Unpopular opinion: I think meal prepping every Sunday is a budget trap

Last year I spent $85 every week on containers and bulk ingredients for Sunday meal prep, only to throw away half of it by Thursday when I got tired of eating the same thing. After six months I switched to just cooking extra dinner portions and freezing them, which cut my weekly grocery bill from $120 to about $75. Has anyone else found that rigid meal prepping actually cost them more in the long run?

3 comments

3 Comments

henry_ross9d ago

Gotta disagree that this is some huge financial disaster or whatever lol. $85 a week on containers sounds like you were buying the fancy glass ones or something. @williamw75 dropping that study stat is cool but honestly meal prep is just not that deep for most people. I just use old takeout containers and meal prep two things max, never had more than a couple bucks of waste.

charles_baker288d ago

Man I'm telling you this is exactly what I see everywhere now. People overthink simple stuff like meal prep and turn it into this whole production with special containers and color coded labels and whatnot. Next thing you know they're spending $85 a week on plastic boxes and throwing out half the food because they got bored eating the same thing. Its like we forgot how to just use common sense and leftover containers from Chinese takeout. My grandma never meal prepped in her life and she fed six kids on a budget. She just cooked enough for leftovers and called it a day. Sometimes the simple way is the smart way.

williamw759d ago

Read a study that said meal prep waste averages 25 percent, so you're not alone there.