Food boxes - Hello fresh, guosto etc what are they like?

[Mitfordhons]

I keep seeing ads for them and wondered if anyone has tried them? Dh and I run out of ideas with meals a lot so often do the same old things all the time. Also our teens ought to be doing the odd meal if for nothing else to give them some life skills. So I'm tempted. I can't work out if they're expensive or not, if you're really not having to buy anything else etc.

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For the lowdown on the best recipe boxes, take a look at our comparison of the most popular boxes out there and, of course, Musnetters’ reviews of their favourites. MNHQ.

[ByeByeLilSebastian]

Following. A neighbour got one delivered to our house by mistake and it sparked my interest. Hello fresh seems to be most popular in our area.

[StrongTeaHotShower]

I liked hello fresh but I found it too expensive on my very tight budget. The quality was good though.

[Blondie1984]

Have you thought about getting one of the food magazines like BBC Good Food or Delicious? When I feel I'm getting stuck in a rut I grab one of those and we all go through it and pick some things to try - you could get your Hubble and kids to go through it too and pick things they want to have a go at - a bit more sustainable and cost effective than one of the box schemes

[lastqueenofscotland]

It's a very expensive way to do things imo. Better off trawling the bbc good food page and picking one new thig a week

[Sparklesilverglitter]

Me and dh got a hello fresh voucher from someone as a gift after DD was born.

They are a good idea and the quality was always good. I've got no complaints.

If your on a tight budget? They probably will work out expensive, it would be cheaper to pick a few recipes online and do a supermarket order for them ingredients

[Landoni112]

I used Gousto for while, but it is very expensive for what it is,
negatives:
the recipes weren't calorie counted properly (I am calories counting)
you often only got 1 portion of veg with what I assume is your main meal of the day.
The veggie meals didn't contain any protein.
Cost
Positives:
I pulled my finger out and googled some quick meals which I now cook instead rather than relying on ready meals or eggs on toast every evening!

[wherehavealltheflowersgone]

We use Gousto (3 adults, 3dc) and it's brilliant! Really delicious food, easy to follow recipes, kids are now interested in the ingredients and different cuisines - amazing considering we were a pasta / chicken nuggets and repeat family. My DH and I both work full time and this is a life saver.

A box of 4 meals for 4 people is £60 a week; leftovers are used by me and DH as lunch the following day, the other 3 meals a week we do the old pasta / chicken nuggets routine as above. I reckon our food budget is £100 / week total, £60 on Gousto and £40 on other bits at Aldi. We do all our meat and fish meals via Gousto and the other 3 meals more veggie based to make it cheaper.

I compared Gousto and Hello Fresh before we joined and I chose Gousto because (I think) you don't get a choice with hello Fresh.

i LOVE them!

[TroubleinDaFamily]

You do get a choice with Hello Fresh, I think they are a great idea, not cheap but well worth a punt every so often to shake things up.

[Bear2014]

We like them. Tried Gousto, Riverford and Hello Fresh. Find it gets us out of our rut and I don't find them too expensive given the quality. If you don't get one for a while they generally offer you a half-price one, which is nice.

We love Simply Cook too, you get the spice pots and add the fresh ingredients yourself. £10 for 4 recipes, looks like a Graze box.

[goodbeans]

I've only tried Hello Fresh but the amount of packaging involved put me right off - completely unsustainable - but I suspect Riverford would be far better on that front

[Murphysgirl]

I love Hello Fresh. Have made some really tasty meals. It's very expensive though and once our initial special offer package had finished I didn't continue.