That means it's less of an issue if you order too many meals on your first go-around. Services like Daily Harvest and Splendid Spoon have meals for similar prices but are focused more on grain bowls and smoothies and might be better for breakfast or lunch versus dinner. When it comes to meal kits, your options are many, and most services provide weekly recipes that are low on calories but still filling.

HelloFresh has the most recipes per week of any meal kit service, so that might be your best bet for finding consistent meals that keep your diet goals on track. But all services list the calorie content for each recipe, along with carbs, protein, sugar and sodium. Depending on your weight loss goals, a healthy prepared meal delivery or meal kit service can help.

Fresh N Lean, Pete's Real Food and Daily Harvest all have low-calorie meals to choose from. Some of the services listed here are healthy prepared meal delivery services , sending fully cooked meals -- often frozen or partially frozen -- and ready to eat when you receive them.

Others include health-focused meal kits with premeasured ingredients all boxed up and ready for easy weeknight cooking. There's a stark difference between meal kits and meal delivery, but both make dinnertime easier and can translate into healthier eating choices for you in Plus, we sussed out the best healthy meal services for those on special diets like keto or paleo or for those who wish to eat organic prepared meals and meal kits.

Wellness Nutrition. Written by David Watsky. Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission.

Reviews ethics statement. David lives in Brooklyn where he's spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips. Since earning a BA in English from Northeastern in Boston, he's toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom.

Right now, he's likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or researching the best way to make bacon. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week. Expertise Kitchen tools, appliances, food science, subscriptions and meal kits. See full bio.

Why You Can Trust CNET. Table of Contents Top. Cheapest Meal Delivery Services of What's the best cheap meal delivery service? Cheapest meal delivery services for Cheapest prepared meal services compared. How we test meal kits and meal delivery services.

Factors to consider when choosing a meal delivery service. Why you should trust us. Cheap meal delivery FAQs. Back to selection. See at EveryPlate. Best cheap meal kits overall. See at Fresh N' Lean. Best cheap prepared meal delivery overall. See at Dinnerly. Best cheap meal kits for picky eaters.

See at Mosaic Foods. Best cheap vegan meals. See at Blue Apron. Best cheap meal kits that include steak and seafood. See at Daily Harvest. Best cheap meal delivery for breakfast and lunch. See at HelloFresh.

Best cheap meal kits for diet and weight loss. FILTER BY all Meal Kit Prepared Meal. Showing 7 of 7 Results. Editors' choice.

Show less. CNET rating out of 10 8. Cons Not as many healthy options No customization allowed. Type Meal Kit. Good for Healthy, family-friendly, comfort food, picky eaters, quick and easy. Full Review Read full review. See at EveryPlate Best cheap meal kits overall EveryPlate.

Show expert take Show less. CNET rating out of 10 9. Pros Food mostly tastes great Good for diets and healthy eating plans. Cons Expensive if you only order fewer than 10 meals per week.

Type Prepared Meal. Meal options per week Good for Keto, paleo, Whole30, gluten-free Mediterranean, vegan, vegetarian, high-protein. See at Fresh N' Lean Best cheap prepared meal delivery overall Fresh N Lean. CNET rating out of 10 7.

Pros Huge recipe selection More healthy options than other budget services. Cons Some recipes are bland and boring. Regional Availability Continental United States.

See at Dinnerly Best cheap meal kits for picky eaters Dinnerly. png","caption":" ","credits":"Mosaic Foods meal delivery service","imageData":{"id":"1cb0d31acfa-a2ea-2ad6b","filename":"mosaic. Pros Food is some of the best we tried Hearty and filling recipes. Cons Vegan pizzas are just OK.

Type Prepared meal. Good for Vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free, low-calorie. See at Mosaic Foods Best cheap vegan meals Mosaic Foods. Pros A standard plan includes steak and seafood recipes Recipes are interesting and easy to make.

Cons Some produce was a little overripe. Recipes per week Good for Vegetarian, low-calorie, gluten-free, pescetarian. See at Blue Apron Best cheap meal kits that include steak and seafood Blue Apron. Cons Some of the bowls an noodle dishes are just OK Smoothies can be sneakily high in sugar.

See at Daily Harvest Best cheap meal delivery for breakfast and lunch Daily Harvest. Pros Massive selection of recipes Recipes are customizable. Cons The menu can be overwhelming Not every recipe works. That way, you can find the best service for your needs.

Here are some of the pros and cons of the most popular services:. Eat at home more, less typical, or unhealthy take-out. A cheap meal delivery service can be better on your wallet and for your body. Try new dishes.

You can set menu preferences and get a wider variety, including things you may never have made otherwise. The prep work is done for you. Most send you fresh food with pre-portioned ingredients, which takes out all guesswork.

More time for you. You can spend more time with your family cooking meals or doing other things that you enjoy. Learn new cooking techniques. They offer cooking tutorials and recipes to expand your culinary skills with family-friendly menu options.

There is less food to waste. Any meal delivery service cost can be expensive. It can be cheaper than ordering take-out, but the meals plus shipping costs may not be affordable for everyone.

