Speaker 1: Episode two, Meal planning apps Compared. Welcome to the Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity right,
Speaker 1: and liver with your life. Here your host Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmmm, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name
Speaker 1: is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are
Speaker 1: doing a much requested episode comparing meal planning apps. Free
Speaker 1: so you put in the meals, and pay so they
Speaker 1: give you the meals every week. We're doing both all
Speaker 1: of the options because we know you like options and
Speaker 1: it's not a one size fits all, so we're just
Speaker 1: kind of gonna put all these different things on your
Speaker 1: radar and you pick what's best for you. And we're
Speaker 1: making sure all the paid apps have free trials too,
Speaker 1: So we're here for you. We here, we know how
Speaker 1: much we like free fits free. It's for me most
Speaker 1: of the time, most of the time. But first, an
Speaker 1: additional sponsor for y'all. This episode is brought to us
Speaker 1: by Crying for Help. Fantastic. We didn't realize there was
Speaker 1: a marketing team behind Cries for Help until they reached
Speaker 1: out to sponsor us. Turns out there's a lot of
Speaker 1: partnership opportunities and congruence between the Frugal Friends podcast and
Speaker 1: Crying for Help. This time around, the messaging is mostly
Speaker 1: centered on those who take on the primary cooking responsibilities
Speaker 1: in the home, who are currently possibly maybe questioning why
Speaker 1: do we need to eat so often in one day
Speaker 1: and making statements like I don't know how I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do this like cook for everyone for another forty years.
Speaker 1: If this is you, We're glad you're here. This episode
Speaker 1: is for you, and you want to know what's also
Speaker 1: for you? Are free e book. Check it out at
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash e book to get
Speaker 1: your free copy with over two hundred money saving tips
Speaker 1: not just talking about saving on food or meal apps
Speaker 1: and that one Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash e book.
Speaker 1: If you're crying for help, we hear you, and help
Speaker 1: is on the way in the form of apps and
Speaker 1: e books. Is me? The team is me? I am crying. Oh.
Speaker 1: I often ask that question, like how even on the
Speaker 1: weeks when I feel as though I'm really crushing it
Speaker 1: with getting food on the table, how in the world
Speaker 1: am I going to do this for decades to come?
Speaker 1: I did it really well this week and then it's overwhelming.
Speaker 1: Yeah I'm hungry again. Why how cruel world? Uh, well,
Speaker 1: we see you, we are you. And we talk a
Speaker 1: lot about cooking on this show because it's not a
Speaker 1: cooking show because we are not cooks um and it
Speaker 1: is not it's not my favorite thing to do. So
Speaker 1: this is the show about how to not just grin
Speaker 1: and bear it, but like make it easier, uh, and
Speaker 1: more likely that you'll do it so you can eat
Speaker 1: the food you have at home. If you are like us,
Speaker 1: and you want to queue up a few other episodes
Speaker 1: after this to listen to about the same topic. We've
Speaker 1: got episode one forty nine, which is frugal meal planning
Speaker 1: with Ashton Cope and then the crux of this episode
Speaker 1: we we may refer to it several times, so this
Speaker 1: is more like required listening Episode seventy nine, which is
Speaker 1: our favorite frugal recipes and food blogs. But we recorded
Speaker 1: it like an awards ceremony. Do you remember that much?
Speaker 1: And in the editing stage, Eric added in so many
Speaker 1: fun elements to make it feel like a wore an
Speaker 1: awards show. It was cool. Yeah, it is the MTV
Speaker 1: UM Food Blog Awards essentially. So episode seventy nine. It's
Speaker 1: titled our Favorite Food Frugal Recipes and food Blogs. It's great,
Speaker 1: so we will refer to it back actually several times
Speaker 1: during the episode. But let's get into a general Let's
Speaker 1: start with a general overview of like why meal planning apps,
Speaker 1: the differences such as and such as how do you
Speaker 1: feel about meal planning apps? Chill? This is a new
Speaker 1: concept for me in some regard to Obviously I know
Speaker 1: that they exist, I have yet to use one regularly.
Speaker 1: Of course, I have intersected with various meal plans and
Speaker 1: how to use them, and this is making me more
Speaker 1: excited to pick my favorite and use them. And obviously
Speaker 1: we have our favorite, which we'll talk about later on.
Speaker 1: But I think that it is really important to recognize
Speaker 1: why would we even want to engage in another app?
Speaker 1: There's there are so many resources out there, but sometimes
Speaker 1: we can feel overwhelmed and inundated with the amount of
Speaker 1: resources that we just don't engage at all. But I
Speaker 1: think beginning this episode with just an appeal to everyone
Speaker 1: to give this a try, especially if you really felt
Speaker 1: our ad our sponsor today of crying for help and
Speaker 1: feeling maybe overwhelmed. Sometimes it really does take a community.
Speaker 1: You're not alone and you don't have to do this alone.
