Needed: a good meal planner site
I first came across this idea while listening to the Dave Ramsey show. The concept sounded fantastic: plans meals, create a shopping list and save money. Awesome! But, let's be practical. As homogenous as we Americans like to pretend we are, and especially us protestant Bible belt types, we're quite different and food is about as intimate a cultural expression as one can practice.
Kosher, glutin free, vegitarian, raw, low carb and the myriad of dietary restrictions that one may possess can create quite a conflict with a simple approach to meal planning.
First, let's outline what a good meal planning site must offer:
- Dietary restrictions
- Kosher
- Gluten free
- Carb controlled / Diabetic
- High protein
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Branded weight loss programs, like Weight Watchers
- etc.
- Meal or course
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Snacks
- etc.
- Food style
- Asian
- Southern
- Eastern
- etc.
- Portions or servings adjustment
- Schedule or planner
- Shopping list based on store, meal plan and coupons
I checked out a few meal planning sites to see what they offer. What did they fail to offer? Most of them fail to provide me a free trial so I can get used to the idea of letting someone else plan my meals. But, they almost all fail to deliver on handling more complex dietary choices.
ALDI Foods has the best assortment of planning, the most flexible meal planner. But, I didn't manage to get the shopping list to work, and not everyone lives close to an ALDI Foods store.
Several websites deliver on simplicity:
The average family would benefit financially from simple planning. If you had a clear shopping list, even without discounts, coupons or some other method of cutting costs, the mere list itself cuts waste and improves efficiency. You will save money with a shopping list that matches a meal plan. However, it would be nice if it included coupons or created a list of sale items that fit the meal plan shopping list. Most savvy shoppers, those savvy enough to buy a meal planner, would likely be equipped to quickly eyeball deals and use the shopping list to save money with or without applicable sale items.
ALDI's meal planner seems to offer the most flexibility, in that it caters to specific dietary needs and recipes can be added by the community members. So, if you want to add Grandma's special recipe to the community and use it to create your shopping lists and meal plans, it's simple to add. The ability to add your own recipes is a must for any online meal planner. Food is just too intimate to abandon family or cultural recipes.
Other meal planning sites I'm checking out: