Just one week ago, we had hopped off the plane after a week-long vacation and were on our final leg home. It was clear that a snowstorm was imminent.
Knowing our refrigerator was pretty bare at home, and imagining a drive out to the grocery store later in the day when the driving conditions would be less than desirable, we decided to stop and get a few groceries.
I planned our menu in less than 5 minutes!
I pulled up my Plan to Eat app on my phone and *I kid you not* in less than 5 minutes, I had a savory menu planned for the coming week, as well as a shopping list ready to go, and organized by food category. This is actually just one of many times I’ve menu planned minutes before arriving at the grocery store.
We made a quick detour to the grocery store and when we arrived home we were able to get cozy and enjoy the storm AND a full fridge of food.
For most of my years as a mom, I’ve been inclined to the idea of menu planning. Menu planning helps reduce impulse buying (thus saving money!), impulse eating (thus eating healthier and not dining out as much!), and having a plan just makes me SANER.
Three years ago, I had settled into a comfortable, but tedious routine of doing my menu planning on Friday nights. I would pull out some recipes I wanted to make for the coming week as well as a separate sheet to make a shopping list.
While I was happy to have the menu planned, the planning was a CHORE.
Hello, Plan to Eat!
It was around that time a friend told me about Plan to Eat. She was thrilled with it and suggested I try it out. I didn’t really want to pay for a menu planning service but they had 30-day free trial and I decided to give it a try. I knew 30 days would be long enough to know if this was something for me.
Well, the rest is history. After 30 days of using Plan to Eat, I was hooked!
I had a new love for planning my weekly menu AND I had my Friday night back. 🙂
Who Plan to Eat is PERFECT for:
- Busy parents who want a simple solution to menu planning
- People who make lots of homecooked meals.
- People who have specific recipes they like to use
- Those who like to have a menu plan.
- People who want to be intentional with their meal planning and not buy more than they need (thus saving $$$!)
Plan to Eat is NOT for people who:
- Don’t like to cook.
- Want recipes decided for them.
- Buy mostly ‘ready to go’ food.
- Prefer to cook on the fly.
Plan to Eat features that I LOVE:
- Super user-friendly app that I can use on the go.
- Import your favorite recipes from the web.
- For well-loved NON-internet recipes (can we say Grandma’s apple pie!) manually enter the recipe just one time.
- Queue up your favorite recipes and simply click and drag those recipes to the day you want to eat them.
The click and drag feature is what makes Plan to Eat so easy and fun! - Shopping list is automatically populated based on your menu plan.
My shopping list after I’ve “shopped” the pantry and fridge to see what we already have on hand. - Plan however many days at a time you want. I keep it simple and do it weekly.
- Shop using an easy to read list organized by category. (I prefer bringing the paper copy so I’m not staring at my phone, but the app works amazingly well too!)
- See what friends (who use Plan to Eat) are cooking and add those to your own menu plan!
- Easy to halve/double/triple recipes (which then updates shopping list accordingly)
So how much does Plan to Eat cost?
Plan to Eat costs $4.95/month or $39/year. We do the yearly plan which comes out to $3.25/month. I consider this a small price to pay for the time and energy Plan to Eat has saved me! Not to mention the money I’ve saved from not impulse shopping, and not taking mid-week trips to the grocery store…
Plan to Eat’s 30-Day Trial is Truly FREE!
Plan to Eat does not require credit card information before starting your 30-day trial. So it truly is a FREE trial. They are very upfront and don’t want to trick you into paying them just because you forgot to cancel.
They also do not automatically bill you when your yearly subscription expires. If your account does expire, your account is simply suspended, and your recipes will still be there when/if you renew.
Not going back to my old way of planning!
At this point, I truly can not imagine going back to my old way of menu planning. I now ENJOY meal planning. Plan to Eat has given me my Friday nights back and saved my sanity. Instead of spending hours menu-planning, I can use that time to for other things, like cooking with my kids!
So, if you’re looking to make meal-planning easier, and more fun, AND cut your grocery bill, check out Plan to Eat!
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And don’t forget, the website has the ability to export the incredients for a meal so you can add it to your preferred shopping/reminders app (in case you rather not have the sheet of paper).