Review of Emeals: Worth the Cost?

I mention emeals often as a favorite resource because I LOVE THEM!  Here you will find my honest review of emeals to see if it’s right for you. 

Emeals is a busy person’s best friend.  Seriously.  

Yes, it’s a pay-for-meal planning service, and it is worth every single penny (although it doesn’t cost that much).   Let me tell you why you need emeals in your life…like yesterday.

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What is emeals?

Emeals is a meal planning service.  This means you are paying a service to do the meal planning for you.  

People are willing to pay for emeals because it saves you a ton of time and exposes you to different recipes you wouldn’t otherwise try.  

Meal planning will save you money, ensure you eat healthier, and will help you reduce food waste.

The cost of emeals

You get a free 14-day trial to figure out if the service is right for you. 

You can pay for emeals monthly, quarterly or yearly.  If you pay yearly, you get the best deal at $1.25 per week.  

I don’t know about you, but I am more than willing to fork over $1.25 per week to save me HOURS of time and effort in planning out our meals for the week. 

How emeals works

Emeals is a meal planning service.  

You know how you sit around and plan out hours and hours of meals? Well, they do that for you.  

Here’s a list of the services emeals offers: 

1 – They give you a week’s worth of meals. 

2- You get to choose the plan that’s right for you.  They have a plan for EVERY SINGLE DIET or cooking preference you can imagine. 

3 – They let you choose a plan based for 2-3 people (2 adults or 1 adult and 2 kids) or 4-6 people (perfect for a family and sometimes leftovers for lunch).

4 – They let you choose your store preference for several of the meal plans. When this is the case, they build a menu based on the sales pages for that week. 

5 – They have an app, and it’s awesome. (Many weeks I never use anything but the app.  It works that well.)

6 – They create a shopping list for you.  You can print it and go to the store without any other planning. 

7 – If you don’t want a printed shopping list, you can use the digital list on your app. You can even add items you need for other purposes. 

8 – If you don’t like a meal, the ingredients are numbered and you simply cross off those from your printed list or you don’t add that meal to your app’s shopping list. 

9 – For the app, you only add the meals you want and can mix and match meals from different plans.  The app then creates a customized shopping list.  

10 – If you choose Wal-Mart as a store, you can use the app to upload the entire shopping list for free grocery pick-up!! MY FAVORITE FEATURE!! 

11 – Emeals partners with stores who use InstaCart, Amazon, Kroger, and Shipt. 

Emeals customer service review

Emeals has amazing customer service.  Any time I have wanted to pause the service, change something, or need general assistance, they’ve been there and wonderful.  

They update their technology all the time.  Every time they make updates, they get cooler and cooler than the service I first signed up for ten years ago.  

Emeals saves money 

I think I have been paying for the emeals annual plan since 2009, when we first started getting our budget in order. 

At first, it seemed counterintuitive to pay someone to meal plan for me, when I could do it for free.  Yet, for an annual plan, it was only costing me $1.25 per week. 

Think about it this way.  When you go to the grocery store without a plan or are hungry, what happens? You end up spending way too much.   

Emeals offers the ultimate plan, so you don’t overbuy and spend too much.  It also makes sure you are fully prepared so you don’t underbuy and have to go back to the store three more times in a week. 

Emeals saves you time 

Time is money. I can’t begin to tell you how much time emeals has saved me over the years as a busy mom. 

I used to spend hours looking for new recipes, trying to save them in Pinterest or in a notebook, and then planning out my menu.  

When I was trying to very mindful with my budget, I even tried finding recipes that complimented each other so I could share some of the ingredients with a second meal. 

Emeals does this work for me.  It gives me back at least an hour a week, usually two hours.  

Two hours a week is the equivalent of 8 hours a month.  That’s a full workday saved for the low cost of $5. Insanity.  Sign me up!

My review of emeals plans:

Emeals plans offered: 

• 30-Minute Plan
• Budget Friendly
• Clean Eating
• Diabetic
• Gluten-Free
• Heart Healthy
• Keto
• Kid Friendly
• Low Calorie
• Low Carb
• Mediterranean
• Paleo
• Quick and Healthy
• Slow Cooker
• Vegan
• Vegetarian

If you aren’t sure which plan to start with, I would try the 30-Minute plan first, as the meals generally use whole, clean ingredients but aren’t afraid to take shortcuts (like using a cooked rotisserie chicken as the meat in one or two meals).  

If you want more clean meals, go with the Clean Eating Plan. The prep work may take a little longer, but you will be feeding your family the best ingredients!

I’ve tried all the meal plans.  They are all fantastic!  I’ve even tried the emeals vegan meal plan, which was not an option when they first started offering their services. 

Emeals also provides these plans at no additional cost:

Emeals Occasions Plan Review

Emeals will send out a different weekly special occasions plan, at no extra cost, so you can entertain without the hassle of meal planning.  

The emeals occasions plan makes for a really fun party night with friends without the stress. 

Some examples of the emeals occasions plans:

• Holiday Cookie Swap
• Holiday Dinner Party
• Friendsgiving
• Fall Tailgating Party
• Tex-Mex Fiesta
• Grown-up Birthday Party
• Tradition Easter Dinner
• Kids’ Birthday Party
• Super Bowl Celebration
• Fourth of July Cookout 
• Summer Lemonade Themed Party
• Labor Day Cookout
• Mari Gras Celebration
• Valentine’s Day Dinner for Two

Emeals Dessert Plan Review

I love this little freebie.  I don’t always use it, but it’s there when I want it.  No more wasting hours on Pinterest looking for the perfect dessert recipe. 

