Gousto vs HelloFresh – Thrift Plan Enjoy blog

POST UPDATED 4 August 2024

Following other bloggers, allows you to take advantage of some really great offers. I tried a HelloFresh box because I actually made money, with the cashback offer. Why not? When the recent Gousto offer came up. I had heard great things about the boxes and that the portion sizes were more generous than HelloFresh. 

Having tried both boxes, it was only right to talk about my experience in a comparison blog post. Let’s take a look at which box would be best for you. Gousto vs Hellofresh.

PLEASE NOTE: This post contains referral links – if you go through them to make a purchase I may receive an incentive, at no extra cost to you

Want a yummy discount?

The referral links will be included at the end of this post. However, feel free to check out the discount available to you when signing up for Quidco or TopCashback. And signing up for boxes with HelloFresh & gousto.

In this blog post, I am going to break down the great offers I took advantage of.

I will also be talking about whether this is a sustainable subscription for our family.

And reviewing which meals I loved the best.

Backstory 

Not enough time to cook

My hubby is a keen cook. I’m good at throwing random recipes together and baking. However, as parents, we don’t always have the time to create a healthy meal from scratch. 

I meal plan every week and also find the best supermarkets to purchase our shopping. But all of this is pretty exhausting. You can read my review of the ASDA Essentials range here. And my freebie library contains some checklists to help organise your life. 

Sitting around the table to eat a family meal

We’ve always wanted to create healthy meals for tea time. This is especially important now my little one is going to school soon. 

Family time, around the table has become a thing and I’m glad. We sit at our small dining table. Have no phones or other distractions. And we all talk about our day. Adding a no-hassle, yummy, nutritious meal to that scenario is a huge benefit for us. 

Benefits of the meal two boxes we got 

I love how the boxes are packaged. With the correct amount of ingredients you need. I’ve found that with both boxes, the ingredients were of a quality standard. Which is a bonus. 

Having a guide and the ingredients in front of you is fun. It allows my hubby to get creative. And we all participate in the creation of a lovely family meal. It also means I don’t have to meal plan.

How much did the boxes cost? & cashback offers

HelloFresh

I have now received my £22.00 cashback for HelloFresh, from Quidco. Therefore I actually made £5.20 as a result of ordering the HelloFresh box.

For gousto I paid £16.20 and £16.50 cashback tracked. Making 30p from the offer. Which is yet to be paid.

Referral links

||Quidco is a great cashback app, with regular bonuses & offers. Sign up using my referral link.||

||Sign up to TopCashBack using my referral link.||

You can find more great offers on my Money Saving Hacks page

Would I subscribe to the box permanently?

For our family, the answer is no. Simply because we couldn’t afford to pay the full price for the boxes, and get all the other food bits we need for the household, on an average week. We’ve faced financial difficulties for a number of years. And we are only just starting to get back on track. 

However, if you’re single, or a couple. Maybe an elderly person. I do think the boxes are suitable for certain people in specific situations. 

When I lived alone for 8 months, I worked 10-12 hour days, with a commute on top of that. I batch-cooked everything I ate at home. Otherwise, I would have lived on toast. Money wasn’t an issue during this period of my life and I absolutely would have subscribed to the box at this point. It all depends on your individual circumstances. 

Cancelling the subscription

Is it easy to cancel?

Because some people cannot afford to maintain an ongoing subscription. Both blogger offers came with instructions on how to cancel.

Both websites allow you to pause the subscription or miss a week. Simply because people’s circumstances change.

How to cancel

It’s easy to do in the app for HelloFresh and gousto. If you’re unsure – go to the help section or Google the process. 

Cancelling with HelloFresh didn’t impact my cashback with Quidco and I also cancelled my gousto subscription, after the first box arrived. 

Welcome back offers

Both websites want customers to come back. And as described above, I think they have something valuable to offer.

I haven’t been with gousto long enough to receive a welcome back offer.

But you can see the welcome offer from HelloFresh. My next delivery would cost me £34.38.

