Stumbling across a Gousto half-price deal finally set me free from the overwhelm of meal planning - and the discount is still available if you fancy easing your mental load this December.
I am a 48-year-old perimenopausal woman who’s been feeding my family for more than 20 years. And reader, I’m done. I've got all the latest kitchen gear from one of the best air fryers to the best stainless steel pans - and yet meal planning is the domestic task I dread the most. After a full day at my desk, popping in to see my mum, helping my 11-year-old with her homework, attempting to exchange a few uninterrupted words with my husband, walking the dog, and firing off a few friendly texts to check in with my grown-up sons, my mental energy has left the building.
The thought of figuring out what to cook for dinner after all that makes me want to weep. Then there's the impossible task of knowing who’s actually at home for dinner and what time they need to eat before they head off to their various activities. No wonder I’d rather starve than brave the supermarket or scroll through recipes at the end of the working day.
What is Gousto?
Gousto is a meal kit delivery service that sends everything you need to prepare nutritious, home-cooked meals from scratch. You choose from more than 250 recipes, and Gousto delivers all the pre-portioned ingredients to your door.
Meal-planning and mental load
I’m not the only one feeling mentally overloaded by meal planning. Gousto’s research shows that 58% of Brits find the mental load of mealtimes more stressful than managing their finances. We spend 2.5 hours a week planning meals, and 36% of us feel stuck in a mealtime rut. Women, unsurprisingly, shoulder the lion’s share of this burden, with 75% of us feeling weighed down by the mental load compared to 68% of men. I feel so seen.
How Gousto eased my mental load
I've just spent two months putting Gousto to the test - at my own expense - and I'm overjoyed to say it has freed me from the drudgery of daily meal planning, easing my mental load considerably. Here's how...
1. It solved the dinnertime dilemma
Before Gousto, I tried everything to make meal planning less of a chore. I wrote out menus for the week, ordered all the ingredients online, and even dusted off my recipe books in search of fresh menu inspiration.
But every Sunday night I found myself scrambling to add items to my Tesco order instead of taking time to relax before another hectic week. And despite my best efforts, brain fog meant I always ended up circling supermarket aisles midweek, searching for ingredients I'd forgotten to order.
I am no longer gripped by indecision about what to make for dinner when I set foot in the kitchen after a long day at my desk. The entire week's menu has been sorted for me. All I have to do is click on the meals I fancy before midday on Friday and voilà - all the ingredients for the week's meals are delivered to my door on Monday.
2. It made food fun again
Gousto has shaken me out of a food rut I didn’t even know I was in. The recipes are packed with fresh flavours and ingredients that I would never think to use - toasted sesame seeds and truffle-flavoured extra virgin olive oil are two of my favourite new finds. Last week, we had particularly delicious smashed patty burgers with cheesy fries - better than anything from a gastropub, and for a fraction of the price. And I'm still thinking about some tasty hoisin shredded chicken wraps from the week before.
3. It stopped me worrying about food waste
Since all the ingredients for the week's meals are perfectly portioned, I’ve almost completely stopped throwing away uneaten food. I'm no longer buying vegetables that we don't get round to using, and I'm not wasting money on ingredients that will end up gathering dust in a kitchen cupboard after one or to uses.
4. It saved me money
Gousto isn’t the cheapest way to feed a family, or at least not once you use up your new member discounts and start paying full price, but I think it's worth every precious penny to never have to think about food shopping or what to make for dinner. Honestly, it feels like money well spent for the joy of having some headspace back, not to mention some time.
My first Gousto box cost just £22.59 for five meals to feed two people. Now that my discounts have been used up, I paid £47.98 for five meals to feed two of us this week. Not a bargain by any stretch of the imagination but also not daylight robbery when you consider that's less than £4.80 per head with no food waste, no soul-sapping supermarket trips after work, and the joy of not spending my precious Sunday nights scrolling the Tesco website.
I'm not sure I can justify keeping my Gousto habit going indefinitely - it's very much a luxury, after all. But I feel much less overwhelmed by the thought of reverting to meal planning now that I've had a few weeks off. So perhaps I'll keep my account going and just book a box as a treat once in a while when there's a hectic week ahead and I could do with ditching the meal planning for a few days. If nothing else, saving 50% off your first box is a deal I recommend snapping up.
For me, the real appeal of a meal delivery service isn’t the delicious food or the easy-to-follow instructions; it’s the utter relief of having one less thing to think about. I recently heard someone describe Gousto as a 'life upgrade' and I can’t think of a better way to put it myself. I still make quick trips to the shop, of course, for essentials like bread, milk and cat food, along with toiletries and household essentials. And I must admit that the younger, fussier eaters in the house prefer our well-established family menu, so the freezer is still well-stocked with staples like fish fingers and oven chips. But I no longer dread being asked 'What's for tea?' and gone are the days of desperate dashes to the supermarket after a long day at work.