Speaker 1: And I think meal apps can make it easier, as
Speaker 1: you've said already, Jen, So just to talk through some
Speaker 1: of the benefits of why use an Why use a
Speaker 1: meal planning app? I mean, first of all, it can
Speaker 1: help keep you organized. I know that the weeks that
Speaker 1: I even create my own meal plan, I feel so
Speaker 1: much more on top of things and kind of all
Speaker 1: of life. It takes out the question marks and I
Speaker 1: know what the meals are going to be each day.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean that I can't switch out what dinner
Speaker 1: is on Tuesday for Wednesday, or maybe have Friday's dinner
Speaker 1: for lunch, and it can be switched around, but it
Speaker 1: gives a lot more ease and relaxation and organization. M hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you can't. Also, you can't make a shopping list
Speaker 1: without a meal plan. Then you're just adding I mean
Speaker 1: you can, but you're just adding random things onto your
Speaker 1: shopping list. Like sometimes you you'll make a shopping list
Speaker 1: and you'll have a meal plan in your head, but
Speaker 1: if you don't write the meal plan down, you forget it,
Speaker 1: and then you this stockpile starts building in your fridge
Speaker 1: and your freezer and your pantry. So avoid that because
Speaker 1: that's a big one. I mean when people gosh, when
Speaker 1: we have the conversation about paying off debt, and they're like,
Speaker 1: what's the biggest thing you did to like help you,
Speaker 1: And I was like, meal planning and no spend challenge,
Speaker 1: just those two things, the two things that I wrote
Speaker 1: a book on, wrote books on. So meal planning was
Speaker 1: like essential to that. And it's because if I don't
Speaker 1: meal plan, I buy random stuff, I over buy, and
Speaker 1: I waste food. So just skip all of that hassle
Speaker 1: and a meal plan and you can either do it
Speaker 1: on paper or I would say via technology like vienna
Speaker 1: app and have it written down like on the fridge
Speaker 1: so nobody asks what's for dinner? Yeah, And the benefits
Speaker 1: of this, like you're saying, Jen, this can be really great,
Speaker 1: especially for those who are in a debt payoff journey,
Speaker 1: really wanting to find those additional hacks for how can
Speaker 1: I really help my budget because meal planning usually leads
Speaker 1: to less food waste because we're not making purchases on
Speaker 1: food that we don't need. It is drawing us to
Speaker 1: our pantry to who are fridged to identify what do
Speaker 1: we have already, what are we going to make, what
Speaker 1: do we need to purchase, and not getting additional items,
Speaker 1: only the things that you need. It's surprising how little
Speaker 1: your grocery bill can be when you're only getting the
Speaker 1: essentials for the food that you've planned for for that week.
Speaker 1: And and then it can help you to avoid those
Speaker 1: last minute purchases, which also tend to lead to impulse
Speaker 1: purchases when you have to run out to the store
Speaker 1: last minute because you don't have on hand that thing
Speaker 1: for this random recipe that you just on a whim
Speaker 1: decided to make, and just yeah, less money spent overall
Speaker 1: on food, less food waste, make planning easier, thinking ahead,
Speaker 1: less stress, more organized. So these are all the reasons,
Speaker 1: and so we know that meal planning for these reasons
Speaker 1: is fantastic, and sometimes that's the barrier in and of
Speaker 1: itself is but how do I do that? That feels
Speaker 1: so daunting? What a great idea? Let me meal plan now? How?
Speaker 1: And that's when these apps come into play, that maybe
Speaker 1: you could use an app and you get to the
Speaker 1: point where I've gotten really good at this, let me
Speaker 1: do it myself. But if you just want to cut
Speaker 1: out even the time it takes to do the actual
Speaker 1: labor of meal planning. Here you go. There are apps
Speaker 1: that will give you the meal plan, incorporate a shopping list,
Speaker 1: give you the recipe. So we're going to give you
Speaker 1: the rundown on the various ones. They're specific things that
Speaker 1: are really appealing, that might be congruent with whatever it
Speaker 1: is that your goals are. But that's our appeal to you.
Speaker 1: And this is why to do it. This is why
Speaker 1: the meal plan, this is why to use an app
Speaker 1: to do it. Yes, So we're going to start out
Speaker 1: with this article from the Spruce Eats and it is
Speaker 1: their list of best meal planning apps. And these are
Speaker 1: apps that are free. Only one of them on the
Speaker 1: list cost money, but it's like three so it can stay.
Speaker 1: They have too on here that are one is not
Speaker 1: is an actual meal planning serve us, and the other
Speaker 1: one is like six nine. But we're covering free first
Speaker 1: because that's maybe where you want to start out with.
Speaker 1: If you have a stockpile of recipes or you want
Speaker 1: more flexibility. You don't want people like to tell you
Speaker 1: what to eat um. You just want to make you
Speaker 1: know compile your own meal plan. This is where to start.
Speaker 1: So the first one will go over is the best
Speaker 1: overall according to them, and it's Paprika. It's a super
Speaker 1: common one. I have used it. It has a free
Speaker 1: basic version. I think all of these will have an
Speaker 1: upgraded version, and some of them if you like it,
Speaker 1: worth the upgrade for like three if you'll use it,
Speaker 1: it's worth the upgrade, but use it for free first.
Speaker 1: Um And they say they chose it because Paprika UM.
Speaker 1: The company provides flexibility and customization even with the E
Speaker 1: version of the app, and it is quite good. I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people that use this one. There's
Speaker 1: no database of recipes on Paprika. You will have to
Speaker 1: find your own. Episode seventy nine has a lot of
Speaker 1: great food blogs um where you can go there and
Speaker 1: clip the recipe and then Paprica will save it and
Speaker 1: then you can access it from the app. So and
Speaker 1: you can do it by categories however you want. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's Paprika. Anything to say on that chill. Next
Speaker 1: up is the spruce Eats calls meal Lime the best
Speaker 1: for time crunched cooks. So within that category of I
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of time to do this. That
Speaker 1: would be me. I always want recipes that are going
Speaker 1: to be really quick and easy. Oftentimes by the time
Speaker 1: I get to the kitchen, I'm already hungry, so I
Speaker 1: want the cooking process to be really a typically quick
Speaker 1: but still yummy. I as much as I don't love
Speaker 1: cooking when I don't have time, I still love eating.
