If you read my post last week about blowing my grocery budget on take-out. Don’t worry, I’ve found the solution. I call the solution, Fresh Direct. One of my goals for this year was to try new recipes and cook more meals at home. Because I’m often tired, lazy and unmotivated when I get home at the end of a day, I haven’t been cooking at all. As a result, we were ordering take-out multiple times per week. In an effort to change our bad take-out habits and keep our budget in check, we’ve been ordering ordering our groceries online through Fresh Direct.
If you’re not familiar Fresh Direct is an online grocer that provides, “normal” food that you would buy at your local grocery store plus individually packaged fresh meals cooked by chefs and ready to cook meal kits. So far we’ve tried a few of the dinner kits and have really enjoyed them. You just follow the directions on the packaging and everything (meat, veggies, sauces etc.) is included. Quick and easy, and I love it! Plus they deliver right to my door and carry everything up three flights of stairs, yay!
My Fresh Direct Dinner Challenge was to spend less than $100 per week on dinners (Monday-Friday) for both the bf and I. Here’s what we’re eating this week:
Monday-Rotisserie Chicken with roasted vegetables (we’ll both eat this)
Price: Chicken-$7.99, Vegetables-$7.99=$15.98 for 2
Tuesday-Shrimp Fried Rice Stirfry (we’ll both eat this)
Price: Kit cost=$9.99 for 2
Wednesday-Sauteed onion, gorganzola and bacon pizza (we’ll both eat this)
Price: Pizza=$8.99 for 2
Thursday-Falafel & Mediterranean Mezze (I’ll eat this)
Bf will eat: Rosa Mexicano Guajillo Chili Marinated Pork Chops (2 meals for bf so he’ll take one for lunch)
Price: Falafel-$6.66 + Pork chops-$10.48=17.14 for 2
Friday-Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie (I’ll eat this)
Bf will eat: Banana-Leaf Wrapped Coconut-Cilantro Salmon
Price: Shepherd’s pie-$6.66 + Salmon-$7.99=$14.65 for 2
Cost for a week’s worth of dinners= $66.78
Average cost of $6.68 per individual dinner or $13.35 for both of us each night
So here’s the thought process behind all of this…Could I cook from scratch for cheaper? Absolutely. Would I actually get around to cooking? Probably not. Does that mean we’d both order an entree from a local take-out place? Yes. Average cost per take-out dinner, about $10. Total cost per night for both of us about $20 (plus tax and tip for the delivery driver). I got a deal on unlimited delivery so we can have groceries delivered as many times as we want for one fee.
So ordering fresh direct is saving us on average $33.25 per week (probably a little more because we typically have a few leftovers that one of us can take to work for lunch the next day). Plus I’m actually cooking dinners (or at least heating them up) which was one of my goals for 2013. The meals are healthier, the portions are smaller (so I’m not over indulging) and the bf is actually eating them because they are, “meat” and fish. I get to eat what I want, and I don’t have to eat the same meal 3 days in a row. It’s a win-win in my book.
What Do You Think? Smart For Avoiding Take-out & Recognizing I’m Not a Great (or motivated) Cook? Or Lazy?
**This is NOT a sponsored post, I just really like FreshDirect. FreshDirect if you want to advertise with me I’m a big fan 
