How much does meal prep cost per meal? Cooking at home vs ordering

How much does CleanFit meal prep delivery cost per meal?

CleanFit sells packs by the number of meals, and you choose every dish yourself. The full price is ฿60 per meal. When you order a pack on the website, the bigger the pack, the lower the price per meal.

This price does not include rice. You choose what rice to eat and how much. If you do not know how many calories you need a day, try working out your calorie needs first. The calculator is in Thai.

The delivery fee depends on your address, and you always see it before you pay. If you want to try the taste first, there is a 9-meal trial pack for ฿540, which you can only order by chat on LINE @cleanfit or Messenger.

What does home meal prep really cost per meal?

When people work out the cost of cooking at home, many count only the meat and vegetables. That is not the full picture. Try it this way.

Cost per meal = (ingredients + food you throw away because you could not use it in time + hidden costs) ÷ number of meals you make. Count the time you spend separately.

• Ingredients are the meat, vegetables and sauces for the dish. Do not count rice, because you cook rice yourself when you order meals too.
• Waste includes vegetables that wilt before you use them, sauces you buy and never finish, and dishes you make too much of and cannot eat in time.
• Hidden costs include gas or electricity, dish soap, containers and bags for portioning, and travel to buy groceries.
• Time covers shopping, washing, chopping, cooking, portioning into containers and cleaning the kitchen afterwards.

People also often forget variety. If you want a different dish every day, you have to buy many ingredients and sauces, so more of them may go to waste. That is why many people cook the same dish all week.

An example: 10 meals cooked at home vs ordered

This table is an example estimate that shows how the calculation works. It is not based on market prices. All the home-cooking numbers are assumptions: you cook healthy dishes for lunch and dinner for 5 days, 10 meals in total, with ฿400 of ingredients, about 10% thrown away, and 3 hours of work per week.

In this example, the money you pay per meal is very close for both. The clear difference is the 3 hours or so each week you spend cooking at home. If you value your time at ฿100 an hour (an assumed number), 3 hours is ฿300, which adds about ฿30 to the cost of each meal you cook at home.

To see which day we can deliver to you, enter your postal code below.

Cook at home or order meal prep: which suits you?

There is no answer that fits everyone. See which list sounds more like you.

Cooking at home may be better value if you

• enjoy cooking and have time to prepare food every week
• can buy ingredients at good prices and use them before they go bad
• are happy to eat the same dish often, or cook once for the whole household

Ordering frozen meal prep may be better value if you

• work full time and want your weekends back
• want clear nutrition facts for each meal without weighing your food
• want a different dish at every meal without buying many ingredients
• always end up throwing away vegetables or other ingredients when you cook

There is one more thing the table does not count. Every dish is designed by a nutritionist, made without cooking oil, MSG, added sugar or preservatives, and comes with nutrition facts. For example, Ka Pow Kai has 180 kcal, 33 g protein, 4 g carbs and 3 g fat. That makes daily planning easier than guessing. See the facts for every dish on the full menu page.

How much extra are pork, noodle, fish and shrimp dishes, and how do you stay on budget?

Pack prices are based on dishes with no extra charge. Pork and noodle dishes cost ฿10 more per meal, and fish and shrimp dishes ฿15 more. All 21 chicken dishes have no extra charge.

For example, say you order a 21-meal pack with 15 chicken, 4 pork and 2 shrimp meals. The extra charge is (4 × 10) + (2 × 15) = ฿70, so the total is ฿1,120, or about ฿53.3 per meal.

• Make chicken dishes the base of your week, and add pork, fish or shrimp now and then so you do not get bored
• If you like a certain taste, look for the chicken version. The holy basil stir-fry, for example, comes as Ka Pow Kai, Ka Pow Dory Fish and Ka Pow Koong
• Noodle dishes already include noodles, so on days you do not cook rice, you can simply heat one and eat
• Heat only the meal you are about to eat and keep the rest in the freezer. This helps cut waste

Which pack gives the best value?

Bigger packs cost less per meal, but they are only good value if you can eat them in time and have space to store them. The food keeps for 120 days in the freezer, so there is no rush. Start by counting how many meals you eat each week.

• The 21-meal pack suits beginners or people who eat 1 meal a day. It lasts about 3 weeks.
• The 45-meal pack lasts 4 weeks or more if you eat lunch and dinner on workdays only (10 meals a week).
• The 90-meal pack has the lowest price per meal and can be split into 2 deliveries. It suits people who eat these meals regularly, or households that order together.
• The 9-meal trial pack lets you try the taste first. You can only order it by chat.

See the ordering steps on how to order, and delivery areas and days on delivery information.