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I first tried eMeals when I was still pretty fresh out of college and trying to eat better on a budget.
Back then, a meal list was emailed to you once a week along with a shopping list with all of the ingredients needed. This was great for a couple of weeks but then I would not care for some of the meals. Or I would forget to print out the list for the week and it made for a bit of a challenge to stay on track.
Fast-forward to the days of apps for all things! If you are anything like most of the families I encounter trying to stay on a budget – the grocery category can be a major challenge.
Though we set a very modest budget for our groceries and eating-out categories we were nearly doubling them every month!
I put my best effort into meal planning. It was great for about a week or two. I perused the countless recipes I had pinned over time and picked out those we might all enjoy and that seemed easy enough to shop for and make. Then I would gather them all in a nicely drawn out schedule and make a list of ingredients for each recipe.
Sound time-consuming? It was. So much so that we eventually just repeated the same meals over and over so that I wouldn’t have to keep looking for new ones and making new lists.
I considered some of those meal services that deliver all of the ingredients in a nice package on your doorstep but my budget-conscious self wouldn’t let that on happen.
And then we tried eMeals!
I brought up eMeals to Dave several times while preparing for our second baby’s arrival. Since I had such a rough pregnancy he was often the one doing the grocery shopping which meant I would have to sit and make a list for him and usually forget a dozen things that I would have to send him back for throughout the week.
But I did recall how easy it was to have those shopping lists send to my inbox every week and if I needed Dave to continue the shopping after her arrival it may be a good option for us both.
Turns out that a lot has changed at eMeals over the past 5 years.
There is now a user-friendly app that allows you to choose from all of your past/present recipes.
There were now so many different meal plan options from kid-friendly to paleo to slow cooker meals. And you aren’t stuck with just one you can switch it up once you subscribe.
But I still wasn’t ready to pull the trigger because in my mind I was going to pay for a service that I COULD do but just didn’t want to.
Until I read that I could even shop my list right from the app and have it ready for pickup!!! What!?
eMeals partnered up with several shopping services that will actually do your grocery shopping for you!
So we signed up for the three month plan to give it a go and see if it would work for us. We have been at it for about a month now so here I wanted to share my thoughts on eMeals – 100% honest review!
If you’re ready to give eMeals a try you can sign up for a 14-day FREE trial right here!
The short of it: I love it and I highly recommend it.
Here are the reasons why I really enjoy this service:
I don’t have to meal plan
See above for my experience on how such a simple task can become daunting.
We also signed up for the larger family plan which means we almost always have leftovers for lunch the next day – taking care of lunch planning for Dave.
I don’t have to grocery shop
Like, I literally don’t have to go to the grocery store. If grocery shopping is your “you time” or you just love browsing the aisles then that is still an option! The app provides you with a checklist for your selected meals’ ingredients and you can check them off right on your phone while you shop.
For me, shopping means taking at least one child, if not both, and trying to make it through as fast as I can OR sending my husband who has a love/hate relationship with all grocery stores (and will just text me 358 times while he’s there).
We use Walmart pickup for our shopping option.
What that means is we link up our list with the Walmart app and it takes me item by item through the shopping list. The Walmart app lists the selection of all products matching that item. I pick the one I want, add the quantity to the cart and move to the next item.
When I am done I can add all of our additional staples and other groceries right in the same app before checkout (eMeals offers breakfast and lunch plans as well but we keep those simple around here so I just add what we need for the week).
Once that is all done I choose a pickup time right up to the next morning! We simply pull up in the designated spot and a worker brings the bags out to the car!
What a time to be alive!
If you want to check out Walmart’s online grocery pickup CLICK HERE and you will get $10 just to try it!! – you don’t need to be an eMeals user to reap the benefits of grocery shopping from home!
I stay within our grocery budget
eMeals comes with an endorsement by Dave Ramsey himself! Planning ahead is the best way to keep control of your grocery budget.
As you add items to the cart you can easily track your total. I no longer have to worry about forgetting my list at home or trying to keep a running total as I shop. Once I’ve picked out all of the necessary items I can make sure I don’t go overboard with any extra snacks or indulgences.
Not heading into the store means no chance of shopping when I’m hungry.
I can pick my meals
If something doesn’t sound like it will be well received by all I can flip back through our “favorites” and substitute it into the shopping list. We’ve already repeated one of the meals a couple of times because we really enjoyed it and we have several others favorited for those times when we need a substitute.
It simplified healthy eating habits
Many of us want to stick to a keto or vegan diet or even just find budget-friendly meals.
I have found that eMeals takes all the guesswork out of making those changes which greatly increases the chances of sticking to it and enjoying it.
There are an abundance of meal plan options available for all meal planning needs. You even have the option to change your plan type while using the service. If you begin on a vegetarian plan you can change to a paleo plan at any time.
So far for us I would say we have really enjoyed the meals we’ve tried from the plans we have tried.
I credit eMeals for keeping us on track with our goals. I am incredibly pleased with this service. I think eMeals has come a long way since its earlier version and I would overall recommend giving it a try!
They even offer a FREE TRIAL to see if it is right for you – so really, you’ve got nothing to lose!
eMeals has partnered with several other shopping services to simplify your life!
