Meal Kits for College Students — Cheapest & Easiest

Quick answer: The cheapest per serving is EveryPlate from $5.99, then Blue Apron (from $7.49) and Home Chef (from $9.99). But the real win for a student budget isn't the starting price — it's the welcome discounts (up to ~50% off at HelloFresh and Home Chef, up to $90 off at Sunbasket) and the fact that none of the six kits we track lock you into a contract. If you live alone, Blue Apron's no-subscription model and Sunbasket are the standout options for ordering small. And remember, price isn't a footnote: it's consistently one of the top reasons people cancel meal-kit subscriptions.

A meal kit sounds like something for well-established families — not a student stretching every dollar. But the math is more nuanced than it looks. Once you count food waste, impulse buys at the grocery store, and the time you spend planning dinner, a box isn't necessarily more expensive. The key is choosing right: the lowest price per serving, the smallest box you can actually finish, and making full use of the welcome discounts. Do that, and the first few weeks can even come in cheaper than shopping for yourself.

This guide is written for anyone living on a tight budget. We use the actual prices and discounts from the six providers we track at MealboxGuide — see how we test — and flag where the traps hide: the intro discount that quietly expires, the cancel button that's hard to find, and the shipping fee that suddenly makes a cheap box expensive. None of the providers require a contract, and that's actually your biggest advantage as a student. Also see our full roundup of cheap meal kits. Here's how to get the most food for your money.

When you're comparing meal kits on a student budget, ignore the weekly headline price and focus on price per serving. That's the number that decides whether a box can compete with cooking pasta yourself. A kit that looks expensive overall can be cheap per meal — and vice versa.

Across the six kits we track, the average is around $9.90/serving (median roughly $9.99), and the range runs from $5.99 at EveryPlate to $13.99 at Green Chef. Among classic ingredient kits, EveryPlate is the cheapest at from $5.99/serving (promo pricing; actual cost varies by household size and plan). Blue Apron starts at $7.49, and Home Chef runs from $9.99 and up. On the pricier end you'll find prepared and specialty options: Green Chef costs around $13.99/serving because it's USDA-organic with diet-specific plans, and Sunbasket runs $11.49 and up for premium, chef-made options. Want to go deeper on individual providers? We have a full HelloFresh review and a Blue Apron review.

One important caveat: almost all "from" prices apply to the largest boxes. The more servings you order, the lower the per-unit price drops. That puts a solo student at a disadvantage — you rarely hit the lowest price point. That's why the rest of this guide is as much about how you order as who you choose. And don't worry, you're not the only one eyeing the price tag: most meal-kit subscribers say they pay for convenience and inspiration, not because it's the cheapest option. As a student, you're flipping that logic and chasing the price instead.

The table below lines up the four most budget-relevant providers on the numbers that matter when money's tight: starting price per serving, shipping, minimum household size, and welcome discount. Note that Home Chef waives shipping over $45 — that pulls its real price down on bigger orders, even though its per-serving price looks higher than EveryPlate's.

On pure starting price, EveryPlate wins, but it still requires at least 2 servings per order. If you only need to feed yourself, Blue Apron is often the better real-world choice, since it dropped its subscription requirement in 2025 and now lets you order individual meals with no minimum household size. Want to see the whole field? We've rounded up the lowest prices under cheap meal kits.

One thing the Trustpilot numbers remind us: cheapest isn't the same as best rated. Sunbasket sits at 4.4/5 in customer satisfaction — among the field's highest — while Home Chef sits at 2.6/5, where delivery issues and cancellation are the most common complaints. As a student, price weighs heaviest, but it's worth knowing what you're trading off. Our Home Chef review digs into where each kit shines and disappoints.

The biggest trap for students is ordering a box that's too big. Pay for 2 servings and actually eat for one, and you're not halving the price — you're doubling it per mouth. That's why household size is your most important filter. We've rounded up the field on exactly this point under meal kits for one person.

Most ingredient kits start at 2 servings: that's true of HelloFresh, EveryPlate, and Home Chef. Want a true single-serving option? The field narrows fast. Blue Apron dropped its subscription model in 2025 and now sells meals à la carte with no minimum order — order exactly what one person needs. Sunbasket can also be ordered from 1 serving with a mix of kits and chef-made prepared meals, and Green Chef ships as few as 2 servings with keto, vegan, and gluten-free plans.

