.. To think I can save money by using Gousto or Cook?

[Guardsman18]

Just that really. I'd be really interested in hearing about experiences with these companies.

Thanks

Surely it depends what you'd be buying instead, no?

Cooking for one? Quite possibly, otherwise you do end up with a lot of waste. More than one? Not sure. Lots of questions about what you normally cook/spend etc.

Cook is nice; never tried gousto.

Fair comment! Sorry. I seem to spend a lot on fresh meat and vegetables and have quite a lot of wastage

But unless you get a special offer box, it costs loads more than buying the same ingredients in the supermarket and you're not going to get all your boxes on offer.

What makes you think you'll use the Gousto stuff but not standard shopping?

You can give it a try, but it will be expensive compared with just buying what veg you need loose or planning your meals around what veg you get, and freezing meat if you have any spare.

The Tesco website has good recipes, you can click a link that brings up the ingredients so you can just add them to your shopping bag and have them delivered.

I’ve used Tesco for years but other supermarkets probably do something similar.

realfood.tesco.com
Clicky

I was really surprised to find it's cheaper to use Hello Fresh than to buy everything for similar meals.

Posted too soon. No wastage. They just send you what you need. And I don't have to buy 4 of expensive items as they will send us 3.

I like Gousto.

It’s not a money saving, but at least there is no waste.

I like it because it has introduced me to new foods.

I think we’re cost neutral
/possibly saving using Cook because we’re buying less takeaways etc. It isn’t the cheapest way to eat - it is certainly not a strategy for money saving unless your food bills are high but we’ve been getting Cook meals for 3-4 midweek meals when we’re too knackered to cook and it has been fabulous.

I have got the hello fresh cookbook with all the recipes in it then am cooking from it but buying the ingredients myself - saves loads that way

Gousto is amazing and the best thing I've ever done.

New dishes each week, no having to wander round supermarkets or forgetting some key ingredient

I have tried hello fresh, gousto wins on all aspects.

Have it every week and very good quality and choice.

We use Gousto and even after the initial offers we decided to carry on because we have found it actually does save us money. I do a big online shop every six weeks or so (for pet food and cleaning stuff etc) and little top up shops for milk etc. instead of wandering round the supermarket buying stuff we'll never use. I hate mealplanning and am rubbish at it.

As well as that I know what's going into our food now - no preservatives or hidden sugar/salt etc.

It's also taught me to cook with ingredients I would never have used and I'm really enjoying cooking now. My only criticism is that there is a lot of plastic used in the packaging.

Cook is just extortionately expensive ready meals isn't it?

(No I don't work for Gousto!)

Gousto is really good and makes me cook thinks I wouldn’t otherwise , not more expensive than food shop. Probably cheaper due to no waste

I used to use Gousto regularly and really liked it but I used to order 3 dinners a week and spread it over the week .loved the variety and the taste.

But I then received my usual 3 meals all of which had to be eaten within two days which was pointless . And when i complained they couldnt have been less interested .

I stopped having them and moved on to simply cook. They only give you the recipe and the spices/flavourings but I have found some really good meals through them.

I am not convinced it's better value to do either but it does get you away from cooking the same thing all the time.

Thanks for this. It's not a year's subscription is it?

I do feel as if I'm not cooking anything different and this would give me the chance to try new things. I'm a bit concerned about the 3 meals to be eaten in two days though.

Is that the norm or was it a one off? I have a good appetite but think I'd struggle with that!

No

I pay each week depending on how many meals I order.
No tie in or subscription.

No you can cancel (pause) whenever you like. I now put the meat straight into the freezer and just take it out the night before. Most of the other ingredients are fine for a few days. Except potatoes for some reason. If there's a recipe with spuds, it gets used first.

gousto tells you ‘eat within x days’ when you are choosing what you want to orders so getting 3 meals to eat in two days was bad planning at the recipe choosing stage. We had it for a few months, currently paused but will go back again.

No it's not usual. It was the only time it happened and we used it for a while.

And i can't be that annoyed as this is making me go and check the website for offers

I was just really grumpy at the lack of giving a shit at the time but maybe I cut my nose off to spite my face as my nan would say !!

Cook is ridiculously expensive. No idea about the other. But we got Cook for a few weeks after our most recent dc was born and it’s a great short term solution to having no time for meal planning and cooking but really expensive. I could absolutely cook the same from scratch myself for less.

Much better is to meal plan really thoughtfully (make meals using similar ingredients so you use everything up without waste) and freeze leftovers. I definitely save a lot more than way. But it does take time and a certain degree of extra mental load to do all that planning (bonus is though that I get a few nights a week when I just have to re-heat leftovers though, which is good when it’s a really busy time).

If you don’t want a delivery, you have to actively pause it, or they will send you a default set of meals.

My subscription is for 4 meals x 4 portions every two weeks.

They tell you on the descriptions the use by date for all the ingredients, so if getting fish, you would use that on day 1. You are allowed to use your own brain as to the order you cook the meals, and you make sure that you have a long use order, rather than 4 fish.

If you are looking for ease of cooking, walk away. Although everything is pre-measured, you still have to do all the chopping. Because we buy 4 portions, the prep and cook time is double what they say -often up to an hour (at DD’s chopping speed).

I'm getting quite fast at chopping now

We used gusto and it was great but found the recipes a bit too rich for us as a family and the kids didn't always like the options! I also found packaging to be in excess as. Every single thing is wrapped individually, e.g a tablespoon of tomato paste had its own pot, miniature soft cheeses instead of one big one you would have 4 small etc! I guess this is to make it easier to portion for smaller families. I love the fact it was all preweighed, instructions were simple and the carbs worked out pp (diabetic sons) so it did take a lot of hassle out for us!

I use hello fresh and love it. Very simple to skip a week if you don't like the menu options, and they've recently changed it so you can now pick from all their menu options (previously I couldn't select from the 'family' or 'quick' menu options.

I can also access all of the previous recipes too, even for meals that I've not had.

I like it as I hate meal planning and it forces me to cook properly too. Not sure if I save money though, but it's definitely more convenient for me.