I hate cooking. With a firey, burning hatred that would consume many worlds if allowed to. It stresses me out so much that I get back pain, especially if it's something that I've never made before and/or I'm running late. Because of this hate I have for cooking, I am constantly on the search for easy, quick meals. And because of The Man's job change, they also have to be extremely cheap. I have found many blogs about eating cheaply, and even eating healthy cheaply. But still, our grocery budget was way more than I was comfortable with. The only things I buy for breakfast is cereal and bagels, and lunches are always leftovers or sandwiches. I would still spend over $100 some weeks on food for dinner. Until I found Grocery Shrink. The blog is good, and she posts a lot on how to do things cheaply. A few weeks after discovering this website, she announced that she was going to offer a menu planning service (similar to E-Meals or Relish) for 5 dollars a month called Grocery Shrink Plus.
Now, I tried E-Meals. While I loved loved loved that I didn't have to plan a menu, I wasn't thrilled with the actual meals. Because I only needed enough food for 2 people, with E-Meals, I only got 5 dinners a week. No other meals, and I had to come up with 2 more dinners every week (if you need 4 or more servings, you get 7). For 5 dollars a month, it's still a pretty good deal. Except that the meals are made easy by using A LOT of processed and pre-made foods. There was very little in the way of fresh vegetables or fruit, or even seasonings, and almost nothing was made from scratch. Because of all the processed food I had to buy, my grocery budget didn't change at all. So I canceled it. I also DO NOT recommend it to other people.
But Grocery Shrink Plus (click on the link to see a sample menu) offers so much more than that, for the same price, that I just had to try it. I get breakfast, lunch, dinner (including sides) and snacks for 7 days a week. The menus are based on what she calls pantry shopping: you use what you already have. She includes recipes for making mixes and seasoning blends from scratch that you will be using that week, as well as recipes for making any bread items, like hamburger buns or tortillas. And she includes either directions for how to make a meal gluten or dairy free, or links to websites or recipes for how to make a specific item gluten or dairy free. She includes as much nutrition info as she can, as well as how to eat these meals when you are trying to lose weight, without making the rest of your family starve. She frequently uses the crockpot, which makes everything easy, and includes step by step how and when to make things. And you get the amounts for 2, 4, 8, 12, and 24 servings. And a shopping list. And bonus recipes like granola and restaurant style black beans. And my favorite thing: she says that it's okay to use premade stuff if that makes it easy for you! So, no guilt if I don't make homemade hamburger buns or focacia bread!
It's still a new service, so there are some kinks that she is working out, but they are mostly spelling errors, or sometimes directions on how to do something or where a certain extra recipe is, isn't super clear. But there is a facebook group that you can sign up for where she posts fixes, and you can let her know when/if you find a mistake. She also doesn't offer a vegetarian option (yet!), but I think most meals could easily be made vegetarian, if that's what you want to do.
The best thing of all: my grocery budget has shrunk! I only use the dinners right now, because we don't need the other things, which of course will help with the spending, but I haven't spent over $40 dollars a week on groceries in over a month, and that's including getting things that aren't necessarily food items, or part of the menu. I also spend much, much less time shopping (down to 1 hour tops from 2 hours minimum) because my shopping lists are so incredibly short! And we aren't missing out on any fruits and vegetables, and we are eating way less processed crap. Even the amount of garbage we throw out is lessening!
This service is probably the first time that I've bought something that I can say paid itself off the first week I had it, and I highly, highly recommend it to everyone who might possibly read this. At least give it a try.
