Is HelloFresh Worth the Money?
neil on 18/01/2017 at 2:14 pm, filed under OzBargain
After getting bombarded by referral SPAM not only on OzBargain but in my own letterbox, a good deal was finally posted for HelloFresh. The company describes their service as nutritionally balanced recipes based on seasonal farm fresh ingredients delivered every week to your front door. Once a week, the company delivers you a box full of fresh food as well as recipes saving you from having to go to the supermarket or think of dinner ideas. Five days worth of Classic Box meals for 2 people costs $109.95 ($11 per meal) and $189.95 ($9.50 per meal) for 4 people.
The deal
The codes provided in that deal allowed the first box free for any of their three plans.
- Classic Box is a selection of meat, fish, chicken and pork dishes.
- Veggie box is a selection of vegetarian dishes.
- Family Box is like the Classic Box but more kid friendly.
For my purposes, I ordered the Classic Box. For some reason, you can order the boxes as a subscription or as a trial box however the trial boxes are more expensive. All of the subscription boxes can be cancelled after one order so it seems a bit strange to pay more for the same thing.
Ordering
Ordering is very straight forward. Just pick the box and then a delivery time. They have some strange delivery times including 2AM-8AM for the nightowls. I suppose you can tell them to leave the package out front but for mine, they hit the buzzer to inform me of delivery.
When paying you can choose to use Paypal. This is good as you can very easily cancel reoccurring payments in Paypal at a click of a button whereas you’re at the mercy of a store’s website to cancel a credit card auto-payment.
Cancelling
- Log into your account and click Deactivate my subscription.
2. Click Deactivate right away
3. Optional. If you’ve paid via Paypal, log into Paypal and select the transaction listed under Grocery Delivery E-Services and click Manage Grocery Delivery E-Services payments.
4. Optional. Click Cancel in the status section.
5. Optional. Click Yes to confirm cancellation. This will ensure no further payments will come from your Paypal account.
The Box
The box is split into two compartments; one for refrigerated products (meat, fish, etc.) and the other for items not needing cooling. The refrigerated section comes with 2 reusable ice packs and is insulated with a recyclable hessian material similar to what you would use in a worm farm. The entire box remained cool despite any heat from the outside and the ice packs stayed frozen for several hours. For those not available to be at home for delivery, you don’t need to worry about having the box sit outside.
The Contents
- Vegetables: 2 Red Onions, 4 Potatoes, 2 Garlic, 2 Bags of Rocket, 2 Bags of Spinach, 2 Corn, 6 Sweet Potatoes, 2 Zucchini, 2 Cucumber, 2 Bags of Green Beans
- Fruit: 2 Apples, 1 Lime, 2 Tomatoes
- Herbs: 1 Bag of Coriander, 1 Bag of Mint
- Meat & Fish: 2 Valencia Free Range Pork Schnitzels, 2 Salmon, 2 Rump Steaks, 2 Lilydale Thigh Fillet Packs, 2 Lilydale Chicken Breast Packs
- Other: 2 Cajun Spice Blend Packets, 2 Panko Bread Crumbs Bags, 2 Bags of Jasmine Rice, 2 Small Tubs of Moo Greek Style Yoghurt, 2 Pots of Pesto, 2 Parmesan, 2 Pita Bread Pockets Packs
Recipe vs. Reality
Here’s the recipes that were included vs how they came out in reality.
Crunchy Pork Schnitzel with Red Apple & Parmesan Salad
Recipe
Reality
Jerk Beef & Charred Corn Salad with Lime & Sweet Potato
Reality
Chicken Souvlaki with Minted Yoghurt Sauce
Recipe
Reality
Garlic Chicken with Green Beans and Jasmine Rice
Recipe
Reality
Baked Salmon with Pesto Potato Salad
Recipe
Reality
They all look pretty close to their pictures and cooking was dead simple especially when you have all of the ingredients measured and ready.
Value
| Quantity | Item | Total Weight | Woolworths | Coles | Avg. Price |
| 2 | Red Onion | 342g | $1.37 | $1.37 | $1.37 |
| 4 | Potatoes | 860g | $3.87 | $3.87 | $3.87 |
| 1 | Lime | $0.79 | $1.00 | $0.90 | |
| 2 | Apples | 286g | $1.29 | $1.57 | $1.43 |
| 2 | Garlic | 92g | $2.16 | $2.76 | $2.46 |
| 2 | Cajun Spice Blend | $2.00 | $2.64 | $2.32 | |
| 2 | Panko Bread Crumbs | 2 Cups | $2.18 | $2.40 | $2.29 |
| 2 | Jasmine Rice | 2 Cups | $2.29 | $2.95 | $2.62 |
| 1 | Coridander | $3.00 | $2.98 | $2.99 | |
| 1 | Mint | $3.00 | $2.98 | $2.99 | |
| 2 | Rocket | 216g | $4.00 | $3.67 | $3.83 |
| 2 | Spinach | 306g | $8.00 | $4.89 | $6.44 |
| 2 | Corn | 452g | $2.20 | $2.40 | $2.30 |
| 2 | Tomatoes | 256g | $1.20 | $1.51 | $1.36 |
| – | Sweet Potato | 800g | $4.00 | $4.00 | $4.00 |
| 2 | Zuchini | 220g | $2.68 | $1.08 | $1.88 |
| 2 | Cucumber | 250g | $4.00 | $4.00 | $4.00 |
| 2 | Moo Greek Style Yoghurt | 200g | $2.19 | $2.52 | $2.36 |
| 2 | Pesto | 100g | $3.00 | $1.95 | $2.48 |
| 2 | Valencia Free Range Pork Schnitzel | 640g | $6.91 | $19.20 | $13.06 |
| 2 | Salmon | 726g | $17.42 | $28.00 | $22.71 |
| 2 | Rump Steak | 568g | $12.21 | $12.21 | $12.21 |
| 2 | Parmesan | 100g | $3.30 | $3.29 | $3.30 |
| 2 | Lilydale Thigh Fillet | 638g | $6.38 | $6.38 | $6.38 |
| 2 | Lilydale Chicken Breast | 650g | $5.20 | $5.85 | $5.53 |
| 2 | Green Beans | 600g | $2.94 | $3.54 | $3.24 |
| 2 | Pita Bread Pockets | 228g | $3.79 | $1.99 | $2.89 |
| TOTAL | $111.37 | $131.00 | $121.18 |
So just walking (or shopping online) into the supermarket and grabbing these ingredients would have cost you $121.18. That’s not factoring in specials or shopping at cheaper places such as Aldi or a market. That is an extra $68.32 you are paying on a weekly basis ($189.50) just to use HelloFresh. That’s a hefty premium to pay for convenience.
Just Not Worth It
The big pros of HelloFresh are having meals delivered automatically. The meals are healthy and portioned out which is something ordering cheap Dominos or supermarket freezer meals can’t do well. The cons are you still have to cook the meals and you can’t select what you are eating for the week. Don’t like pork? You don’t have an option unless you pick the vegetarian pack which means you’ll lose out on chicken, meat or fish dishes for the week.
If you want a similar service at a fraction of the price, both major supermarkets allow you to shop online based on recipes. Woolworths has loads of recipes on their site which when selected can add all the ingredients to your cart. As an example, Pork Schnitzel & Crispy Slaw is fairly close to HelloFresh’s pork recipe. Pick out 5 recipes for delivery and you have a cheaper and more customisable version of HelloFresh with a similar amount of effort. Save the $68/week and skip HelloFresh.