Family Dinner Dilemma: “No Take Out”
The good ole’ kitchen dilemma … ‘what’s for dinner’
Meal time seems to always be one of the toughest daily task for most family. Did you know that it is a five billion dollar battle 'The American Dinner Plate. Hints why so many home delivery companies keep popping up, in fact Blue apron alone claims delivering more than 8 million meals a month, Blue Apron also claims to be one of the most budget-friendly meal kit available on the market. Their meal plans start at $8.99 a meal. So for a family of four the starting price would be $35.00 a meal that's a whopping $1,050.00 a month for just dinner, and that's 'IF' the price were to include 30 meals. That's alarming America! We're not talking a .25 cent per serving of granola here, these are some big numbers!
Jane Black and Brent Cunningham from the Wall Street Journal writes the following
The Problem With Meal Kits
Meal kits promised to make cooking easy enough that people would actually do it. But Americans don’t want to cook and never really have. The meal-kit market keeps getting bigger: Consumers can now opt for organic meal kits (Sun Basket), Southern meal kits (Peach Dish) and even Tom Brady-inspired vegan meal kits (TB12). This summer, Amazon got into the $5-billion-a-year business, offering these famous kits... Aug. 4, 2017
Dining Out has it share on the American dollar
It's easier than ever not to cook, and Americans are taking advantage of that. The average household spends an average of $3,008 per year on dining out, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Sep 27, 2017
Most people, couples or families after putting in a full days works, picking up the kids, racing to get home, etc. the last thing folks want want to do is hassle with what to put in the table. This dilemma mostly offers MORE work then anyone of us bargain for after a long day. Leaving options such as dining out, home delivery kits, or picking up takeout, and let's be frankly honest that too can add up to a hearty penny at the end of the month. So I’ve created a different option that can be solved BEFORE you get on, or if you ambitious you can even have a weeks worth meal planning done at once!
First let’s take a close loo, at grocery shopping. The average person goes to the grocery store 1.6 times a week and spends 43 minutes there, not including the time spent getting to and from the store. Therefore, on average we spend about 60 hours grocery shopping per year. Now, this is assuming you go shopping during the week, if you go on Saturdays or Sundays (prime shopping days) add an extra 5 minutes to each trip done on those days. That’s just grocery shopping. This does not include the grocery list, inventory of items needed, meal prepping before hand and the hauling and putting groceries away!
Not to mention most shopping experiences too can lead to overspending, in fact grocery stores love it when you take home way more than you planned for, that’s why they have over 39,000 items on average. You better bet with that many choices, you’re sure to buy a few splurge items that you definitely didn’t need or plan on. Most people have good intentions while shopping at the grocery store and do extra picking up on items that look good, or with the intent to use, cook or eat before the items expire but sadly they spoil and end up in the trash. Unfortunately it’s been studied that Americans waste $1,500 a year on wasted food!
So if it’s not takeout, dine in, or meal kits then what...?
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