Thanks, that's very helpful! $60/week for dinner is a lot better than we are doing right now on our own.

Good to know you were able to start using it around the 2 month mark with the baby. I obviously have no real idea when we'll actually find our bearings after ours is born but it does give me some hope that things will settle enough after a couple months to get into a cooking routine. Until then, I'll be leaning on trader joes for lots of convenience foods and trying to keep costs down in other ways.

Oh and one more thing - it really helps me to not waste food items. You really use every thing you buy. Since we use the leftovers for my husbands lunches it definitely saves us money.

We use the vegetarian version of the fresh 20. I don't know how often they have sales but they had a half off sale in December and I purchased an annual membership for $27, which is pretty cheap.

You can download a free trial week on the fresh 20 website.

They have a preprinted grocery list for the week which includes prices - prices are usually in the range of $60 for the week in total. Most prices are comparable to grocery stores in the area. However they also have "pantry staples" which will cost some money to accumulate.

I signed up when my baby was 2 months old - honestly I couldn't have done it before then as it does take some work to get the meals on the table each night.

On an average week we LOVE one meal, like 3 meals and one meal is just okay.

What I do love about fresh 20:
-We can use it or not use it. So if it is going to be a crazy week I just don't do it.
-I like having the annual membership so I can search all of the archives and pick the one that sounds most delicious
-It really does help us to eat a lot of fresh veggies. And it helps us move away from too many carbs and dairy products, which is a trap we fall into as vegetarians
-It encourages me to try new things.
-I love just printing off a shopping list and going - so easy!
-Most nights there is enough food for both of us to have a good sized meal and then for my husband to take leftovers for lunch the next day

Hope that helps!

I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to pay for a meal planning service, specifically fresh20 or the scramble (leaning towards fresh20). DH and I are expecting our first in a few weeks and I'll be on maternity leave for the next few months. We're really trying to tighten up our food budget (we eat out a lot) and I am admittedly clueless when it comes to meal planning on my own. As a new mom I know I won't have any brain cells to devote to meal planning for a while, which is why I'm thinking of signing up for one of these but I'd like to hear from others first who use/used them with success.

How much do you spend per week on groceries, using one of these subscriptions? Do you find it actually saves $ in your food budget in the long run?