To ask what people think of their free Gusto boxes?

[londonmummy1966]

As lots of people were sharing codes last week I thought I'd try a box - I've had some from Hello Fresh before - to see how they compared.

Mine arrived today - I had a text yesterday giving a 2 hour delivery window and the box arrived within that - one up on Hello Fresh which only gives a 12 hour window and the couriers don't always knock so I don't know how long a box has been on the doorstep.

The contents are all there although the herbs and spinach look a little tired. THe chilled items came in a cardboard chiller box which would be good for taking things on a self catering trip/picnic or could otherwise be recycled.

Recipe cards are easy to follow and tonights meal - herby rice with basa fillet was really nice - fish portions are more generous than Hello Fresh.

The down points were that the recipes were less interesting to choose from than Hello Fresh a lot of pasta and rice dishes and not that many veggie options. Also Hello Fresh boxes divide up the ingredients between recipes so you have four bags each containing what you need for a dish with one further bag with any ingredients to be shared between recipes. Much easier to sort out and put away.

So I'm happy as they delivered what they said they would when they said they would and it tastes fine. Not sure I'd buy a full priced box though and am still pondering about 30% off or not - that might depend on whether or not I can also claim my voucher code credit.

Anyone else?

I thought mine was OK. Too expensive to do every week and I'm now low carbing and they don't have any low carb options.

I also tried hello fresh, theirs was mostly OK but the green beans were past there best, I tweeted a pic and they refunded me, not sure how much £2 or £3.

I can see them being useful if you are on holiday self catering as you are not going to take a well stocked spice cupboard with you.

Far too much packaging in Gousto and Hello Fresh boxes

I prefer Simply Cook. It's more flexible and great for self catering holidays

I had the free box last week and overall we were pleased. The recipes were easy to follow and it gave us some variety to what we ate. I don't know if I cooked it correctly (I followed the instructions carefully) but the crispy chilli beef was dreadful. DH's favourite was the garlic sesame chicken, DD enjoyed the chicken shashlik burritos. Another plus is that, due to the portion control, I actually managed to lose some weight last week, which I was thrilled about.

I was lucky to get 2 referrals so have £40 credit. DH is away this week so DD13 and I have ordered the box for 2 plus some of the desserts from the marketplace. We've chosen everything together, which has been lovely to do. The box is due for delivery today. The credit covered the whole amount.

I did get an email last night telling me they've subbed a cucumber with a carrot - I'm not sure how this will work in hoi sin chicken but thankfully I have a cucumber in the fridge that I can use. We are looking forward to see what this week's meals bring! Also to see if there's any more weight loss!

Having said all this - would I pay for a subscription? Probably not. The box for 4 costs more than our weekly shop, without a discount, and we'd still need to buy lunches, fruit, snacks, etc. If the box was on a decent offer, I probably would.

My free box was delivered today.

As we are 6 adults I used 2 recipes for 4 people but there’s quite a bit left over.

DD and I enjoyed making the heritage tomato pizzas and spicy chicken fajitas.

Everything was well packed and chilled and there was plenty of each ingredient to make the recipes without skimping.

The only negative is there’s a LOT of packaging (but I can’t see how they can cut it down any more) and due to prepping everything from scratch I used loads of utensils and bowls etc.

I have 30% off the next box, bringing it down to £17 which isn’t bad for 4 meals for 4. No-one used my code 😞 so I’ve not been lucky enough to get any more discount.

I will reorder next week but unless I get any more discount it not really worth it for us (as tasty as it all was).

in case anyone does want to give it a go here’s a code for 65% off your first box and 30% off your second. I will also get £20 off.

Gousto code

I downloaded the app and am finding it incredibly easy to use 😊

Mine got cancelled 😭

Does anyone have a code for a free box they could pm me please?

Does anyone have a free code they could pm me please?

@Freeasabird76 I’ve pm u

cook.gousto.co.uk/raf?promo_code=NATAS43349809&utm_source=androidapp

65% off your first box link x

They aren’t doing it any more sadly

Not free but 65% off.

see my post above for a link …

I had the free box on Monday and it was OK. The portion sizes were generous except for the greek style lamb mince which relied on baked pitta chopped up into nachos for the carbs. I think they are pretty good value especially if you don't really like cooking and don't have lots of herbs and spices etc in your store cupboard. I only ordered because it was free because we cook a lot anyway.

