Proper dinners, minus the meal kit markup.

Pick your dinners and Riversdale Kitchen writes the shopping list for your Coles, Woolies or Aldi, priced and rounded to real pack sizes. The sort of food the meal kits send, bought at the supermarket.

Plan my weekWhat's the Kit Tax?

Free while we're in beta. Works for 1 to 8 people.

Good food, no box

Fresh, filling dinners made with what's on the shelf at your local supermarket.

Spaghetti with roasted cauliflower, carrot and pesto
Roast cauliflower and black bean bowl
Rice paper rolls with peanut dipping sauce
Tomato, mozzarella and toasted bread salad
Bowl of roast pumpkin soup
Pan of garlic prawn noodles

How it works

About ten minutes on a Sunday arvo.

  1. Tell it who's eating. How many people, how many dinners, your budget, your store and anything you won't eat. Gluten free is handled with swaps.
  2. Pick your dinners. Butter chicken, roast chook, miso salmon, lamb cutlets, poke bowls and plenty more, each one priced per serve.
  3. Shop and cook. One list sorted by aisle, plus the recipes. Cook double and tomorrow's lunch is done.

Three kinds of dinner

Most weeks we cook three everyday dinners, one premium night and one lighter one. Mix yours however you like.

Apple crumble in a white baking dish

Room for dessert

Five sweet treats you can add to any week: brownies, apple crumble, baked cheesecake, choc chip cookies and banana bread. One batch each, on the same shopping list.

They never count toward your dinners or the Kit Tax.

See the treats

What the meal kits are really charging you

We call it the Kit Tax: what you pay for the box, the little sachets and the delivery. Plug in your house and see what you'd keep.

People you're feeding
5
Dinners a week
5
You'd keep
$0

Riversdale Kitchen's figure is the average cost per serve across our recipes at Coles, including pantry items you use, plus $10 a week for oil, salt and pepper. Kit figures are each kit's ongoing price for the box your household would need (the right box size and number of meals), plus delivery, checked October 2026. First-box discounts aren't counted. Kits only sell set box sizes, so solo cooks pay for at least two serves a meal.

The cheap ones

All 40g+ protein a serve, priced at Coles. These shift when the specials change.

    See all the dinners

    Started in a share house kitchen

    It all started on Riversdale Road in Hawthorn, Melbourne. Five blokes in a share house, paying a meal kit to feed us. One night someone did the maths: about ten bucks a serve, plus delivery, plus a mountain of cardboard.

    So we took over the cooking. Same sort of dinners, bigger serves, cooked Sunday to Thursday with leftovers for lunch. All five of us eat well for under $400 a week.

    Riversdale Kitchen is that system, built so anyone can use it.

    50 serves on a meal kit$511
    50 serves, cooked ourselves< $400
    Kit Tax dodged$100+ a week

    Questions

    Is it free?

    Yes, while we're in beta. You plan, we build the list. No account, no card.

    How accurate are the prices?

    Coles and Woolies prices come straight off their websites every Wednesday, when the specials change. Aldi is still our estimate from Coles prices. Prices can vary a little by store, so check at the shelf.

    Does it work if I'm cooking for one or two?

    Yes. Riversdale Kitchen picks the smallest packs that cover what you need, prices meat and veg by weight, shows what you'll have left over, and suggests a dinner that uses it up. Anything left in the pantry carries over to next week rather than counting against this one.

    Do you deliver the food?

    No box, no delivery. You shop at your usual supermarket with our list, which is where the savings come from. A one-tap "send to my trolley" for Coles and Woolies is on our list.

    Can I do gluten free?

    Yes. Tell us how many gluten free eaters you've got and we add the swaps (GF pasta, buns, crumbs, tamari) in the right amounts. Always check labels on sauces and spice mixes.

    Why compare yourselves to meal kits?

    Because that's what we were paying for. We use each kit's lowest published price for the same number of serves, delivery included, and we'll say so when a budget kit comes in cheaper.

    Are you linked to any supermarket or meal kit?

    No. Riversdale Kitchen is independent.

    Dinner ideas, every Wednesday

    Five dinners built around this week's specials, with the shopping list ready to go.