Can we talk about whether meal prep actually saves you money or just feels like it?

I tried Marie's Sunday meal prep for 8 weeks straight, tracking every dollar. I spent $85 a week on groceries but ended up throwing out about $20 worth of stuff I got tired of by Thursday. On the other hand, when I just shopped for 3 days at a time, my weekly total was $110 but I wasted almost nothing. Has anyone else done the math on this and found a clear winner?

2 comments

2 Comments

reese_garcia20h ago

Did you really find that much less waste with the 3-day approach? I did a similar test over 6 weeks and got the same results. My Sunday prep cost $95 but by Wednesday I was stuck eating the same chicken and rice, so I'd grab takeout and let the leftovers rot. When I switched to buying for just 3 days, my total was $120 but I ate everything I bought and felt less guilt. The real win for me was actually cooking smaller batches of things I actually wanted to eat that night, not forcing myself into a week of boring food.

davis.dakota19h ago

Do you ever wonder if we're all just trying to solve the wrong problem? For me it was the same story with meal prep, but I found a weird workaround. I started cooking big batches of just one thing, like a stew or chili, then I'd freeze half of it. So by Wednesday I wasn't bored because I'd switch to something from the freezer that I made two weeks ago. That way I wasn't throwing out food or spending more on takeout, but I still got the savings from buying in bulk. It's not perfect because you have to remember to defrost stuff, but it stopped me from wasting money on food I was sick of.