Pyramid Scheme Dinner Club
If you find the mental and physical labor of menu planning, prepping, and cooking every night of the week to be a little overwhelming, you’re not alone! I am going to tell you about the greatest adulting hack of all time so that you, too, can enjoy a wide variety of delicious, homemade meals every week with very little effort.
What is Pyramid Scheme Dinner Club?
Pyramid Club is a way to share the work of planning, prepping, and cooking meals with your neighbors. Once a week, you will prepare and deliver dinner for you and your neighbors; twice a week, dinner is delivered to you.
Sharing my own beloved recipes and enjoying new ones with my neighbors has been a timesaver and a joy.
Through Pyramid Club, you can:
How did Pyramid Club get started?
Let’s be honest—adulting can be exhausting. Even if you like to cook, the work of meal planning, grocery shopping, prepping, and cooking can feel overwhelming and repetitive.
One night, while packing up leftovers after dinner, it occurred to me that there had to be a better way. What if I just cooked a big batch meal once a week, and divided it between our household and a few others, and other households did the same? As I began to think it over, I thought, “maybe if I plan this just right, I’ll never have to cook dinner again… like a pyramid scheme.” And Pyramid Club was born.
We quickly got our neighbors on board: Laura and David (with their girls, Little Foodie and Mini Critic), and Alex and Celso.
Now, I cook dinner on Mondays, and dinner is delivered to us on Wednesdays and Fridays. With leftovers, I only wind up cooking dinner about twice a week. And our food waste and takeout costs are down to almost nothing.
How to start your own Pyramid Club
Step 1
Decide on your members. One of the reasons why our Pyramid Club works so well is that we have similar tastes, enjoy trying new things, and value flexibility. It also helps that we all live on the same street, but you could set up a swap with co-workers, family, or friends.
Step 4
Set your schedule (days and times). I like a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule, which generally gives us a fresh meal with enough leftovers for the next night. That generally means that I cook once during the work week for the group, and once on Sundays just for my family.
Step 2
Lay out your expectations. What kind of experience are you looking for? Is your group made up of families with young children who need simple, functional meals, or adventurers eager to share fusion foods and uncommon proteins? Will you plan ahead and share your menus, or will dinner be a surprise? Will you serve just enough for one meal, or enough for a day of leftovers? Are you providing just dinner, or dessert too? What about drinks?
Step 5
Don’t forget to check in. After about a month or two, it’s a good idea to check in to see how everyone is feeling, and if it’s not working for any household for any reason, your group should feel comfortable talking about it.
Step 3
Learn more about each member, and respect your differences. Make sure each participant has the chance to share likes, dislikes, allergies, and preferences. Find out whether your other participants like their food spicy or mild, and how well-done they like their meat. Give some serious thought to whether those restrictions and preferences will work for you. For example, if you’re an avowed carnivore, will you mind meal-swapping with a vegetarian or vegan member? If you subsist on carbs, how would you feel about having a gluten-free member? If your preferences are incompatible, you may wish to revisit the composition of your group.