Save Time and Money with a Shopping List App.

This is my actual iPhone.
MealBoard App is on the right
on the 4th row.  

How many apps do you have on your phone?  How many apps do you have on your phone that can save you time?  I don't mean that you think they save you time because they are cool to use.  I am talking about apps that actually save you real, quantifiable time.

For the past year and a half I have been using MealBoard for my meal planning and shopping lists.  I keep this app on my iPhone's first screen and I use this app every day.  I love this Shopping List App!

This app SAVES me at least 45 MINUTES EACH WEEK!   






Here are the basics of the Shopping List App:

1.  Add Recipes (with ingrediants)
2.  Choose your meals
3.  Generate your shopping list

Here are my meals for this week.  

STEP 1 - Add your recipes to the Shopping List App   When you add recipes to the Shopping List App, you will also add the ingredients.  The app lets you add your own recipes or you can download them from AllRecipes, BBC Good Food, Betty Crocker, Bon Appetit, Eating Well, Epicurious, Food & Wine, Food.com, Food Network, Food Network (CA), MyRecipes, Simply Recipes, South Beach Diet, Taste.com.au, Taste of Home, Vegetarian Times, and Whole Foods.   If you are adding your own recipes, each recipe will take you about 15 minutes to add.  If you are downloading recipes from one the sites above, each one will take you about 5 minutes.

Helpful Tip - Add a recipe called Weekly Items.  For this recipe's ingredients, add all the items you buy at the store every week.  

STEP 2 - Choose your meals.  This is where you will save time in putting together your shopping list.  In the past, I would sit down at the kitchen table with about 5 cookbooks, pick out recipes, and write down the ingredients.  This process would take me about an hour each week as I planned out all the meals.  Now, with the MealBoard Shopping List App, I look through the app for meals that look appealing and add them to my meal plan.  

Helpful Tip - I like to have all of my days filled for the week, but there are some nights when I plan on eating out or having leftovers.  I have created meals called "Dining Out" and "Leftovers".  Neither of these meals have ingredients.  I can add these meals in to fill my list and satisfy my "Monkish" desires.  

Here is my shopping list organized
by aisle.  

STEP 3 - Generate your shopping list. Here is where the magic happens.  Once your meals are created, you can generate a shopping list.  Your ingredients can  be organized by aisle - another great time saver.  Before I had this MealBoard Shopping List App, I would spend about 10 minutes extra in the store each week going back three aisles because I missed something on my list.  I got a lot of exercise, but wasted a lot of time.  Now, at the end of each aisle, I just make sure that I have all my items checked off.  And don't worry if something moves, you can change your aisle locations on the fly.  

HELPFUL TIP - With your phone, take a snapshot of each of the aisle signs showing what items are down each isle.  When you get back home, you can set up your aisles in the Shopping List App.  

This is by far the most useful app I have on my phone.  When I am ready to cook something, I go to the Shopping List App and follow the recipe from the app.  

This Shopping List App is currently only available on the iPhone.  To learn more about the app, you can read about it in the apple store or visit the website at www.mealboard.com.

p.s. The Walnut Chicken recipe in the image above is one of my favorites and you can find it in the Flat Belly Diet cookbook.