Are meal groups cheaper than groceries in 2025? We divide it

Of course, the standard blow is that the expensive meals groups: from $ 7 to $ 14 per part, is less than a restaurant meal but more than most of the dining budgets. So I set an experience for myself. Only armed with meal group recipe cards, I went to the local grocery store to see if I can do meals for less. The reader, it was not easy.

In fact, it has often failed. For the sake of science, I bought everything in the store that was provided in the box, including rice or “Italian herbal spices”, even if you had already got it at home – but I tried to buy it in a small part as possible. Where the quality was reliably equivalent to the meal group, I bought a less expensive option. The parts were for two, not for the family.

I only went to one store for each meal, meaning that if you have to improvise alternatives to make the meal happen, this is what I did. No one goes to three stores for Tuesday dinner, so I did what people do when they shop for themselves on a week: I bought what was there.

In conclusion, not spoiling the end, is that the true reward provided by the group of meals is sauces, spices and flavors, which have been clarified in small parts instead of large jars. Perhaps you can buy meat slices for a lower, even in the entire organic butcher, but you will not get creamy pork with roasted red pepper, parmesan cheese for rice, and the herbs that rub it with them.

Regardless of time savings, it turns out that what the best meal group is doing is to serve a single or double -cost flavor relatively low compared to buying yourself. When trying to repeat the meals and spices set in a grocery store, I ended up spending a lot – although I of course I had multi -storey spices left to eat future meals.

This means: You can, of course, eat at a cheap price of a 12 -dollar meal. But you cannot eat easily These are fine things This is cheaply, unless you already have the right spices and wholesale ingredients. Here is my attempt.

Photo: Matthew Corvage

ingredients: 2 Central broken pork cut or 2 salmon slices. 1 cup of white rice long grains. 4 garlic cloves. 2 tablespoons of vegetable bonzo sauce, 4 tablespoons of soy, 6 tablespoons of fever sauce