For five lunches, groceries usually win on price if you can use the ingredients across the week. Juit and PrepMyMeal can still be the better weekly choice when delivery replaces a shop you would otherwise skip, and when the extra grocery trip costs more time or travel than the basket saves.
Set up the same five-lunch brief
Start with five lunches you would genuinely eat at work or at home. Keep the comparison fair: similar portion size, protein, vegetables, and a side if you normally need one to feel full.
For Juit and PrepMyMeal, add the displayed price of five selected meals, then include any delivery charge, minimum-order effect, or promotional discount that applies to your actual checkout. Prices can vary by menu, order size, postcode, and current offer, so write down the date and keep a screenshot or note of each total. A first-order promotion may help this week but tells you little about the regular cost.
For groceries, build a five-lunch list rather than pricing five isolated recipes. A practical list might include a grain or pasta base, vegetables, a protein, sauce or seasoning, and any lunch containers you need. The important number is the checkout total for what you must buy now, plus the value of ingredients left for later meals.
If a jar of sauce covers three lunches, charge only one third of it to this test. If you will not use the rest of a bag of spinach or a pack of tortillas, count the full purchase. This is where a grocery plan can look cheaper on paper than it feels in real life.
Price the grocery plan as one store and two stores
Run the lunch list through a nearby grocery comparison, first with one store and then with a two-store limit. Record three figures for each option:
- Basket total for the five lunches.
- Total distance for the route.
- The specific items that caused the second stop to save money.
The one-store result is your convenience baseline. The two-store result tests whether splitting the list actually earns its place in the week. A cheaper item at a second shop only matters if the full basket saving survives the added distance, parking, walking, queue, and checkout time.
This is the same decision behind whether a discounted milk and bread trip is worth a second grocery stop, scaled up to five lunches. A second store can make sense when it changes several items in the basket. It is much harder to justify for one discounted ingredient.
Put travel on the receipt
Delivered meals have a travel cost too, though it is usually bundled into the delivery price. Grocery plans need you to make that cost visible.
Choose a travel assumption before looking at the result. For example, use your actual car cost per kilometre if you track it, your public transport fare, or a fixed amount of time you are willing to trade for savings. Do not quietly treat the grocery trip as free because you already shop weekly. If the lunch ingredients fit into a regular shop you were going to make anyway, the extra travel cost may be zero. If they create a separate journey, count the whole journey.
Then calculate:
`weekly grocery total = basket cost + extra travel cost + value of unused food`
For delivery:
`weekly delivered-meal total = five meal prices + delivery fees + unavoidable extras`
The phrase “unavoidable extras” matters. Add the salad, bread, fruit, or snack you reliably buy alongside a prepared lunch. Add the coffee bought because a small meal left you hungry, if that is a real pattern for you. Leave out imagined savings from meals you might have cooked perfectly.
Keep uncertainty beside the totals
A useful cost test has a narrow range, not a false precise answer. Mark uncertain values with a range or a note:
- Delivery may change with menu selection, postcode, and promotions.
- Grocery offers can end before your shopping day.
- Fresh ingredients may produce leftovers, waste, or dinner ingredients.
- A two-store route may take longer at a busy time than the map suggests.
- Prepared-meal portion size can change how many extras you buy.
Use a simple table in your notes:
| Option | Food total | Fees or travel | Leftovers or extras | Weekly total | |---|---:|---:|---:|---:| | Juit, five selected lunches | Record checkout price | Record delivery | Record extras | Add them | | PrepMyMeal, five selected lunches | Record checkout price | Record delivery | Record extras | Add them | | One nearby grocery store | Record basket | Record travel | Record unused food | Add them | | Two-store grocery route | Record basket | Record travel | Record unused food | Add them |
This format also prevents a common mistake: comparing a discounted first delivery against groceries at regular shelf prices. Either compare this week’s real checkout totals, clearly labelled as such, or compare standard prices for all options.
Decide what you are paying for
Juit and PrepMyMeal buy back preparation time, dishwashing, and some decision-making. Grocery lunches give you more control over ingredients, portions, and repeat use of staples. Neither benefit has the same value every week.
If the delivered option costs more but reliably stops you buying lunch out, compare it with the lunch you would otherwise purchase, not with an idealised homemade meal. If the grocery plan requires cooking on Sunday and you know Sunday is already full, give that constraint a value. The cheapest basket only helps when you will make it.
For your next week, select five meals from each delivery menu, build one matching grocery list, and compare one-store and two-store totals using nearby prices. Keep the delivery fee, route distance, and leftover-food assumption on the same page as the totals. The winner will be clear enough to use, even when a price changes.
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