E-Mealz: a helpful tool

[NowImDownInIt]

Any of y'all on this? I read a thread yesterday from someone that was unhappy about not getting maximum on their food budget for a family of four (got $650 and wanted $750) and I wanted to share something.. like I used to do, way back when.

I once mentioned the wonder of Angel Food Ministries and I know that it helped several people. This is not the same at all but it's been VERY fruitful to my family of four.

About 6 months ago I joined e-mealz.com, which I heard about on Dave Ramsey's show. I pay $15 every 3 months for a meal plan that has 7 full-sized and very tasty dinners (6 servings) for less than $85 a week.. Actually my average is somewhere around around $65 - $75. $1.25 a week has proven to be the best money I've ever spent for food budget control.

I don't know about y'all but my budget was based on 4.3 weeks to a month and I was budgeted $600 for my family. If I use $70 as a weekly average, I am spending about $300 a month on food. That's an extra $300 that we can use for activities for the kids and re-building our depleted emergency fund.

There are currently 26 meal plans to choose from based on your dietary needs and where you shop. They base their plans on nationally advertised store sales and their areas. It's always accurate for me on the Wal-Mart Points system.

Anyway, I hope y'all check this out. I think that the grocery budget is almost always the easiest to trim a little fat from.

[artgood]

Great resource! Thanks for sharing this!

[walkthaplank]

That is great, we joined today!

[keepinitreal]

That is great, we joined today!

So did we. Thanks NowImDownInIt!

[AngelinaCatHub]

Hey "nowimdowninit". Sooo good to see you posting back again. You B missed.

About Angel Food Ministries, we have found that their quality has declined to the point of if we shop real wisely, we can get better. I found they were doing too many seconds of quality, and very thin meats. Not very tasty and if you remember, I was one who boasted and pushed them.

I wrote them the same but never got a response. The Church we went to receive the order we noted a definite decline. I sure will investigate your suggestion, and I will give Angel Food another chance as we donate around Thanksgiving, a couple to several meals. Too bad they only supply large hens, not turkey but the price is right. No one has declined our gifts.

It is so good to see you post your advice. We will see you more, true? 'Hub

[olivies]

I don't know about y'all but my budget was based on 4.3 weeks to a month and I was budgeted $600 for my family. If I use $70 as a weekly average, I am spending about $300 a month on food. That's an extra $300 that we can use for activities for the kids and re-building our depleted emergency fund.

I tried to like the plan. But my biggest beef was that the under $85 plans were for dinners only. There were still lunches, breakfasts, staples and snacks. So if I doubled that dinner plan for our family of 8, their dinners ate up my grocery budget. When I started using their plan I realized that I wasn't doing half bad on my own because keeping the dinners in our grocery budget under $170 isn't hard to do- we could even have steak one night for that. LOL. My membership is set to renew in November, but I won't be renewing.

[momofthree]

I tried to like the plan. But my biggest beef was that the under $85 plans were for dinners only. There were still lunches, breakfasts, staples and snacks. So if I doubled that dinner plan for our family of 8, their dinners ate up my grocery budget. When I started using their plan I realized that I wasn't doing half bad on my own because keeping the dinners in our grocery budget under $170 isn't hard to do- we could even have steak one night for that. LOL. My membership is set to renew in November, but I won't be renewing.

I've found them to be quite overpriced when compared to shopping sales w/coupons. I realize that not everyone has the selection of stores that I do (fairly big city w/8 different chain stores within 5 miles of my home) or the time to coupon. Plus, we have quite a bit of agriculture here, so fairly inexpensive fresh fruits/veggies when shopping sales. My goal is $5 meals for my family of 5 & we still eat quite healthy. Plus, we're on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet, which doesn't mesh well with their meal plans anyway. I think depending on how much time you have to shop and the area of the country you're in this could potentially be a good deal. For us, though, we only have around $150/mo available to spend on dinners...

[NowImDownInIt]

About Angel Food Ministries, we have found that their quality has declined to the point of if we shop real wisely, we can get better. I found they were doing too many seconds of quality, and very thin meats. Not very tasty and if you remember, I was one who boasted and pushed them.

It is so good to see you post your advice. We will see you more, true? 'Hub

I B back, 'Hub. Missed y'all as well. I haven't used AFM in a while myself and I am sorry to hear of the quality decline. I know that when I was using them it was a lifesaver.

As for e-Mealz.. I think it's all situational. For us, it makes enough for dinner (for 4) and hubby to take lunch to work the next day and sometimes more, for much less than we had figured. Plus it mixes up our menu much more than if I were doing the planning.

My kids are in daycare so dinner is the family meal that we provide for in the budget. Saturday we usually have a light, quick breakfast (oatmeal, cereal, fruit) and then lunch after my son's soccer game is split between entertainment/meal budget and we go to Gringo's or the like. Sunday after church we have brunch of either french toast or whole wheat pancakes. I think with the Gringo's, it comes to like $15 from our actual food budget.

We've loved almost all the meals we've been provided. They are very family friendly.