E-mealz Meal Planning Made Easy! Has Anyone Tried This?

Updated on January 04, 2011
K.H. asks from Denton, TX
11 answers

Hello Mamas.

Have any of you tried this meal planning service out? It seems to be dirt cheap and a great concept of someone else making out your menu and shopping list, I don't have a lot of time and really have a hard time coming up with things to eat. This seems like it would be a great service. Any comments about this would be great. Good, bad, or anything you have to offer. Thanks.

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S.M.

answers from Dallas on

I've been doing this for about 6-8 months now. I started on the family friendly any store plan. The meals were all good and my family loved them. Then I switched to the family meal walmart plan, which was still good, and now I'm on the points plus plan for walmart. Even with the switch to the points plan, my family still loves it. I love that it reminds you to have a veggie and fruit with most meals. They give you 7 meals for the week...I usually use 4-6 of them b/c Friday night is pizza night at my house and we usually have leftovers or something comes up at least once a week. I've really enjoyed the convenience of it and I love the shopping list!

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K.F.

answers from Dallas on

Yes, I tried it and really liked it. I will tell you I didn't use it long-term, but that is because I have an incredibly picky family, I work in the evenings so my hubby usually has to cook dinner and he is funny about what he will make (but hey, he cooks!), and I was already doing my own meal planning regularly anyway so I saved money planning with my local store's specials. However, if you are not already doing your own meal planning I HIGHLY recommend it. The recipes are yummy, easy, and it's so nice to have it already figured out!!

ADDED: If you don't already have experience in meal planning this is a great jumping-off point. It helps you get into a groove of doing so. . . . so even if you don't love the meals (which really are good) then you still get a great education!!

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S.T.

answers from Kansas City on

I am going to sign up tomorrow and give it a try! My family is super picky so we'll see how this works out. Good Luck

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R.S.

answers from Dallas on

I loved the service--I subscribed for a year, printed out the menus and have been reusing them. My family likes variety, so that was not a problem for us. I agree that there are some days I looked at the plan and went "That's it?" We had more successes than failures in terms of what my family liked. I think it's worth trying for three months to see if it works for you.

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C.C.

answers from Washington DC on

I used it for about a year and loved it. I printed out the recipes that my family liked most and put them in a book to reference at other times. I used the Weight Watchers version and it gave me the points values which was great. I highly recommend it!

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M.B.

answers from Grand Forks on

sounds interesting...i'm no help, sorry, just wanted the exact website. thanks! and it sounds like this is a cool thing to do!

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K.H.

answers from Dallas on

Dave Ramsey loves this service. My husband and I tried it for a while. The pro is that it is very easy to shop and plan, and there are no wasted ingredients, so it can save money and time. Portions of ingredients are divided between the week's meals.

What I didn't like is that it uses a lot of processed food items, something my family has tried to move away from in the past year or two. Also, I felt like I was always making something for the very first time. I abandoned it in favor of trying to develop a list of easy weeknight favorites that we are happy to eat on a regular basis. It means less variety during the week, but less stress and it's easier to shop for. I focus this list around categories of foods (salads, sandwiches, pasta, pizza, soups, tacos etc.) because these categories offer endless variety, depending on what I have on hand. I now save my more adventurous cooking for weekends or holidays when I have more time and flexibility to experiment. Hope this helps!

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A.E.

answers from Dallas on

I LOVE e-mealz. I can not tell you how much I LOVE this service. I have a family of five, my boys are ages 4, 3, and 2. I used to go to the grocery store everyday, after hours of agonizing over what I was going to fix for dinner. This service has completely cut that stress out of my day. I've been doing e-meals for a couple of months now, and there have only been 1-2 meals that my family didn't particularly care for. It is well worth the money IMO.

C.R.

answers from Dallas on

I tried E Mealz, low carb menu.
Pros: You don't have to plan. Grocery list, menu and cooking instructions are all laid out for you.
You can save money.
Cons: Got tired of trying new stuff all the time. Sometimes it was good but most of the time it was ok. Maybe it was the low carb menu? Also it just included only one side dish with the meals.

Ended up not finishing out the three months that I signed up for and made my own two week rotating menu and grocery lists like they had. I took my families favorites and some new side dish ideas that I got from them. It took some time to get everything lined up but once it was done it works like a champ and still save just as much money. Love it and so does the family.
C.

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R.F.

answers from Dallas on

i love it. I use the weight watchers one. It is great becuase the meals are planned out for each week. I print out the meal plans for each week, so that if I don't like one of the dinners I have backups ready. I am only cooking for two (me and my daughter) so there are lots of leftovers for lunches the next day.

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C.B.

answers from Dallas on

I tried it for a while- it is only the dinners though and I was spending more having to buy lunches and breakfasts- but we are on the rice and beans budget right now- literally! It does make it nice not to have to think up different menu items and I love how they have all the ingredients listed- according to shopping sales. It is a great idea, but it wasn't the right fit for my family at the time.
Good luck!
~C.

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