'This Is Brilliant': A Redditor Made 106 Meals for $165 and the Internet Is Impressed

Meal prepping an entire month's worth of meals is an insane amount of work, but the results are 100% worth the effort. Need convincing? Just look at Redditor u/ArtisanGerard's very satisfying freezer absolutely full of meals, all neatly stacked, organized, and ready to make their weeknights way less stressful. It's a beautiful sight. (The cute doggo with a carrot on her nose is an added bonus.)

"Omg can I like hire you?" said u/ThemChecks, echoing what we're all thinking. "This is brilliant."

"Anyone else here just overcome seeing all these uniform Tupperware with matching lids like an army as opposed to the motley crew which haunts my cupboards?" wondered u/soursoppickle in the most relatable comment ever. 

In the comments, u/ArtisanGerard explains exactly how they did it, right down to the recipes used, the portion sizes, and even where they got their army of uniform containers. They use a free meal prep app called Mealime to help plan and make the grocery list, which they then order from their local Kroger store for pick up ("Not going in to the store stops me from impulse buying!").

All told, they stocked their freezer with 106 meals and 30 snacks for only $164.16, minus a few pantry staples they already had like peanut butter and eggs. That's $1.42 per meal, counting three snacks equivalent to one meal. 

Along with the occasional takeout and fresh apples and bananas each week, u/ArtisanGerard expects this to last their household of two for over a month. "We eat alllllll the way through the cook in like 50-60 days," they said. "We don’t see freezer burn in that time. Not many people eat everything in their freezer/fridge every two months."

There's a lot of variation in these meals too, just in case you thought meal prep eating would mean endless grilled chicken and rice. Pork lo mein, jambalaya, curried coconut red lentils, chicken alfredo, and protein waffles are all on the menu, along with a half dozen others. (Looking for more meal prep recipes? Check out our cheap and easy bulk meals that will last all week.)

Surprisingly, it doesn't take an entire weekend to prep all those meals, either. "We average 6-8 hours a prep like this," explained u/ArtisanGerard, and we're ridiculously impressed by the sheer speed of cooking and portioning going on here. This person is clearly a machine with a lot of practice, something we don't have ourselves. 

And just in case your swooning over that fully stocked freezer is convincing you to give mega meal prep like this a shot yourself, u/ArtisanGerard has one important tip for anyone who's just starting out: "My pro tip is to eat everything that’s in your freezer before your first prep, that way you have space."

(Now, please enjoy this adorable photo of OP's very good girl demanded by Redditors, below.)