Mine got delayed by a week and despite it being the free box (and I paused the subscription) they've taken £40 from my bank account which I cannot afford.

The box came yesterday, I immediately decanted the contents into the fridge but the chicken I wanted to use tonight was off.

So not a fan unfortunately!

A reminder to not post referral codes on this thread please as if people do it will be deleted by MN - codes can be posted on threads in the codes section of MN or you can offer to PM them.

I've decided to order another box as Gusto have now sorted out the chargin debacle and I had 35% off and a £20 discount. The menu for next week look much more interesting too so fingers crossed we'll all enjoy it!

Mine arrived on Thursday. I have used HelloFresh and Mindful Chef before and I would place it in the middle of those. HelloFresh was too mainstream for me, too bland and too much pasta and white rice.
The herbs were tired and the meat, chicken and fish all expired Monday after arriving Thursday (MC tend to have longer use by dates) .
I wasn't thrilled at the courier being Yodel but it arrived fine.

I was surprised that all ingredients were packaged together as I love just taking a bag out that has everything I need in it. However this way means less packaging so that's good. I packaged each meals ingredients into vegetable shopping nets with the recipe card in each one.
I was a bit bemused at the iceblock bags having a paper wrapper over the plastic bag, but maybe there's a good reason for it.
I'm really enjoying the recipes so far (curries).

I was looking for something cheaper than MC so might continue, will see when the next few weeks of discounts end.

Mine comes today, but I have 4 out if 5 meals that have a use by date of 18th 🤔

I hadn't intended to start using them until tomorrow, and we are out for dinner on Wednesday. I'll change plans for today, and I'm not terribly fussy about dates, but it has put me off a bit before it even arrives😅

I'm on my second box. I used the discount code for a free box. I've found I'm saving time. I usually cook from scratch but would allow an hour or more for cooking, these recipes are easy to follow and quick. The fish recipes have been good, the portion sizes are very generous. I think it may save money for us too. I'm ordering 4 meals for four. We are out a few nights, sometimes the boys are out. So im left with shopping for bread, milk, tea, coffee, dog, cleaning stuff. I've still got a freezer full of meat. None of us eat breakfast. It's quicker than an online tesco shop and no meal planning needed. So I might stick with it.

This happened to me on my first box - you need to check the recipes when you order that they’re not all ‘use within 2 days’ and add a couple of longer use-by dates.

In practice, I found we could extend the dates, it’s really only meat that has the strict expiry date and we eat mostly veggie. You can freeze the meat if you need to.

Mine is being delivered today.
Not sure what to do after that- either cancel, or keep it to once a month? Is that the minimum subscription you can do?
I may love it and want more than that!

Someone probably used it but they haven't had it delivered yet. The person I got mine off is still wiating for their credit because it got delayed 2 weeks

I was a bit bemused at the iceblock bags having a paper wrapper over the plastic bag, but maybe there's a good reason for it.

Yes I wondered if they were just trying to disguise the amount of plastic used.

It’s to stop condensation ending up all over the food, and to provide an extra layer of defence if the plastic springs a leak, I’d assume. It’s all recyclable, paper & plastic.

Oh ok, I’ll let them off then 😆

I must say the meals have been fab. We had roasted veg skewers with coriander rice and satay sauce last night and they were delicious.

Our free box came yesterday.

We had the spicy hoisin pork with sesame greens last night. In general we were really impressed, it was delicious and there was plenty for 4 adults. The only criticism is that I followed the instructions step by step and the greens were overdone, they should have been started later in the process.

I'm now half way through my second box - this time i was prepared with plastic bags to decant the ingredients for different dishes into so that it was easier when it came to grabbing them from the fridge. However, given the jumbling up of ingredients in the one box was meant to be to reduce the carbon footprint it doesn't feel it is working as I use 3 plastic bags where I imagine GOusto would have used paper.

The baked prawn and pea risotto was nice but the rice to prawn ration was very carb heavy (and as there were only 3 of us I used all the prawn and only half the rice). The pork loin with tomato orzo was nice but it didn't feel like a coherent dish. There was a lot of it though so DH had the left overs for lunch and we're still chomping our way through the rocket...

Overall I think I still prefer Hello Fresh - its recipes suit my tastes better TBH but there are a couple of Gousto dishes I might well cook again. I've decided to pause my subscription for a bit but it has been an interesting experiment to see how it compared.

A big thank you to those who shared their codes (on the correct threads) so that I had a chance to try this for free....