Review: EveryPlate Meal Kits
Trying new things during crazy times might just add a little spark to an otherwise darkening sunrise. During these "times of uncertainty," we are all staying home a lot more and trying to find dinner solutions that suit our needs. Some of the grocery stores still have empty shelves, and there is no telling when things will actually get "back to normal." With jobs and hours both changing, shopping can be inconvenient, to say the least. I did a lot of research on meal kits, and I read a lot of reviews trying to find the perfect fit.
For me personally, my hours at work got longer. Twice a week, I have to wake up at 4:15 just to get to work on time. By the time I get home at 5:30, the last thing I want to do is go grocery shopping. My husband and I are empty-nesters, so with our children out of the roost, I figured that this might be a good time to try something new. If you're like me, and most of you probably are, you may have assumed that meal kits are more expensive than they're worth. This is actually not the case. My husband and I settled on EveryPlate, and we stuck with it for a few months. Here are my pros and cons to help you make a better decision.
Things I liked:
EveryPlate is very affordable. We spend $58 to $68 dollars a week for five complete meals. This was a pretty good deal since the meals arrived at my doorstep, and there were no leftovers to spoil over time. Most of the other meal kits were at least double the price.
Next, the meals were really good quality. They tasted good, they were different than what we were used to, and we enjoyed the variety. My husband and I enjoyed cooking together, and at first, we really looked forward to it. If you and your husband are finally alone, or you just have someone you enjoy spending time with, this could be a new and exciting thing to do together on the daily.
Things I didn't like:
There is a lot of cooking involved. Some of the meals took 40 minutes to prepare, and after a long stressful day, this became tiresome.
The next challenge we encountered was adding our son to our plan. He just graduated from college and moved back home. We loved our new routine and didn't want to end it, so we tried to add him to our account. Here's the kicker ... you cannot add one person to an account. You have to add two people or no people. This addition would have completely defeated our main reason for doing this to begin with. It would have doubled our bill.
Finally, I recommended two people to jump on board with us and order EveryPlate. We were promised a $20 credit for each person, and we never got it. I made continued phone calls for money owed and was promised I would see it soon. Never happened.
Recommendations:
If you use a meal kit, five days a week is probably too many days. If we were tired and wanted to skip a day, our food would spoil. The delivery days were inconvenient (there were no Monday or even Tuesday deliveries) so the food sat around a lot if you were not planning on using them over the weekend. Personally, if I were to do it again, I would order it for two or three nights a week.
I would also suggest that you keep an eye on the money. Besides the referral issue that I mentioned, sometimes we were missing the meat to our recipe, and we never saw the credit. I would have to call and remind them to credit me, which shouldn't happen.
All and all, EveryPlate was a good experience. If you are looking for a meal kit, EveryPlate is your best "bang for your buck" as far as comparative pricing goes. Choosing from the menu, trying new meals, and spending quality time with your partner are all perks of this wonderful opportunity. If you love to cook and have the time to devote to it, EveryPlate is the way to go.
