This year, at the ripe old age of 28, I decided I was finally going to start cooking for myself – and I’ve fast become a meal box devotee. Taking the hassle out of dinner times, these subscription boxes deliver fresh vegetables, pre-portioned ingredients and recipe cards to your door. Livening up mid-week meals, meal boxes such as Gousto are perfect for culinary-illiterate home cooks like myself. As a student, I was a Pot Noodle and toast cliché – in my mid-twenties, I graduated to pesto pasta, the occasional M&S ready meal and microwavable soup. Between commuting, work, events and socialising, rustling up dinner was my the lowest priority. But recipe boxes have eliminated both the planning and shopping involved in meal times: all I’ve got to do is cook. Thankfully, it’s less Master Chef and more Junior Bake Off. The recipe cards are essentially paint-by-numbers for cooking, with easy-to follow instructions and pictures to help you on your way. Since the start of the year, I’ve tried three companies: Hello Fresh, Grubby and, most recently, Gousto. Grubby is vegan and inventively uses plant-based ingredients, while beginner-friendly Hello Fresh is widely thought of as the king of meal boxes. Both I got along with, but I found Hello Fresh began to get a little repetitive. Gousto is often regarded as a step up, with slightly harder and more varied recipes, more niche ingredients and a lauded algorithm that begins to learn your favourite cuisines, skill level and cooking time. Sampling everything from Thai and Vietnamese inspired recipes to pasta, burgers and fish dishes, I’ve been cooking with Gousto for more than a month. The subscription service is slightly cheaper than Hello Fresh, costing around £29.99 for three meals, for two people each week (this is roughly £3.20 a serving). With this maths, it can work out more affordable than doing a weekly shop – or buying ready meals and sauce tins (guilty as charged). Like many others, Gousto also has an introductory offer that gives you up to 50 per cent off. But, will I be staying loyal to Gousto, or returning to a previously tested meal box service? Here’s how I got on. Read more: Here’s what happened when I tried Hello Fresh meal kits