Is hello fresh value for money or a rip off?

[cleocleo81]

Contemplating signing up to hello fresh. It seems for a weekly box for three people for three meals a week it is £35 a week. That works out about £13.50 per meal for 4 people- 2 adults, 2 dcs. Does this sound value for money or too much?

I have gone back to work recently and dh and I are struggling to make a healthy dinner for the family quickly in the turn around between finishing work and bedtime. Dh is struggling to finish work early to cook tea on time whilst I am out or still working. So I thought it could take the stress off him three times a week, be a good way of eating healthily, getting more varied food into the dcs and allowing me to monitor calories and portion size better.

However, our shopping bill has rocketed so I was hoping this might help reduce it too so that I done but as much in the weekly shop as I now only need to shop for 3/4 meals a week instead of 7. I don't want to end up spending our weekly shop plus HelloFresh. Do you think this is the case? It will be money saving overall?

It is good for the convenience factor but the veggies are often not super fresh although normally find the meat good. My DP likes them as he has the bag and the recipe...he gets home earlier then me so normally cooks them...i am more a steamed veg and meat/falafel/eggs girl as any longer cooking time then that and my kids are inconsolable with hunger due to when i get home from work.

You can get a lot of codes, things like first box half price, second and third 40% off. Then you can try it and see what you think before committing to the expensive weekly box.

Personally I only think its worthwhile if getting a discount, but I'm a cheapskate and we only spend about £50 a week on shopping anyway so an extra £35 seems like a lot.

@LizzieSiddal

To be honest I’d rather buy a really good quality ready meal than one of these subscription boxes. Just a big pile of veg to the ready meal, Waitrose No 1, M&S Gastropub, and Charlie Bingham are the meals we use a couple of times a week when we’re really busy.

That involves going to the shop though. For someone who is time short that's what I want to avoid. I get deliveries online pretty much every week unless there are no slots. I used to shop in Aldi and saved loads of money but I don't have time to go anymore so yes, paying for convenience a lot of time. I don't want to spend limited spare time batch cooking and meal Planning.

Previously we were doing lots of fish/chicken with veg and stir fry but my dcs have got incredibly fussy and meal times became quite shouty as they would refuse to eat it or take ages and lots of uneaten food would be wasted. I thought it could help get the dcs involved in the cooking and gave things they might enjoy more.

I really didn't find HelloFresh meals quicker to prepare. I found them faffy, and we usually cook from scratch.

Friend worked up a 4 week cycle of menus she knew her kids would eat. No more thinking time. Week 1, Monday, bangers and mash.

Also for those who pick up extra bits in the supermarket, I find this easier to avoid at smaller supermarkets, so no clothes, home decor etc. Or delivery.

If anyone does fancy giving hello fresh a go, feel free to use my discount code and you'll get £46 off, which should give you a full size box of 4 meals so you can try it out.

https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/pages/raflp11?c=HS-620M9D228&utmmcampaign=clipboard&utmcouponvalue=42&utmminvitername=Holly&utmmedium=iOSReferral&utmm_source=raf-share

We absolutely love them here and as well as personally saving us money and reducing our food waste, it's encouraged us to try new ingredients we now use in our regular cooking which is fun.

We have a box for 2 people 3 times a week which is perfect for us.

As I say, anyone feel free to use the code even if you fancy it as a one off week of free meals! It also gives us some money off our next box too which is a bonus.

I have 3 meals every other week - only started mid December. I use it re reset my mojo otherwise it seems to be the same meals on repeat. It is more expensive but it has allowed us to try various recipes without investing in all the spices/sauces necessary. So far we have had three boxes of 3 meals and there has only been one meal that was disappointing. There are others that I will cook at home and their method for a quick Dauphonoise was scrummy.

I don't enviage using it past March but it has given me a break from choosing meal and checking ingredients - I'm treating them like a slightly healthier takeaway (which we never have)

I've used them a few times when we've had a discount code. The veggie meals are actually really nice but I found I did have to remember to go in and pick them as the defaults were usually all pasta. However we had a lot of problems with the delivery not turning up at all and leaving us with no food or delivering but not knocking so we had no idea how long the food had been sitting on the doorstep. What worked for us was getting the delivery during the offer period and working out which recipes we liked and then doing our own shopping from those recipe cards. If you shop at the weekend you can spend half an hour or so afterwards bagging everything up into meals yourself to achieve the same effect as the box.

Rip off unless you have a really good intro deal. If you have a good deal it's definitely worth it for the period of the deal

That involves going to the shop though. For someone who is time short that's what I want to avoid. I get deliveries online pretty much every week unless there are no slots.

You could get the nice ready meal delivered then. And you’ll save lots of time as you only have to shove it in the oven.

