Lately, I've been hearing a lot about meal kit delivery services. And I've been skeptical. I mean, who in their right mind would trust seafood, meat and produce that's been piled onto a loading dock then moved into the back of an unrefrigerated FedEx truck for who knows how long until some delivery guy leaves it on my porch so I can make dinner?

The whole idea sounds ridiculous and expensive, if not downright gross. I didn't need to test the obvious, so I did what comes all too natural for me: I jumped to conclusions. Turns out I was way off base and so wrong. Today, I'm here to come clean and set the record straight.

Several weeks ago, I approached other people who live close in my community to help me test one of these services: one bachelor who lives in California and is, by his own admission, a very picky eater, and a family with two young children.

(By the way, Home Chef is not aware that we've been testing. I set up our accounts and covered the cost of all the meals and deliveries during the testing period.)

I could write chapters about every detail of our Home Chef experiences, but in the interest of time and space, I'll cut to the chase: Home Chef has greatly improved our lives — as varied as our lifestyles and situations are. It is an amazing service. Nothing about it is gross (I'm so sorry I even thought of that as a possibility). In fact, the food arrives fresher than meat, fish, seafood and produce at my local supermarket, thanks to some kind of space-age gel packs that are still frozen hard upon arrival. The super high-quality food is never frozen.

Everything required to prepare a meal is perfectly portioned and included in the kit, except for salt, pepper and oil.

Each meal requires about 30 minutes of preparation. We can change our delivery day, adjust our meals, skip a week or pause our accounts whenever we need. And there are no contracts involved, which means we can cancel anytime. The food is amazingly delicious, too. In six weeks, not one regret was reported.

The cost for Home Chef is $9.95 per serving. Shipping is free for orders over $45 and $10 for orders less than $45. Each of us in the test group ordered two two-serving meals per week. I have done my best to compare Home Chef costs against the cost with the exact same ingredients at my local supermarket, and they are nearly the same. I can't beat it. And compared to a restaurant meal, Home Chef beats wins by a long shot!

Based on what our test group experienced collectively, here is what you can expect from Home Chef:

You will most certainly improve your culinary skills and repertoire. The food is amazingly delicious!

It is SO much fun, and opening the box to see what's for dinner never gets old.

You will surprise yourself as you prepare recipes you might otherwise skip over in a magazine or cookbook because you don't have all of the ingredients.

Your kids and other family members will surprise you when they are willing to try new items or items they were certain they hated and then end up enjoying them.

Home Chef serving sizes are surprisingly generous (two servings were adequate for the testing family with two kids ages 2 and 7), and instructions are super easy to follow.

All of us are impressed with Home Chef, so much so that none of us will be cancelling the service anytime soon. Home Chef has changed our lives in different ways, all without increasing our food costs. In fact, Harold and I have spent less on food since joining Home Chef.

You can check it out at everydaycheapskate.com/homechef. And when you get to that page, you'll see that I've arranged for you to get a $30 coupon should you wish to give it a test run. I can't wait to hear about your experiences!

Mary invites questions, comments and tips at [email protected], or c/o Everyday Cheapskate, 12340 Seal Beach Blvd., Suite B-416, Seal Beach, CA 90740. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of www.DebtProofLiving.com, a personal finance member website and the author of "Debt-Proof Living," released in 2014. To find out more about Mary and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.