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I'm very excited about these companies trying to solve a very significant problem in my life - what to eat. I don't have the time or the interest in health to

I'm very excited about these companies trying to solve a very significant problem in my life - what to eat. I don't have the time or the interest in health to figure out what I should be eating or when - I would prefer to merely supply the mouth. However, currently the competition is pretty stiff - fast food and current delivery services have huge flaws in their lack of nutrition and the daily time cost of obtaining them, but they're dirt cheap. $10/meal is nice, but it doesn't scale all that well. If I go grocery shopping (the worst possible solution, time-wise), I'll probably spend ~$300 or so for a month's (30 days) amount of food for myself. That comes out to a meal cost of ~$3.50 (let's round up, it makes sense in a moment). Fast food and delivery are more expensive. If I used fast food every day for 30 days, I would estimate that cost around ~$7 per meal (see?), or double the cost of grocery shopping. At this point, costs are already soaring, as we're in the neighborhood of ~$600/month for food! Now throw on an additional $3 per meal, plus delivery charges, and you're sitting somewhere around ~$900 I'd have to spend every month to make sure I won't die. That's a lot of cash, especially compared to the ~$300 I could spend just buying groceries. I want a way to spend closer to $300 than $900 to get this time waster solved for me. Am I asking too much?

blueblob 13y ago
That was my initial thought too, but I suspect that most people would get only once or twice a week from this on days that they are busy. 20$ per week for 2 dinners wouldn't be that bad to have them delivered. BTW I am not in the Bay Area and can't sign up for this anyway.
d23 13y ago
How much is your time worth though? Let's say you make $50 / hour (which I'm assuming is on the low end, given the audience). Even if you only grocery shop twice a month and spend about an hour getting there and back and putting away the groceries, you've already dropped $100 for your time. Then consider the much bigger time-sink: cooking the stuff! Even if you consider a mere 30 minutes a night for cooking and cleaning dishes, you're talking another 15 hours a month (or $750 given our aforementioned rate). Just a thought.
- diminoten 13y ago
  That's a good point, but I dunno if pricing my free time at precisely the same amount as the cost of one hour of my work is a good idea. Frankly, I'd value it higher, though that only further supports your claim. :)
- avalaunch 13y ago
  That is making the assumption that you can work extra hours instead of shopping, cooking, and cleaning, which I doubt is the case for most people. So even though you may be spending 15 hours a month on food preparation and cleanup, you're not really out $750.

blueblob 13y ago

That was my initial thought too, but I suspect that most people would get only once or twice a week from this on days that they are busy. 20$ per week for 2 dinners wouldn't be that bad to have them delivered. BTW I am not in the Bay Area and can't sign up for this anyway.

d23 13y ago

How much is your time worth though? Let's say you make $50 / hour (which I'm assuming is on the low end, given the audience). Even if you only grocery shop twice a month and spend about an hour getting there and back and putting away the groceries, you've already dropped $100 for your time. Then consider the much bigger time-sink: cooking the stuff! Even if you consider a mere 30 minutes a night for cooking and cleaning dishes, you're talking another 15 hours a month (or $750 given our aforementioned rate). Just a thought.

diminoten 13y ago
That's a good point, but I dunno if pricing my free time at precisely the same amount as the cost of one hour of my work is a good idea. Frankly, I'd value it higher, though that only further supports your claim. :)
avalaunch 13y ago
That is making the assumption that you can work extra hours instead of shopping, cooking, and cleaning, which I doubt is the case for most people. So even though you may be spending 15 hours a month on food preparation and cleanup, you're not really out $750.