guy who is worth his weight in gold. We used this option for the insanity that followed our last baby when I came down with an infection and was bed ridden even more so for a few days.

You can pick up 4 meals at a time, and eat them for dinner for two days. You can pick up a container of lunch meat or peanut butter and jelly and bread for sandwiches with baby carrots and chips at Lunch, and milk and cereal for breakfast.

Photo Credit: Pat Durkin. The key to subway is to just go for the sandwich and skip the drink and chips. Get a foot long sub, so you can eat the second half for lunch the next day. Drink water at home and pair it with anything found in your house: yogurt, chips, ice cream, raisins and peanuts, or anything you can find.

Hint: You can order online and just walk in and pick it up with no wait. Add cereal, bananas and milk for breakfast. Just need a quick meal out at a cheap restaurant? Try these ideas…. Little Caesars. Perfect to take to a soccer game and eat in the stands rather than taking everyone to the drive thru.

Just load up on fruit and veggies after the game. Photo Credit: Janine. We can usually get 3 meals out of one pizza. When we do order pizza which is extremely rare because I married a man that makes pizza from scratch better than a NYC food truck , this is where we head to. Perfect for a super frugal date night out.

If you have potty trained children, they also have 30 minutes of childcare available in a really fun space with climbing equipment and ball pits.

Send the kids to play, go find a comfy couch to test out while you recharge and then have a quick lunch. Perfect for a quick lunch on errands day.

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy here. I am ALL about going out to eat for avoiding insanity! I wish we had a Wegmans close by again… I love that grocery store!!!

Happy to share Aspen! I just told my husband last night that proximity to a Wegmans would be a huge factor in deciding where we move to. However, dining out is one thing we really enjoy. But, we never go without a coupon or a deal.

It really does make it as cheap as eating at home. Especially if you can control your portions and bring leftovers home. We usually save eating out for when life gets in the way, since dining out with a 2 year old and a newborn is soooo not fun.

But writing this post made me so hungry for Olive Garden, that we ended up there the day I finished this. I realize this is well-meant… but are you suggesting that a human being can survive for a week on nothing but Olive Garden and PBJs?

Technically yes. People can survive on much, much worse. Whether or not you would want to is totally up to you. The main reason we eat out so much?

Games and practices from pm to am. My husband noticed that I do best on days when I fix all the days meals during breakfast-when my energy is higher and I am not drained.

So I toss stuff in the crockpot on low in the morning or on high depending on if the meat is frozen or not around pm. I hope that helps and invigorates you to keep going with the at home dinner. We love Wegmans too! If you sign up for their email list you get — buy one meal get one FREE!

They send the coupon out every once in a while but you can use it over and over until expires! Meal delivery services have risen in popularity during the pandemic as more people look to avoid crowded grocery stores and to try new recipes.

These services cross grocery shopping and even ingredient chopping off your checklist by sending you specific amounts of everything you need to make a gourmet meal. Genius, right? Of course, any subscription service adds up over time. The growing field of meal delivery services offers options for all types of cooks including, but not limited to, healthy meal deliveries with high-quality, organic ingredients for those with special dietary preferences.

Little Spoon. The baby food delivery service works with experts like pediatricians to personalize meal plans that take development into account for your baby or child. Food ships to your door cold and fresh with delicious flavor pairings like beet, banana, and mango; pitaya, pineapple, spinach, banana, and coconut oil.

The meals are protein-heavy, though there are a few vegetarian options, including dishes like a bean burrito casserole and tahini noodles with broccoli.

You can subscribe to a two-person box, or a family box which serves four. Both are available in weekly boxes of three to six meals.

Availability: Available in most areas of the continental United States; input your zip code on the site to see your delivery options. Daily Harvest. All ingredients are fresh, organic, and vegan, making it a perfect vegan meal delivery service. Plus, the more you order, the more you save.

