I Compared 7 Monthly Subscription Boxes During This Quarantine

Good Morning and Happy Thursday! Today I bring something different that some of you could be interested in: 

Monthly Subscription Boxes!

Years ago, a journalist decided to develop a business that delivered a book to avid reader’s houses. He named the Business “The Book of The Month” and that was the first subscription box.

Since then, many other entrepreneurs saw an amazing business opportunity in bringing subscription boxes to people’s houses and save them the time and sometimes money in exchange for something they like. The most popular ones are of course the food subscription boxes. Everything related to food and health is going to have a passionate group of consumers willing to pay for it.

However, that’s not the only type of subscription box. With the success of this business model, membership subscription boxes have expanded their range of products to deliver and now you can easily find boxes that bring you other utilities like jewellery, contact lenses, protein powder, wine and even slime!

 

 

We are now living one of the most strange situations nobody could have ever imagined. The pandemic has to keep spreading through the universe and most people want to avoid going anywhere (or they are just banned from doing it). There won’t be a better time to explore some of the companies whose service is bringing goods to your door.

 

My love-hate relationship with subscription boxes started after a friend recommended me to try one of them. I searched the company on Instagram (you can follow me!) and saw they were offering to add to try the membership for a few days. After biting the trap, I was tagged as an “engaged buyer” on Instagram and was bombarded with dozens of ads featuring membership subscriptions every time I opened the app.

And if life gives you lemons, what do you do? A blog post! I signed up and for every subscription box that looked interesting or could be useful and compared their pros and cons.

Let’s get right into it!

 

 

Hello Fresh

Hello Fresh is the most popular monthly subscription box and delivers ingredients for a few delicious meals to your door. I tried Hello Fresh a year ago and we liked it enough to extend the subscription for a few months. I was very surprised by the wide range of dishes that you could choose from.

 

After you apply for the membership of this recipe box delivery service, you have to select if your meals are for 1-2 people or a large family. After that, you will find a selection of dishes and the average time it takes you to cook each of them.

Every dish has a great number of ingredients that, all together, will make you lick your fingers after you taste the food. The food items are very well stored, especially those that are meant to be in the freezer. The box comes with a few sheets with a clear description of the recipe.

 

Pros:

• Fresh Ingredients
• Quarantine Friendly
• Delicious dishes
• Affordable price
• Good range of meals to choose

Cons:

• The dishes take longer than expected to cook
• Many ingredients you have to peel and cut (not for lazy chefs)

If you want to give it a try, the first box is 50% off.

 

 

MealPal

What’s about? MealPal allows you to have lunch out for a cheaper price. There is a wide amount of food places that have partnered with MealPal and this membership gives you the opportunity to enjoy their dishes with a discount from Monday to Friday.

 

As soon as you sign in, you have to download the phone app and organize your meals for the following week.

The trial they offer has an incredible price of £1.50 per meal for 3 days. This is a great deal. After the trial has finished, you will go back to paying around the $4-£5 per lunch.

If you are a “Eat out every day” person, this lunch subscription service that lets you reserve food at a number of participating restaurants can save you a ton of money. However, if you are a saver Jedi and prefer cooking your own meals, the membership can come as expensive. 

My experience with this one was…awful. I signed up and downloaded the app. Everything went downhill from then. The app didn’t accept my log in details. After trying a few times, I contacted the customer service. The money for the trial was taken from my account and I didn’t have access to the service.

I waited two days until I got an email from an agent telling me that they didn’t have an account with my email. I gave them my phone number in case my email address had disappeared from their system by mistake.

One day later, I got a new message from the same agent informing me that there was no account with my telephone number. This didn’t make any sense! When I was signing in, they sent a message with a CODE to the mentioned phone number in order to complete my registration!

 

After receiving said code, I used it and was accepted! That means they did have my phone number. I answered back with a screenshot of the code as proof that my number was correct. I also took a screenshot of the money they took from my account. After waiting two more days with no answer, I sent them a final message asking if it was possible to have my money back.

Two days later and after losing my hope of getting my money back, I received an email informing me that the money was going to be refunded in 3-5 days. Bravo!

I know people that have had a good experience with this food subscription service, but after my experience, I don’t think it’s worth the risk.

 

Simply Cook

I pressed on the Simply Cook ad as soon as it appeared. At first, it looks like a copy of the previously mentioned Hello Fresh, but it’s actually a bit different.

Simply Cook is a monthly subscription-based recipe box service that brings you the sauces, spices and garnishes you will use for your meals. 

 

 

However, it doesn’t include all the ingredients for those meals. The purpose is to give you the freedom to exchange some of the ingredients in the recipes for others you may prefer (for example, fish instead of meat). This implies that you still need to do your grocery shopping and buy all the food items you need to create those meals.