Speaker 1: So that's that's the thing. So this one is meal
Speaker 1: Lime m E A L I M E. And some
Speaker 1: of the pros to this is that again they do,
Speaker 1: similar to Paprika, have a free basic version. It is
Speaker 1: easy to use. They curate recipes based on some of
Speaker 1: the inputs in requests that you, the user would put
Speaker 1: into it, and it also generates shopping lists for you
Speaker 1: to be able to know, well, what do I need
Speaker 1: to pick up based on this meal plan. Some of
Speaker 1: the cons is that an upgraded version would cost you,
Speaker 1: So if you wanted more money that are wanted more features,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to actually pay money, not just the
Speaker 1: free version. And it does not allow for manual addition
Speaker 1: of recipes, so that would be just utilizing whatever they
Speaker 1: supply to you. So I mean that's great, that's a
Speaker 1: great like differentiator, Like if you're a food foodie like
Speaker 1: food blog person, Paprika is definitely going to be better
Speaker 1: for you. And if you don't want to look at
Speaker 1: food plugs, meal Lime they're very similar and they both
Speaker 1: create the grocery lists, you can create the weeklier monthly
Speaker 1: meal plan, and those are the two big ones in
Speaker 1: my opinion, and why you would choose one over the other.
Speaker 1: And they so with meal Line, they promised that with
Speaker 1: all of the recipes it's thirty minutes or less of
Speaker 1: cook time. So that's great, great, Yeah, I love that one.
Speaker 1: So the next one, it's their runner up for best
Speaker 1: for weight loss. But if it's free versus the other
Speaker 1: one that costs like seventy bucks a quarter, ah yeah,
Speaker 1: it's eat this much. So I had not tried this one,
Speaker 1: so I just downloaded it. And it's definitely a um
Speaker 1: meal planning app, like specifically for being can shifts of
Speaker 1: your calories and your macros. So it is. It's got
Speaker 1: a free basic version. Basically you can create a meal plan.
Speaker 1: If you want to create a meal plan for the week,
Speaker 1: you have to create it for the week prior because
Speaker 1: if you want to create it for the week coming up,
Speaker 1: then you have to pay for it, but you can
Speaker 1: still create a weekly meal plan. You're just kind of
Speaker 1: in quotations creating it for the week that's already passed,
Speaker 1: which is a little workaround, I guess. And you can't
Speaker 1: create grocery lists in it unless you pay for it.
Speaker 1: So but it does. It has its own recipes and
Speaker 1: you put in like your your stats, your data and
Speaker 1: kind of how um if you want to maintain or
Speaker 1: lose weight or gain and then it will sort out
Speaker 1: its recipes to be appropriate for your calories and macros.
Speaker 1: And that means it has like really good nutritional info,
Speaker 1: but it's not ideal for families that have like varying
Speaker 1: nutritional means you would have to use just one person's
Speaker 1: macros for the whole family. And it says the shop
Speaker 1: and the one of the cons on the list is
Speaker 1: the shopping list. Cost estimates aren't always accurate, so that
Speaker 1: could be due to inflation, I don't know. But it
Speaker 1: also it has a bar code scanner for nutritional info,
Speaker 1: so it's very health focused. Yeah, yeah, that's a good
Speaker 1: point of the family versatility. It might be good for
Speaker 1: if you're just cooking for yourself, and that's one of
Speaker 1: your main goals and priorities with the food that you prepare.
Speaker 1: The next one on this list falls under the category
Speaker 1: of best for social media fans. It's called pre Prepare,
Speaker 1: but the pair part is spelled like the fruit p
Speaker 1: A R prepare. And the reason that they're describing this
Speaker 1: as good for social media fans, which is so funny
Speaker 1: because I feel like most people say I hate social media,
Speaker 1: and yet we're all on it. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: Better face the music, I guess, but they partner with
Speaker 1: a lot of popular food blogs, and there is an
Speaker 1: ability to connect with others through the app, so probably
Speaker 1: an ability to share on the recipes. Talk about it
Speaker 1: a bit. There are thousands of free personalized recipes, nutritional
Speaker 1: info that's imported onto the recipes, easy to add recipes.
Speaker 1: It also generates shopping lists. Again, you can connect with
Speaker 1: others who also use the apps, so of being social
Speaker 1: online is super important to you, especially around food. Then
Speaker 1: this offers that some of the cons that they mentioned
Speaker 1: about this app again, if you want the upgraded version,
Speaker 1: it's going to cost you, and they also described that
Speaker 1: it can be a lengthy process to add ingredients. Two recipes.
Speaker 1: I don't really know the situation where you need to
Speaker 1: do that. But I guess if you wanted to add
Speaker 1: ingredients to recipes, it's going to be a little difficult.
