I discovered e-mealz last week, and was really impressed with what I saw from the site. After some discussion, my husband and I decided to give it a try. At the beginning I feared a meal planning service would result in the proportions being too small, the meals bland, the ingredients dependent on convenience/packaged products, or not quite hefty and real food enough for my meat and potato lovin man. However, after just a few days those fears have been disproven and we are loving it! Here is why:
What is e-mealz?
E-mealz is a service which offers meal plans customized around the weekly sales and coupon offerings of your local grocery. It saves you time and money in preparing delicious meals for everyone in your family!
Why e-mealz?
*By utilizing the sales ads, coupons from manufacturers, and coupons from the stores E-mealz is able to offer the greatest grocery savings opportunities. For our two person family, we can have five different meals for $35-45 per week! The savings by far makes up for the $5 subscription expense each month.*The meals are simple and mighty tasty! While keeping cost low, we've still been able to get items like fresh fish, quality meats, and lots of fresh produce! The simplicity of the meals make them appealing to even the pickest of eaters!
*The meals are designed for one occasion, and so there is little waste (ie money in the trash)! Any excess ingredient component is reused in a different way for another meal. You're not left with random pieces of ingredients that have no purpose the following week and result in waste.
*There is room for tweeking such as continuing to make what you can from scratch for additional health and financial benefits.
*The plan comes with a completed meal plan for the week, detailed grocery list organized by store sections which include both staple items and meal components, directory for additional coupons for items (this is a bonus and may or may not be available every week, but when it is it is so valuable).
*The subscription is very affordable. It's paid in a three month package (every three months you're charged $15). That's $5 per month. Broken further, that's only $1.25 per week! Can you afford $1.25 per week to save $20 or more? I could!
*The plan becomes available to me each Wednesday when Publix publishes their ad. We simply look it over to see what we have on hand or what we could make homemade. Our meal planning time has decreased significantly! The trade of planning time for family time has been a good one for us!
*Other meal plans available:
*serves 7 meals for 4-6 people:
*regular plans (Kroger, Publix, Wal-Mart, Aldi, Ralphs (CA))
*gluten free (Walmart, any store), Low Carb (Walmart, any store), Low fat (Walmart, any
store, Publix), portion control (Walmart, any store, Publix), and vegetarian (any store,
Walmart)
*serves 5 meals for 1-2 people:
*regular plans (Walmart, any store, Aldi, Publix)
*low fat (Walmart, any store), portion control (Walmart, any store), low carb (Walmart, any
store)
Recommended by?
If you're a follower of Dave Ramsey, then you'll be thrilled to know that this service comes highly recommended by him! As you'll know he fully supports the work to finding ways to save and get out of debt. Saving on grocery spending is a great way of doing it!
How to get in on e-mealz?
Follow the link in the picture above or on the side bar to the right to read more or sign up at the site. :)
Our Experience So Far
This week was our first week of using the plans and we have been very pleased with the meals, savings, and simplicity of it all. This week we saved $18 from our average grocery spending! This week's estimate was on the higher end at $46, and so other weeks at lower estimates will provide even greater savings. We've had delicious chili pie, spiced cooked apples, green beans, oriental ribs, and rice in our first two meals. I was so excited to see one of my hubby's favorites on the plan (the spareribs)! I didn't want him to feel like he couldn't have the things he enjoys for the sake of saving money. (phew!). I've been able to find ways for homemade such as in doing the cornbread for the chili pie and later in the week making a loaf of french bread. The proportions have been just right. We have plenty to for the meal itself, but not so much as to be overwhelmed with leftovers. I must admit that I'm a little excited already to receive the plan for next week tomorrow!
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I've heard a lot of good things about e-mealz. My husband is a fairly picky eater, so that is part of my hesitation when it comes to e-mealz! I've talked to him about it though, and I do think it would save us money, so I may give it a try sometime soon!
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