Build A Menu – Online Menu Planning using Store Sales + 4 Readers Win 3 Month Subscription!

ByJen

This post may contain affiliate links and I may be compensated for this post. Please read our disclosure policy here.

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Meal planning is one of the key components to reducing your grocery bill & saving money by planning ahead. The key with menu planning is to follow the store sales & buy what’s on sale & then plan your meals around those items. Build a Menu is an online menu planning service which helps you to save time & money by not only providing you with sample menus for a variety of different food categories, but also showing you the current prices at your local grocery stores for those recipes that you choose.  This enables you to see which recipes would be the most cost-effective for that week’s menu.

The way it works is that Build A Menu creates menus for each week & then they show the current price for all the ingredients in the recipes, at each of the featured stores. If your store is not listed, they have a general store category as well for any store.   You can choose from a large variety of recipes – everything from Family-Friendly, Low Carb, Gluten Free, Low Fat & more. As you search the recipes, you’ll be able to see what the prices are for each of the ingredients in the recipes. This way you can take advantage of sale prices on cuts of meat, produce, and more to help trim your grocery budget by buying the sale items. As you choose your recipes & build your menu, Build A Menu will be showing you a running total cost of all the recipes together so you can see what will fit best for your budget. Build A Menu also will give you a shopping list for the ingredients, organized by category.

You will find recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks & dessert. There is also a Cooking with Kids recipe each week, which you can try out with your kids. They share the “points” for each recipe for a leading Weight Loss program, so you can keep track of your calories or “points” consumed for the day.
What I love about Build A Menu is that a portion of the proceeds of every meal subscription goes to support orphan care charities.  Karee Blunt (a local Thrifty NW Mom reader) and her sister, Lisa Holcomb, created Build A Menu as a way to help families save money but also to raise money for orphan care charities around the world. They donate a portion of all proceeds to selected charities. Between the two of them, they have 5 adopted children (11 children total between the 2 families), so they are passionate about supporting orphan care.

$4 Discount Code for Build A Menu Subscription:

The regular Build A Menu subscription price is $8 a month; however, they are offering a special coupon code just for Thrifty NW Mom readers for $4 off, which makes it just $4 for the first month’s subscription.  Just use the coupon code: JOIN2012 at checkout  to receive this $4 off discount on the first month’s membership.

Giveaway: 4 Readers win a Three – Month Subscription to Build A Menu

Build A Menu is offering 4 readers a 3 month subscription to Build A Menu to try out the online menu planning service. Each 3 month subscription is valued at $22.

This giveaway will end on Tuesday August 7th  at 9pm pst.

The winners will be drawn using “And the Winner Is” plugin and announced on the blog.  We will also email the winners. The winners will have 48 hours to contact us, otherwise a new winner will be drawn. US residents only & you must be 18 yrs or older to enter the giveaway. This giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook in any way.

Here’s how to enter this giveaway::

1st Entry (required entry):  Check out Build A Menu & tell us why you’re excited to try out an online menu planning service.

Extra Entry : (make sure these are all separate comments, with a comment for each entry)

2) Leave a comment saying you like Build A Menu on Facebook

Disclosure: This is a sponsored giveaway with Build A Menu. 4 winners randomly chosen will win a 3 month subscription to Build A Menu.  All opinions are 100% ours. See our disclosure statement for more details.


15 Comments

  3. I love that the grocery list is broken down by recipe, cost, and parts of stores! I’ve tried meal planner lists before, this one is much easier to compare to my coupons! Would love a FREE trial!

  5. I would like to try it because i am always look for new recipes and ways to make my meal planning easier. :)

  6. I love the idea of menu planning but I always come up short with the creativity level and we end up eating the same things over and over. Whenever I try to add in new recipes I end up spending $20 on ingredients for a single meal which just wont do. It would be awesome to have a menu planning service like this that helps me keep things creative while also keeping my budget in mind!

  8. With two kids who are busy with activities, I love the idea of having my meals planned. Unlike cooking, but hate figuring out what to make.

  9. I would just love some help knowing what to buy and how to put it together. Making dinner is “new” to me because my husband used to cook before he got his new job…

  10. So excited to try build a menu! I just had a baby and have decided to get into meal planning, this decision I made tonight! Then I get on the computer and see that there is an available giveaway! I am soooo excited!

  12. I’ve never been a very good planner, but with my 2nd baby due in a few weeks I really need to start getting more organized.

  14. We are a gluten free family for medical reasons and build a menu is the perfect solution for us!!

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