Inside the box, you can also find a few sheets with a description of the ingredients every pot has and the recipes for every meal. My first dish was a Grilled Halloumi Salad that, despite taking some time to prepare, was delicious.

 

Pros:

• Some sauces are hard to find
• Quarantine Friendly
• Original
• Affordable price

Cons:

• The dishes take longer than expected to cook
• You need to buy most of the ingredients for the meals
• It’s just sauces and spices

The first trial box is £3 and you get to choose 4 recipes you want to try.

 

Waldo

Ready for something new? Waldo brings you Premium Daily lenses to your door.

My situation with glasses and contact lenses is a bit unique. I have some myopia, but not a severe one, therefore, I don’t need to use glasses and contact lenses every day. However, if I go out, I struggle to see some basic things like what’s the next tube station. I have a pair of glasses that I love but almost never use, and every time I travel or want to go out, I use contact lenses.

 

 

I had only tried one brand of contact lenses. They were uncomfortable and could feel them in my eyes all the time, but I thought that was because I had sensitive eyes and wasn’t used to them. Also, they were pretty affordable (around 30 euros per 30 days) and I didn’t feel like it was worth trying other brands.

After I saw the 10 days free trial (£2.95 Shipping) and thought…”why not?”

As you register for the trial, you need to select your eye power for both of your eyes and select the type of membership you prefer. The more boxes, the less you pay for each of them, but it’s up to you and you can later modify your subscription depending on your needs.

They deliver the first box in 2-3 working days and after that, you can stop, pause or cancel your subscription hassle-free.

I decided to try these new lenses as soon as they arrived. From the moment I touched them, I thought they felt different, extremely thin, which made them a bit complicated to handle compared to my precious ones. These felt different in my eyes, I could hardly feel there was something in there, which made me a bit worried about forgetting I had them on and going to sleep with them.

The thing is…after the free trial (£2.95 for Shipping), these lenses are even cheaper than my old ones!

 

 

I Loved the experience and am going to extend my subscription to this box, so if you think this subscription box can meet your needs, feel free to use My LINK and we will both get a discount after the free trial.

Pros:

• Amazing quality, they feel like nothing in your eye
• Cheaper than most lens brands
• You control the dates you want them delivered and the number of boxes

Cons:

• If you don’t use them every day, you need to remember to call them and cancel or pause your subscription

Graze

A snack box! This brand brings you a nice selection of nibbles that you can bring everywhere. Their individual packaging makes it easy to take away.

I tried this box a few months ago and didn’t take any photo, but it looks like this GIF:

 

 

As well as with the previous boxes, you have freedom of choice. You also decide how many boxes you want to receive per month.

Pros

• Individually packed
• On the healthy side

Cons

• Most of them are nuts and flapjacks
• It’s just snacks…

The trial included a first FREE box, but I think now they offer a 50% discount.

Harry’s

I thought a subscription membership for men could be interesting for some of you. Harry’s is shaving and grooming products box.

I got it thinking my boyfriend could give it some use, as he shaves every single day.

 

 

He thinks it’s great.

With this grooming subscription box, you can select the type of box you want to receive every month, one of them including 8 high-quality razors for £1,75 each.

I guess this is perfect for those who are sick of visiting drugstores every week looking for a decent razor at an affordable price. My boyfriend thinks the razor is excellent and was positively surprised by the aftershave lotion. He was used to the cheapest type of razors, so it was very easy for him to see the difference in quality.

The trial set is free (+ 3,99 Shipping) and includes a razor, a travel-size foam and a travel-size aftershave. The shaving plan you select after the trial is up to you.

Pros

• High-quality razor
• You can choose the type of products you need 

Cons

• More expensive than other subscriptions
• It’s very easy to find similar products for a cheaper price

Smol

Eco-friendly Washing machine and dishwasher tablets delivered to your door!

After looking like a person who is obsessed about subscription boxes for the Instagram algorithm, I found an ad from this membership box that offered to be tried for free (£1 Shipping). I went ahead and decided to try the Washing Machine tablets.

As you register, you need to decide if you want to receive the Eco version or the regular one. After that, you complete a form and choose how many times a month or a year you want to receive your parcel with a full pack of tablets.

I was some clothes ready to wash, so I didn’t last more than 2 days until I put my first laundry with these tablets. I used two and the clothes were smelling like heaven. In my opinion it’s not a very strong odour, more like a clean smell.

On the other side, the second time I used only one for delicate clothes and, due to the low temperature of this one, I found some soap residue in the machine after turning it off.

This is how the free trial box looks.

 

Pros

• Leaves a pleasant smell in your clothes
• You can change your product and date of delivery preferences
• Great value for money

Cons

• Can leave some residue in laundries for delicates or cold water

These are, until now, most of the monthly subscription boxes that I have tried lately. Which one do you think could suit your lifestyle better?

 

Let me know what’s the best membership service/box you have tried and if I should try any other brand.