Speaker 1: It I don't want to. I have to tell the
Speaker 1: app you're adding it. You can keep it a secret exactly,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure too. Yeah, if if it's a following
Speaker 1: popular food bloggers getting kind of the most up to
Speaker 1: date type of new recipes, trying new things, this would
Speaker 1: this one would be for you. If that sounds interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks like. The user interface is very inviting, it
Speaker 1: looks very clean, and it has like the like some
Speaker 1: big bloggers, so like One Days of Real Food or
Speaker 1: six Sisters stuff, so like the bigger food blogs. So again,
Speaker 1: if you're like into the smaller food blogs or like
Speaker 1: the niche food blogs, then it may not. You can
Speaker 1: add recipes to this one, which is great. Um, and
Speaker 1: it may already have some of your favorite food bloggers
Speaker 1: on there. And it creates grocery lists. So another another
Speaker 1: good one. The next one they say is best for
Speaker 1: using up leftovers and it's Big Oven And I found
Speaker 1: this super interesting, So they say, Um, they chose Big
Speaker 1: Oven because of its feature that allows you to type
Speaker 1: in up to three ingredients and the search tool will
Speaker 1: find recipes that include them. So that is actually a
Speaker 1: really cool like feature of and that I wish other
Speaker 1: I wish other places like have that. Um so pros
Speaker 1: is the has its own recipe database. It does create
Speaker 1: grocery lists you can definitely use use up your pantry.
Speaker 1: This one might be great for a pantry challenge. It
Speaker 1: does vary from free to twenty five dollars a year
Speaker 1: UM and the cons that most features require paying the
Speaker 1: annual fee, and you have to pay to upload more
Speaker 1: than one paper recipe, which is interesting, and there's limited
Speaker 1: features for organizing your recipes. So I didn't download this one,
Speaker 1: so I can't say that the the Recipe Finder app
Speaker 1: is free. I would hope if that's their major feature
Speaker 1: that that would be included in the free one. But
Speaker 1: it says they have over a million recipes from home
Speaker 1: cooks and food bloggers and cooking sites, so a plus.
Speaker 1: So it has its own recipes and you can add
Speaker 1: your own recipes, so that's really great. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: year is not expensive, so like yeah, like I said before,
Speaker 1: use it for free and if you and whichever one
Speaker 1: you find really good value in if you are really
Speaker 1: using it consistently, then pay for it. Make your life easier.
Speaker 1: But don't just like go out and buy them all
Speaker 1: and not sure if you'll use any that's that's not great.
Speaker 1: And the last one that we'll talk about on this
Speaker 1: article falls under the category of best for shopping on
Speaker 1: a budget. That's that's all of us and it's meal
Speaker 1: Board M E A L B O A r D.
Speaker 1: It does have a cost, so this is the one
Speaker 1: that we mentioned there. It's it is not free, but
Speaker 1: the total cost to purchase it altogether is three dollars
Speaker 1: and nine cents, so like a one time fee and
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure unlimited access. So again the pros is
Speaker 1: that it's just that one time feeds on a monthly fee,
Speaker 1: it's on an annual fee. You just buy it one
Speaker 1: time for three dollars and nine cents. You can upload
Speaker 1: your own recipes, you can scan from books, magazines, all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. UH does have ability to create
Speaker 1: a digital grocery list and you can manually add prices
Speaker 1: to the items that you add to the grocery list
Speaker 1: that you can be sure that you're staying within budget
Speaker 1: with the ingredients and the things that you are planning
Speaker 1: to pick up from the store. It also has a
Speaker 1: personalized pantry feature which you can edit when you use
Speaker 1: any of your ingredients. It can sink to all your devices,
Speaker 1: super user friendly web interface, and the cons are that
Speaker 1: there is no built in recipe database, so that's up
Speaker 1: to you to upload your own recipes. And then another
Speaker 1: con is that building and editing your pantry can take
Speaker 1: some work, so some upfront work of saying what you
Speaker 1: already have and then might be a little bit more
Speaker 1: laborious to then edit what you have in your pantry
Speaker 1: within the app. But again, overall it's low cost and
Speaker 1: helps you stay on budget with the meal planning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, so I you Walmart grocery pickup for my
Speaker 1: grocery shopping, which get lets me keep track of my budget,
Speaker 1: like in real time with accurate prices, I mean, with inflation,
Speaker 1: like prices are changing monthly, it seems like. And so
Speaker 1: I think if you track your prices manually, you'll be tracking,
Speaker 1: you'll be changing a lot. So like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is worth three for that one primary feature,
Speaker 1: because you can get all those other features for free
Speaker 1: from different ones um or with additional features for just
Speaker 1: a smidge more. Um, so I might either use a
Speaker 1: free one or like spend a little bit more for
Speaker 1: something that has a recipe database and allows me to
Speaker 1: add my own and other things and the and the
Speaker 1: user interface on this one is very simple. Basically looks
Speaker 1: like a spreadsheet like a Google calendar. So it's very simple,
Speaker 1: which is clean, which some people like. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: this one is not my favorite. I think with any
Speaker 1: of the other five are our better bets. I will
Speaker 1: also mention that on this article, which will be linked
Speaker 1: in our show notes, is a comparison chart of all
Speaker 1: the apps that we've just mentioned, plus two additional apps.
Speaker 1: So if you've been listening and you're like, which one
Speaker 1: was it that had this but not that, there's a
Speaker 1: great spreadsheet at the bottom of this article that compares costs,
Speaker 1: whether or not it generates a shopping list, whether or
Speaker 1: not nutritional info is accessible, if there's a recipe database,
Speaker 1: and so you can kind of reference and compare each
Speaker 1: of the different apps there. It's an excellent mos spreadsheet.