The meals range in difficulty on a scale of one to three, with gourmet dishes such as mahi mahi piccata and butternut squash agnolotti with kale. And if your kid is on a dairy-free or gluten-free diet, Yumble has options for that too.

Availability: Most of the East Coast, Texas, and parts of the West Coast and Midwest. Home Chef. You choose from around a dozen meals each week with menus set five weeks ahead of time , and those fresh ingredients and recipe cards ship to your door.

In about 30 minutes or less, you can whip up delicious dishes that cater to picky eaters and anyone with dietary restrictions including vegetarian, dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free, and more. The service offers gourmet meals such as tomato risotto, shrimp scampi pasta, farmhouse fried chicken, and more.

And if you love the sound of these meal kits but want to skip the meal prep, Home Chef has five-minute oven-ready lunches and dinners too.

Blue Apron. Developed to keep cooking and prep time for meals down to an average of 45 minutes, the recipe card directions are easy to follow and ingredients are sourced from sustainable farms. Splendid Spoon.

Mosaic Foods. Mosaic Foods makes frozen, ready-to-heat vegetarian and vegan meals that use fresh, nutritious, and affordable ingredients, with offerings of veggie bowls, soups, oats, and more. Availability: New York, Washington, D. SELF does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional.

Cheapest meal kits compared ; 28, Keto, low-calorie, gluten-free, pescetarian, $10, Free on boxes over $40 ; 50+, Vegetarian, keto, paleo, gluten- Eating healthy can still be an option when low on money! I always have spaghetti pasta, pasta sauce, white rice, beans, eggs, etc in the pantry/ boking.info › Compare Business Software › MENU

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Cheaper Menu Alternatives - Missing Cheapest meal kits compared ; 28, Keto, low-calorie, gluten-free, pescetarian, $10, Free on boxes over $40 ; 50+, Vegetarian, keto, paleo, gluten- Eating healthy can still be an option when low on money! I always have spaghetti pasta, pasta sauce, white rice, beans, eggs, etc in the pantry/ boking.info › Compare Business Software › MENU

Most services allow you to skip a week and adjust your plan along the way, which can be a strategy to help keep costs down if you can't use the food quickly.

Some options, like Dinnerly, have robust vegetarian menus, for example, whereas other services may offer only a handful of vegetarian meals to choose from each week.

Certain services will let you customize further and swap out proteins, which can be beneficial. Most services will give you a discount on the first box and additional discounts if you are a first responder or in the military.

And if you know a friend or family member who is using the service, you may both get a discount for the referral. Some meal delivery services can be pricey — and most also involve shipping fees.

But it's worth keeping in mind that they also tend to be healthier and less expensive than takeout. There's also the benefit of skipping a trip to the grocery store and not having to spend time coming up with meal ideas and hunting for recipes.

Many meal kits offer assistance with meal prepping, chopping and more , cutting down on prep time too. You'll also get the opportunity to learn new cooking techniques and try new foods that may not be in your regular mealtime rotation.

If you'd rather not bust out all your pots and pans every night, prepared meal delivery services can also offer a smart solution. While prepared options do come at a premium, you're ultimately paying for the convenience, which may be worth it for you. These types of melas are typically comparable with the cost of takeout but have one standard shipping fee since the meals come together.

This article was originally written by registered dietitian Amy Fischer. It was most recently updated by registered dietitian and Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Director Stefani Sassos.

As a dietitian and working mother, Stefani is passionate about putting balanced meals on the table for her family without having to spend a ton of time or money at the grocery store. She personally uses meal delivery services as a way to change up her family's normal dinnertime routine and to get introduced to a variety of new foods and unique preparation methods.

Stefani is dedicated to providing readers with evidence-based content to encourage informed food choices and healthy living.

She is an avid CrossFitter and a passionate home cook who loves spending time with her big fit Greek family. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Miami University of Ohio and a master's degree in clinical nutrition from NYU.

