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Posted: 2022-11-25 17:31:00

This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas.

Meal delivery is quite possibly the easiest way to give yourself time back each week, and the right subscription can be helpful in keeping yourself honest when it comes to eating well. You can get meal kits and prepared meals on the cheap if you sign up for Black Friday. Some of the best meal delivery deals for Black Friday include our favorites like Fresh N Lean, EveryPlate and Freshly

There are also some excellent deals and discounts on premium meat delivery and online grocery services, too. Each deal is different, but most amount to some seriously cheap meals that are either ready to eat (prepared meals) or preportioned and ready to cook (meal kits.)

We've scoured the web to find the best meal delivery deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And check back as we'll continue to update this story as new meal delivery deals go live. 

Read more: 21 Cheap Curiosities From Amazon on Sale for Black Friday

What are the best Black Friday meal delivery deals right now?

If it's the lowest possible cost, EveryPlate, HelloFresh and Gobble will send meal kits that are ready to cook, with some clocking in under $2 a serving. Other popular prepared meal services such as Splendid Spoon, CookUnity and Fresh N Lean are ready to send premade, ready-to-eat dinners to your doorstep, at per-serving prices that are far cheaper than takeout. Goldbelly is also offering 20% off of your entire order, and ButcherBox will give you two free ribeyes in every box for a year if you sign up for meat delivery today.

Read more: Are Meal Kits More Expensive Than Buying the Groceries? We Did the Math

Best meal delivery deals for Black Friday

Freshl

Freshly sends fresh (get it?) meals to your door and has a ton of recipe options to choose from each week, from lean and healthy to heartier comfort food. I tried the brand's premade meals and like them a whole bunch -- full review here. If you want to give yourself or a loved one a break from cooking, Freshly has Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, both of which are good for $175 in total savings. 

  • Black Friday: From Nov. 7 through Nov. 26, save $175 with the code BLACKFRIDAY22
  • Cyber Monday: From Nov. 28 through Dec. 3, save $175 with the code CYBERMONDAY22
Fresh N Lean

This signup offer is for one the best meal delivery services we've tried. Fresh N Lean is healthy, tasty and won't break the bank, with some meal plans clocking in at around $9 a serving. Want to see how much I liked it? Read our Fresh N Lean review.

Sign up for Black Friday to any Fresh N Lean plan (offerings include keto, protein plus, vegan, Mediterranean, Whole30) and get $50 off your first order. Stay on for four weeks at the regular monthly price and you'll get another $100 off in January.

Goldbelly

If you think the best eats around the country are out of reach, think again. Goldbelly sends prepared foods and recipe kits from some of the most iconic chefs and restaurants including Ina Garten's coconut cake, Momofuku, The Girl & the Goat, Russ & Daughters and Cochon. Right now, you'll save 20% on your entire order. (Some exclusions apply.) Many of Goldbelly's offerings make excellent gifts, so you can start working down that holiday list with just a few clicks. 

Blue Apron

More than 10 years after it launched, the original meal kit service is still one of our favorites (full review here) with excellent and easy meal kits for under $10 a serving. 

If you've never tried Blue Apron, I'd suggest signing up for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. New customers will get $180 off across their first six orders, plus free shipping on the first order. The meal kit deal is valid now through Dec. 4.

Umamicart

Umamicart is a female-founded, online Asian grocer, and it has a stunning selection of frozen foods (oh hey, dim sum!) fresh produce and specialty ingredients. The sprawling online vendor has giftable bundles and subscription boxes, and they're all on sale for the holidays.

From now through Nov. 30, take 20% off Umamicart's holiday gift sets, or 20% off a three-month subscription and 25% off a six-month subscription when you prepay for either. 

EveryPlate

EveryPlate is already our pick as the best meal-kit service for families on a budget, but it's bordering on ridiculously cheap when you sign up for Black Friday. Depending on the meal plan you choose, you'll score up to 73% off of EveryPlate's already cheap meal kits. That's about $1.49 per serving for your first delivery. You'll also get 28% off the next two deliveries.

You won't see a ton of haute cuisine in EveryPlate's weekly menu, but there are plenty of satisfying dinners for the cold weather ahead. I tried its pork sloppy joes and the chicken and linguine in a tomato cream sauce. All the meals I made were great, easy to prepare and, best of all, light on the wallet. Read our EveryPlate review.

ButcherBox

OK, so ButcherBox isn't exactly a meal delivery service, but you can certainly make some excellent meals with what this online butcher service sends in its monthly boxes. ButcherBox is an online meat subscription service specializing in Australian grass-fed beef. But you can also have heritage pork and organic chicken in your monthly box, depending on the subscription you pick.

Customers who sign up during ButcherBox's Black Friday sales event -- Monday, Nov. 21 through Sunday, Nov. 27 -- will receive two 10-ounce ribeyes in each delivery box they receive for one year. From Black Friday through Sunday, Nov. 27, ButcherBox will also offer an additional $20 off a customer's first box if they use the code RIBEYE. For customers who sign up on Cyber Monday through Wednesday, Nov. 30, they will receive free wings in every box they order for the life of their subscription. 

