When Amy skipped the supermarket last month in the lead up to the birth of her second baby, and tried EveryPlate meal kits, she didn’t just save herself a trip to her local grocery store. She skipped the queues, the wandering aisles and the mental load of deciding what to cook for dinner. Instead, she chose and ordered her meals, and had the whole week sorted in just six minutes!

No googling recipes. No scribbling a list. No checking the pantry to see which staples need topping up. No dragging a tired toddler around the supermarket. All of it gone.

Amy had the whole week’s meal plan sorted on a Sunday from the comfort of her couch.

@mumsloungeMeal planning used to take me forever…now it’s done in 6 minutes for the week 😍🙌 One less thing to think about as a busy mum! Use our code MUMSLOUNGEPLATE for savings on your first boxes 💚 #EveryPlate #MealPlanning #BusyMum #FamilyMeals #affiliate♬ original sound – Mums Lounge

The Mental Load of The Real Dinner Problem

For most of us, and the thing that really wears us down about dinner time isn’t the cooking, it’s deciding what to make, checking the pantry, and having to dash back and fore the supermarket when you realise you’ve forgotten to pick up an essential ingredient.

“As a busy mum, EveryPlate takes away so much of the mental load,” Amy says. “No searching for recipes, no meal planning, no last minute supermarket trips.”

Add it up and it’s easily an hour or more of time saved, maybe even more depending on how far the supermarket is and if you time it around the busiest time of the day – after the school run!

Avoid the Supermarket Trips That Cost More Than You Planned

Let’s not forget that very few of us actually walk away from the supermarket with just the things on our list. Even a quick supermarket trip has the potential to blow out the week’s food budget. It’s the chocolate bar near the checkout, the snacks on special at the end of the aisle that weren’t part of the original plan and the other random things that find their way into the basket. Before you know it, what started off as a quick dash in for a bag of rice, has turned into another $40 plus spend.

With meals chosen and ordered in advance, that whole opportunity for impulse spending disappears. You’re paying for what you actually need, not what caught you eye when you were tired and hungry.

What Mums are Doing with the Time Back

For Amy, that reclaimed time is going into the kitchen with her daughter, letting her help with age-appropriate tasks.

“I’d much rather spend that time cooking with my daughter, teaching her that food doesn’t just appear on the dinner table,” she says. “The joy of cooking, where food comes from, how to prepare meals. Those are the skills and memories I really want  her to grow up with.”

When dinner isn’t a scramble and a cause of stress, there is room for it to be quality time spent together and an opportunity for learning.

Related: Teaching Kids to Cook: How EveryPlate Makes Mealtimes a Learning Experience

Enjoying Dinner as a Family

The other change Amy found was with meals coming together quickly, her family can sit down to eat together, at a reasonable hour.

“We get to sit together as a family, talk about our day, enjoy a home-cooked meal and build those healthy habits that start around dinner table,” she says. “Less time thinking about what’s for dinner, and more time enjoying it together.”

Worth Trying EveryPlate Yourself?

If the idea of getting even part of your week (and your wallet) back sounds appealing. EveryPlate is offering Mums Lounge readers up to 40% off. Use the code MUMSLOUNGEPLATE at the checkout.

*Valid only for new customers and past customers (who have been cancelled for more than 12 months.)