To have massive alarm bells about the value of HelloFresh

[Trilllllian]

FB keeps showing me articles and adverts. Looks like a total Swizz to me... am I judging without any detailed knowledge? I have watched one video and thought ‘wow’ the price per gram of food must be massive and the packaging ! Is the ‘lack of waste food’ any counter to this?

Ainu to buy a Booths or Waitrose ready meal instead if I don’t feel like cooking?

I found it good value on the 50% off trial, and was happy to get out of my recipe rut, but going forward - no. The many many tiny packages made me feel awful about the package waste as they put everything in potions and then add up to your household. Eg a tablespoon of tomato paste will be in an individual pot with a lid, and for all your recipes you could get x8 of those! Spoonfuls of say, cumin, again in individual sachets. I found Gousto very similar but the good news is that Gousto publish their recipes online and you can chuck the ingredients into your online shop. They make use of a lot of short cuts, such a taste pots, instead of slow cooking. I would say that my original way of ordering my supermarket shop after looking through recipe books on a Sunday evening, is better and less waste. Plus I make tonnes of extra portions and fill up the freezer for lazy or busy days.

Agreed I couldn't get over the price of the service. It's definitely for people too lazy to meal plan and spend 5 minutes on an online supermarket shop. Yet they feel like real cooks for actually cooking. Would rather buy a ready meal once a week as you say

You shouldn't be paying any attention to adverts on Facebook (or anywhere else, for that matter). HelloFresh was being flagged as a scam on Mumsnet 3½ years ago (www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2199647-to-think-Hello-Fresh-are-a-bunch-of-utter-robdogs-and-should-refund-me) and there are warnings about them all over the internet.

Aha

Glad my spidey senses still working then!

How could anyone think otherwise?

Ainu to buy a Booths or Waitrose ready meal instead if I don’t feel like cooking?

Waitrose has launched a similar service which is even pricier than hello fresh. Found out at the weekend, got a voucher on the John Lewis app.

Waitrose link

I like hello fresh. They’re good for trying out new things and I’ve never made one that hasn’t been really tasty.

Means you keep the cards of the ones you like and stock up on the necessary ingredients.

I’m the same with ready meals as well. If on the slim chance I find one that’s actually tasty (rare) I’ll find the recipe and make it myself minus the shit ton of salt and crap.

Mind I probably should say I don’t pay for HF. I get a box given every now and then.

I've been using them happily for about 6 months. I signed up for a half priced box and was convinced I'd cancel straight away afterwards due to the cost, but they work for me.

They are expensive. But actually for me, they stop me going to the supermarket and buying junk. I just do a weekly top up shop of fruit and occasionally breakfasts. I cook a bag for dinner and use the leftovers for lunch the next day. If I over-order (due to eating out or laziness), then I bulk cook and freeze at the weekend. So actually, overall I'm not paying much more for my shopping and eat far more healthily. I've no longer got a cupboard of part started sauce and spice bottles slowly rotting from my previous attempts at healthy cooking.

You do need to change your next week's order by Wednesday evening, which isn't the most convinient, but I have a freezer if I mess up. I've never had a problem skipping weeks if I need to.

Any problems with my box and I've ended up with a free box or £10-£11 off the next box. They've never quibbled any of my complaints, just an automatic discount.

I did it for three weeks when I got 50% off. At half price it was a reasonable deal. The offer was for 4 weeks but I couldn’t find enough meals my family would like for the last week.

I have quite a few friends who rave about it.

Mainly mums in a household with primary age children, both parents highly educated and work in well paid jobs, kids who eat most things. for those families it really works.

I find it ‘value’ in that instead of buying a jar of spices for £2 I may not even like they send a tablespoon of it.

And instead of buying a , say four pack of beetroot, they send me one. The other three would have grown fur in the fridge.

Have you seen the cheese toastie one? Think it's called cheese posties. For a fiver a week you get a slice of frozen cheese, a pat of frozen butter, two slices of frozen bread and some pickle. That you assemble and toast yourself. That said, they send you a toasta bag (approx £1 from erm poundland) every month. Bargain 🤣

I loved their meals- really tasty and foolproof, my DH isn’t a cook but really enjoyed using them.... but yeah. An occasional treat but too expensive and packaging intensive for regular use.

I really enjoy Hello Fresh. I don’t order it every week but probably every second. We are eating far more interesting meals than before. Everyone I know always goes on about always cooking the same handful of meals, week in week out. Hello Fresh and Gousto get you to try new things. I agree, it is a bit more expensive but it’s enjoyable.

I do it only when half price. Not sure if the cancellation process has changed since that older thread, but I find it really simple to cancel my subscription on my mobile, then deactivate it several months later when they send me another 50% off voucher. It’s too pricey otherwise. But I love having something push me to make something different, without the painful process of trying to work out a week’s menu.

I used them when I got a 50% off trial and my son had just turned vegetarian. They were fantastic in as much as they gave me some really lovely recipe ideas for veggie meals but they are expensive and the packaging waste is horrendous. So I cancelled them. But they did the job for me.

we have trialed them a few times (well them and gusto) when 50% off and every time we have enjoyed it BUT its just too expensive at full price at (i think) £5per person per meal.
we always say "well we could just buy the ingredients and make it ourselves. But of course we never do!
I would find it very hard to say its any sort of scam though, its very clear what is offered and you get exactly that.

I used Hello Fresh once a month for a while. It helped to get me out of a cooking rut and was a treat instead of a takeaway. It does seem expensive but the portion sizes are huge and easily do a spare portion for the next day. I've yet to have a recipe that isn't really tasty and the quality of the ingredients is often a lot better than I can get at the supermarket (a lot of their recipes are now part of my regular meal planning). Theres no way we could afford it every week but as a one off or alternative to spending similar over a takeaway or meal out it worked for us.

We used them for a while when we'd got into a real rut with meals and I had reached the stage of just hating everything about meal planning and preparation. They did help with that and got DH to try some new things instead of just making the same crap he'd got into a pattern of doing (DH and I shared cooking about 60:40 at that stage) so they served a purpose for a while. I don't think they are all bad.

Stopped getting them when I upped my working hours and everyone (four adults, all working different hours) fends for themselves now, unless someone has a urge to cook for everyone, which I much prefer!

Steady everyone - Hellofresh has some good points......
Healthier than ready meals ( it's fresh so does not need huge amounts of salt and sugar to keep the food from going off)

Much higher standard of food than in a ready meal

I used them so that my children - 11 and 13 could prepare dinner for the family so that when I got back from work I did not have to cook ...

And yes I think it’s a bit much to complain that it’s a scam because it sends you a box when you forget to cancel your subscription (the previous thread referred to). That’s the deal you sign up to. It’s great that you can cancel at any time, and very clear that this needs to be done by a certain day the week before. It’s the same with any subscription, or credit card bill, whatever, it’s up to you to remember to do it or live with the consequences!

I get so annoyed with people who say HF are for lazy people! I am anything but lazy but I do struggle for time whilst juggling full time work, horses and children. So HF helps me plan meals for the week ahead. I don't buy every week but I like the food and quality. The packaging is bugging me though. And it's not a scam and really easy to skip weeks/cancel subscription if you want to.

The packaging is truly horrific.