Speaker 1: So let's move on to our second set of meal
Speaker 1: planning apps. And while the ones we just stated require
Speaker 1: you to compile your own meal plan based on recipes
Speaker 1: that are either in the app or that you find yourself.
Speaker 1: These meal planning apps are like meal planning services and
Speaker 1: so they provide a weekly meal plan to you, um
Speaker 1: and if you don't like it or you want more,
Speaker 1: you can customize it. So that's what these are. And
Speaker 1: they all all three of them have free trial, so
Speaker 1: again you can try it before you spend the money
Speaker 1: on it. But if you're somebody who just does not
Speaker 1: want to think about compiling recipes, like that's the last
Speaker 1: thing you want to do, then it can save you
Speaker 1: money and food waste to pay for one of these services.
Speaker 1: Like I've done it, We've all like done it. I'm
Speaker 1: currently a customer of one of these services. So so yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's worth the money for the long term
Speaker 1: savings that it will provide you. I love it. These
Speaker 1: are even more do it for me answering, that cry
Speaker 1: for help type of app where you don't even have
Speaker 1: to compile it's just what what's for dinner? You, even
Speaker 1: the person who is the primary one planning the meals
Speaker 1: each week, can ask this app what's for dinner? And
Speaker 1: that feels great? Yes. Uh, So let's start out with
Speaker 1: the first one, which is definitely our favorite, the long
Speaker 1: time supporter of the show cook Smarts, and they are
Speaker 1: one of the best known meal planning apps around. They've
Speaker 1: been around for years and we know the CEO personally
Speaker 1: and she is fantastic. She was on the Food Network,
Speaker 1: like on the Next Food Network Star with Guy Fiertti,
Speaker 1: so obviously Guy Fieri one. There was no competition there,
Speaker 1: but she was on the show with him. Her name
Speaker 1: is Justing and she's a mom and a chef, and
Speaker 1: so cook Smarts gives you four meals per week and
Speaker 1: they are definitely more adventurous than some other meal planning services.
Speaker 1: They're still kid friendly because she's a mom and she
Speaker 1: ex these for her kids. Um, but if you are
Speaker 1: just a casserole, meat and potatoes kind of person, uh,
Speaker 1: this isn't the best one for you. But this is
Speaker 1: a The app is very user friendly. UM, it's very
Speaker 1: easy to go into the archives if you want to
Speaker 1: add stuff. Even at the bottom below the four meals
Speaker 1: they give you for the week, she recommends three others
Speaker 1: that you might want to add or switch out. So
Speaker 1: and always using like um shared ingredients. So if you're
Speaker 1: making Moho pork that week, then you're definitely going to
Speaker 1: reuse the rest of the moho pork in something else
Speaker 1: later in the week. So that there is an emphasis
Speaker 1: on reducing food waste, on meal preps, like prepping ingredients
Speaker 1: so that cooking is more efficient and uses fewer dishes
Speaker 1: and um on, even like repurposing leftovers. So this is
Speaker 1: a fantastic meal planning service. They're super aesthetically pleasing too,
Speaker 1: and they've got lots of videos on new cooking techniques
Speaker 1: and how to So yeah, if you want to expand
Speaker 1: your skill set and your repertoire, that's a it's a
Speaker 1: fun one in the process, it's like learning new things too.
Speaker 1: The next one on this article, and I don't know
Speaker 1: if we mentioned this is an article that Jen wrote,
Speaker 1: so again but we didn't. Yes, I wrote this article.
Speaker 1: This is a this is on my when I used
Speaker 1: to in another life, when I used to write a
Speaker 1: blog called Modern Frugality, and this I actually have a
Speaker 1: YouTube video on it as well. I think the YouTube
Speaker 1: video is linked in there. But yes, so I've tried
Speaker 1: all of these I've tried all of these services, so
Speaker 1: that and I forgot to mention the cook Smarts right now,
Speaker 1: they're free trial is um fourteen days. Oh nice, two
Speaker 1: whole weeks. So this next one is e meals and
Speaker 1: also a meal planning app that does a lot of
Speaker 1: the work for you. So it's pretty streamlined, and it's
Speaker 1: it is for you if you don't want to be
Speaker 1: making too many decisions, but maybe that lack of customization
Speaker 1: might not be appealing if if you want to be
Speaker 1: able to customize a lot of different things. So they
Speaker 1: kind of do a lot of the heavy lifting. Some
Speaker 1: of the highlights of it is that there are, like
Speaker 1: we just said, the streamlined options. What I really love
Speaker 1: about this is the breakfast and lunch plans also being available.
Speaker 1: A lot of times when we talk about meal planning,
Speaker 1: just in the wider sense, we're only typically talking about dinner.