You have a membership to watch each week. These delivery services usually require a membership or subscription fee. Meals also need to be chosen and ordered in advance.

There can be a lot of packaging in the boxes. Since most meal delivery services send you fresh ingredients in their meal kit, there is usually a lot of packaging that includes insulated bags, dry ice, and the box. You still have to get other groceries.

Delivery services are delivered to your door, but you still have to go grocery shopping at some point. You still have other meals every day you need to think about!

Planning your meals is self-explanatory- you create a meal plan and grocery list for the week, then cook all of your meals at home.

Buying groceries is usually cheaper than eating out or having your meals delivered. Savvy Tip: Like the convenience of having your meals delivered to your home but not the price of the meal kit services? It has more great tips and ideas! Want to batch cook for the month and freeze the dishes? My Freeze Easy can help you get started with their free Quick Start Guide.

Meal delivery is a great alternative if you eat out more or grab to-go meals from the grocery store. However, if you cook at home more and are very frugal about grocery shopping, it could cost more than getting groceries yourself and meal planning.

As a busy mom, I say these are most worth the cost when your family is really busy; meal kits help prevent food waste or eating out. Prepared meals are literally all put together for you, and just need to go into the microwave, govern, or skillet to heat up.

Meal kits are all the ingredients for a recipe delivered to you with a recipe and directions so you can whip up the whole meal yourself. It may be cheaper because it specifically offers kid meals rather than meals for adults or families. I like this service because it offers a family plan to make sure you have enough food to go around.

In my opinion, HelloFresh offers the most variety of meals, including great vegetarian options that could fit your weight loss plan. But check out the other meal delivery services to see other meal plans and see what fits best with your visions. Cheap meal delivery services are a great way to get dinner on the table without any hassles and at a reasonable price.

Most have easy-to-follow recipes, take the guesswork out of shopping for ingredients, and are easy to use. Most meal delivery services are also super convenient.

Delivery services offer a wide variety of meal kits and prepared meals that make dinner times go faster. All in all, meal delivery services are a great way to spend less time cooking and more time enjoying your family! Hi, I'm Brittany Kline! A organization, productivity, and home systems expert.

With my master's degree in education and life experience as a mom I help other moms simplify and organize their entires lives.

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com, Debt. com, Discover, LifeLock, Quick Sprout, Money Geek and many more! Click here to read all of my posts. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar Skip to footer Home » Meal Planning 0 shares.

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I would suggest you can try Blue Apron because this is one of the best meal delivery services at an affordable price in the market We rounded up our favorite cheap meal delivery services here based on around 5+ years of trying hundreds of different boxes. Hope that's helpful Meal Kits & Subscriptions ; SentWithCareUSA. Regular price $ $ Discount price $ $22 ; Trending. EveryPlate. stars out of 5 stars.

Discounted meal subscription boxes - Meal Kits Coupons and Deals ; Martha · $ to $ per person · $ ; HelloFresh · $$ · $ First shipping is FREE ; green chef logo · $ - I would suggest you can try Blue Apron because this is one of the best meal delivery services at an affordable price in the market We rounded up our favorite cheap meal delivery services here based on around 5+ years of trying hundreds of different boxes. Hope that's helpful Meal Kits & Subscriptions ; SentWithCareUSA. Regular price $ $ Discount price $ $22 ; Trending. EveryPlate. stars out of 5 stars.

Weeknight dinners can be hectic, so Dinnerly is looking to provide fuss-free and fresh options, all on an affordable budget. Meals are designed with busy families in mind, so menus include fewer ingredients and items that are labeled No Chop!

for even faster cleanup. The menu is well balanced and there are a few options to fit some dietary plans, including vegetarian, vegan, or keto. For those looking for healthy, easy meals and less time at the grocery store, Hungryroot is here for you.

The company is focused on making healthy eating simpler and quicker, alongside supporting a multitude of diets. Hungryroot not only provides dishes for a variety of dietary plans, including vegan and gluten-free, but it also includes seven different allergen restrictions in meal planning.

Its online recipe catalog provides ideas for its large selection of grocery items so you can build your own meals in addition to its meal kits. Recipes can be rather simple, like a three-ingredient spinach, mushroom, and artichoke tortelloni or two-ingredient Korean BBQ chicken with jasmine rice.

Mosaic Foods has put a lot of thought into its plant-based offerings, providing oat bowls and smoothies for breakfast along with premium chef-crafted lunch and dinner entrées. While Mosaic Foods is geared mainly toward one-serving meals, it does offer some family-style dishes that are easy to whip up when you need to feed a crowd.

Per Item Pricing:. Volume Discounts:. The company even provides dietitian support for customers with its full program. Meal options include both meat- and plant-based dishes with some items, like the kale pesto pasta or BBQ tofu with carrots and kale, featured on both meal plans.

Some meals can take 45 minutes or longer to prepare and could include everything from crafting sauces to pounding out meat.

Both options are a great way to create a romantic date night at home. Heat and Eat. CookUnity takes the concept of ordering carry-out from your favorite restaurant and kicks it up a notch.

