FAQ’s

How do I subscribe?

Click on the “Try It” link at the top of the page.  Then select your food preferences, your plan (Family -serves 4 to 6, or Meals for 2- serves 2 to 3), and  where you do most of your shopping.  Then select a subscription term and put in your payment info.  That’s it!  And don’t worry, you can always change your preferences from your Account Settings page.  Your first two weeks are free (see below)

How much does it cost?

Dinner Daily memberships pay for themselves over and over again!  Memberships start at  less than $1/week, depending on the plan you choose. ($18 for three months, $30 for six months, or $48 for a full year – less than $1 a week!) Most of our members save many times the cost each week, because we maximize use of weekly sales at grocery stores across the country. Memberships auto-renew until cancelled, but members can stop auto-renewal to cancel at any time through their Account Settings page.  If you joined under the Stop & Shop promotion, please contact our support desk to cancel 

How does the two week trial work?

Everyone who signs up gets a free two week trial. There is no charge until day 15 and you can cancel at any time up to day 15 with no charge.   You can cancel your membership without contacting us on your Account Settings page after you sign up.

Are all meal plans based on store sales?

Almost all of our meal plans are based on weekly sales.  Some stores do not put out regular weekly flyers but we do try to use their sales when they have them.  Some stores like Trader Joe’s do not have sales on fresh ingredients, so for stores like that we have an Any Store menu that you can use at any grocery store.  Note: If you sign up through a promotional pre-paid program, the multi-store option may not be available to you.

My store isn’t listed. Will The Dinner Daily work for me?

Yes! If your grocery store isn’t listed, select our “ANY STORE” option.  You’ll get a weekly meal plan and shopping list you can use at any store to eat better, save time, and have stress-free dinners, but your menu won’t be based on the sales at any particular store. You will always have access to the menus for all of the stores in your area and we are constantly expanding the number of stores every month.  Our Any Store plan works well for stores like Costco, Trader Joe’s, and others that don’t have weekly sales on fresh ingredients. Note: If you sign up through a promotional pre-paid program, the multi-store option may not be available to you.

I just subscribed. When can I expect my first menu and shopping list?

When you subscribe, you have immediate access to your Dashboard where you’ll find your most recent menu and shopping list. You will also receive an email with links to your new menus at 4PM EST of first day of the weekly sales cycle of the store you have selected. You can see the full menu publishing list here .

IMPORTANT – To ensure you receive your weekly menu emails, please mark emails from thedinnerdaily.com as safe. For instructions on how to do this, please click this link.

Can I customize my menu?

Yes you can! You can specify what kinds of dinners you want in your weekly plan (beef, pork, poultry, fish, shellfish, Vegetarian) and you can fine tune your menus for specific dietary needs such as Lower Carb, Gluten Free, Nut Free, Dairy Free and so forth.  We also offer a Heart Healthy menu option which aligns with the American Heart Association’s recommendations for daily sodium and saturated fat intake.

You can also easily replace or exclude any individual entree or side with our Switch It feature. Just click on the little pencil icon next to the entree or side that you want to switch. (See Demo).  You can  change any of your preferences on your Account Settings page.

You can also edit your shopping list to delete, change and add items and you can view the list on your phone in the store and click things off as you buy them.  (See Demo)  PLEASE NOTE – IF YOU MODIFY YOUR MENU, WE STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU PRINT IT OR SAVE IT AS A PDF AS IT WILL BE REPLACED WITH THE NEW MENU ON YOUR STORE’S PUBLISHING DATE.

Can I shop more than one store?

Yes! While you can only pick one primary store, on your dashboard you will see the menus and shopping lists for all of the stores we cover in your area. You are able to view and edit menus for two stores, so you could choose two meals on one store’s menu and delete the others, and three meals on another store’s menu and delete the others.  The shopping lists for each store will show just the ingredients for the meals you have picked for that store. Note: If you sign up through a sponsored account program, the multi-store option may not be available to you.