Alaskan Salmon Company

Alaskan Salmon Company is an online fishmonger that'll send fresh catch to your door no matter where you are. The online seafood delivery service is offering $25 off the first two 12-pack ($189) and 24-pack ($340) orders for the Customizable Seafood Box, including Alaskan black cod and rockfish. The idea; is available now through Sunday, Nov. 30. Use code BF-ALASKA to get some healthy fish at a discount.

Read more: Best Seafood Delivery Services for 2022

Home Chef

I tested Home Chef last year and loved its highly customizable meal kits and comfort-food recipes with a healthy bent, all of which were easy to prepare. Home Chef is also one of the more affordable meal-kit companies, starting at $7 per serving, and is even more so if you sign up using this offer. 

New subscribers will get a whopping 60% off each of the first three boxes (equal to 16 free meals). If you've been wanting to try a meal-kit subscription, Home Chef makes it easy (and cheap). You can pause or cancel anytime, so the risk is low. Read our Home Chef review.

HelloFresh

HelloFresh has more total meal-kit selections than any other service and most of them are pretty easy to prepare. You can check out my deep-dive review of HelloFresh to learn more about the easy meal delivery service. 

HelloFresh is offering a sign-up deal worth as many as 26 free meals for the largest meal plans, plus free shipping. That nets out to about $3 or $4 per serving depending. Keep in mind the savings are spread out over a month of deliveries so you'll have to commit to trying it for a few weeks.

CookUnity

CookUnity had some of the best prepared meals I've tasted. But with such a massive menu to choose from, there were a few misses too. Many of the menu offerings have been created by restaurant chefs and cooking personalities such as Einat Admony (Taïm, Balaboosta), John DeLucie (Waverly Inn, Lumaca) and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

If you sign up to try CookUnity, it'll knock 30% off the first order. That means meals as cheap as $7, depending on the total number you order. Read our CookUnity review.

Thrive Market

Thrive Market is less of a meal kit or prepared meal service and more of a specialty online market with excellent snacks, pantry staples, beauty supplies, pet food and loads more. Thrive has a $5 monthly membership fee but if you have a taste for high-end groceries or seek organic foods, you won't likely find them cheaper than on Thrive. Plus, Thrive Market will price match anything you do find cheaper at another retailer.

Order from Thrive Market in November and you'll get 30% off your first shipment of groceries. 

RealEats

If you're ready for simple, prepared meals at a big bargain, Real Eats has one of the best offers going this month. I tried the meal service and thought most meals were prepared well, fresh and flavorful. While Fresh N Lean (deal above) is still my top pick for prepared meals, RealEats is another solid pick.

Sign up in November and you'll get 30% off your first box of meals and free shipping. 

Splendid Spoon specializes in deliveries of quick smoothies, soups, rice bowls and other smaller noshes that are great for breakfast and lunch. Some work well for dinner too, but I like this service better for those first two meals of the day. The meal delivery service has some interesting recipes along with classics, so there's a little something for everyone. 

If you want to give Splendid Spoon a try, you'll get $120 off across your first three boxes. Read our Splendid Spoon review.

Brandy Yowell

Gobble is quite similar to the other services, except that many items come already chopped, peeled, marinated and so on -- which can definitely save you some prep time. The two meals I received, Yankee pot roast and cacio e pepe, were terrific. Dinner prices are normally a flat $12 per serving, however, so you do pay a bit extra for that convenience.

Gobble will send your first six easy meal kits for $36 total. That's about as cheap as you'll find high-end meal kits anywhere. For more, read our Gobble review.

Black Friday deals are here! Check often for CNET's coverage on the best Black Friday deals this season. 

So which meal delivery service is the best? 

I've tried most of them and they're all pretty solid, with differences to consider depending on your budget, diet, taste and kitchen skill level. You can check out CNET's roundups of the best meal-kit delivery services and best healthy food delivery services for a more detailed, er, taste. And remember, nearly all of these meal-kit companies let you pause or cancel anytime, so the risk and commitment when signing up for a meal-kit service is minimal.

Whether you're looking for ways to eat healthily, learn to cook new recipes or just make fewer trips to the grocery store this winter, a healthyversatile and budget-friendly meal delivery deal can help you do it on the cheap.

These offers were valid at the time of publication, but they can end at any time and may be restricted by geography and other cookie-based conditions in your browser. If you don't see a deal populate, try in a new window or private browser. In the meantime, if you've already tried one or more of these, tell me which ones and what you liked or didn't like.

My advice: Take advantage of each and every one of these offers (making sure to pause or cancel after, unless you want to continue). You can see which service you like best and get super cheap takeout-style meals for weeks at a time.

Do meal kit sign-up deals have commitments?

Nope. Virtually all of them allow you to pause or cancel any time just in case you don't love it, so there's almost no risk after the deal is up. Although you may have to unsubscribe from their email blasts. The point is, most brands just want you to try out the meals and see if you dig them and those brands are willing to make it very easy (and cheap) to do that. To make things easier, we already tried the top meal kits and meal delivery services so you'll know exactly what to expect and you can pick the best food delivery deal for you and your tastes.

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