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Is HelloFresh Worth The Money?! A HelloFresh Alternatives

I finally decided to try Hellofresh because I had a horrible week and needed a break from my daily dinner routine.

I’ve never given Hellofresh a thought before because, well.

The price.

You have heard that Hellofresh isn’t the cheapest meal-planning option. But is this the best option if you are terrible at meal planning?

If you go to the Hellofresh website right now without using someone’s code to get 12 free meals, then 3 dinners for four people will cost me $98.87.

Now my straight-up frugal folks, bear with me because I have a better economical alternative when you need a break from meal planning. ( Scroll to the bottom if you can’t wait)

My others, well, that’s expensive, and there are ways to get it down and cheaper alternatives.

If you have NEVER purchased a Hellofresh box before, the first box is free when you use this link. That’s the best deal to grab!

I suggest ALWAYS going through Rakuten first- you may be eligible to get $10 or $20 back. And if you don’t have an account with Rakuten, you can sign up through my link here and get $25 on top of the $20 through Hellofresh.

Even if you do the $90 off promo, that only gives you $20 off the first box and free shipping after. You have to buy multiple packages to get your $90 off.

It’s easy to get Free Shipping ($8.99) with your first order and someone’s promo code. But after that, you pay $9 for shipping.

Is it convenient?

TOTALLY.

But this is WAY more expensive than even going to the grocery store and buying the same items.

Is HelloFresh Worth The Money?! A HelloFresh Alternatives

It is tough for me to buy grocery items NOT on sale, but if you bought these things on sale or use coupons, oh man, you would save money for sure.

What do you do when burnt out from meal planning but can’t afford HelloFresh?

You do this.

Either create an account for Hellofresh and look through some of their recipe ideas. Scroll through Pinterest and find meal planning boards. ( You can check out my Frugal Meal Planning Board here)

First, you can add ALL The ingredients from your home into the app. That way, you are keeping track of everything and not buying things you don’t need.

Second, it will come up with meals based on your preference. It’s beneficial for those who have dietary restrictions.

THEN the BEST part is you can have it create a shopping list for you based on the meals it came up with.

You can tweak the meals, too, if there is something you don’t want. I usually only make dinners and, once in a while, add breakfast in to spark my creativity.

You can plan your meals and your shopping list to create the meals sent to your home.

What Hellofresh offers you- minus the fancy meal cards they give you but the meal plan on your computer or phone- less waste, right?

It’s cheaper because if you need chicken for the week, you aren’t buying one or two pounds at a time.

I thought it was super fun and convenient. So I sent my list to Aldi and chose in-store pickup. Because I’m cheap, and although I was going to go for delivery compared to Hellofresh, I did not want to spend $14.99 even for the blog.

It’s a daily struggle the cheapness. I know some of you can relate, and if so, drop me a comment or follow me on Tiktok and let me know.

Is HelloFresh Worth The Money?! A HelloFresh Alternatives

Were the HelloFresh Meals Good?

Yes, they were perfect. Although we liked them all, the least favorite from the kids ( since I chose family-friendly) was the Italian Pepper Steak Sandos.

hellofresh meal cards

I will be using the recipe cards to make the meals again.

Is HelloFresh Worth The Money?! A HelloFresh Alternatives

Were HelloFresh Meals Easy to Make?

They weren’t tricky, BUT there was prep work involved. It would be a little too much if you were a first-time cook or were new to cooking while babies are screaming or kids are fighting.

But it is similar to how I cook meals now, so I thought it was easy, but I had more prep work than I wanted for the price I paid.

What Meals Did You Get?

I choose three meals for a family of four. So we got the Meals: Cheesy Smothered Mushroom Chicken, Tuscan Beef Stuffed Peppers, and Italian Pepper Steak Sandos.

HelloFresh Alternatives ( My favorite at the bottom)

fresh made meals meal planning alternatives

Wholesale Clubs Prepared Meals

If you have a wholesale membership to Sam’s, Costco, or BJ’s, you can get meals that only require you to heat up for LESS than Hellofresh. I have my favorites at BJ here.

You may have to spend the time to walk into the store to purchase, BUT the meal can be heated up quickly—no prepping.

For Costco premade meal ideas check it out here. Even a discount membership to these wholesale clubs is cheaper!

( Grab a discount on all three here)

DINNERLY

This one is known for being more budget-friendly. In addition, they are the first meal kit delivery service to offer meals for $4.49 per serving without and discount.

