Meal kits vs meal planning: which suits your family?
By DinnerPlan · Updated
The short answer: A meal kit takes the deciding and the shopping off your hands, at a higher cost per serve, and you choose from their menu. Planning the week ahead, yourself or with an app, gets you most of the same “no 5pm deciding” for less, built around your family’s allergies, diets and busy nights, but you still do the shop (or the online order). If you’re feeding a family with mixed needs or watching the budget, planning usually suits better. For a short, hectic patch, a kit can be a lifesaver.
Both answer the same question: what’s for dinner, every night, without the 5pm panic. They just answer it differently. Here’s what each does well and where each falls short, so you can pick what suits your household, or mix the two.
Full disclosure: we make DinnerPlan, a meal planning app, so we’re on one side of this. We’ve tried to be fair to both.
What you’re really paying for
Cooking dinner usually isn’t the hard part. It’s everything around it: deciding seven nights of meals everyone will eat, working out the shopping, and remembering that the coriander you bought on Sunday needs using by Wednesday. Meal kits and meal plans both take that load off. The difference is how much you pay for it, and how much say you have.
Meal kits: the good bits
- No deciding from scratch. You pick from a menu each week, and the recipes are written for you.
- No shopping for those dinners. Ingredients arrive at your door, portioned for each recipe.
- Less waste of odd ingredients. You get the two tablespoons of miso you need, not a whole tub.
- Good for learning. Step-by-step recipe cards can build confidence and introduce new dishes.
Meal kits: the trade-offs
- Cost. As at October 2026, family boxes from the bigger services work out at roughly A$10–11.50 a serve before introductory discounts, and budget services at around A$7 or less. Delivery is often around A$12 a box on top. Four dinners a week for a family of four comes to roughly A$120 to A$180, depending on the service.
- Each recipe is cooked as written. The bigger services now offer dozens of recipes a week, some more than a hundred, with vegetarian and family options. But each dinner is one recipe for everyone. If one of you is vegetarian and the rest aren’t, one of you is cutting carbs, or your kids have firm opinions, you’re cooking two recipes or someone compromises.
- Allergies are hard to cater for. Kits are generally packed in shared facilities that also handle common allergens. The services we looked at say they can’t cater for specific allergies, or can’t promise a meal is free of cross-contact, and list “may contain” traces on their recipes. If someone in your house has a serious allergy, that’s a real limitation.
- Delivery windows. Someone needs to be home, or the box needs to sit somewhere cool.
- More packaging, though less food waste. Kits come with more packaging, although most services say their boxes and paper insulation are recyclable. They also tend to waste less food: a University of Michigan study (US, 2019) found kit meals had a smaller carbon footprint than the same meals bought at a supermarket, largely because less food was thrown out. So it’s less clear-cut than it looks.
- You still cook, and you still shop for the basics. Milk, bread, school lunches and pantry staples don’t come in the box.
- It’s a subscription. You’ll need to remember to skip the weeks you don’t want, or a box turns up anyway.
Planning your own week: the good bits
- Usually cheaper per serve. A 2023 Deakin University review found Australian meal kits cost more than buying the same ingredients from a major supermarket. Planning your own week also lets you use specials and home brands, and cook what’s already in the pantry.
- Built around your family. Allergies, a vegetarian in the house, a gym-goer who wants more protein, someone cutting carbs, the kids’ ages, foods nobody will eat: your plan works around all of it, not just what’s on this week’s menu. (Here’s how to cook one dinner for a family with different needs.)
- Flexible. Swap a night, skip a night when you’re out, double a recipe for leftovers. Nothing’s locked in a box.
- Less waste, if you plan for it. Use the rest of the herbs in Thursday’s dinner, or cook once and eat twice.
- Shop your way. A weekly shop, click and collect, or home delivery from the supermarket you already use.
Planning your own week: the trade-offs
- You still do the shopping. Even with an online order, someone has to place it.
- Planning takes time and headspace, unless you have a system or a tool doing it for you. This is the part that’s easiest to give up on.
