The home delivery meal kit craze has swept the nation. But is it right for you and your family?

You’ve no doubt heard of Blue Apron, Sun Basket, HelloFresh, or another meal prep kit. They sound pretty great, right? You get everything you need to make several delicious, nutritious meals for your family, and it’s sent directly to your doorstep. It takes the guesswork out of meal planning, could save on time spent grocery shopping, and best of all, the food is good. Not only that, you are given the exact quantities of each item, assuring no food waste. It all sound pretty glamorous. Why wouldn’t your family go apeshit for these kits?

What downside could there possibly be to home meal kits?

The reality is there are far more benefits to a meal delivery kit than downsides—otherwise they wouldn’t be so popular! But we took a good hard look at meal kits, and here are some possible negatives, if you’re making a pro/con list.

• This doesn’t mean no more grocery store. This is three meals for the week, not every meal. You still need to go grocery shopping for breakfast foods, lunches, etc.
• If you’re ultra environmentally conscious, a lot of the individual ingredients get packaged, though most packages are recyclable.
• The portions are generally favorable, but if you’ve got some big and tall men in the household, you may not wind up with any leftovers.
• You get the food, but you still have to chop the vegetables and cook everything. Some meals are pretty quick, but others can take up to 45 minutes before they’re ready to eat. Do you have the time?
• It averages out to about $6.66 per serving, or $20 per family meal. You’ll need to determine if that’s within your budget.
• Cookware is not provided. Most recipes call for a non-stick pan. If you don’t have one, you’d better invest in one first.

Of course, there are plenty of pros to these meal kits.

We could ramble on all day about how great meal kits are just to try to sell you a subscription. But the name of the game here is taking one major chore out of your schedule—meal planning. For some families, that can be a daunting task. What other positive aspects are there?

• As we’ve stated already, time is a big factor here. With three meals provided for the week in a meal kit, that cuts way back on your weekly meal planning and grocery shopping. The other four nights a week you can throw a pizza in the oven, cook some burgers on the grill, or go out.
• The meals are almost all pretty darn good. The recipes come from real chefs—they aren’t going to send you crappy food.
• The meals are healthy, using good ingredients from trusted sources. In fact, most kits will include an insert telling where the ingredients were sourced.
• You are given step-by-step instructions that are easy to understand. If you can read, you can prepare these meals.
• You aren’t sent any excess food. The kits provide the exact amount of each ingredient needed for the recipe, which obviously cuts down on food waste.
• You’ll learn a thing or two and become a better chef!

My Hot Take

My family uses Blue Apron pretty regularly. You can skip any week you want, so you don’t have to have a shipment sent to you all the time. For a family of three—an XL dad, a mom, and a child, the right amount of food is provided. There may be some leftovers from time to time, but there has never been an instance where I felt like the meals weren’t filling enough. Every meal we’ve tried has been as good or better than anything I could have prepared on my own—I’ve even saved all the recipe cards and made several of the meals on my own dime!

But don’t take my word for it. Go ahead and try Blue Apron for yourself, and take us up on a special How To Do That offer: $40 Off Your First 2 Boxes of Blue Apron! (Save $20 Week 1 – Save $20 Week 2)