Of course, you can get it cheaper, but that’s a lower price than sitting at a restaurant.

You can sign up through this link and get $45 off your order.

EveryPlate

Another meal service kit is geared toward those who want to spend less. The downside is that there are only 16 recipes to choose from. The price per person is $4.99.

You can now sign up, get your meals at $2.99 each, and get 20% off your following two boxes when you use promo code Q6-4DFGE.

Freshly

Have you heard of Freshly? This is an option if you are looking for meals that only need to be heated up. The menu consists of 30+ meals to choose from.

You can use code  LAUNCH15 to save $60.00 on your first four orders($15 per order). Sign up here.

An even cheaper alternative to that- Frozen Foods. I’ve heard in other threads that if you are grabbing a service like Freshly, it’s comparable to Healthy Choice Frozen Meals.

There are many other meal-planning services for $8, $9, and even $12 per person.

I didn’t want to include those because that is a BIG chunk of money. And the point of this was to share cheaper alternatives for meal planning kits.

Grab some of my FREE meal plans below if you want to go the frugal, do-it-yourself route.

Or, if you need to take a break from meal planning, treat yourself to one of the boxes above. Then, let me know how it works for you in the comments below.

More money-saving articles:

Is HelloFresh Worth The Money?! A HelloFresh Alternatives

And MY Favorite Alternative Is Real Plans!

I’ve shared this meal-planning app several times on the blog. And recently, they added a couple of amazing new features.

To keep a tighter grocery budget, shopping from your pantry first is KEY if you are curious about what a frugal food budget should be, check out this post here.

First, you can add ALL The ingredients from your home into the app. That way, you keep track of everything and not buying things you don’t need.

Second, it will come up with meals based on your preference. It’s beneficial for those who have dietary restrictions.

THEN the BEST part is you can have it create a shopping list for you based on the meals it came up with.

You can tweak the meals, too, if there is something you don’t want. I usually only make dinners and occasionally add breakfast to spark my creativity.

You can plan your meals and your shopping list to create the meals sent to your home.

What Hellofresh offers you- minus the fancy meal cards they give you but the meal plan on your computer or phone- less waste, right?

It’s cheaper because if you need chicken for the week, you aren’t buying one or two pounds at a time.

I thought it was super fun and convenient. So I sent my list to Aldi and chose in-store pickup. Because I’m cheap and would go for delivery compared to Hellofresh, I did not want to spend $14.99 even for the blog.

It’s a daily struggle the cheapness. I know some of you can relate, so drop me a comment or follow me on Tiktok and let me know.

aldi grocery pickup with realplans

I used Realplans to come up with dinner and breakfast meals; I put what I already had. I usually make my dinner meals off of what meat we already have and what is on sale.

This time I let whatever I didn’t have to get ordered at Aldi.

aldi grocerys with realplans

Doing that took about five minutes which included my payment. Super convenient.

I spent $79, including tax, to pick up the groceries at Aldi. However, I forgot that they charge you for a bag, so six bags are in the final cost too.

Picking up the groceries and making dinners with all the ingredients there that I didn’t have to think about mentally was the welcome break I was looking for.

I will do it whenever I’m sick of making the same old or need a break.

Real plans are $6 a month when you choose the 12-month subscription.

Otherwise, you can pay monthly for $14 or Quarterly for $12.

You can customize the meal plans to your dietary restrictions. It is one of the apps I highly recommend for anyone with dietary restrictions. For example, you can put in the meats you’d like and the style recipes and have the meal plan pick out all three meals for the month.

You can even limit it to the cost of ingredients too. The options are pretty fantastic. There is also a swipeable shopping list if you download the app.

I choose the desktop, and I find it easy to use both.

Or you can go through the Recipe box and add the meals you want. I love the surprise of having it plan meals when I’m burnt out.

I don’t usually meal plan for lunch. This is because the kids now eat school lunch, and my husband and I bring whatever is leftover or sandwiches. Breakfast tends to be cereal and eggs, but I put a breakfast menu for you to see.

Is HelloFresh Worth The Money?! A HelloFresh Alternatives

If you are burnt out with meal planning and love apps, this is for you. I use Real Plans most of the time on my desktop.

I will probably end up shopping in-store at Aldi because we noticed that most items are a few cents higher than in-store prices.

Sign up for Real Plans HERE.

Let me know if you have given it a try and what you think in the comments below?

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