Inexpensively

Helping you live your life, inexpensively.

Meals Planned for You (Relish Relish Giveaway)

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affiliate linkWhen I first heard of Relish Relish, I was very intrigued. I have heard of services that plan meals for you and write out a shopping list, but this one advertised custom options and a gluten free menu. I had to check it out for myself and the gals at Relish were gracious enough to send this skeptic a free 2-month subscription to try it out. (Because—hey—it’s Tuesday!)

There is no doubt that meal planning saves money—both by avoiding the drive-thru and narrowing your weekly shopping list. However, I’ll confess I don’t always get to it. We are committed to dining at home, though, but we end up with some pretty thrown together meals now and then. I was excited to let someone else plan the menus for a change but worried that we wouldn’t like the choices or it wouldn’t be compatible with my shopping method.

relishI was very pleasantly surprised! Rather than sending you an email each week with a list of 5-7 meals to prepare that your family may or may not like, Relish allows you to customize your menu. Every Thursday, they send your weekly update with a link to login to create your custom menu plan and grocery list. The weekly meal plans have 10-15 items and a couple specials or desserts. You can look at each recipe, then choose 5 entrees and 1 dessert to add to your shopping list. You also have the option of adding your own family recipes to the menu.

Being able to select your meals helps to plan around ingredients you may already have on hand or plan to buy on sale already. Their ingredient lists also separate the categorized shopping list from pantry items you probably already have. This way, you aren’t buying a 5-lb bag of sugar because the list says so when you have the 1-cup you actually need already at home. Hooray for saving money all around! The savings that will come from having a menu planned each week will more than cover the monthly subscription for most people. However, if you are a strict sale shopper like I am, you’ll get the most savings from planning your menu a couple weeks out, then buying ingredients along the way. It isn’t as simple of a solution, but it will work with our grocery sale system.

You can also access recipes from their archives at anytime. This will allow you to customize your weekly menu based on items you already have or plan to buy. They have added even more value with specialty menus in addition to the weekly plan. You can download & print recipes and shopping lists for lunch, holidays and freezer meals at anytime. I am excited to see what the next few weeks will bring to our table—these gluten free pumpkin bars will definitely be a hit for our Thanksgiving feasts! If you want to someone else to plan your meals too, subscribe now for only $7/month or—better yet—win a one-year subscription here—simply leave a comment, telling us about your menu planning challenges.

You can earn additional entries by:

  • Becoming a Facebook fan of Relish! and Inexpensively
  • Subscribing to our site by email or RSS
  • Following Relish! and Inexpensively on Twitter
  • Blogging about this giveaway
  • Tweeting about this giveaway: Win a 1-year meal planning subscription from @RelishRelish and @Inexpensively! http://bit.ly/g61Aj

For your extra entries to be counted, be sure to leave an additional comment directing us to your entry. Only one additional entry per method (i.e. While multiple tweets are appreciated it, only one will count as a drawing entry.) The contest runs until November 1st at 11:59pm edt. One winner will be notified by email on November 2nd (as selected by Random.org).

Congratulations to Julie L., winner of last week’s El Tacodor giveaway. Don’t forget to check out our postcard giveaway this week too!

thumb-tried-it-tuesday
There are numerous products and tools designed to help you live your life. Some will work, while others won’t. Each Tuesday, we’ll share something we’ve tried so you won’t have to spend money until you know it’s worth it! Our selections usually include items that will also save your family money while others will save you time or just make your inexpensive life easier to manage. I received a 2-month subscription to try this service for our readers, in addition to the free subscription for our giveaway, but the opinion is 100% real.

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Comments

  1. My biggest struggle with meal planning was doing all of the planning and shopping and cooking…and my family not really liking what I made. So now my husband makes out the menu. It doesn’t take him long, but it really cuts down on the stress and frustration for me!

  2. My menu-planning challenge is just sitting down to do it. Taking the time to do an inventory of what’s in the pantry & freezer and figure out what I need to buy, and- the hard part- coming up with 5-7 meals all at once, when i usually can’t even come up with one for dinner tonight… A tool like this with options to choose from would make things easier, rather than the blank slate I usually start with.

  4. I want to start meal planning, but I’ve never been able to figure out how to make it work well for us. Usually I plan just as far enough ahead to get some meat out of the freezer in the morning to make for dinner that night. I need help!

  5. My biggest challenge is the variety of schedules – kids and I eat at ‘dinner’ time, hubby gets home later (2-3 hours) and brother comes in whenever his shift ends (varies by the day). Need meals that freeze/reheat well.

  6. I need this because my idea of meal planning involves picking which restaurant we are going to, and we really need to start eating at home more often.

  8. My biggest challenge is time. My husband is salary so he gets home at different times and I babysit part-time so I never no if I will be free to cook a big meal or if I need quick and easy.

  9. You saw that I just wrote a post about this exact sort of thing! Not meal planning exactly… but obviously, meal planning would be a HUGE benefit to my busy schedule and cooking brain!

    Check and check! ■Becoming a Facebook fan of Relish! and Inexpensively
    Check! (RSS) ■Subscribing to our site by email or RSS
    Check and already check! ■Following Relish! and Inexpensively on Twitter
    Will do tomorrow… ■Blogging about this giveaway
    Check! ■Tweeting about this giveaway: Win a 1-year meal planning subscription from @RelishRelish and @Inexpensively! http://bit.ly/g61Aj

  10. I have trouble getting it all done; we experience too many drive thru meals after soccer practices and everything else that needs to be done in a week with two kids. As a single parent, I zip to the grocery store and by month’s end, too much food ends up in the wastebasket because I just bought what seemed good. I would love to provide my kids with nutritious, well-planned meals! Thanks!

  11. Great giveaway! I can come up with main dishes fairly easily, but I can NEVER come up with side dishes! And as a result, we don’t eat enough vegetables!!!

  12. My biggest challenge is the entire process! Figuring out what to eat each day, putting together a shopping list, then finding time to go out to shop, and finally figuring when/how I’m going to be able to actually prepare the meal.

  13. Taking the time to see what I already have then trying to figure out what I need for each meal I would like to have planned.

  14. I have been doing the meal plan thing for about 2 months now and it has helped my family so much. My biggest challenge is finding different recipes that dont seem so difficult. If it has more than about 8 ingredients I freak out.

  18. My biggest problem with meal planning is coming up with new things! I easily get in a rut and need some new recipes/menu items!!!

  22. My biggest challenge is that my 4 year is is now refusing to eat chicken. I don’t eat beef or pork, so that leaves turkey and seafood. Hope he gets over his little issue soon because I hate the dinnertime battles.

  23. My biggest meal challenge is definitely just coming up with something to make. My husband is fairly selective about his foods, I’m a vegetarian and our 3-year-old is just plain picky. Needless to say, it’s hard to find something other than the same boring couple meals that we always end up eating!

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