There's a smart trick if you live alone and still want EveryPlate's or HelloFresh's low per-serving price: order the 2-person box and eat the second portion as leftovers the next day. A box with 3 recipes for 2 people yields six servings — that covers three dinners and three lunches. Counted per meal, the per-unit price often beats a single-serving box outright, and you skip planning lunch entirely. Bonus: yesterday's leftovers also help keep food waste down, which is one of the ways a meal kit can pay for itself.

The welcome discount is the single factor that makes meal kits realistic on a student budget. Providers heavily subsidize the first few weeks to get you into the habit of ordering — and because none of them require a contract, you can take the discount and walk away. That's not gaming the system; it's how the business model is built, and you can read more about the rules of the game in meal kits with no commitment.

The biggest offers right now: HelloFresh gives up to ~50% off spread across your first several boxes, and Home Chef up to 50% off your first few. EveryPlate and Blue Apron both offer meaningful first-order discounts, while Sunbasket gives up to $90 off your first three boxes and Green Chef runs seasonal promos on your first order. You'll find current codes under HelloFresh coupon code.

The cheapest strategy, then, isn't loyalty — it's rotation. Start with HelloFresh and use the discounted boxes. Then switch to EveryPlate or Home Chef and claim their intro discount. That way you eat through a big chunk of the semester at a steeply reduced price — see more concrete tactics in save money on meal kits. Important: set a calendar reminder for when the discount period ends — that's exactly when the price jumps to full rate, and where many people get caught off guard.

Shipping is easy to forget, but it can flip an entire comparison on its head — especially if you're ordering small boxes. On a small order, a $10.99 shipping fee weighs far more heavily than it does on a large family box. We've done a full breakdown of the topic in meal kit shipping and delivery.

The difference between providers is significant. HelloFresh and EveryPlate both add $10.99 per box. Home Chef charges $7.99 but waives it entirely on orders over $45. On the other end, Blue Apron now folds delivery into its no-subscription, per-meal pricing with no separate line-item fee, and Green Chef charges $10.99 as well.

So always factor shipping into your true price per serving. A Blue Apron order at $7.49/serving with delivery built in can easily end up cheaper than a HelloFresh box at $10.99 once you add a shipping fee on a small order. A concrete example: six servings of HelloFresh at $10.99 plus $10.99 shipping comes to $76.93 total, or roughly $12.82/serving — not $10.99. Six servings of Home Chef at $9.99 with free shipping (order over $45) comes to $59.94, or $9.99/serving. The "pricier" box is suddenly the cheaper one. If you live somewhere with limited delivery coverage, also double-check availability — not every provider ships to every zip code.

Meal kits are technically contract-free, but several of them are designed to make it easy to keep going and a little too hard to stop. As a student on a tight budget, this is where you lose money if you're not careful — we've rounded up the worst patterns in avoiding subscription traps.

The classic trap is the intro discount that quietly expires: you remember the low starting price but forget that box number six arrives at full price. The next is automatic delivery — if you don't actively skip or pause before the week's deadline, the box ships and you get charged. Finally, reviews suggest cancellation can be hard to find: at both Home Chef and Green Chef, customers mention it's a hassle to get out. Our step-by-step guide on how to cancel a meal kit shows the way out with each provider.

The advice is simple. Note the deadline to skip each week, and use the pause feature actively during exam periods or when you travel home. Read how many boxes the discount actually covers before you sign up. And find the cancel button before you need it — so you don't end up with an unwanted box because the button was hard to locate. The category itself is under real pressure around convenience versus price, and subscriber habits have been shifting toward ordering less often and shopping around more. In other words: you're not the only one scrutinizing the price tag.

There's no single right answer — it depends on how you live and eat. But for most students, the choice comes down to three paths.

Living with a roommate or partner: Choose EveryPlate or HelloFresh. With EveryPlate from $5.99/serving and HelloFresh's seven meal plans plus up to ~50% off, either is a cheap route to a real dinner when you split a 2-person box — read our full HelloFresh review first. Living completely alone: Go for Blue Apron — its 2025 relaunch dropped the subscription requirement, so you can order exactly what you need with no minimum household size. Rarely have time to cook: A prepared meal from Green Chef or Sunbasket costs more per serving, but saves you both the shopping and the dishes — and that can be worth the money during a busy exam week.

Whatever you choose: take advantage of the fact that none of them lock you in. Grab the intro discount, rotate between providers, and pause your subscription when money's tight. Then a meal kit becomes a luxury you can actually afford.