Updated · WeeklyMealPlans kitchen
What prepared delivery actually is
Fully cooked meals, portioned into trays, delivered chilled on a schedule you set. You heat and eat. Distinct from a meal kit, which sends raw ingredients and a recipe card and still expects you to cook.
Factor is the main service in this category in the US. Expect roughly $11–15 per serving depending on plan size.
Who it genuinely suits
This is the category people are most embarrassed to buy and shouldn't be. It makes sense when cooking is not going to happen:
- Shift work, or hours that make a planned shop pointless
- A new baby, or caring for someone who's ill
- Recovering from surgery or illness yourself
- Weeks where the real alternative is takeaway every night, not home cooking
Compared against takeaway — which is the honest comparison, not against cooking — prepared delivery is usually cheaper and better for you.
Where it doesn't make sense
- Feeding a family of four. Per-serving pricing makes this expensive fast
- You like cooking and your constraint is deciding, not cooking. That's a planning problem, and planning is free
- You want very specific dietary control. Menus rotate and the choice is narrower than your own kitchen
The cost comparison, honestly
| Approach | Per serving | Cooking | |---|---|---| | Prepared meal delivery | $11–15 | none | | Meal kit | $9–12 | 20–40 min | | Planned grocery shop | $4–7 | 20–40 min | | Takeaway | $15–25 | none |
The gap between prepared delivery and cooking is real. The gap between prepared delivery and takeaway is also real, in the other direction.
A middle path most people miss
You don't have to pick one for every night. A common pattern that works: three cooked dinners from a plan, two prepared meals for the nights that are always chaos. That costs far less than full delivery and survives contact with a real week.
The planner handles the three-dinner half of that, free, and will build a grocery list that doesn't assume you're cooking seven nights.
What we do
We don't deliver food. We plan weeks and build grocery lists. The links above go to the delivery companies directly — plain links, not tracked affiliate links. If that ever changes, we'll say so here.
