Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Can You Benefit from a Meal Kit?

By Leave a Comment

You’ve likely seen the advertisements for meal delivery kits and wondered, can you benefit from a meal kit? For a set amount, averaging about $7 to $12 per meal per person, the meal service company sends you a box with all the ingredients you need for three different meals with two or four servings, depending on what you choose, as well as the recipe for each meal.

Can You Benefit from a Meal Kit?

There are so many kits to choose from: Green Chef, Hello Fresh, and Blue Apron, just to name a few.  You can find meal kits that are offered for vegans, that have options for those who are gluten-free or nut-free, and those who prefer organic food only.

I’ve personally tried Green Chef, and my family and I loved the meals, but we didn’t love the price tag.  However, while regularly subscribing to a meal kit isn’t good for us at this stage in our lives, there are plenty of times that buying a meal kit is a great financial choice:

When You Don’t Know How to Cook

Can You Benefit from a Meal Kit?
Photo by Le Creuset on Unsplash

Unfortunately, more and more kids are leaving the nest without knowing how to cook.  If your cooking consists of boxed macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, and eggs, a meal kit service might be perfect for you.  Not only will you get to eat tasty, nutritious food, but using the kit week after week will slowly help you learn to cook.  Eventually, you’ll be able to cook on your own, without the meal kit service.  Knowing how to cook is a skill that is priceless.

When You Would Go Out to Eat Instead

When I worked full-time and my husband was a full-time student and we had an infant, we went out to eat much more than we should have.  We wasted thousands of dollars because we were just too tired to go grocery shopping regularly and figure out what to eat.  In this case, a meal kit would have saved us so much money.  While meal kits are more expensive than cooking from scratch and buying your own groceries, they are cheaper than going out to eat for a meal in a nice, sit down restaurant.

When You Need A Healthier Option

If you eat out frequently or dine on delivered pizza or Chinese, a meal kit may be perfect for you because it’s likely healthier than the food that you’re currently eating.  I found Green Chef to be very healthy; each meal had a lean protein and a variety of vegetables that were of different colors.  Another bonus is that the meals are already portioned for you, so you won’t overindulge, unlike restaurant portions.

Can you benefit from a meal kit?  Only you can answer that.  A meal kit service isn’t right for everyone.  Certainly, choosing your own recipes, grocery shopping, and cooking for yourself is a more frugal option.  But not everyone cares about frugality when it comes to meals.  There are times when a meal kit subscription is the perfect option.

Have you ever subscribed to a meal kit service?  If so, which one?  Were you happy with the food and recipes that you received?

Living on a Tight Budget: Should Groceries Be the First Place You Cut?

By Leave a Comment

If you’re like me, the last few years, you may have felt that you’re simply treading water when it comes to income and expenses.  It seems every time our income goes up, our expenses go up, and I’m not talking about lifestyle inflation but rather insurance premiums and deductibles, etc.

Like many people, I try to cut corners to make our money stretch as far as I can.  I’ve certainly had times a few years ago when I bought the cheapest groceries that I could find by using coupons and sales, even though the food was processed and not that good for my body.

I rationalized that I was being frugal, and, I’ll admit it, I was proud of myself.  Never mind that we were eating casseroles that we didn’t really like made with processed foods or that the leftovers often went to waste because we didn’t want to eat the meal again.  Never mind that both my husband and I had cholesterol well over 200 even though we were in our thirties.

Change in Eating Habits

However, over the last few years, my opinions on grocery shopping, the foods we eat, and how to save money have changed. I still like to save money (and I still need to in order to make our budget stretch), but now I do it differently, and I feed my family differently.  A few years ago, I went Paleo.  I dropped a lot of weight, and my cholesterol level settled around 155, even though I was a few years older. True, our grocery budget went up, but not by as much as I expected.  I learned ways to buy healthy food at a reasonable price.

Where Else Can You Cut Besides Groceries?

Should you Cut groceries first?
Where would you cut first?

Sometimes, especially when money is tight, groceries seem like an easy place to cut.  Convenience foods bought with coupons can be had for a steal.  Take a look around Pinterest, and you’ll find many posts of bloggers touting how little they spend for groceries.