Speaker 1: It's like, I eat more than dinner in a day
Speaker 1: and I want help thinking through, well, what what am
Speaker 1: I gonna eat for breakfast and lunch and dinner and
Speaker 1: what do I need to purchase? Those aren't like nothing
Speaker 1: meals thought needs to go into that. So that's super
Speaker 1: a great user friendly menus. You've got the option to
Speaker 1: select thirty minute meals, low calorie meals, kild friendly meals,
Speaker 1: so there are different categories as well that you can
Speaker 1: select through the emails app. Yeah, that's probably the biggest
Speaker 1: differentiator for me between cook Smarts and Emails. Cook Smarts
Speaker 1: offers paleo, vegetarian, and regular options. Emails in addition to that,
Speaker 1: offers heart healthy, diabetic, plant based, so fully vegan, budget friendly,
Speaker 1: clean eating keto so like, it has a lot of
Speaker 1: different options. So if you're looking for a more health conscious,
Speaker 1: like more health conscious meal plan that you can customize
Speaker 1: based on what you consider health conscious for yourself, Emails
Speaker 1: is definitely the way to go. And their free trail
Speaker 1: right now these always changed to the way but as
Speaker 1: of recording, their free trial is also fourteen days. So
Speaker 1: then the last one we got up here is eat
Speaker 1: at Home. And so this one's a smaller like it's
Speaker 1: not like a big company, it's just I think, like
Speaker 1: a small team. But this is a meal plan that
Speaker 1: focuses on family friendly recipes. So, like I said at
Speaker 1: the beginning, if you're that casserole, dump dinner, freezer meal,
Speaker 1: this one is for you. Like, if you're not a
Speaker 1: very adventurous eater, you're going to really like then the
Speaker 1: meal plans it it's called eat at home. So yeah,
Speaker 1: there again you can um make your grocer gives you.
Speaker 1: It does have several different UM like plans, So there's
Speaker 1: a no flour or sugar plan, whole food, plant based, traditional,
Speaker 1: and crop pot and then um and I use it,
Speaker 1: I have to double check. With your subscription, you get
Speaker 1: access to all of them plus six like a freezer
Speaker 1: stash every month, so you can buy all the ingredients
Speaker 1: and make six freezer meals every month to use throughout
Speaker 1: the months. They are such a great I love them,
Speaker 1: um and so I that was probably my favorite thing
Speaker 1: about this one. UM. So you get all four of
Speaker 1: those and then the freezer stash. So yeah, and you
Speaker 1: get another thing that I like about this when you
Speaker 1: get the whole month up front. Uh So the other
Speaker 1: ones you get a week at a time, and this
Speaker 1: one you get, um all the whole month up front,
Speaker 1: so you can you can like plan your shopping trip
Speaker 1: like upfront. And then it also gives you the option
Speaker 1: for small family and large family, so you can do
Speaker 1: like a three to four serving or sixty eight UM
Speaker 1: serving plan and so you avoid waste. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it still has it says the one hour freezer stash,
Speaker 1: so that you stock your freezer with six meals prepped
Speaker 1: in an hour, and you get a new plan each month.
Speaker 1: So if you are family oriented, then this is definitely
Speaker 1: the plan for you, because yeah, I've got a lot
Speaker 1: of When I tried it had a lot of that
Speaker 1: um the you know, dump dinners and cast roles and
Speaker 1: just like feel good food that's very kid friendly, which
Speaker 1: could be good during a particularly busy season of life.
Speaker 1: We don't have to cook the same way until all
Speaker 1: of the eternity. Again, we've got decades of needing to
Speaker 1: feed ourselves. So identifying what app is going to work
Speaker 1: for you now at this particular life stage and then
Speaker 1: having permission to switch it up if you find yourself
Speaker 1: in a different life stage, or maybe you've got more
Speaker 1: time or less time, so hopefully you find something that
Speaker 1: works for you. Again, we've got these linked in the
Speaker 1: show notes, so if any of these sound interest saying
Speaker 1: you want to try these free trials, feel free to
Speaker 1: utilize the links that are. Yeah, they're in this article.
Speaker 1: And for the eat at home, they just give you
Speaker 1: like one free um like an instant pot meal plan.
Speaker 1: It's not like a fourteen day trial or anything. Because
Speaker 1: since they don't go week to week. They just go
Speaker 1: month to month UM. But the trial has like for
Speaker 1: it's it's like an instant pot school free UM instant
Speaker 1: meal plan with video lessons, pdf downloads UM to help
Speaker 1: you use that instant pot And uh yeah, they're all
Speaker 1: about fourteen dollars a month. It's less if you get
Speaker 1: a year. But right, it's like half the price on
Speaker 1: some of them. So that's about what you can expect
Speaker 1: to pay. Very reasonable, honestly for the savings I think.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you know you know what else is reasonable? Well,
Speaker 1: you know what's free and never requires a monthly subscription.
Speaker 1: Unlimited trial, unlimited free trial. The bill of the week.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 1: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 1: is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your
Speaker 1: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 1: that bill anymore. Touch bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clint, this
Speaker 1: is the bill of the week. Hi, Jen and Jail.
Speaker 1: This is Emily from State College, Pennsylvania. My bill of
Speaker 1: the week this week is my private student loan bill.
Speaker 1: Believe it or not, UM, it's my bill the week
Speaker 1: because my minimum payment just decreased by sixty dollars a
Speaker 1: month because I've been paying um so much extra for
Speaker 1: so long, so back gets me excited, and I'm hoping
Speaker 1: to pay that off by the end of this year.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the show. Thanks Emily. That is exciting that
Speaker 1: you will have because yeah, private student loans, they they
Speaker 1: didn't miss a beat charging they're paying those back. So
Speaker 1: I'm really glad um that you are going to get
Speaker 1: the private student loan debt out of your life, even
Speaker 1: though the bill is decreased, that you're still just going
Speaker 1: to get it out of your life. So yes, Emily,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for sharing. This is exciting, not
Speaker 1: only the decrease in the amount that you pay because
Speaker 1: of the extra you've paid, but how close you are.
