3 Meal Planning Apps with Free Trials: Try a Meal Planning App Today!
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Using a meal planning app can help you slash your grocery budget, save even more money, and eat healthier to boot! Here are three of my favorite meal planning apps, and how to know if they are right for you!
There are no tricks and no magic silver bullets to getting out of debt fast. Grit, determination, and drive are about the only things that work every time. There is one exception, though.
One simple change in habit that can feel like a magic bullet. Once you begin going down this rabbit hole, you will find more and more tricks to save even more money. That means less piling on to the existing debt. It also means more free cash to help pay down that debt.
What is this enchanted cure? It saves you money on food, a huge expense each week. Until now, it has been a chore that many of us avoid like the plague. Until now, we haven’t had the help we need to stay aggressive, get organized, and keep motivated.
I’m referring to meal planning!
I’ve always been a huge fan of meal planning – I even wrote a guide about how to meal plan! However, I totally acknowledge the benefit and the ease of arranging and scheduling planned meals by using a meal planning app.
Why You Need to Use a Meal Planning App
A good meal planning app will help keep you organized and on top of your meal plans. It should also make meal planning easier to do. Especially since some of us would rather hack off our own feet and make a sandwich out of them. 😅
No matter how much you may try to avoid meal planning, it truly is a beneficial way to approach getting out of debt. Do you spend too much money having food delivered to your door? Do you have a fully stocked refrigerator that you have to clean out regularly because you don’t eat what’s inside? Can you tell me what is in your pantry?
For most people, the answers are: Yes. Yes. No. The cost of food and lack of meal planning are major reasons for staying in debt when just the slightest action can change all of that.
Let the Meal Planning App Do The Work
When you use a meal planning app, you take control of your food budget. You can organize your meals for the week and reduce waste as well as the amount you pay for food, to begin with.
Meal planning doesn’t have to be this strenuous thing. It isn’t like composing a symphony or proving a theorem on a hallway chalkboard while you mop the floor. When you plan meals ahead of time, you avoid last-minute purchases via Uber Eats, or impractical impulse buys that cost more money and don’t contribute to a healthy diet.
Planning meals alone when you have never done it before can be a little daunting. You may not know where to start. That can make you apprehensive about even giving it a shot.
That’s why I recommend using a good meal planning app such as the ones I review below to help make it easier for you to do the one thing that can help you end your debt and live a life better suited to your ideal monthly budget.
3 Must-Try Meal Planning Apps
These three exceptional apps are offering free trials that you have to take advantage of. Try them all to find the app that works best for you. Or just read on and pick the one you think will suit you best.
1. Cook Smarts
Cook Smarts is one of the best-known meal planning apps out there and has been around for years. The service automatically generates shopping lists for the meals you choose. Then, you buy the ingredients and make the meals using easy-to-follow recipes. There is a lot of flexibility with Cook Smarts, including menus for special diets and a healthy selection of seasonal meals to keep things interesting for you.
Cook Smarts could be the app for you if you like the idea of having their automated system take over your meal planning and shopping list. These two tasks alone are huge time savers when you don’t have to do them.
Unlike subscription boxes which require you to pay for meals that are shipped to you, you are able to do your own shopping and cut down on overpriced meals that you still have to cook.
The price to subscribe to Cook Smarts is $14.99 a month, but it’s only half that amount if you are confident committing to a full year. However, don’t commit to a full year yet. First, take the free trial and see how well you like it.
Highlights:
- variety of menus
- dietary options
- automated planning
- automated shopping list
- goal-oriented
As you can see by the final point, the Cook Smarts app is goal-oriented. That to me is the most exciting highlight because it allows you to personalize your meal plans in very specific ways. Just like filtering a search, CookSmarts uses goal categories to help customize your meal planning experience. You can make plans with different goals in mind.
For example, if you want to save money, then you can calibrate your meal plan to that goal. Here is a list of the goal categories you might use with your CookSmarts app free trial:
- Learn to cook
- Save time
- Raise healthy kids
- Spend less
- End your dinner Rr\\rut
If any of these goals appeal to you, you should try Cook Smarts out and see how it improves dinner time.
Click Here to get 30 days free from Cook Smarts
2. eMeals
eMeals is a similar meal planning app in that it allows you to choose meals from a menu and you can do the shopping to get what you need in order to cook your meals at home. The app is very simple to use and it satisfies the basic spirit of a meal planning app without including too many other customization options.
This is a really good choice if you like a streamlined app that doesn’t put too many decisions on you. The lack of customization may be appealing if you just want to point and click your way to a better meal plan.
Another thing that sets eMeals apart is that it adds even more convenience by working through third-party delivery services so you don’t have to even go to the store.
If you like the idea of doing your own shopping with eMeals, you can. However, you can also opt to send your shopping list to Amazon Fresh, Instacart, Kroger, Shipt, or Walmart to order and deliver the items you want.
Depending on your experiences with the reliability of these services in your area, it could be a desirable alternative to either shopping yourself or having boxes delivered from a subscription service that isn’t necessarily local. Doing it this way also helps keep the cost down compared to subscription boxes and crate deliveries.
The range of costs for eMeals starts as low as $4.99 per month, but you can start a 14-day free trial to see how you like it.
Highlights
- Streamlined options
- Third-party connectivity
- Saves hours each week
- Breakfast and lunch plans available
- User-friendly menus
eMeals offers a great selection of menus conveniently tagged and stored for whatever type of plan you are searching for. 30-minute meals, low-calorie meals, and kid-friendly meals are just a few of the many categories you can scour for fresh new meal concepts all broken down for you. This system allows you to browse the type of diet plans you’d prefer rather than searching by personal goals.
Click Here to get 2-weeks free from eMeals
3. Eat at Home
Eat at Home is another meal planning app that focuses on family friendly recipes like dump dinners, casseroles, and freezer meals.
This service is a great option for those who want to stop going out to restaurants, but don’t have the time or interest in learning new cooking skills. A subscription is $14 per month or half of that when paid annually.
Eat at Home offers 4 plans: no flour or sugar, whole food plant-based, traditional, and crockpot. With your subscription, you get access to all of them plus a 6-meal “freezer stash” menu.
Highlights
- Easy, uncomplicated meals
- Vegan options
- Budget-friendly ingredients
- Kid-friendly
Click here to get a free Instant Pot meal plan from Eat at Home.
I highly encourage you to give one of these three meal planning apps a try and see how they work for your family!
Jen Smith is a personal finance expert, founder of Modern Frugality and co-host of the Frugal Friends Podcast. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Lifehacker, Money Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, Business Insider, and more. She’s passionate about helping people gain control of their spending.