Simplifying meal planning with emeals

 

You will probably grow tired of me saying this but it is what it is.  And this is what it is…I am trying to simplify my life.  I am a busy mom.  Most moms are busy moms.  Being busy can bring a lot of stress so I’m on the look out for changes that will reduce (or even eliminate) this stress.  Since we live extremely frugally, it is rare that I will spend money to help me in an area like meal planning but…

I have recently spent money to help in the meal planning area.  It’s no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of meal planning.  Well, I’m a fan of having a meal plan but I do not enjoy the process of meal planning.  One day at swim, I was pulling out my papers and trying to plan our menu.  I was complaining telling my friends about how much I dislike love meal planning and that’s when a friend told me about emeals.

Emeals is described as “a meal planning resource for busy moms and frugal family cooks”.  Ummm, hello!  That’s me on both accounts.

Here is what is cool about emeals:  if you subscribe they send you a meal plan straight to your email inbox– complete with recipes, shopping lists, and prices every week.  Even better, it is based on the sales in your area. 

When you sign up, you chose a store.  I chose Wal-Mart because the sales they were using for Kroger were not the sales for our area.  (Really hope that they fix that soon.) There are a few other stores to chose from (can’t remember at the moment which ones) and you can change your store at anytime.  After I chose a store, emeals sent me a menu based on Wal-Mart prices (with the shopping lists, prices, and recipes).  They will continue to send the menus to me every week for the next three months.

I could actually just add in my lunch and breakfasts items and go to the store with the list that they give.  However, I actually just pull a few things from the list because I still like to shop the sales at other stores in addition to Wal-Mart.  And I like to omit some of the convenience items and make my own.  For instance, for Calzones, I just make my own pizza crust instead of buying it premade.  It saves us even more money.

So how has this helped us?  It has taken some of the guess work out of meal planning and it has refreshed my meal planning with new recipe ideas.  We have enjoyed every recipe that we have tried.  And I actually enjoy meal planning a little more now.  Really! 

How much money was it to join?  The prices vary but I paid for a 3 month subscription which was $21 and I got a discount using a coupon code that I found online.  So I actually paid a total of $16 dollars and some change. 

Another cool thing about emeals is that once you sign up, you are part of the referral program.  So you can then put the emeals button on your blog, etc and if people make a purchase through your link, then you get a percentage of the sale. 

Here is a button with my referral code.  And I would tell you about emeals even if I got nothing back from it.  We have really enjoyed the meals we’ve used and it has simplified my meal planning! 

 

Let me know if you have any questions about emeals or if you try it out and what you think about it! 

happy meal planning!