- Odd ingredients can go to waste if each dinner is planned on its own.
Side by side
| Meal kit | Planning your own week | |
|---|---|---|
| Deciding what’s for dinner | Pick from their menu | You (or an app) choose, around your family |
| Shopping | Delivered | Your supermarket, in store or online |
| Cost per serve | Roughly A$7–11.50 a serve, plus delivery (as at Oct 2026) | Your normal grocery prices (plus an app, if you use one) |
| Allergies and mixed diets | Limited by the menu and shared facilities | Planned around your household (you still check labels and avoid cross-contact at home) |
| Flexibility mid-week | Low: the box is what it is | High: swap, skip or cook extra |
| Waste | More packaging, less food waste | Depends on planning; share ingredients across nights |
| Best for | Small households, learning to cook, a hectic patch | Families with mixed needs, a budget, fussy eaters |
Which suits your family?
A meal kit might suit you if there are only one or two of you, you want to learn new dishes, you’ve got a new baby or a hectic few weeks ahead, or you’d rather pay to shop less.
Planning your own week probably suits you better if you’re feeding a family most nights, someone has an allergy or a different diet, you’re watching the budget, or your kids eat from a short list of things.
Or mix the two. Some families take a kit for two or three nights during a busy patch and plan the rest.
How to get the “no deciding” part without the box
The real win of a meal kit is that the deciding is done. You can get most of that on your own:
- Plan the whole week in one sitting, not night by night. Ten minutes on Sunday beats ten minutes at 5pm every day.
- Check the specials first, then plan around them.
- Give nights a shape. Pasta Monday, stir-fry Wednesday, build-your-own Friday. Half the deciding is done before you start.
- Put quick dinners on your busy nights, and save anything slow for the weekend.
- Make one dinner do two jobs. A roast chicken on Sunday becomes fried rice or wraps on Tuesday. Refrigerate the leftovers straight after dinner, and use them within two to three days.
- Share fresh ingredients across nights, so the half-bunch of coriander or the rest of the cabbage gets used.
- Write one shopping list, grouped by aisle, and check the pantry before you go.
Where DinnerPlan fits
DinnerPlan does the deciding part of a meal kit, without the box. Set up your household once (allergies, diets like vegetarian or low-carb, the kids’ ages, what to leave out, your busy nights) and it plans a week of dinners around it in about a minute:
- in a mixed household, vegetarian dinners with a meat add-on for whoever wants one
- quick dinners on your busy nights
- fresh ingredients shared across nights, and one big cook that covers a second night
- one shopping list, added up and grouped by aisle, with anything you’ve added to your pantry left off
Don’t like Wednesday’s dinner? Swap it for something quicker, cheaper, more kid-friendly or made from what’s in the pantry, and the list updates. Every recipe is checked against your family’s allergies before you see it. Dinners are written by AI and can contain mistakes, so always check ingredients and labels yourself.
It’s A$9.99 a month (about A$2.30 a week) or A$79.99 a year, and you can try it free for 14 days with no credit card to start.
Common questions
Are meal kits worth it for a family?
They can be during a hectic patch, or if you want to learn new dishes. If you’re feeding a family most nights, especially with allergies or mixed diets, planning your own week usually costs less and fits your household better.
Are meal kits cheaper than the supermarket?
Generally not. A 2023 Deakin University review found Australian meal kits cost more than buying the same ingredients from a major supermarket, although kits do cut food waste. Budget kits narrow the gap.
Are meal kits good for food allergies?
Often not, for a serious allergy. Kits are generally packed in shared facilities, and the services we looked at say they can’t cater for specific allergies or can’t promise a meal is free of cross-contact. Whichever way you cook, check the ingredients and allergen information for each recipe.
What’s the easiest way to start meal planning?
Plan the whole week in one sitting, put quick dinners on busy nights, make one dinner do two jobs, and write one shopping list grouped by aisle. Or let an app like DinnerPlan do the planning and the list for you.
Prices and features described as at October 2026.