Some or most of you reading this (really not sure who reads this now a days ;) ) know that I have been using meal planning services for the last year or so. These are services that you pay a small fee too that then make available a meal plan for dinners for the week, complete with a grocery list broken down into departments in the stores. I have tried a few different ones and wanted to provide a review of them here.
There are some great sites (5dollardinners.com) that provide low cost and yummy recipes but my problem is having the time to sit down and plan the menus and grocery lists for the week - some of my friends are very talented at this - me not so much - especially when I am working. So I heard about these sites initially from Dave Ramsey and have branched out from there.
E-Mealz (e-mealz.com)
If you use the coupon code DAVE you get 3 months for 12.50 (regularly 15 - so 5/month).
Pros
They let you pick a store that they then plan the menus based on the chosen store's sales
They give you the choice to serve 6 or they have a plan for serving 2
You can choose a regular menu or a Weight Watchers Points menu or vegetarian or low carb
Their menus are meals for 7 days
The cost of the food is pretty low
Meals quick to put together
Cons
They use mostly processed foods
Their choice of stores is limited (walmart, Aldi, Publix, Ralphs) although you can choose "any store"
Buying for 7 days worth of meals could mean you have lots of wasted left-overs or the food might spoil before you eat it especially if life circumstances cause you to skip a night
No choice in what meals you are given
RELISH! (relishrelish.com)
7/month
Pros
More choices - you get to choose a preset number of meals from a larger list so you can tailor the week to your family's wants
Very little processed foods
More sophisticated meals, but still very kid friendly (at least for our kids)
Party and theme meal plans on the site - very cool! Especially if you host dinner parties or have a group of kids over to watch a movie (they have whole menus around different current movies)
Have an option to choose meals to freeze
Let you tailor your menus and grocery list to serve 2, 4,6 or 8 people
Only give 5 days at a time to have built-in flexibility for your family if you have to be out of the house for something or what to have pizza or eat left-overs etc.
Cons
Some of the prep is a little more intensive than other services
Total cost for the food was more expensive mainly b/c of some specialized food items and choosing less processed foods.
Six O'clock Scramble (thescramble.com)
This one so far is my favorite! It seems to do a great job of having more fresh foods, more unique menu options but also keeping the costs down
Not sure what the real cost is - I found a killer coupon on Groupon.com for 6 months for the price of 2
Pros
Uses ingredients that are in season
Uses less beef recipes (always a plus for us with Brent's allergies)
Quick to prepare
Kid-friendly
Very tasty recipes
Cost for foods in total has been low b/c I find I have most of the staples on hand
Cons
No choice in how many are being served
No choice in what the meals will be (although we haven't had a meal yet we didn't like)
Overall these have been great. I could certainly be happy eating the same thing over and over again but we much prefer trying new things and as much as would like to try different recipes (any from the piles of magazine clippings I have) I just don't have the time right now to think about, plan and shop for the different and sometimes specialized ingredients.
If anyone reads this and knows of others or has other ideas please share!! I am all for learning something new!
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