Prior to Good Housekeeping , she worked at one of the largest teaching hospitals in New York City as a cardiac transplant dietitian.

She has authored numerous chapters in clinical nutrition textbooks and has also worked in PR and marketing for food company start-ups. The Best Single-Serve Coffee Makers.

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Our top picks: 1. Best Overall Cheap Meal Delivery Service Dinnerly Shop at dinnerly. Shop at dinnerly. Best Value Cheapest Meal Delivery Service EveryPlate Shop at everyplate.

Shop at everyplate. Best Cheap Meal Delivery Service for Beginners Hello Fresh Hello Fresh Shop at HelloFresh. Shop at HelloFresh. Best Cheap Meal Delivery Service for Wellness Blue Apron Blue Apron Shop at blueapron.

Shop at blueapron. Best Cheap Meal Delivery Service for Families Home Chef Shop at Home Chef. Shop at Home Chef. Best Plant-Based Cheap Meal Delivery Service Mosaic Foods Mosaic Foods Shop at mosaicfoods. Shop at mosaicfoods. Plans Two or four people and two to six meals per week.

Packaging The box, separator and thermal liner are all curbside recyclable. The bottles and containers can be disposed in plastic recycling bins. Availability Delivery throughout the contiguous United States.

Pros Lowest cost meal kit per serving Lots of comfort food options Add-ons like sides and desserts also available Includes recipe cards with step-by-step pictures Kit includes everything you'll need to create the meal. Plans Two or four people and three to six meals per week. Availability Delivery to the vast majority of the continental USA.

Pros Large weekly menu selection Easy-to-follow recipe cards with clear pictures Full recipes and nutrition information available on their website Solid and well-organized packaging. Packaging Fold and discard the box with other household recyclables.

Availability Delivery to all states across the continental US. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. Pros Inventive and flavorful recipes Over 70 weekly menu options Variety of WW-recommended selections High-quality, fresh ingredients Ready-to-cook and heat-and-eat options also available.

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com is an independent, advertising-supported service. The offers that appear on this site are from companies which MyDollarPlan. Number of meals per week. With almost every service, the more meals or servings your order per delivery, the cheaper it becomes per meal.

But you'll want to hone in on exactly how much food makes sent for your household. If you can't imagine yourself cooking more than twice per week, don't order more than two meal kits because they typically won't last more than a week in the fridge.

Most prepared meals either arrive frozen or can be frozen after unboxing. That means it's less of an issue if you order too many meals on your first go around.

Most services allow you to change the number of meals or servings in your plan even after you've started. Our meal delivery experts have logged more than 5 years of cooking more than 75 meal kits and tasting more than prepared meals from various services to help land on our list of the best healthy meal subscriptions in While everything else has got more expensive, meal kit subscriptions seem to be getting cheaper.

The absolute cheapest meal kit is EveryPlate , and with consistently tasty meals -- we've tested it three times now -- that take as little as 20 minutes to cook, it's an easy pick for the best cheap meal service for Read more: Are Some Meal Kits Cheaper Than Buying Groceries?

I Did the Math. If you're looking for inexpensive vegan meals by mail or an affordable meal kit service that includes steak and seafood in the standard plan, we have picks for those, too. The takeaway? Being budget-friendly certainly doesn't mean the food has to suck.

If you're looking to eliminate a few weekly tasks -- grocery shopping, meal planning, prep, cooking -- without squeezing your budget, we tested more than 10 top wallet-friendly services to find the best cheap meal delivery for The bottom line : EveryPlate's meal kits were all solid and easy to make.

EveryPlate meal kits are easy to prepare and I loved everything I made in multiple rounds of testing. You won't find a lot of foofy, upscale cuisine or complicated recipes, but you will get a lot of satisfying comfort food, such as hoisin meatloaf with mashed potatoes, cheeseburgers, umami pork chops and sweet potato quesadillas.

