If you’ve ever emerged from the grocery store, feeling dazed with sticker shock over how much your cart full of groceries just cost, you are not alone. Many of us are feeling the pinch at the register right now!
A brilliant TikTok tip has recently has popped up, though, with users showing how they slash their weekly grocery bill by spending a few minutes meal planning each week, using a tool that’s as close as your phone–ChatGPT.
I gave this viral budget hack a try, and it’s easier (and more fun!) than you might think. AI-powered meal planning really can help save money at the store, while keeping meals healthy, and suited to your own tastes.
One thing these TikTok videos emphasize, is that employing a few simple strategies helps give results that win not just at the grocery register, but also at the dinner table.
Tell ChatGPT Your Budget and Food Preferences Up Front
The more specific you are, the more helpful the suggestions will be. Instead of saying:
“Give me meals for the week,”
Try:
“Make me a 5-day meal plan for two adults, under $70 total, with no seafood, using chicken, beans, rice, and seasonal vegetables.”
You’ll get a plan that matches your budget and menu preferences, rather than a generic one.
Ask for Ingredient Overlap
One of the easiest ways to waste money is buying ingredients you only use once. Ask ChatGPT for meals that share ingredients across several dishes:
“Make a meal plan where I can use the same bag of spinach, carton of eggs, and family-sized pack of chicken in multiple meals.”
This not only saves money, but also cuts down on food waste.
Use ChatGPT to Build Your Grocery List
Once you have your meals planned, ask ChatGPT to turn them into a streamlined grocery list:
“Turn this meal plan into a shopping list sorted by grocery aisle.”
Sorted lists help you shop faster. The less time you spend the in the store, the less time there is to be tempted with impulse buys.
Let ChatGPT Help You Shop Sales
You can combine ChatGPT with your grocery store’s weekly ads. While I’ve found that it doesn’t tend to succeed with working directly from an uploaded flyer, it does work well if you skim the flyer yourself, and then tell it about the sale items you’d like to use.
“Chicken thighs are on sale for $1.49/lb and canned tomatoes are 80¢. Give me meals that use those.”
Prompts like this work well, and give great results! You can also ask ChatGPT to help you find alternatives to some of the foods facing the biggest inflation this year. For example, ask it to focus on cheaper forms of protein, rather than beef and veal.
Let AI help you make use of leftovers
Leftovers don’t have to be boring. You can ask:
“How can I turn last night’s roasted chicken and potatoes into a different meal tomorrow?”
ChatGPT can turn leftovers into tacos, soups, grain bowls, wraps, stir-fries, and more. This keeps meals fun, and helps the whole family enjoy actually eating up those leftovers that might otherwise languish in the back of the fridge.
Why This Works So Well
ChatGPT is flexible. Unlike a cookbook or a meal kit service, it can tailor its advice to meet your needs, and the more you use it, the more efficient you’ll become with your prompts. Picky eaters? No problem. Let ChatGPT know what foods your kids do and don’t like. Trying to stick with a low carb, plant-based, or other type of diet. It can customize suggestions to meet those needs as well.
@mrsdowjones Food prices are up 23.6% since 2020! But this hack will save you BIG on that grocery bill.
Right now, all of us could use a genius TikTok tip that really helps. Using ChatGPT for meal planning really can help turn a miserable weekly chore into a fun, money saving puzzle.
