Partner Moaning about Hello Fresh

[SouthMumof2]

AIBU for wanting to give Hello Fresh a try?
I work full time as does partner. Have 2 kids 12 & 10. I do the school pick up and home to cook tea every night. I am so sick of cooking the same few meals on repeat. I admit I am no cook but can follow instructions. When I get home from a full on day at work I don’t have mental capacity to think what to cook. Sometimes ending up going out to eat / takeaway as want something tasty but don’t know how to create at home. I said to partner I want to try Hello fresh so all the ingredients are there with a plan to follow, will be nice to try new stuff and kids said they will try it all and help to cook. Partner so grumpy about it, saying it’s very expensive and we could just make a meal plan at start of week (we’ve been saying that for years but never do) and it’s the creative aspect of planning I struggle with. The first box is £20 for 3 meals for 4 of us. We both earn very well so money not an issue. Is it ok to give it a try or is it a waste of money and I should stick to same boring meals?

Tell him he can prep it all before he goes to work in the morning after he’s partaken in the meal plan and shop for it all and then you can turn it on when you get in

If you give it a try and it doesn't work out, then you've only lost a few quid. but if it DOES work out then you've got a whole repertoire of new recipes to use and some hours of the day (and brainspace) saved, so what's not to like?

Does your DP do his share of emotional labour? If not, he doesn't get a say. If he does, then you can try telling him that being relieved of the meal planning/buying/worry about labour will make you happy - doesn't he want you to be happy?

Then if it's a disaster, quietly never mention it again.

Sorry, I have no idea why I quoted the entire first post immediately after the first post! Slip of the finger...

Tell your husband it’s now his job to meal plan, shop, unpack and cook. From now until the end of time. And if he’s not home at dinner time he can batch cook and freeze and you can reheat. See how he likes it!

This!

We’ve tried hello fresh but think gousto is much better. It actually saves us money, lots of choice and very tasty. Each family member can pick meals if they want, so all invested. Def a good decision to do it as far as we were concerned. Similar situation x

My parents use it and think it's great. DM cooked for a living, and is very much 'cooked out'.

I'm considering it as I have adhd and food is a bloody nightmare. I think I'd probably save money on wasted food tbh.

If I were you I'd be telling him, that's fine, but he's in charge of meals, shopping and cooking then if he's so convinced it's easy. If he's back too late for dinner time each day he can cook ahead for tomorrow each time instead.

It's all very well him saying 'we' should meal plan. But he means you, doesn't he. Because if he meant 'we' he'd have already done it.

Gusto is definetly better. I would say to him he can do half of the weeks meals however he likes but your half will be meal boxes.

Personally I'd start buying more ready made or frozen meals (for example a lasagne or shepherds pie type meals) that you just have to bung in the oven.

Tell him to meal plan then, and buy the groceries etc

Why are you doing all the planning and cooking ?

buy more microwave food

Gousto do good introductory offers too and the recipes are better. I use them on and off and I now have a stack of recipe cards I reuse too. The only rubbish thing about Gousto is they don't bag up individual recipe ingredients, so I do it as I unpack the box so they are ready to use.

Give it a try while there’s discounts, but I got bored of it quite quickly and it gets silly expensive at full price - I’m not short on money but resent overpaying!

Recipes are fiddly to follow compared to doing it intuitively. And you’ll get bored of a different set of recipes eventually because all these boxes have quite limited choice once you weed out the recipes your family doesn’t like.

I’ve tried Gousto and Hello Fresh. Probably won’t bother with any more.

We actually take turns to meal plan , order shopping and cook dinner , we do alternate weeks. Perhaps try this.

If he's not prepared to do his bit then just use hello fresh. If he's not contributing then he doesn't get a say.

I think your partner is a cheeky fecker.why is meal planning and cooking just your responsibility?

id be divvying up the cooking responsibilities and if you want to use a meal prep service for your nights then go for it.

id say you’d save money by avoiding wastage and whole packs of meat are expensive at the moment so only having what you need each day is useful.

Do it

it sounds like your trying to find ways to keep up with everything on your plate (excuse the pun!)

my friends have said their kids are able to join in more with these type of deals - maybe the low threshold of concentration - who knows!

gosh anything that makes the load easier go for it!

I do a box or two every couple of years when I fancy switching things up. Keep the recipes I like and shop for them.

We are pretty good at meal planning though. DP and I will decide what we want on shopping night, consult some of our cooking books and build the list of that. What gets made on which days depends on the sell by dates and time available each day.

It helps that every week we have at least one stir fry which is super quick. A bag of veg, a protein, noodles/rice and I change the flavour with the sauce/spices. I also batch cook things like biryani, risotto, stews, curries, chillis etc. So one cooking session will do us a couple of nights with lunch portions frozen for taking to work.

We pretty much eat the same thing for breakfast most of the time and lunch is either leftover portions, a sandwich or Ramen so that's easy as well.

Easy solution - he meal plans and (if you like) does the online shop. Give him a deadline - meal plan and online shop booked by Saturday night or you're doing Hello Fresh.

Why is it your job to meal prep, plan and cook ?
What does he do ?

If the answer is nothing then it’s time he started.
Could you just make yourself a sandwich and give the kids fish fingers, chips, peas / chicken nuggets for a few days to get your DP to appreciate your efforts more ?

Of course give it a try! The trial is a bargain. I’ve tried HF and Gousto and they’re quite good, but they get expensive at full price. These days I usually use either Simply Cook (you get 3 pots and a recipe card through the post, and buy your own chicken, rice etc) or the CherryPick app (recipes are linked up with your online supermarket shop, which is brilliant). They’re both great and I think more cost-effective.

Hello fresh can be a bit fiddly, you will find yourself toasting pine nuts for example when you’re tired and distracted. They say that it’s fun with the kids involved but realistically it will just be you trying to navigate the recipe card and open the packets. Also I found they didn’t really repeat recipes that often so you couldn’t just learn the same few and put them on rotation.
Having said that, every recipe I tried tasted good, it was just slightly above my skill/interest level.

I have tried both Gousto and Hello Fresh and Gousto is much much better. You can also find all their recipes online (we initially had the deliveries and now just use their recipes) - www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/

Like @Couldashouldawoulda I use simply cook for 2/7 meals. It really helps and some of their recipes are very nice.

Save money by just getting a box for 3 people. When he wonders where his food is remind him that he said he didn’t want it because it’s too expensive.

Or tell him £1.60 per meal is not too much to spend on his partner and children and he’s acting like such a knob over £20.

Playing hardball, I like it 😁

If he doesn't participate in any of the workload, he doesn't get a vote.

Try the boxes OP and tell him he's welcome to do all that faff for himself.