TOS Review: Emealz

Menu Planning can save you both time and money.  But, even though I know this it is not as easy as it sounds.  I don't mind grocery shopping (even with seven children), and I love to cook so that's not a problem.  What I dislike is deciding what we will be eating every week.  It seems like a small thing, but planning a creative menu is just one more thing that I don't want to have to think about even though I know what a benefit it can be. 



EMealz is a system designed to solve your dinner dilemma with delicious easy meals and a consistent grocery budget.  EMealz was created to, " to provide a kid friendly and family uniting meal planning resource for busy moms and frugal family cooks."  Each plan is new every week and comes with and an aisle by aisle grocery list.  All you have to do is choose a plan, print and shop, and cook and enjoy. 



An Emealz membership includes:

• A family-friendly, concise 7-day dinner meal plan for 4 to 6 people, or a 5-day dinner plan for 2 people - with concise and easy to follow recipes and directions.
• A complete, corresponding grocery list - just print and go!
• The member's only option to participate in E-Mealz Referral Program    
 

Emealz offers a 7 day meal plan for 4-6 people(approximately $75 per week grocery cost) or a 5 day plan for 2 people (approximately $35 per week grocery cost. ) They offer regular or specialty plans including: gluten free, low carb, low fat, portion control, or vegetarian.  Store options include: Any Store, Walmart, Aldi, Kroger, Publix, and Ralphs (CA.)  To see all of the different plan options with the corresponding stores click here.

Emealz has been endorsed by Dave Ramsey for grocery budgeting and meal planning.  The cost of Emealz is only $1.25 per week and is charged every 3 months on your debit or credit card.  You can cancel before your upcoming renewel date and you will have access to your plan for the full 3 month period.  To subscribe click here.

Emealz also offers gift subscriptions.  Purchase a gift subscription for a newly married couple, mom to be, for a holiday gift, or any other reason you can think of.  To find information on gift subscriptions click here.

We have been using the Walmart Family Plan for the last 6 weeks.  To see a sample of the Walmart Family Plan click HERE, or you can see a sample of any other plan by clicking on the plan choice HERE.  One of the things I was very curious about was if Emealz would work for a larger than average family (with 9 of us we are larger than average.)   Most of my children are still pretty young (14,9,7,6,4,2, and 7 months) and don't eat as much as a family with teen-agers might.  I did increase the side items a few times (rice potatoes, and dinner rolls) but overall we had plenty of food.

There were many things I loved about Emealz with my top 3 being:  I didn't have to do the planning,  there was a variety of delicious easy to make recipes, and the grocery list was easy to follow.  The menu and the recipe are all on one page making it very easy to see exactly what you need and how to make it.  I printed off the menu and then laminated it so it would hold up in the kitchen without getting wet or dirty.  The instructions were so easy to follow that my 14 year old had no trouble preparing a meal all on her own when I was gone one evening.  It was wonderful to come home to dinner already prepared!  During the 6 weeks that we have been using Emealz there has only been one recipe that we didn't like and I only saw one meal repeated once.  All of the other recipes we loved and have been requested over again!  The grocery list is arranged with the corresponding meal number beside the item so if there is a meal you want to skip or if you have some of the items on hand you can easily cross those items off the list.  They even have items that are considered pantry staples at the bottom of the list by meal number so you can see if you have those on hand and easily cross them off if you do.

German French Toast









Country Fried Steak Bits n Gravy over Mashed Potatoes with Green Beans

While I realize that when you are on a budget it is important to stay consistent in how much you spend, the weekly cost of dinner groceries using  Emealz is more than I would normally spend on our family of 9.  The weekly dinner cost has varied from around $75 to $85, which doesn't include some of the "staples" if you don't already have them on hand.  I cannot spend that much money on dinners every week.  So, how can Emealz still work for me?  I can still use Emealz and stick to my budget.  What I did was use 4-5 of the meals on the Emealz list every week and used 2-3 of my very inexpensive go to meals for the other days.  It was a great compromise because I still got the benefit of having a meal plan and grocery list (I easily crossed out the items I didn't need) and added a few items for our go to meals onto a list of breakfast, lunch, and household items we needed.

To see what other crew mates had to say click here.

I received a complimentary 3 month subscription to Emealz for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review. I received no other compensation.