Speaker 1: We can all almost taste it. We've added it to
Speaker 1: our meal plan, the taste of your debt freedom having
Speaker 1: this bill is private student loan bill paid off by
Speaker 1: the end of the year. Cheering you on. We hope
Speaker 1: that happens. Feel free to call back it does happen,
Speaker 1: and we'll celebrate with you when it happens. At the
Speaker 1: not not if, when, when it happens when? Now back
Speaker 1: to the ifs, if you are listening, want to submit
Speaker 1: your bill of the week, visit Frugal Friends podcast dot
Speaker 1: com slash bill. Leave us a bill if it has
Speaker 1: anything to do with decreasing a bill, getting rid of
Speaker 1: a bill, giving birth to a bill, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: especially that leave us your bill. Just a tiny little
Speaker 1: baby that says Bill on it. Please send us a
Speaker 1: picture and a naughty and record audio of it. And
Speaker 1: now it's time for the lightning. Oh wow, just a
Speaker 1: tiny little baby. Like a tiny tiny baby, You're still
Speaker 1: am even if his name isn't Bill. You just want
Speaker 1: to have a name tag that says my name is Bill.
Speaker 1: I can feel lie lie to me. I'm fine. Alright,
Speaker 1: So today's lightning round. How do you come up with
Speaker 1: new meal ideas and not get stuck in a rut?
Speaker 1: This question comes from our manager, our podcast manager, Goldie. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm never going to say I don't get stuck. Getting
Speaker 1: stuck happens, Yeah obviously, then yeah, how do you get
Speaker 1: out of the rut? Might be a better way to
Speaker 1: phrase it. Yeah. One of the things that works for
Speaker 1: me is changing up my shopping routine. So typically I
Speaker 1: do get my groceries from Walmart all the you know,
Speaker 1: kind of low cost environment to procure everything that I
Speaker 1: need for the week. But when I'm feeling close to
Speaker 1: a rut, or i've already found myself in a rut,
Speaker 1: I'll do something like a Trader Joe's run for that week,
Speaker 1: where the cost of the groceries might go up slightly,
Speaker 1: but the variety and alternative options that are different from
Speaker 1: what I'm typically used to eating. Because I when I
Speaker 1: do my typical run, my typical grocery run, I'm getting
Speaker 1: usually a lot of the same things because I know
Speaker 1: what I know and I know what works. But if
Speaker 1: I'm able to change it up with a Trader Joe's,
Speaker 1: or I have my mother in law's in town, we
Speaker 1: might try a Sam's Club. They don't do everything that
Speaker 1: I need, but some new things, some variety, and on occasion,
Speaker 1: I will say maybe about once a quarter, maybe twice
Speaker 1: a year, I'll do a meal delivery, so not just
Speaker 1: meal planning, but an actual meal delivery service too, because
Speaker 1: that while it is more expensive than grocery shopping, it's
Speaker 1: less expensive than eating out. So again we're talking I'm
Speaker 1: in a rut, I need to switch it up a bit,
Speaker 1: or or I'm super super busy or I'm just getting
Speaker 1: back from traveling and I don't even have the time
Speaker 1: to like think about what I'm going to make or
Speaker 1: make a delivery order. Getting the meal meal kit delivery
Speaker 1: service has been really helpful. Yeah, I love meal kits
Speaker 1: for that. And when you can anticipate a busy season,
Speaker 1: like your kids have a soccer tournament and they have games,
Speaker 1: multiple games every night of the week, But and you
Speaker 1: want to not eat out every single night of the week.
Speaker 1: You'd like to eat in maybe you know, three times
Speaker 1: over the course of that tournament. Then that's great. It
Speaker 1: can save you money in times like that, or like
Speaker 1: when you're studying for like big tests or series of tests,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Like when in seasons where the week
Speaker 1: is going to be identifiably busier than others. Just don't
Speaker 1: expect more of yourself than you can give. And permission, Yeah, permission,
Speaker 1: what about you? Jen? I visit my tried and true
Speaker 1: favorite food blogs. So when if I'm on cook Smarts
Speaker 1: and I'm just like not digging the week, then I'll
Speaker 1: go to one of my favorite food blogs and just
Speaker 1: pick a few recipes from that one blog, and I'll
Speaker 1: make that food blog the entire like week. That's kind
Speaker 1: of what helps me. Um. I think I did that
Speaker 1: last week. I think it was I think I used
Speaker 1: love and Lemons last week, so maybe the week before.
Speaker 1: I can't remember. Yeah, but yeah, that's kind of how
Speaker 1: I will do it. And I'll go back to my
Speaker 1: my list of favorite food blogs. I mean actually in
Speaker 1: our when we did the Eat at Home challenge and
Speaker 1: our membership, I have a list of like seventy five
Speaker 1: food blogs in their way more and than episode seventy nine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so like with direct links, so just hit one of
Speaker 1: those links and and check it out. So yeah, that's
Speaker 1: kind of my and I have, like I have rotations
Speaker 1: of like cuisines, so like I'll maybe if I'm trying
Speaker 1: to create my own meal plan, I'll choose an Italian,
Speaker 1: a Greek, a Mexican, and like a more like comfort food.
