Ever since I (Laura) got married almost two years ago, I’ve struggled to come up with an answer to the daily question, “What’s for dinner?” I know that some of you have, too, as evidenced by the discussion in the meal planning and frugal cooking Open Mic post.
Well, I think I’ve finally found something that will help me: E-Mealz. I’ve been subscribing to E-Mealz for three weeks now, and I (and my husband) absolutely love it. Here’s an overview of the service as well as a description of my experience with it so far.
Overview
E-Mealz is a meal plan subscription service. For a cost of $5 each month, you’ll be able to print a meal plan and grocery list each week. The meal plan can be customized according to a specific store, number of people, and diet restrictions (Weight Watchers points, low-carb, low-fat, and vegetarian).
My Experience
Right now, I subscribe to the Aldi meal plan for two people. When I first printed off the list, my husband took one look at it and said that he would enjoy eating every meal suggested!
Every Tuesday, I log on to my E-Mealz account and download a PDF file of that week’s meal plan and grocery list. I print it on one sheet of paper (front and back), put it in a clear sheet protector, and attach it to my refrigerator with a magnet.
The meals are simple, delicious, and family-friendly. Today, for example, I’m making a yummy Chinese pot roast in the crock-pot and will serve it with some stir-fry vegetables, rice, and dinner rolls.
I’m continuing to shop at Cub and Rainbow for the best deals every week, but I also swing by Aldi to pick up any ingredients I need that I don’t have stockpiled (mostly fresh produce and some meat).
Pros
- Your meal plan will give you ideas for side dishes as well as entrées. It truly is a complete plan.
- The meals use up ingredients over the course of the week, so leftovers should be limited. I made a soup two nights ago that I served over baked potatoes last night. I never would have thought of that on my own!
- The plans for specific stores are based on current sales at those stores, but since Aldi’s prices are pretty consistent week to week, I haven’t seen yet how this directly affects my plan.
- The meal plan comes with a grocery list organized by section. If you subscribe to a plan for a specific store, the plan will also list the approximate cost of each item on your list.
Cons
- A few items on the list are boxed or prepackaged (boxed rice, for example) to cut down on costs and to speed preparation time. If this isn’t for you, feel free to substitute those items with your own recipes.
- The lists cannot be tailored (yet) to some of our local grocery stores, like Cub and Rainbow. However, you can get a basic meal plan that works at any grocery store.
- Although it’s only $5 a month, it costs money.
Overall, this seems like an excellent and relatively inexpensive resource for those of you who struggle to come up with unique, delicious, family-friendly dinners every night.
To get started, head over to E-Mealz and check it out for yourself!
Your turn: What do you think of E-Mealz?
**Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Read Pocket Your Dollars’ disclosure statement for more information.
I’ve used this service before and if you do it for a few weeks to a month or so and save a copy of your meal plans, you can stop the service after a short time because you’ll have a bunch to choose from. I have a binder with master copies of all the meal plans in sheet protectors and I make copies of them if I want to use it as a shopping list. I have also gotten to the point where I have 2 weeks worth of favorite meals that I have written on the calendar and generally I just know what ingredients to keep on hand to make things we like. Meal planning can be like saving money with coupons or doing a budget. A little up front investment of time and energy and you can get a system in place to make things so easy.
Angel, I’ve thought about just saving my meal plans and rotating them, too. I’ll probably end up doing that when I have a bunch of them saved up. Thanks for the tip!
I haven’t tried it, but wouldn’t it go against the concept of planning meals around current best prices? For years I’ve planned meals according to what we want and should eat, but it’s harder to rein in costs that way. Through PYD, I’ve learned to wait and see what nearby stores are offering as loss leaders (meats, veggies, fruits, etc) and then planning meals around that. Are you saying that the Aldi plan customizes to Aldi’s specials? I would be interested in trying it, if it did that cuz I’m an ardent Aldi shopper.
Theresa, I haven’t been subscribing long enough to see these meal plans reflect Aldi’s sale prices (especially since Aldi doesn’t really have sales like most grocery stores), but I’m guessing that when a big meat sale comes along (perhaps around Easter), I’ll see it reflected in that week’s menu plan.
I get what you’re saying about planning meals around prices. For me, though, it’s better to have some meal plan (since I’m absolutely horrible at planning meals) than nothing. I’ve found that I haven’t really had to purchase much yet to make the recipes because I’ve just been able to use the stockpile that I’ve built up. Even though the Aldi meal plan uses only ingredients that can be purchased at Aldi (with a few exceptions), I’m still doing some shopping elsewhere to get the really good deals. My hope is that I’ll be able to use the deals I’ve stockpiled from a different store in an upcoming Aldi meal plan.
Laura-
I just discovered Kitchen Monki today! http://www.kitchenmonki.com
It sounds really similar, but it’s TOTALLY FREE!
At just a quick glance, there are several options, including browsing the recipes, which have ratings, you can create a new recipe (so putting your favorite recipes online for easy access and generating the grocery list) plan a quick meal with key words and create a grocery list!
You can even send the grocery list by text!!!
They have several videos too, so check it out!
So, I can’t really compare to your E-Mealz, but to me, FREE is the key! I will be checking it out
Holly, thanks for sharing! This looks interesting. I guess what attracts me to E-Mealz is that I can customize the plan to make enough food just for me and my husband (my little guy is only ten months), and it TELLS me which meals to make. I’ve always been a rule-follower, so I like the structure it provides. This site looks like a good resource for someone who’s open to being a little more flexible with his/her meal planning.
Holly,
Thank you for suggesting Kitchen Monki. I have been checking it out today. I was looking for a site that would help me put together some low carb dinners for my family that wouldn’t break the budget. I was also looking for a site that would put together my shopping list. The site seams very user friendly. I am an avid sale / coupon shopper so I am going to see how I can work that in as well. I was finding that I was doing great with sales and coupons but wasn’t coming home with items to make complete meals.
Meals Matter is also similar to Kitchen Monki, but it is very focused on eating healthy.
http://www.mealsmatter.org
It’s free and includes a nutrition planner, fitness planner and meal planner. There are recipes listed, or you can include your own.
Thanks, Kris! I’m always looking for new meal planning resources. When I’m a little more confident in my meal-planning abilities, I’ll check this out.
Laura,
Another good one is http://www.sparkpeople.com. It’s great because it’s free and it gives you meal plans based on your goals (weight loss, healthy living, etc). It gives you recipes and shoppings lists, plus you can add your own recipes and it will calculate the nutritional information. You can also customize your meal plans based on the recipes available. :)
I was directed to this meal planning blog from fellow posters on another site, also discussing E-Mealz
http://eatathomecooks.com/weekly-menus
She shops primarily at Walmart, it would be easy to sub for use at Aldi’s or any grocery store… simple basic family meals.
Another useful blog, not meal planning but cheap.. it does have meals planned around Angel Food boxes if that helps…
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/category/recipes