The Premium subscription plan includes access to the groceries feature. The grocery list is automatically generated based on the weekly meal plans and can be adjusted as needed.
Every week, the meal planner will automatically run and send your plans and grocery list by email two days before the 'first day of week' chosen in your generator settings. Your grocery list will show you exactly how much of each ingredient is needed to follow the meal plans generated in your planner.
How to use the grocery list
The menu options on the right-hand side of the groceries page will allow you to quickly select all foods, add new foods to your grocery list (if you need to remember to grab something that's not in your meal plan), remove selected foods, or move selected foods to the pantry.
Adjusting the date range of your grocery list
You may prefer to shop for only a few days at a time, or perhaps you want to shop for multiple weeks at once. While you can't change the interval that the automatic planner runs on, you can adjust the date range for your grocery list as needed. Go to the groceries page and select the calendar icon near the upper left to adjust the date range.
Please note that changing the dates will reset the grocery list to match the associated meal plans, so you'll want to be sure to adjust the date before making any manual adjustments to the items on your list.
Ingredient variations between the meal plans and grocery list
We make some conservative ingredient substitutions to keep the size of your grocery list down. For example, if your plans have both chunky and smooth peanut butter, we'll combine them to just a single type (probably chunky ;). You can always hover over the name of any foods in your list to view the meals they're planned for if you want to take a closer look.
Feel free to substitute things as you purchase them, too - things like different types of breads or oils, or even different types of fish, can frequently be substituted in the recipes without changing up the nutrition values too much.
See more about adjusting ingredients in recipes here: How do I modify recipes?
How exactly does the grocery list work with the pantry list?
The groceries feature operates in sync with the pantry. When your grocery list is generated, the amounts reflect how much you already have on hand in the pantry. This way, you're not buying more of what you already have. So, if your meal plans need 2 apples and you already have 1 in your pantry, the grocery list will only tell you to purchase 1 more apple.
To keep things in sync, be sure to move the stuff you bought from the grocery list to the pantry after you go shopping. If you want to ensure you have a totally accurate record, you can adjust the amounts in the pantry to match how much you bought (we're working on getting accurate package size data so this happens automatically).
See more about the pantry feature here: How does the pantry list work?