Speaker 1: So like I'll pick one of each of those because
Speaker 1: those are my favorite cuisines, followed by like an Indian
Speaker 1: and a like a pan Asian sort of cuisine. So um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'll just pick one of those cuisines and
Speaker 1: look it up. And sometimes I'll do that concept what
Speaker 1: you're describing in like a week to week rather than
Speaker 1: a day to day, especially if some of the recipes
Speaker 1: require some specialty ingredients so that I can know i'm
Speaker 1: using up. Yeah, like one week will all be kind
Speaker 1: of Greek inspired, in another week might be more the
Speaker 1: Asian cuisine, so you can know that you're going to
Speaker 1: use the items. Yes, yes, so that's so good. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks guys so much for listening. UM. We love to
Speaker 1: help you save money on food. It's our most requested
Speaker 1: topic and people ask how do you come up with
Speaker 1: so many topics and and ideas for your podcast? We're like,
Speaker 1: we don't people do? People come up with them for
Speaker 1: us like you. Uh So, if you have an episode request,
Speaker 1: you can definitely let us know shooting us an email
Speaker 1: or or posting in the Facebook group. Just yeah, emails
Speaker 1: probably the best. But yeah, so thanks for listening. You
Speaker 1: also probably know that we have a private community where
Speaker 1: we do monthly challenges UM and we have accountability group.
Speaker 1: So we want to congratulate one of our members for
Speaker 1: a big mindset shift they made during last month's mindset challenge,
Speaker 1: and that is Judith. She says, we just got a
Speaker 1: notice from our water utility company that we can't water
Speaker 1: our lawns until further notice, and the wheat must make
Speaker 1: every effort to conserve water. Since the shortages have started
Speaker 1: almost two years ago, I've been learning ways to conserve, substitute,
Speaker 1: and do without. So today I saved the washing machine
Speaker 1: water and used that to water my front lawn. Not enough,
Speaker 1: but better than nothing. The mindset I used is always learning.
Speaker 1: You have to be flexible enough to change when circumstances change.
Speaker 1: And yeah, learning is deaf is one of the steps
Speaker 1: to cultivating growth mindset. So good job, Judith. That's amazing, Judith.
Speaker 1: I really would love to know the ins and outs
Speaker 1: of how you made that work. I was also thinking
Speaker 1: or yeah, the hose that, um let's the water drain
Speaker 1: or and then I guess using eco friendly soap so
Speaker 1: that then you can water the lawn with it. Anyhow,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's you are learning ways two years and
Speaker 1: that's quite a long time. So congrat So thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. If you want to check out our monthly
Speaker 1: challenge club, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash
Speaker 1: club see what challenge we've got coming up next, See
Speaker 1: you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Syrian
Speaker 1: Jill Tell Me You know what would be very cool
Speaker 1: for you and I to do is that if you
Speaker 1: took me back to Sam's Club, because I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about Sam's Club since you took me that one time.
Speaker 1: You want to go, I do. It's some magical place.
Speaker 1: You know what I also love about Sam's Club is
Speaker 1: the inexpensive hot dogs. Absolutely well, we will for sure
Speaker 1: get a hot dog. We'll go for lunch or something
Speaker 1: and get a hot I mean eating out at Sam's
Speaker 1: Club is like dining in because you can get a
Speaker 1: hot dog for a dollar. That should have been one
Speaker 1: of our meal planning apps is Sam's Club. It's just
Speaker 1: hot dogs from Sam's. Neither hot dog or a slice
Speaker 1: of pizza. And done about the nutritional info put a
Speaker 1: vegetable on it, like relish. Yeah. They are great for
Speaker 1: really specific things, but they're not and we've talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, bulk stores in the past, but they're not
Speaker 1: great for procuring everything that I need. But occasionally, if
Speaker 1: I want even prepared meals, man, they've got some really
Speaker 1: great That's what I was thinking. I don't they're haired
Speaker 1: and refrigerated sash frozen like meals, and I'm like, this
Speaker 1: is a this is a magic place. You really have
Speaker 1: to go in with a set amount of what you're
Speaker 1: going to spend, because you could walk out of there
Speaker 1: and what you have space to store with only like
Speaker 1: five items and spend two hundred dollars somehow. So going
Speaker 1: in with Okay, I'm going to limit myself to this
Speaker 1: amount of money or items and but but if you
Speaker 1: can be regimented, it can be really great, especially in
Speaker 1: those times when you're in a rut or you need
Speaker 1: to feed a bunch of people, Like there have been
Speaker 1: times when we've had guests in who are helping us
Speaker 1: with renovations, and that's a lot on me when I
Speaker 1: have full time work and hosting and trying to feed
Speaker 1: people that are working on my house. So getting these
Speaker 1: big prepared meals that I just need to heat up
Speaker 1: that you know are always going to be good. Like
Speaker 1: Sam's Clubs Manya's are really great. Yeah. I I saw
Speaker 1: a group on like special on it for like maybe
Speaker 1: it was like five dollars for a membership to Sam's
Speaker 1: Club and then you get like a twenty five dollar
Speaker 1: gift card and I didn't trust myself to get it,
Speaker 1: and I was like this, you there are two full
Speaker 1: sized humans and one half sized human in your house.
Speaker 1: You don't need Sam's Club and I and that's what
Speaker 1: I kept telling myself, and I said, Jill will take me,
Speaker 1: I'll take you. Let's go. Okay, okay, see it, see
Speaker 1: you soon, see it. Sam's gone.