Another shameless post for “£46 off”

www.hellofresh.co.uk/pages/raf_lp11?c=HS-WWFWAXT5J&utm_campaign=native-share-panel&utm_couponvalue=42&utm_invitername=Carly&utm_medium=iOSReferral&utm_source=raf-share

I enjoy cooking but find it tedious finding recipes to cook each week. I get bored eating the same stuff and run the risk or ordering a takeaway. We get it 3x per week and then cook the remainder. You can pick “quick” recipes if you wish. I’m the main cook in the house but these recipes mean my husband if confident to have a go (and not ask too many questions!)

You could get the nice ready meal delivered then. And you’ll save lots of time as you only have to shove it in the oven. I have to admit that once the novelty wore off I started including microwave meals in my shopping and it is much less effort!

My children aren't keen on ready made meals though, maybe I need to try fancier ones.

I really like hello fresh. As somebody who has gone from not cooking (DH did it all) to whipping up full meals - I’m proud of myself (I know it’s sad!!).
We always use a discount though, I’ve used several email addresses.

We use Gousto a couple of weeks a month. Makes life much easier when we’re busy. We like the meals and the online supermarket shop has reduced significantly.

Yes hello fresh is expensive but it's about time saving and ease.

I know I can cook cheaper meals and bigger size portions, but it helped during lock down as it was so easy to follow my children could actually cook with minimal input which was great and kept them busy.

Also we learnt some new recipes which was good

I used hello fresh and gousto with the various discount offers.

It was really useful for us to get out of the rut of what to eat - I really liked not having to think up what was for dinner.

Also DH is veggie, so we picked the veggie recipes and it's given us a lot of new ideas. Kept all the recipe cards for both and now we can have ideas of lots of different meals. We can cook, it was just the thinking time which made it hard.

Cancelled both when they went to full price though - but it was definitely good for getting us out of the same meals every week boredom.

yeah, great to get out of a rut. but expensive.

good to try a few recipies and then do them again with your own food shopping.
also some supermarkets sell cook-your-own boxes in the veg section.

A pressure cooker is your answer, we both work full time with 2 hungry teens and i have a disability on top, if i forget to get anything out the freezer, no problem it can go in the pressure cooker from frozen - even meat! I can also use it as a rice cooker and various other things (apparently making yoghurt but who has the time for that?!)

It will save you a fortune in the long run compared to a subscription service!

Rip off.

I had 6 boxes (with discount).

Not one of them was correct. From small missing items to the main part of the meal missing to the entire meal being missing. Had to argue to get it refunded to my card and not as credit on my HF account.

There’s also loads of packaging.

Its not good value for money no. But thats actually not what their usp is. Its all about convenience. Meals that you choose with everything you need portion controlled to your door. So the question is whether you are prepared to pay for the convenience and how much convenience matters in your life?

It really matters to me as we both have big full time senior jobs, 2 homes and 4 kids. At other times in my life i couldn't possibly have justified it. So we get two meals a week from Gousto. It keeps me out of the shops and stops me spending too!

Hi I found these recipe mixes great, only about 65p a pack normally only have to add four ingredients & take no more than 15/30 mins to do, all really easy to do

Have had very variable success with them. Some of it was good but then they sent a box with half the veg missing and another with none of the meat or cheese from the recipes. Couldn't make anything without a trip to Tesco. It was an almighty pain trying to get through for a refund and persuade them I wanted my money back not a voucher. Might try Gousto next time!

https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/pages/raflp11?c=HS-N5LAJAWU3&utmmcampaign=native-share-panel&utmcouponvalue=42&utmminvitername=Karen&utmmedium=iOSReferral&utmm_source=raf-share

I use both Hello Fresh and Gusto, link above to £46 off

If your time short but don't want to blow the budget then I would say online delivery and easy/ready meals. Meals that don't have loads of ingredients but don't need a lot of thought.

Jacket potatoes with fillings
Pie, frozen mash and veg
Pizza and salad
Breaded fish, chips and peas
Omelette and salad
Chicken thigh traybake

If you want interesting balanced budget meals then you have to put some effort in.

Interesting, quick but £££ = Hellofresh
Slightly dull, quick but ££ = easy/ready meals
Interesting, more time consuming but £ = meal planning and batch cooking

You can't have it all.

I've had hellofresh for about 6 months - I find it saves so much time planning and buying ingredients. But I don't love cooking I simply want a family dinner cooked and on the table in 40 mins or less.

Ps I agree about freshness and sometimes missing items on hellofresh but I've never had an uncookable meal due to a missing item.

The benefits for me would apply to any of the subscriptions boxes, worth doing them all for the discounted boxes.