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?

ChatGPT is good for meal plans- just say "we're a family of 4, kids x age, 1 x vegetarian" or whatever and ask for a plan and shopping list for the week.

However the main issue here is your lazy moaning husband. Tell him when he starts planning and cooking the meals he can decide how it's done.

I mean to add that I have used Simply Cook in the past when I’m feeling lazy, and think it’s so much better. Each meal is just four pots of herbs, slices, or sauce, so you can buy your own meat and vegetables.

1. you need to include the detail of why you are doing the cooking and meal planning rather than him, and why, given that you are, his opinion matters
2. hello fresh is fairly processed, but it’s a step up from chicken nuggets, just, if that’s your norm. I tried them because I got them free with something and was really surprised that they don’t really send you the from scratch ingredients, like Abel & Cole do for eg, but rather processed jars. So for example I think my recipe was Thai green chicken or something and they sent some crap chicken, 2 limp green beans and some premixed paste. It’s not quite what I had in mind as when I’d used Abel and Cole they would have sent the lemon grass etc
3. as a rule these boxes are good ideas, but some companies are better than others. My faves are mindful chef and Abel and Cole as they actually send single ingredients to home make things.

I’ve been using Hello Fresh and Gousto and it’s made things a lot easier. It’s dearer than buying the stuff but if there’s a recipe you like you can always get those ingredients yourself.

If you have Amazon Prime you get free delivery with HF, and HF are also on JamDoughnut if you use that.

I think some posters are missing the point. He can only moan about it if he is willing to participate. e.g. if he will plan and cook sometimes instead of leaving it to you.

We do gousto, tried hello fresh and it wasn’t as good. Bloody love gousto, it’s been a lifesaver here!

I also don’t throw away as much food. I work full time, OH works full time, and have two teenagers. It’s been great for us, honestly. Also my teens have prepared the meals too as the instructions are really simple. I’ve been happy with the ingredients and meals. I would just ignore your husband. At least give it a try. He should put up an alternative that’s he’s going to carry out, or shut up.

It is an expensive scam#
Surely one of you can go to a shop at sometime in the week

Thanks for all the comments!
During the week it is always me that cooks as I am home first from school run (I start work super early to finish early) hubby starts work later and finishes anytime between 17:30-18:30 so by the time they get home would be too late to start cooking then we’d all be starving.
Its not the cooking that I hate, it is the making the decision on what to have (spend all day making decisions as a manager at work) so to just follow a recipe without having to think too much sounds pretty good to me. I admit to not being very creative either. I am hoping once we try a few of the recipes we can keep the cards and then be more organised at buying the right ingredients during shopping. We get good discount for first few months anyway so hoping it will just change things up. I am sooo bored of the same meals on repeat!

We had it and it was pretty good with the introductory offers but eventually became over priced, and the quality wasn’t great.

One tip though, if you sign up with them, create a throwaway email account because the amount of spam I got about a week after I signed up was insane. I eventually had to close the account. They clearly sell off your information way more than any other company I’ve signed up to.

Gousto all the way. Last night we had a Katsu chicken burger, it was bloody lovely !
Ive got loads of recipes cards now, keep the ones we really enjoyed and just buy the ingredients to make again.

I'm doing the first few boxes while on offer. Really enjoying them. It's easy, everything portioned.
If your DH doesn't want to try it he can crack on with sorting dinners.

We’ve started using HelloFresh and it’s great. We eat things we wouldn’t normally try and they come packed up I paper bags so you know what to cook.

if you dh is against it and says he’ll meal plan then let him, let him go meal plan for next week and buy all the ingredients and you’ll cook that. If he forgets just sit down Monday and ask him what you’re having for tea.

or just order the box for £20 and tell him if he doesn’t like it, he’s free to plan and cook for himself

We've used Gousto a couple of times - it was OK, but the meals were a bit of a faff to make and took longer than just cooking something we usually have. And because you still have to shop for breakfast, lunch, snacks etc, it doesn't really save time.

When we were all working/ school all day, we had a rotation of about 20 easy meals for week nights, based round pasta, rice, baked spuds, mash and veg and chips, and just revolve each month, so one week it would be SPAG carbonara, lemon chicken and rice, baked potato with ratatouille, steak pie with mash, and fish and chips, all served with salad or veg as required.

However, DH was an equal partner in this set up, taking it in turn to cook and wash up. Your DH needs to step up.

He needs to take responsibility for prepping 50% of family dinners in advance each week. He can meal plan his. You sort yours.

But not all dinners take forever.
Chuck chicken thighs in the oven tossed in oil, garlic paste and herbs, with cherry tomatoes, chopped peppers ( can get ready cut frozen ones) baby new potatoes and olives. 5 mins prep. Cook for 35 mins.

Or pork sausages with chunks of carrot, fennel, red onion and potato wedges. Roast in a tray in a bit of cider. 10 mins prep. 30 mins bake.

Pasta, pesto ( or fresh pomodoro or carbonara) and salad. 5 mins prep. 10 mins cook.

Salmon baked with soy and sweet chilli, rice and steamed peas and broccoli. Prep time 5 mins. Cooking time 20 mins.

Baked potatoes with beans, cheese, salad. Long cooking time but easy prep.

Oven baked sweet potato fries With ready made chicken kievs or Oven bake battered or breaded fish, peas and carrots.

5 mins prep. 30 mins cook time.

Meal plan using Chat GPT, its a game changer. Just tell it what you like and how little tine you want to spend. Also batch cook, make things from things - ie roast chicken Sunday means chicken salad or curry on Monday, and so on.

Some people are understandably put off by so many things moving to the subscription model. It feels like a long commitment even though in reality you can cancel any time. It’s worth noting that gousto allows you to just book a single box at a time and doesn’t automatically renew each week. Not sure about hello fresh. But you could maybe have a look to see if that would make DH more agreeable

We use HF and it’s great, defo try it. Gousto v similar.

You start your day super early, do a full day's work and then do kids pickup and cook? While DH starts work at a normal time and swans in to his dinner on the table? Does he do getting kids ready and school drop off? And bath and bedtime?

Yes I do this with gousto. Set up a subscription then paused it, now I just order a box when I fancy it.
Hello fresh I had a fucking nightmare with, it made me book boxes a week ahead which I didn’t like. I also cancelled a box literally 1 min after cut off time, they still charged me and I had a fight getting the money back from them.

My post was supposed to be supportive of you OP, not criticising you. I hope your DH does is share is what I mean!

I’ve used hello fresh and Gousto at various times when I’ve had good discounts. Full price I do think they are expensive. But I keep the recipe cards for meals we really enjoyed and buy the ingredients myself to make them again and it works out much cheaper.

Nothing to lose @SouthMumof2 give them all a go - always good offers, see which you prefer. And, like another earlier comment suggested, he can do his half of cooking how he likes; you can choose meal boxes. Very little waste which is great!

I love the meal prep kits. They’ve taught me to make so many different meals. I have Gousto. We are quite a big family so although it seems like an expensive option it’s actually cheaper than different meals for each.

Your husband shouldn't be entirely opting out just because of his choice of work hours. He should be meal planning and buying all the necessary stuff and prepping it.

This is a bare minimum thing he should already do. Don't allow him to keep dumping this on you having the audacity to whinge at you.

Another vote for gousto over hello fresh, but nothing wrong with trying both. And once one occount has been suspended for a little while they generally send discount offers to tempt you back, that are worth it for another month- 6weeks if you feel like it.