I tested EveryPlate and was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked the meals. Having tested all of the leading prepared meal delivery service options, Fresh N Lean ran away from the competition, ticking more boxes than any other.

The food is healthy, thoughtfully prepared, tastes fantastic, looks appetizing and is fairly affordable, depending on the plan you select. Fresh N Lean has five meal plans to help keep folks on track with their specific nutrition goals, including low-carb, vegan, paleo and protein-plus options.

The food I tried was all made exceptionally well, made from simple, whole ingredients. This is the perfect service for families with picky eaters trying to eat well on a budget. Much like EveryPlate, Dinnerly has a lot of comfort foods such as ravioli with spinach and parmesan sauce, carne asada tacos and chicken pad thai.

Dinnerly has an enormous menu of recipes -- typically more than 60 to choose from in a given week. The bottom line: This plant-based meal delivery service had some of the best, healthy prepared meals of any service we tried.

I sampled about nine of Mosaic Food's plant-based prepared meal offerings and the vegetarian prepared meal delivery service had an astoundingly high hit rate. Mosaic uses bold and interesting global flavors and employs creative use of meat substitutes such as tofu, jackfruit, cauliflower and vegan sausages to create tasty and satisfying vegetarian meals -- even for this omnivore.

There are some vegan meals, but many of them use dairy products, so vegans must choose their Mosaic meals more carefully. The bottom line: Blue Apron is a classic example of a quality meal delivery service.

One of the original providers of this service, it also stands out for eco-friendliness. Blue Apron is one of the original meal kit services and it's also one of the best. In fact, Blue Apron topped our list of best meal delivery services for with a wide range of excellent recipes, all for an affordable price.

It's true, you can order bistro steaks and roasted trout dinners with Blue Apron's standard plan, where many services charge extra for those premium proteins.

In addition to solid meal kits, Blue Apron is the most eco-friendly service of the major players, according to a recent study. The heartier meals are great too, like the cauliflower rice and pesto harvest bowl with cashews and spinach. You won't need more than a saucepan, toaster or blender to prepare most of the meals, and most can be made in as little as 5 minutes.

When I tried Daily Harvest , I loved the interesting smoothie combos such as a chocolate blueberry smoothie with greens, banana and almond butter. The bottom line : It doesn't get much easier than HelloFresh. This service has tons of cheap meal kit options, more than 50 per week, and allows you to add proteins or extra servings to keep the whole crew fed and happy.

HelloFresh has as many as 25 dinner meal kits per week, so it is nearly impossible not to find something you'll like. HelloFresh also has five or six plant-based recipes a week, making it the best cheap meal kit service for vegetarians.

Over the past few years, we've tested nearly every meal kit delivery and prepared meal delivery service we could get our oven mitts on, and that includes the best budget meal delivery services.

Many of the menu options for the meal delivery services we've listed include nutritious plant-based food or high-protein recipes with lots of veggies and lean meats.

To test each cheap meal delivery service, I tried at least four and sometimes as many as 10 meals from any given service. I always choose a range of meals from the various menu and meal plan offerings. For instance, if a meal subscription service offers vegan or vegetarian meals I was sure to try at least one.

I also mixed up the cuisine types to include pasta, meat dishes, bowls and other various styles offered by the brand. To test the best cheap meal kits, there was another set of standards and protocols to adhere to.

Here's more on how we test meal kits at CNET. The first big decision you'll make is whether you want meal kits, which require some prep and cooking, or a prepared meal service that sends fully cooked meals ready to heat and eat. Prepared meals require almost no time and energy, other than what it takes to actually eat the food, but typically run a few dollars more per serving.

If you're keen on eating low-calorie, low-carb, plant-based or pescatarian food, certain meal kits and meal delivery services are better than others. Our list of the healthiest meal delivery services for is a good place to find the most nutritious options.

With almost every service, the more meals or servings are in your order per delivery, the cheaper it becomes per meal.