How Much Does a Meal Kit Cost for a Family? Price Per Person (2026)

Meal kit prices are hard to compare because every provider uses different serving sizes, plans, and shipping rules. To make them directly comparable, we've normalised everything to the one number that matters for a family with kids: pounds per person per meal. Below, you'll see what each kit actually costs for a family of 4 and 5 — plus a baseline for what home-cooked food costs, so you can see what the convenience actually costs.

We focus on ingredient kits that genuinely deliver family-sized boxes (HelloFresh, Riverford, Mindful Chef, Green Chef, Gousto). Grubby also sells some ready-made options alongside its kits, so we cover it separately under ready-to-eat delivery. If you just want the cheapest kit overall, start with budget meal kits.

The table shows the weekly price for 4 people × 4 meals = 16 servings, calculated from each provider's lowest advertised per-portion price (intro/promo pricing). The final price can be higher after the welcome offer ends, and delivery isn't included in the weekly price (see the note).

Prices are each provider's advertised starting per-serving price, updated July 2026. The home-cooked baseline is our estimate, not a sourced average — actual supermarket costs vary by ingredients and food waste.

Most kits are sold in fixed sizes (2, 4, or 6 servings), so a family of 5 typically needs the 6-serving plan with a little left over, or the 4-serving plan plus extras. Measured per person per meal, the price stays the same (£3.52–£7.08), but the weekly total rises:

Rule of thumb: each extra person costs £3.52–£7.08 per meal. Mindful Chef is often the easiest for larger families because its wide weekly menu makes it simpler to satisfy everyone's tastes.

We took each provider's lowest advertised per-serving price and multiplied it out: price per serving × number of people × number of meals per week. One serving equals one meal for one person, so the price per serving is the price per person per meal. We assume 4 meals a week, the most common family plan.

Three notes: (1) the starting price is often a promotional price — the price from box #2 onward can be higher; (2) delivery (£0–£6/box) isn't added into the weekly price; (3) the supermarket baseline is an estimate for a simple home-cooked dinner and varies with ingredients and food waste. We update these numbers regularly — always check the date at the top. The methodology behind our ratings is in how we test.