What are we looking for on Black Friday, 2024

[twoinanddone]

And now is that holiday after Black Friday/Cyber MOnday- delivery day. I got 3 boxes/envelopes Friday and 3 boxes today. Still more to come.

[deb922]

I have one, actually mine came in a pack of two. And my husband and I both can use it with our case on. I have an iPhone 16 with the USB-C port but had the same charger with a lightening port and that worked with our iPhone 13’s also with the case on.

[TCMom]

Good to know. Thank you!

[twoinanddone]

@twoinanddone

Thanks @Marilyn I think (hope) that’s the right one (asked about plug style, got nothing)

And I bought the second one, with a USB C connector, because I have Samsung. I was going to get them for the SILs too, but we’ll see how the girls like theirs.

These are a hit. I gifted them early as birthday presents (one in Dec and one in Jan) because the January kid was here. December kid, impossible to buy for, liked hers and said she used it twice while skiing on her birthday.

I bought one for myself and I like it because I can put it in my purse and use it if I run low on power while at the gym or out shopping. My only negative is that I’m old fashioned and still use ear buds that plug in to my phone, and I can’t do that while using this charger. First world problem. I HAVE blue tooth ear buds, but I just prefer the cord (and the blue tooth has to be charged and I alway forget).

[Singersmom07]

I used to have a little splitter connector that let me plug in both. You might do a search for one.

[GKUnion]

Does anyone have experience with food delivery services like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh?

[1214mom]

People have recommended Blue Apron to me, but I have no personal experience.

[Mwfan1921]

Several times over the last few years my neighbor has been out of town when her Purple Carrot weekly box arrived, so she gave it to us. The meals probably weren’t the choices we would make but they were fine with good quality produce. It is a TON of packaging, and I have heard others complain about that same thing for similar companies. Several of our local grocery stores offer similar pre-chopped and prepped meals for two or four, and I sometimes do those so have no need for Blue Apron et al.

[FallGirl]

We have gotten Blue Apron for several years. We get 3 meals (2 servings) each week so 3x/week we don’t have to worry about shopping for/do we have the ingredients for/what should we have. I don’t eat big servings and H hasn’t lately so there are usually some left overs for the next day’s lunch. You get some choices and can pause if you don’t want a delivery that week. There is some packaging, but we recycle the cardboard and the plastic goes into my Ridwell bags.

[leftrightleft]

I have used Home Chef off/on and have been very happy with the choices of meals as well as the quality of protein and produce. Packaging is is fairly minimal, tried another service and way too much packaging.

[GKUnion]

Thanks everyone. I think I’ll gift a 3 day(6 meals) membership to someone for Christmas.

[FallGirl]

@GKUnion I think it’s a great gift

[ksm]

We have used both! Hello Fresh is slightly easier to prepare. H enjoys helping and the results are delicious! I save the recipes in a binder to prepare in the future.

[Luanne]

I’m gifting Blue Apron to S22. I’m doing the fully prepared meals that he can just reheat. He does cook but often grabs fast food when it’s a time crunch. I thought Blue Apron has choices he’d pick and they only require 4 meals a week.

[MaineLonghorn]

We live Hello Fresh. The meals take a little work, but they’re so good!!

[Marilyn]

Just sent son a Hello Fresh gift card for his birthday; he’s considered signing up for one of the services numerous times. Now he can test it out for a couple of weeks, then cancel if not interested.

[jym626]

Older s and wife use one of the meal prep companies (I forget which). Meals are good but seems to take a lot of time and work to prepare.

[one_two]

My grad school son tried Hello Fresh for a few months when someone gifted him a discount code. He liked it but felt their idea of a meal was much smaller than his idea of a meal (as a tall active guy who goes to the gym every day) so it didn’t go as far as it might. But he did learn what he could make on his own based on what he liked from it.

[Lemonlee]

I tried Hello Fresh and meals were pretty good but they were just as much work as cooking on my own. It does save you the chore of having to shop for ingredients and coming up with the recipe but those things weren’t a big deal for me so I ended up canceling.

[Marilyn]

I realize we’re off topic - I do remember quite a bit of discussion on these kinds of plans a few years back.

Meal Kits...Hello Fresh/Blue Apron/M. Stewart, etc

We’ve tried a bunch over the past year. Blue Apron was OK, loved that you could see other users’ reviews and tips. Plated was fine, I love that you can choose 3 servings and they have some easy desserts you can add on that are delicious. We tried Dinnerly to see if daughter wanted to try it at school. It’s $5 per serving and very simple. She hasn’t tried it yet in her new apartment but will soon. Martha and Marley Spoon is our favorite for taste, but there is not as much choice as I would like each week, and you have to email them each week for sodium information (I need to watch salt). Sun Basket is the one we use the most, lots to choose from weekly, mostly international flavors. The past 4 weeks we have had produce issues, and while they issue credit, it’s getting annoying. I canceled all except Martha and Marley Spoon and Sun Basket, and I choose each week’s service based on that week’s recipes.