The recipes are usually seasonal too, perfect when you need a sweet treat for a work or school party. 

Guaranteed you will find a dessert every week you want to try.  The plans offer three dessert recipes to try per week, including one “skinny sweet” option.

Emeals Bonus Collection Review

The bonus collection plans usually provide a library of recipes within a certain theme.  They do not usually include sides, as with the primary meal plans, and I’ve only seen them on the app, not on the desktop site. 

I like the bonus collection meal plans when you know you want a specific type of meal, and you just need an idea, again without having to search through a ton of recipes on Pinterest.  These recipes have also been tested, so you know they are good!

Some examples of the emeals bonus collection plans:

• Easy Weeknight Pasta Dishes
• Easy Instant Pot Dinners
• Our Favorite Chicken Recipes
• Spicy Entrees and Sides
• Best of Keto Made Simple
• Everyday Classic Meals (Their original, most popular meal plan was called “classic”, and if you ever see a recipe titled “classic favorite”, you know it is a keeper!)
• Picky Eater Favorites
• One-Dish Meals
• Super Simple Sides
• Freezer Meals

Other eMeals Plans

You can also buy a few other specialty emeals plans.  

Emeals Lunch Plan Review

I really appreciate the emeals lunch plan.  You can buy it for a really great price, cheaper than the dinner plan at $4 per month!

The lunch plan is usually quick prep meals that would make for a varied lunch every day. No more packing the same boring sandwich for lunch every day.

I’ve also used the lunch plan for weeks when I needed light meals for more on the go options. 

Like the emeals dinner plan, the lunch plan comes with an easily customized shopping list. 

Emeals Breakfast Plan Review

I love everything about the emeals breakfast plan.  In reality, I don’t usually have time for seven different breakfast recipes every week, but I do like to pick around three new meals from the weekly choices. 

The emeals breakfast plan gives variety to your mornings and helps you get a balanced breakfast before heading out the door!

The emeals breakfast plan usually includes a balance of heavier weekend breakfasts and something fast and simple, like a smoothie or breakfast oatmeal “cookie” or muffin.

My favorite features about the different emeals plans:

If it’s not obvious yet in this emeals review, I love this service.  They are constantly asking for customer feedback and evolving to meet customer desires. 

One of my favorite features about emeals is that you can switch from meal plan to meal plan as often as you like. This means if we have a houseguest that’s gluten-free, we don’t have to stress about what we are making, we simply switch to the gluten free menu. 

If you want to try a Mediterranean diet one week and Paleo diet next week, you can do it!

We went through a two year vegan phase, and emeals found recipes we would have never tried otherwise.  My emeals vegan review would highly recommend the plan to anyone new to the vegan lifestyle looking to make a healthy change.

My story with emeals

I first signed up for emeals nearly ten years ago because I was newly married, needed to save a ton of money, and I had no idea how to meal plan. 

To top it off, I had no idea how to even cook.  I actually caught our cabinets on fire once when trying to boil water!!! It was bad.  

I often credit emeals with teaching me how to cook with their original, classic meal plan.  Week over week, I tried new recipes, new cooking techniques and practiced eating at home, rather than going out for most of our meals.  

I’ve seen now how different recipes exchange ingredients and how to be a pretty decent frittata maker.  I can now whip up just about any meal because I’ve been exposed to so many varieties over the years with emeals.  

I sing their praises and offer this emeals review because I believe in them whole-heartedly.  Emeals really did simplify my life and make cooking fun and cost effective.

How to get started with emeals

If you aren’t sure which emeals plan to start with, go with their 30-Minute menu.

When we first started using emeals, it was on their Classic Plan, which seems to most closely relate to the 30-Minute Plan and the Budget Friendly plan.  They have quite a collection of customer favorites that are tested and proven to be delicious!

The emeals Brunswick stew recipe is THE BEST! (If you are from the American South, you know what I’m talking about.)  

If you are used to eating out a lot, I would start with picking out just 3-5 meals a week.  This still allows you to eat out once or twice, and ease yourself into meal planning and eating at home. 

I rarely shop for all 7 meals, as life happens, or we have enough leftovers to have a random “snack supper” or “leftovers choice” meal once a week. 

Picking out only 3-5 meals a week also allows you to cross out any meals you know you won’t enjoy!

Don’t be afraid to try new meals though.  There have been more than a few times that we read a recipe and were super unsure about it, and then, after trying it, were super happy we gave it a go. 

Try eMeals plus grocery delivery with Instacart

My emeals.com review favorite features:

• The low cost. 
• Emeals saves me money overall by reducing impulse buys and food waste. 
• I love the ability to choose your plans and switch between plans every week. 
• The variety of meals keeps mealtime from ever getting boring.  
• I enjoy the ability to get new recipes that have already been tested. 
• Creating a shopping list is now stupid easy.
• The emeals app and its integration with online grocery pick-up services was LIFE CHANGING! 
• Emeals allows you to pause your service if you are on vacation or for any other reason.  
• Emeals is responsible for our family eating healthier meals. 

My honest to goodness emeals review

I LOVE emeals, if it isn’t obvious yet.  If you are on the fence, I want to push you over the edge.  The service is amazing, and trust me, I have tried A LOT of meal planning services, and I always come back to emeals.  It is by far my favorite. 

If you still aren’t sure, try out their free 14-day trial.  If you don’t like them, no biggie.  Chances are though, you will be hooked!  I won’t ever go back to meal planning on my own, as they make it too easy.