‘I pay $200 for someone else to meal prep for my family’

Sydney mum Gabriella has long struggled with preparing balanced dinners every night. So she gave the job to someone else.

Sydney mum Gabriella Lizzo, like all of us, knows all too well the battle of coming up with something to cook for dinner every night.

With a toddler, a bub on the way, and no time to meal prep herself, she would often turn to takeaway as a quick and easy solution - though it’s not usually the most cost-effective or healthy one.

So, she’s instead come up with a more creative solution - and she thinks other families should be jumping on board.

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Image: Supplied / Gabriella Lizzo.

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The end of ‘What should I cook?’

Sydney mum of two Gabriella, has long struggled with preparing balanced dinners every night, calling her method a little ‘ad hoc’ - resulting in a lot of wasted time, money and food.

“I would come home from work and be like ‘Oh what should I cook’, and you look at things in the fridge, and then you’re like ‘Oh, I need this one ingredient’, and then you’ve got to run out to the shops or order groceries quickly to make a meal,” she told Kidspot.

“I would cook three or four times a week, and then end up ordering takeaway because when you have a toddler, you’re just so tired at the end of the day and need to get a meal made.”

If you look online for cost-effective ways to ensure you always have healthy meals ready to go, you’ll see that meal prep is considered the best answer.

But, the options are generally to do it yourself - which requires a lot of time and freezer space - or pay for a ready-made meal service with questionable freshness and generic flavours.

“I didn’t want [something pre-packaged], because conceptually, you’re like ‘Are they that fresh?’, ‘Have they been frozen or have they been sitting in the fridge for a while?’” she said.

“I also wanted something that could be more customised to fit me and my family’s needs, and something that could take dietary considerations or take some flavours that we all prefer.”

So, five months ago Gabriella instead turned to a third, lesser-known option - having someone do it all for you via Airtasker.

Image: Supplied / Gabriella Lizzo.

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The new way of meal prepping

New data released by Airtasker shows record demand for meal prepping, reporting an 80% spike in posted tasks in February alone compared to 12 months ago.

Gabriella turned to the service after finding it to be reliable with other tasks previously, and decided, ‘Why not give it a go?’.

How it works - though it varies week to week - is that Gabriella will tell her Tasker exactly what she and her family want, including how many meals, and what kind of flavours, and then the food will show up at her doorstep ready to go.

“I can say ‘Okay, I know we’re home five nights this week so I need five meals. In those meals there’s two adults and one toddler, but it would be great if it could feed three portions, so that there’s a lunch for the next day for us as well, for either my partner to take to work, or for me to have at home while I’m here with my newborn’,” she said.

These meals can be anything from pasta to soups and stir fries, and have even allowed Gabriella to help introduce allergens to her toddler.

“When I introduced nuts for my child I could say, ‘Oh lets do a cashew nut stir fry’, and that was the way we introduced an allergen for her,” she said.

Let’s talk about cost

As someone who was previously getting takeaway multiple times a week, using Airtasker to meal prep has been a game changer for Gabriella and her family.

The service sets her back around $35 to $42 per hour depending on the Tasker, generally adding up to $150-$200 per week.

“If I was to go out and get takeaway… it’s going to cost $80 anyway,” she said.

“To save me not ordering takeaway two or three times a week, and put that money towards a meal prep service where you know it’s more nutritionally balanced, it’s healthier for you, and you know where the food’s really coming from - if you weigh up the pros and the cons, it’s so much better. I wish I started this sooner!”

Gabriella now has an 18-month-old and a three-month-old, and after meal prepping with Airtasker for five months said she’s already considered a bit of a trend-setter among her friends.

“I’ve told a few of my mummy friends, and they’ve all said ‘Oh, that’s something we really need to get started’,” she said.

“A lot of them have said that they’ve used a food service in the new days of having a baby at home, and then that tapered off a few weeks in, whereas this is something that I’ve been able to keep up.”

So, is this the future of meal prep?

Originally published as ‘I pay $200 for someone else to meal prep for my family’