Is anybody in the Seattle area interested in paying me to prep food for them? It would be like blue apron except that I can actually pay bills.
Also plz boost
@reibeatall I am not in Seattle but would love to know how this works out for you! I’ve been food prepping for other people a lot lately, and I kinda enjoy the hell out of it.
@reibeatall I hope that wasn’t super rude. I said it and now I can’t decide if I was uncouth.
@oneoddfrog Haha, no, there was zero rudeness out of it. It read as "super excited to talk to somebody about it"
@reibeatall ok good! Sometimes I get excited and promptly forget to be well mannered. So I’m glad it came off as not jerkface.
@oneoddfrog first question would be how the hell do you get people to sign up? Did you just do it for friends?
@reibeatall it was mostly family and friends. I feel like word of mouth is a really good way to get this started.
@oneoddfrog Since it was friends and family did you charge? How much if you did?
@reibeatall My method might have been overly complicated, but the equation I used is food costs + prep time.
Usually I worked with people to come up with foods they liked/categories of foods. Then we did a grocery list and either I shopped for it and they paid me back or they bought the food. Either way I didn’t pay food costs.
I did a couple of weeks free early on to figure out average prep times, and then came up with a rate based on that.
@oneoddfrog That's totally not overly complicated, it's pretty close to what I'm thinking of doing. What did you average for prep time cost?
@reibeatall 2-3 hours per person for the simpler food choices. It all depends how complicated people want you to get and how much variety they want.
For example: I had one person eating a simple diet who wanted repetition and to not think about what they were eating. So 2 hours was enough prep/cook/package time for hard boiled eggs, roasted chicken, salads, fresh veggies, etc (aka not very complex). More variety as well as restrictions/allergy concerns will lengthen your time.
@oneoddfrog So you really did it custom for each person, got it. Seems like you did it for the full week for them too?
@reibeatall I was dealing with different specific dietary needs, and people who were traveling. So I had to pack a bunch. Some things overlapped, and I probably could have done a more set menu. Individualized helps, when trying to cost out the groceries, though.
Also a good food scale will be your best friend.