This story is part of Holiday Gift Guide 2020, CNET’s gift picks with expert advice, reviews and recommendations for the latest tech gifts for you and your family.

With so many deals on meal kit services for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this might be the best time ever to sign up and try one out. Many restaurants are closed due to coronavirus precautions and learning to cook is as important a survival skill as ever. There are some truly excellent Black Friday deals on meal kits, starting at just $2.49 per serving. Companies such as EveryPlate, Blue Apron, HelloFresh, Home Chef and Gobble are ready to send perfectly portioned, ready-to-cook dinners to your doorstep, at per-serving prices that often beat what you’d pay dining out. Many are offering as much as $100 off your first few boxes through Cyber Monday. Most meal kit companies let you pause or cancel anytime so the risk and commitment of signing up for a meal kit service is minimal, making these Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals all the more attractive.

Read more: The best Black Friday kitchen deals still available: Instant Pot, Nespresso, Always Pan, Keurig and more

Seven meal kit companies, in particular, are offering big Black Friday deals right now. A couple of prepared meal services such as Freshly and Daily Harvest are offering discounts as well, including a buy one, get one free offer that’s too good to pass up. I’ll update this list as more pop up on my radar or the deals change. Which one is best? I’ve tried most and they’re all pretty darn good, with slight differences to consider depending on your budget, diet, taste and kitchen skill level. You can check out CNET’s roundup of the best meal-kit delivery services and best healthy food delivery services for a more detailed, er, taste.

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.

Read more: Black Friday 2020 sitewide kitchen sales: Vitamix, Always Pan, Staub, Zwilling and more

HelloFresh

Save $90 on your first 5 boxes

HelloFresh

HelloFresh has more total meal kit selections than any other service and most of them are pretty easy to prepare. Want to learn more? Check out our recent deep-dive review of HelloFresh.

The popular meal kit company is swinging in with a big Black Friday deal that amounts to $90 off your first five boxes, including $42 off your first box plus free shipping. That means you’ll be cooking up a storm for a teensy $4.71 per serving. (HelloFresh meals are about $7.50-$9 per serving without the deal.)

EveryPlate

Just $2.49 per serving

EveryPlate

EveryPlate is one of the best meal kit services for families sticking to a budget. You won’t see a lot of haute cuisine, but I’ve tried its pork sloppy joes and its chicken and linguine in a tomato cream sauce. All the meals I tried were delicious, easy to prepare and light on the wallet.

For Black Friday, things are getting even cheaper: You can score meal kits that break down to just $2.49 per serving. (No, that’s not a typo!) Once you click this exclusive link you’ll have 30 minutes to claim the offer so you might want to think it over first or check out a sample menu here.

Blue Apron

Save $80 on your first 4 boxes

Shelby Brown/CNET

Blue Apron offers two- and four-serving boxes with two to three or two to four recipes per week, respectively. Prices range from $7.49 to $10 a serving, depending on how much you order, with shipping included free with all orders except the two-person, two-recipe option.

There’s no promo code for this offer; just click the orange Redeem Offer button at the top and you’ll save $80 over the course of your first four boxes.

Gobble

Save $100 on your first 4 boxes

Brandy Yowell

As fate would have it, I just tried Gobble for the first time. It’s 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.

Right now, using Black Friday promo code BFA100 you can take $25 off each of your first four deliveries for a grand total savings of $100.

Home Chef

Save $90 on your first 4 boxes

Home Chef

I love Home Chef for its highly customizable meal kits and comfort food recipes with a healthy bent that are easy to prepare. Home Chef is also one of the more affordable meal kit companies — starting at $7 per serving — and even more so if you sign up this week.

Now through Dec. 4, Home Chef is offering $90 off when you sign up for four weeks of meals. That’s $30 off the first two boxes (!) and $15 off both the third and fourth. If you’ve been wanting to try a meal kit subscription, this is a fantastic time to give Home Chef a go. You can pause or cancel anytime, so the risk is low.

Purple Carrot

$20 off your first box (with code)

Purple Carrot

Good news, vegans: Purple Carrot sends only plant-based meals, and code PURPLE20 not only saves you $20 on your first box, but also provides a donation to Feeding America. Plans start at $10 a serving; shipping is included free even with the lower-frequency plans.

Sun Basket

Take $35 off your first order plus 4 free gifts

Sun Basket

Sun Basket is a little pricier than some of the other services, with meals ranging from $11-$13 per serving — but in return you’re getting strictly organic, non-GMO fare. And the $35 discount definitely makes your first box more affordable, and it nets you your choice of four items from its extensive snack menu of things like chips, veggies and chocolate bars.

Use the link below, then click Activate Offer to get the discount and freebies.

Daily Harvest (prepared meals)

Buy 1 Daily Harvest box and get 1 free

Daily Harvest

Daily Harvest is quite possibly the easiest way to eat healthily without ever having to learn to cook. Sign up and you’ll get steady (or one-time) shipments of vegan soups, smoothies, bowls, flatbreads and snacks. Daily Harvest meals are chock-full of healthy, organic ingredients and trendy superfoods like kabocha squash, kale, berries and avocado. All you have to do is blend or heat and eat.

Right now, when you buy one Daily Harvest box and use promo code CYBERWEEK2020 you’ll get a box of equal value for free. That’s a darn good deal, I must say. One for you and one for someone on your shopping list, perhaps?

Freshly (prepared meals)

Save $75 off 5 orders

Freshly

Freshly is not a meal kit, but rather it offers prepared meals like meatloaf and mashed potatoes or buffalo chicken with rice that come already prepared and ready to heat and eat. I can say from personal experience that Freshly meals are filling and fresh-tasting and I’ve grown to love having a few on hand for when I simply cannot deal with cooking.

For Black Friday you can save $15 off per box on your first five boxes of Freshly orders ($75 total) with promo code BF75AF from Nov. 27 – Nov. 29. If you want to give this popular prepared meal service a try for yourself, now might be a good time to do it.

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 supercheap takeout-style meals for weeks at a time.

Your thoughts?

More food service recommendations

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