Hello Fresh V Gousto V DIY! That’s the question right?!

I really wasn’t going to write about this, had no intention in fact and certainly wasn’t asked or paid to by either company but I’ve been so bowled over by using these meal kits that I just had to write about them. They have changed the way we eat for the better and that’s not just because the food is good, it’s also been kind to our pocket believe it or not so I wanted to tell you why!

I tried Hello Fresh first for 3 weeks, then I tried re-creating some of their recipes shopping for the ingredients myself and lastly I tried the Gousto box. Hello Fresh and Gousto are similar in the fact that they offer ingredients and recipes with step by step cards for up to 4 meals for 4 people. We tried this larger style box from both and found that we absolutely loved them mostly which is why I wanted to shout!

So, first up for us was Hello Fresh which I tried primarily because a friend offered me a code gifting me a free box. 4 meals for 4 people for completely free seemed silly to turn down and I had every plan to cancel the subscription straight after the first delivery… This obviously didn’t happen!

I was impressed straight away with the fact that Hello Fresh meals come with ingredients already weighed out in individual bags for each meal. This was one of the best elements for me in the end and something which eventually has swayed me more towards them than the other. Everything is packed in the individual bags other than the chilled products which come in a woolen insulated bag with ice that lasted for well over 24 hours in tact. Impressive packaging with a very easy, straight to fridge before use quality.

Hello Fresh – What we loved:

Aside from the packaging the food for every meal was super fresh. I never doubted any meat, even when it was on its date and the recipes were clear and easy with simple instructions as well as being quite to the point with no print waffling on and that was helpful. I also found it incredibly helpful that the cards clearly indicate what extras (like salt or olive oil) you may need and give a description at the top as to what pans and other equipment you will need. The kids LOVED Hello Fresh too and my two picky eaters ate all but 3 of the 12 recipes we tried. My husband enjoyed them all (I must point out that very often in usual circumstances he gets beans on toast – and that’s on a good day) and I found that there was only one recipe I actively disliked. My worst part of the day is deciding what to cook and in the end sometimes I just don’t bother. Having the hassle of this taken away for me was worth its weight and I loved that there were just 6 options. You’re offered four and if you don’t like them then you can swap for two others. I just went with the top four, that suited me perfectly and we got to try food we might not have done otherwise! All in all, from packaging to table we thought it was bloody brilliant and were hooked, ordering a second box before we’d had our second dish! Our over riding feeling was that everything was just so, well, FRESH! And the recipes were easy and totally yummy. We made lots of yummy noises eating this food!

Hello Fresh – What we didn’t like:

Not much truth be told although the price is high. Too high for us to use on a weekly basis but whenever they have an offer I’m snapping up a box and I think going forward we will order once a month. I can’t fault much but I do have to say that their timings are frequently out. I found that often times I had to add on a third extra time but this could be because I’m a bit of a novice cook who doesn’t generally enjoy cooking. Until now!

And onto Gousto. After spending big on Hello Fresh I saw an offer for Gousto and paused my subscription while I tried them instead. A draw for both companies is that you can pause or cancel any time! I used a code from instagram giving me 30% off my first three boxes and couldn’t wait because I assumed it would be similar. However, I was immediately disappointed when our Gousto box arrived because EVERYTHING was jumbled up. In the three weeks with Hello fresh I had become accustomed to just getting a bag out of the fridge with everything I needed and having a jumble of food made me twitch a bit with the disorganisation. Sure it was measured out but I immediately had to bag them up and make them more like Hello Fresh for the ease during the week – frankly I felt like I could have just done an on-line Tesco shop for the hassle! Aside from that, which was pretty deal breaking for me, the packing (of the chilled food at any rate) was exactly the same!

Gousto – What we loved:

Essentially we love the idea of Gousto and the food was mostly incredible. I would use them again on an offer and actually they are considerably cheaper than Hello Fresh which is appealing but… There’s just too many buts. Great recipes but fiddly and time consuming on most occasions although they were spot on with timings advice. I did think that the email telling you sell by dates of each recipe was great although actually, when they arrived, I could see the meat had longer dates and by eye I could decide if the veggies could take an extra day or two. Mostly good quality food but not always and actually, just not enough great points for me to write any more other than to say that the kids weren’t keen on many of their recipes. There were a fair few that Jonny and I loved, especially the Indian tray bake and a prawn curry and I don’t want to do them totally down on the basis that the grown ups liked the food which is the main point – it was just a shame that for our family they mostly didn’t work!