By connecting a community of chefs directly with customers, diners experience restaurant-worthy meals in the comfort of home.

The hundreds of weekly items to choose from include regional specialties, unique flavors, and creative entrées, like tonkatsu ramen with chashu pork belly and a Tuscan butter chicken.

While there are some selections for different diets, including vegan, low carb, and gluten free, the real draw here is for adventurous eaters who are game for anything.

Nurture Life is a meal delivery service designed for children, featuring a kid-friendly menu that is packed with organic and nutritious ingredients. All meals contain a well-balanced mix of veggies and protein as well as low salt and sugar levels.

Two of the six plan preferences HelloFresh offers are Family Friendly and Quick and Easy, one of the reasons that makes them such a good fit for a family meal delivery service. Entrées run the gamut from spiced apricot-sumac chicken to a comforting and creamy ranch beef cavatappi skillet.

Dining for seniors can be uniquely challenging—there can be special dietary restrictions, medical needs, or constraints in being able to physically shop or prep meals. Magic Kitchen is designed to help those who need extra assistance still have fulfilling meals. The plethora of entrées gives those with restrictive diets a decent amount of choice to help prevent repetition, along with snacks and à la carte items to help reduce dependence on grocery shopping.

Magic Kitchen even offers trial packs of 15 meals and multi-month subscription plans to make it as simple as possible. Meal delivery services come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but for one that covers all the bases, we chose Sunbasket.

Plus, the company provides one of the most comprehensive recycling guides for their packaging, helping drive serious commitment to sustainability.

Meal delivery services are a great way to add some flexibility to your weekly meal routine. And, as an added bonus, meal delivery kits can save you time and may save money. As you evaluate meal delivery service options, a lot of factors come into play, including price.

Some plans may be cheaper because portions are small and not a fit for a family. Or perhaps the price is lower because there are fewer selections available. Ask yourself what you want from a meal delivery service—the cheapest price may not be your best value.

Take into consideration what you enjoy the most about eating out—is it the chance to enjoy a different cuisine? Do you like the ease of not having to prepare a meal? There are meal delivery plans that offer cook-it-yourself kits with global flavors and ones where meals are simply heat and eat, with no preparation required.

Just like going out to a restaurant, prices vary across services depending on quality, effort, and ingredients. Lots of meal services include a wide range of dietary options for their plans, like vegan or keto.

Perhaps you need something more tailored to help support a medical need? Plans like ModifyHealth offer foods to help with digestive and chronic conditions. The customization of meal delivery services makes it easy to find one that is healthiest for you.

Our panel of testers reviewed 40 different companies to assess the best meal delivery services. The review criteria for services consisted of sustainability practices, customer service, flavor, dietary selection and information, ingredient freshness, as well as the process of meal preparation.

Our testing team contains a variety of people, including food writers and dietitians, to capture as many voices as possible. Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising.

Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance.

Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content. List of Partners vendors. By Asonta Benetti. 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 that are ready to heat and eat.

Meal kits will demand more of your time and energy but they'll also cost a little less per serving. Prepared meals require almost no time and energy, other than what it takes to actually eat the food, but typically run a few bucks more per serving. While most meal delivery services have healthy options, some are much healthier than others.

If you're keen on eating low-calorie, low-carb, plant-based or pescatarian food, certain meal kits and meal delivery services will be better than others.

Our list of the healthiest meal delivery services for is a good place to find all the most nutritious options. 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. Ideally, you'll want to determine exactly how much food makes sense for your household. That means it's less of an issue if you order too many meals on your first go-around.

Services like Daily Harvest and Splendid Spoon have meals for similar prices but are focused more on grain bowls and smoothies and might be better for breakfast or lunch versus dinner. When it comes to meal kits, your options are many, and most services provide weekly recipes that are low on calories but still filling.

HelloFresh has the most recipes per week of any meal kit service, so that might be your best bet for finding consistent meals that keep your diet goals on track.

But all services list the calorie content for each recipe, along with carbs, protein, sugar and sodium. Depending on your weight loss goals, a healthy prepared meal delivery or meal kit service can help.

Fresh N Lean, Pete's Real Food and Daily Harvest all have low-calorie meals to choose from. Some of the services listed here are healthy prepared meal delivery services , sending fully cooked meals -- often frozen or partially frozen -- and ready to eat when you receive them.

Others include health-focused meal kits with premeasured ingredients all boxed up and ready for easy weeknight cooking. There's a stark difference between meal kits and meal delivery, but both make dinnertime easier and can translate into healthier eating choices for you in Plus, we sussed out the best healthy meal services for those on special diets like keto or paleo or for those who wish to eat organic prepared meals and meal kits.

Wellness Nutrition. Written by David Watsky. Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks.

If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement. David lives in Brooklyn where he's spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips. Since earning a BA in English from Northeastern in Boston, he's toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom.

Right now, he's likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or researching the best way to make bacon. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week. Expertise Kitchen tools, appliances, food science, subscriptions and meal kits.

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