I have been using Plan to Eat‘s service for my weekly meal planning for about 8 months now and I absolutely love it! I like programs and lists, services that make things more efficient, and anything that I can use seamlessly with my technology. I have looked through several different meal planning sites and there were so many advantages and extra features to Plan to Eat which is why I subscribed to this one though it has a fee and other services are free. Here’s what I love:
- You can add your own recipes, not just choose from a list. This can take some time at first, but there are a few features that make this easy. (There is also a list of recipes to choose from if you want to browse there.)
- When a recipe is planned, the ingredients are automatically added to a shopping list.
- *Best part that I couldn’t find anywhere else* There is also a Pantry Inventory feature, where you can take things from the shopping list to your pantry. When an ingredient is in your pantry, it won’t be added to your shopping list. When you check off an item while shopping, that item is automatically put into your pantry. I LOVE THIS! The pantry and the shopping lists are completely able to be edited.
- You can categorize items in your shopping list by aisle and store. So if you shop different stores, you can see a different list for each store. Beautiful!
- You can save a meal plan and load it again later. For example, if certain meals are repeats in your home, you can load a meal plan and edit from there. With this I am aiming to save 4-6 different weekly meal plans and rotate them. That really makes planning easy!
- You can load your meal plan into your calendar (Google, ICal, etc.). That way your planned recipes are easily viewable in your daily schedule.
- The mobile site is clean and efficient and easy to use with your shopping list and daily meal plan. I use my smartphone in the grocery store and click off the items as I pick them up. (For your paper lovers out there, shopping lists and meal plans are printable as well.)
- There’s a 30 day, free, trial membership with no commitment just to try it out. This is what got me hooked.
This membership is $39/year, which I think is really affordable and worth it (and what I paid). Click here to check out Plan to Eat, and I highly encourage you to start a free trial.
Here’s a picture of my current schedule of meals:
And my Shopping List with Pantry Inventory:
Go check it out! Plan to Eat!
Hmmm… I've been shopping scanner thingies for the pantry feature. This offers a lot more. Is it a pain to get the inventory in the database?
Jill, It does take some time in the beginning, but you can download from certain websites & copy/paste easily from others. I initially entered my main repeats, then just added a little each week if I was doing something different for my meal plan.