menu planner app review: reduce shopping time and expenses at the grocery store

I can definitely say I am one of those people who roll into the grocery store, see the black beans on sale and pick up 5 cans, not paying attention to the fact that I already had 4 cans in my pantry..or buy a carton of eggs because “I thought” I was out, but never decided to check before I left the house. My pantry was overflowing with random foods and my grocery bills just got higher and higher each week. On top of that, after working all day, going to the grocery store sucks when you haven’t seen your kids all day and all you wanna do is go home and hear how their day was.

I was on a mission to find something that would help me expedite this process and cut down on my grocery bills. I mean really just because the black beans were on sale, I didn’t need 5 more on top of the 4 I already had in my pantry. I recently started using an app called Menu Planner on my IPAD and has done wonders for me. In a nutshell, it creates a calendar for you with your meals, tags a full grocery list categorized by specific stores and the best part, you can include what you have in your pantry so you don’t buy unnecessary items. I actually started making food to use up those pantry items that sit on the shelf for months. The downfall of the app is that it’s a lot of upfront data entry but it keeps a record of all your meals so it’s worth it in the end.  So the more you use it, the easier it gets!

Check out the app, it’s pretty cool. I cut my grocery bills almost in half and the time I spend in the grocery store has significantly reduced, unless of course I end up in the bakery section! I only go once a week now, plan out all my meals for the week which means more time with my son 🙂

Here are some of the cool features the app offers:

• Pick your meals for each day and view them in an easy to see weekly list
• Easily import recipes from popular websites
• Create grocery lists from your meal plans
• Organize your grocery list by store and see how much it will cost
• Track items you already have in your pantry to make grocery lists easier
• Sync between multiple devices
• Everything is customizable to meet your specific needs
• Enter your data online through this website after you’ve setup a free account from your device