But is this a good thing?  I know groceries are typically one of the largest monthly expenses for a family, but should this automatically be the place we look first to reduce our budget?  After all, there is great truth in the adage, “Pay your farmer now, or pay the doctor later.  In fact, “Americans spend nearly 20% of their income on healthcare costs, while on average spending 10% of their income on food. . .Considering the age-old adage, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ may be the first step to attempt to reduce healthcare spending—and the key place to start is food consumption.  If you start to consider your diet a form of preventative health care, you might start rethinking your daily meals” (University of New Hampshire).

Take a look at your budget.  If you don’t automatically slash your grocery budget, where else can you cut expenses?

If you don’t short change your body healthy foods, you’ll save thousands on health care later on.  Meanwhile, why not consider dropping your smartphone and getting a “dumb” phone?  (Yes, I still have a flip phone for emergencies that we bought 10 years ago.)  Can you drive your current vehicle a little longer so you don’t need to have a new car loan?  Can you drop cable?  Do you have subscriptions you’re paying for but you don’t use?  Likely, there are several lifestyle choices you can make to cut your expenses without compromising the quality of food you can buy and eat.

Do you cut other expenses so you can continue to buy quality foods, or do you prefer to slash your grocery budget?

Even More Ways to Save on Groceries

By 5 Comments

Besides your mortgage, your grocery bill may be your next largest expense.  Of course, you usually can’t alter your mortgage payment, but with some planning and strategizing, you can alter the amount you spend at the grocery store and save on groceries.

A few months ago, I wrote about the techniques we’re using to keep our grocery bill low for our family of 5 (spending approximately $500 to $600 per month even with food intolerances to gluten, dairy, and corn).  We’ve learned a few more strategies to lower our grocery bill that I thought I’d share with you, especially since it seems like the price of grocery is on the rise again.

save more on groceries


Stop by the grocery store whenever you’re driving by.  I know the “experts” say to go in the grocery store as little as possible.  Many of them recommend shopping just every two weeks or once a month.  However, if you’re a disciplined shopper, I recommend stopping by the store every time you drive by.  Why?  I only buy eggs on clearance for .99 a dozen.  I also buy organic chicken when it is close to its sell by date and marked down by 50% or more.  If I stop by the store whenever I drive by (every couple of days, usually), I have a better chance of finding these deals.  If nothing is on clearance, I simply leave empty-handed.  I don’t buy eggs or meat if they’re not on sale, or ideally, on clearance.

Don’t just take sandwiches for lunch.  My husband packs his lunch every day.  However, he never packs a sandwich.  Instead, whenever I see clearance chicken fajita meat, sausage, or other meats, I buy those.  He cooks something up on Sunday, like three sausages I found on clearance, and then he brings some every day along with a grain, veggies, and a fruit or two.  His flexibility and willingness to move beyond sandwiches and my bargain shopping skills mean he saves a lot when packing his lunch.

Consider having a separate meat budget.  I just learned about this technique, and I plan to start utilizing it.  Say you have $500 a month for groceries.  The idea is that you set aside a certain amount, maybe $50 or $100 a month, solely for meat.  The rest you spend on your other groceries.  If you’re able to save up $500 or $600 in the meat fund, you might buy a ¼ side of beef, which you’ll likely get at a much cheaper price than at the grocery store.  Then, you eat that meat and start saving again for your next bulk purchase of meat.  Eventually, you’ll have a deep freezer full of healthy, lower cost meat direct from the farmer.

Slowly buy in bulk.  I have consciously started buying in bulk to lower our grocery costs.  I’ve had to do this slowly because we don’t have a lot of wiggle room in the budget.  Gluten free oats cost $2 a pound, and that’s when they’re on sale!  Instead, I bought a 50 pound bag of gluten free oats for $61.  That is $1.22 a pound, which is cheaper than I could ever buy them at the store.  Then, I bought a 25 pound bag of pinto beans for $12.50, or .50 a pound, which is again cheaper than the rock bottom price I can get at the store.  Just remember when buying in bulk not to buy items you really don’t want to use or won’t be able to finish before they get stale.

What are your favorite techniques to lower your grocery bill?