*This post may contain affiliate links, please see my disclosure
You may have noticed our “I <3 Emeals” button on the right side of the page and we’ve mentioned it a few times in previous posts. Well, I am here today to tell you a little bit about it and let you in on a super awesome deal!
Adjusting to motherhood was a little difficult for me. After having our son I had NO time (or energy) to sort through all our grocery circulars and pick out deals and coupons, make a meal plan based on those deals, go to 4 different grocery stores then come home and make dinner, prep food for lunches, etc.  I used to do all of that every week. I LOVED making my meal plan! But those days are over. No, I was busy dealing with a VERY slow eater, some pretty serious medical issues, barely being able to keep the dishes done and vacuum.   So, I signed up for Emeals.
This is how it works. Emeals shops all the stores (country wide! So there are LOTS of options for places to shop), they grab all the deals, make a meal plan and shopping list out of it and send it to you every Wednesday. (see example below )
You choose your plan based on amount of people in your family (3-6) or (1-2), then based off of store (ALDI, Kroger, Publix, Ralphs, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Whole Foods or “any other store”), OR specialty menu. The specialty menus include Clean Eating, Gluten-Free, Low Carb, Low Fat, Portion Control, Vegetarian, Natural & Organic. What’s even better is that you don’t have to sit and debate forever which plan you want. If you don’t like your plan after a couple weeks, switch it to another, no problem!
This is how I work it. Emeals sends me 7 dinner ideas for 3-6 people with prices based on if I’m shopping at Whole Foods. I chose the 3-6 person plan because of portions (I do not want to cook every night of the week, I would much rather cook 2 – 3 times a week and have left overs). So I circle the meals I want then highlight the ingredients for those meals on my shopping list or cross out everything I don’t need. Then take my edited list to the store. I also chose Whole Foods over Natural & Organic or Clean Eating because they are almost the same plan, but the Whole Foods grocery list also includes prices. So when I go shop for our meals, I can compare my Fred Meyer prices to what I would pay at Whole Foods. Sometimes it’s cheaper at Fred Meyer, often times it’s very similar, sometimes it’s actually cheaper at Whole Foods! I like knowing I’m getting the best price! (Whole Food’s 365 brand is my FAVORITE! Such good prices!)
So I go through, pick 2-3 meals depending on what else we have going on that week, dinner at a friends or a pot-luck means I don’t have to cook 3 times and I can get away with 2. I save even more money by buying my chicken cheap and freezing it, we buy 1/4 grass-fed organic cow every so often from my Aunt and Uncle so that keeps our beef cost way down and I usually try and pick a vegetarian meal every week also. Now, we only get the dinner plan. Jake gets free lunch as a perk of his job, and I just scrounge up whatever I can find throughout the day, but Emeals did just start offering a lunch plan (that can be used at any store) if you want to think about it even less!
You will not be sorry you did this. I LOVE Emeals for the ease of use, so convenient to just add a few random items to their pre-made list every week. And the best part, the meals are actually GOOD! We’ve only been disappointed by 1 so far and we’ve been using it for several months now (and I subbed some ingredients in that meal, so maybe it was my fault? Lol)! I mean, it’s $5 a month, how could you go wrong? At the very least, you get some awesome, EASY, recipes out of it!
This is not a sponsored post and we did not receive any compensation to write this. We do, however, receive a small sum if you sign up for your Emeals plan through our affiliate links. We personally use Emeals and love it and really do save a ton of money and time each month. There is no obligation to use our links, but if you do, we want to sincerely thank you for choosing to do so!
I had been wanting to try e-meals for a while and this is what is going to push me over the edge. I’ll be sure to use your link!
Thanks!
Awesome Brian! You’ll love it!
Note: The Plum District deal is only good for a short time! (through Friday I think?) So sign up now! 🙂
While my wife was going to school in another city she stayed with some family friends and they used E-Meals. Once we got married we even tried a healthier, organic/vegetarian system but the meals just didn’t work for us. We enjoyed it though and would recommend. I mean for $5/month even if you get 5-6 decent ideas for a meal then it’s worth the money.
The time savings is the most valuable thing to us. Plus, most all the meals have been pretty fantastic. Garlic and rosemary turkey burgers last night. YUM!
Wow this is an interesting concept! I just might have to sign up 🙂
Do it. I mean, most people blow $30 on coffee in a week, and this buys you a whole year of meal plans 🙂
Seems like a cool service but I’m a bit picky and we normally eat pretty simple to prepare meals.
Sounds good. If you ever need a sweet plan though, you know where to look 🙂
That is a pretty cool concept. I like how you mentioned using the store list with the pricing for comparison shopping. That alone would pay for the service each month. I’m just hesitant to try doing a meal plan. Maybe it’s something I’d try down the road when I have kids.
It definitely helps once the little ones show up. Michelle does it best by looking at everything, crossing off the things from the shopping list that we already have and planning3 or 4 meals with leftovers for the other days.
This is definitely is great concept and a solution for those who have no time planning their meals. Unfortunately, unless you can specify what type of dishes you like ie. Asian cuisine there I personally cannot benefit. Was there an option for that? Maybe I just missed it.
I think they mix and match, but don’t split out by type. Here’s their meal list:
http://emeals.com/meal-plans
Interesting concept.
Great job in comparing it with the costs in the store.
The price is fairly attractive, so I can’t be left but wondering what their profit ratio.
I’m sure they have it fairly well automated at this point. You would hope…
I think we might have to try this at some point, Michelle… It looks like the meal plans are incredibly thorough!.. Sometimes we don’t really have all that much time to invest in planning, so a service like this can definitely be useful.
Throw $30 at it, at the very worst, you don’t use it, but you have a year’s worth of meal plans and shopping lists piled up that you can use anytime. Forever.
This is a sweet program. I was never aware of e-meals – I am shocked at what you get for the money.
We heard about it listening to the Dave Ramsey radio program. It really is a great time and budget saver.
Thanks Michelle! I have been curious about eMeals for a while and this prompted me to sign up. We have been pretty busy lately and I haven’t had time to meal plan as much as I would like (which has resulted in a bloated grocery budget).
I signed up for the Whole Foods 2 person plan, although I may switch later to the family plan like you do. We will see how it goes.
Let us know! I’d love to hear a before and after story 🙂