Gousto – What we didn’t like:

Ok this is easier. I hated the fact that I had to separate the food into bags myself, It seemed to defeat the object and made me think I may as well have done the shop myself as I mentioned. The kids were also not particularly keen on many of the recipes which I had such trouble choosing and it was hassle for me to look over all the choices. I realise for some, having lots of options each week is a good thing but for me I just wanted the service of it all being done for me. I felt like I’d had that service from the Hello Fresh boxes but not with Gousto and Gousto always felt like a bit of a chore. I put off cooking the recipes which were often a little confusing and over worded while the instructions of ‘what you will need as extras’ rarely matched up to what you were then told in the step by step stages… And I really didn’t like that the meat wasn’t chopped into whatever it needed to be – chicken into chunks for instance (another plus point of hello fresh it has to be said). I missed having a comprehensive list of pans I would need as well which was sort of there on the card but again lacking in being succinct. To boot we were missing ingredients in all three boxes, the onions were always soft and needed replacing and the chicken smelled ‘funny’ on two occasions (we ate it and were fine though)! All in all I decided that though cheaper, I’d rather pay the extra for the other points and I rarely say that – I’m quite tight with money truth be known!

At the end of the day Hello Fresh V Gousto:

I think you’ve probably guessed it that Hello Fresh have my vote. They are pricey – way too pricey for us to do it weekly (though we’d love to) but they are amazing and the food is just brilliant for a family. Gousto was too fiddly, not up to the standard that we’d grown fond of and way too time consuming from the choice, cooking and the persuading the kids to try… Hello Fresh have my vote! As I mentioned, we will continue to use Hello Fresh when we can but it’s for a treat and this is why Gousto have lost out to me, It didn’t feel treat enough with all the extra work and because it was still cheaper to do it myself that’s what I’d rather do.

Both boxes, though pricey, have encouraged us to save money in the long run by not wasting food. You have the exact amounts you need and know you have four recipes to do so you simply don’t waste food. I’ve known that I need to meal plan for years but have never had the impetus to do it, both sets of boxes have now encouraged me to do just that and I will endeavour, when buying food and cooking it myself, to keep the same ethos.

For the boxes we had from both, 4 meals for 4 people per week, a full priced Hello Fresh box (the Family box) is £63.99 and the same from Gousto comes in at £47.75. We noticed no difference with quality of packaging or delivery service and couldn’t fault either! We also found that most recipes would feed the four of us (our kids don’t eat massive portions but we DO) as well as often times my Mum who was over for dinner AND giving Jonny a left over lunch to take to work the next day! To make my final decision, regardless of price, the balance was tipped to Hello Fresh. I guess it’s true what they say, you get what you pay for!

But my eyes may be trained to enjoy the finer things in life while my purse says ‘only a treat’ the rest of the time HAS to be DIY!

Talking of DIY:

The recipes from Hello Fresh are ones that I will continue to use over and over (worth buying a box a month for alone) and there are also some Gousto ones that we will pick up and re-visit for sure (the Gousto Indian tray bake was IMMENSE and probably our fave overall so it proves that they COULD be better if they took some Hello Fresh tips)! On the whole though it was the Hello Fresh recipes that my kids loved and I’ve worked out that I can make the recipes myself for around the half the price mark if I shop in Aldi or with about a third off using my local butcher – which is better as the Hello Fresh quality is WAY more superior to a supermarket! I’ve kept the recipes and will be doing DIY Hello Fresh for four meals most weeks, packing them up with exact ingredients at the beginning of the week to make week nights easier and also saving waste with meal planning. I thank them both for showing me that this is the way. I will very definitely be having a box from Hello Fresh once a month too and I would do Gousto again if there were some offers on. I don’t mean to do them completely down, they are good, it’s just that they’re not quite as good in my opinion as Hello Fresh. Having a box every now and again from Hello Fresh (or Gousto) meas I get new recipes and that treat we all need from time to time so they’re not ruled out for the permanent! I also hear that Hello Fresh have a new recipe book out and I shall certainly pick a copy up based on our experiences so far!

I have in no way been sponsored or gifted anything in return for this review.