More details for connecting with me

Join my Facebook Group

WHAT YOU WILL GET FROM THE GROUP…

– tips based on my highest engaging posts on social media – what works & what doesn’t

– standard wording templates I use for social media

– tips on side hustles & how to get started

– as a blogger, I receive exclusive offers & discount codes. & I do a lot of shopping research for my articles

– I will be sharing these offers with you -self-care tips, affirmations, positive quotes, and how to thrive in life (I need to remind myself of these daily tips too)

I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL THERE ?

My Other Blogs

I have two other blogs.

Roaring Pumpkin – where I write about lifestyle, spirituality, body confidence, and beauty reviews

Mummy Conquering Anxiety – is my first blog, discussing mental health, parenting, book reviews, achieving personal development, blogging, and gift guides

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Portion size

I see a lot of reviews online talking about portion size and whether you get enough food, with the subscription boxes. As we have a family of three to feed, we need to choose between the option of bigger portion sizes or more meals and variety.

When we ordered the HelloFresh box, some of the portion sizes were great. But others were not. Because HelloFresh is more prepared for you and involves less work, you can be limited in the amount of food you have after putting the meal together.

The meals we’ve had from gousto are more generous in portion size. And because there is more freedom to adapt the recipes, you can add more if needed. For example, a bigger portion size of chips, from potatoes you may have at home.

Grouping together ingredients

With HelloFresh you get the bulk of the ingredients in separate paper bags. This makes organising the meal a little easier. With Gousto, although I liked how the fridge section was packaged in the box, it was a little confusing that the ingredients were not grouped.

Recipe cards

Both subscription boxes come with recipe cards – so you do have a guide.

You can also rate the recipes in the app and provide feedback on what you thought.

Check out some of the recent posts on the blog

My thoughts on some of the meals and boxes 

HelloFresh meals

As a family, we felt that HelloFresh came with more ready-made ingredients. gousto is more challenging and would say order that if you like creating something from scratch. For example, the first meal from gousto involves making your own coleslaw. Which is just one component of the meal.

Whilst it is yummy & original – it does take longer to prepare these meals.

As you can see from the image, we had some yummy meals from HelloFresh and they were easier to make.

My favourite was the Roasted Pepper and Aubergine Linguine.

We also had Harissa Pork Pilaf, Thai Style Pork Rice Bowl and Classic Beef Mince Cottage Pie. And finally Over-Baked Pesto Risotto.

More detail on the HelloFresh portion size

I wanted to talk a little bit about the portion size for some of the meals we selected from HelloFresh. The Linguine gave us the best portion size to feed two adults and a toddler. However, some of the portion sizes were small. Demonstrated by the image below. That said, the Classic Beef Mince Cottage Pie was very filling. Even though it didn’t look like a lot of the plate.

Gousto meals

Based on the above assessment, gousto gives you more freedom to adapt the recipe to your taste.

An example of this is the chips to accompany the Sticky Honey Mustard Posh Dogs with Chips. We could easily add more if needed. And the meal comfortably served three of us.

We also felt like the gousto box was full of less processed ingredients

A full list of the recipes we selected:

Crispy Lemon Chicken with Chilli Rice

Breaded Chicken With Tomato & Basil Sauce

Smoky Chorizo & Pepper Pasta

Loaded Beef Chilli Cheese Fries With Zesty Slaw

Sticky Honey Mustard Posh Dogs With Chips

Final thoughts on which box to choose

Based on everything I’ve experienced and written about, it really is a compromise between how much time you have and what you’re looking for in terms of creative input. Also whether there are fussy eaters in your household, how many people you have to feed and what portion size you’re looking for.

My advice would be to try them out if you’re able to get an offer – why not check out the offer below:

HelloFresh offer

Get 60% off your 1st & 25% off your next 10 Hello Fresh boxes, when you use my referral link

Sign up for Quidco here – then go through this app to the HelloFresh website.

gousto offer

65%OFF your first box. Get

20%OFFall boxes in your first two months

Sign up for Quidco here – then go through this app to the gousto website.