TIL my $200 "budget" meal prep service cost me $1,400 extra in groceries

Six months ago I signed up for a meal prep delivery thing that promised to save me money and time, and I gotta warn people because I think there are two ways to look at it. The service itself was $200 a month for 12 meals, which sounds fine until you realize I was still buying my own breakfast, snacks, and weekend food. By month three I checked my grocery spending and it had gone UP by about $230 a month, so I was basically paying twice. The other side of the argument is that I saved 8 hours a month not shopping and cooking, and my friend in Denver swears that time is worth more than the money. I get that, but for me the math was brutal: $200 service plus $580 in extra groceries is $780 a month for food that mostly tasted like reheated cardboard. I canceled after I found a receipt for $47 of stuff I bought on a Tuesday because I was starving. So I want to ask: has anyone actually made a meal service work with their budget, or is it always just a fancy way to spend more? What did you cut to make it pencil out?