How does The Dinner Daily save members money?
Our members save money in a number of ways. First, for over 11,000 grocery stores in 48 states, we create menus based on weekly sales. Our research and testing shows that families can save $1200 or more a year on groceries just based on that. Second, with our plan you know exactly what to buy for your dinners, so our members also find they save money by not throwing out or wasting food, and they aren’t buying more expensive prepared foods, or ordering out as much.  We also provide links to online manufacturer coupons each week for items on your shopping list and for other useful household items. Just using the coupons each week will save you much more than your membership cost (as little as $1/week!)  Lastly, since time is money, we save our members hours each week by doing the planning, making it possible to shop just once and giving you easy to make meals, most take about 30 minutes time to table.

Can I order Dinner Daily ingredients on line?   Do you have delivery?
We are linking to an increasing number of grocery chains’ online ordering and delivery/curbside pickup systems to make it easy for Dinner Daily members to save even more time and have a service that is even better than a dinner-in-a-box service, at a fraction of the cost!  Look for the links on your Shopping List.  If you live in an area serviced by Peapod, we have one-click ordering for Peapod which makes planning your dinners and ordering the ingredients incredibly fast and simple.  See a demo of our Order from Peapod link here.

How can I use your One-Click Ordering for Peapod?

Our one-click ordering for Peapod makes planning dinner and getting your ingredients incredibly easy.   If you live in an area with Stop & Shop or Giant stores, or in the Chicago, Indianapolis or Milwaukee area, you may live in an area serviced by Peapod.

To get started, set your primary store to Stop & Shop or Giant when you sign up, or in Account Settings if you’ve already signed up.

On your Dinner Daily shopping list you will see an “Order from Peapod” button.  Click that to link your Dinner Daily account with your existing Peapod account or to create a new Peapod account.  After you’ve linked your accounts, you’ll see the button on your shopping list now says “Send to Peapod”. When you click that, anything that is checked on your shopping list will be sent to Peapod.

Please note that after sending your items to Peapod, you do need to go to the Peapod site to finalize your order and schedule your pickup or delivery.  Be sure to check in your Peapod Express area in case there are any items there for which you need to select an item to purchase.  To see a demo of one-click ordering for Peapod, please click here.

 What will a typical weekly meal plan look like?

Each week your menu will be customized to your food preferences, dietary needs and what’s on sale at the grocery store you select. The more food choices you select the more variety you can have on your weekly menus. We also try to balance the week with a few very simple meals (i.e., roast chicken), some easy casserole type dishes that can be made ahead of time, and slow cooker meals. See sample menus on this page.

What if there is a meal on my menu I don’t want to make?

No problem! Many of our members only use two, three or four meals each week. You can change or delete anything on your menu in seconds with our Switch It feature. On your menu, simply click on the pencil icon next to the name of an entree or side and select a replacement from the pull down list or choose exclude at the bottom of the list. You can also delete a full meal by clicking the trash can icon in the lower right hand corner of that meal. If you remove or change something from the menu, those ingredients will automatically change or come off the shopping list. Click here to watch a short demo of Switch It.

Can I search for recipes?

Yes!  When you click on the pencil icon, the top line of the drop down box is our “Search All Recipes” area.  Just type in a descriptor for the type of recipe you would like, such as “beef”, or “chicken” or “slow cooker” or “mexican”. Up to 10 recipes that match your descriptor will be displayed and to add one to your menu in place of another meal, just click on the dish you want and your menu and shopping list will be updated.  Click here to see short demonstration.  If you want to go back to your original menu, just click on the “Restore Original Menu” link near the top of your menu.

Do you have Reduced Carb or Gluten Free (GF) options?

Yes! You can fine tune your menus to only include Reduced Carb or GF meals, along with other options like Dairy Free, Nut Free and more, and you can change your preferences whenever you want.  You will find these selections when you sign up, and after you sign up in Account Settings.

Do you have Heart Healthy/Low Sodium options?

Yes, we have a Heart Healthy menu option which was approved by our registered dietician and is aligned with the American Heart Association guidelines for daily intake of sodium and saturated fats.  Specifically, the menus do not contain red meats and each meal (main plus sides) contains less than 800 mg of sodium, which is aligned with the AHA guideline of no more than 2300 mg of sodium daily.  Also in line with AHA guidelines, the calories from saturated fats are less than 10% of the overall calories for the meal.

How Do I sign up for the Heart Healthy option?

When you click on “Try It”  to sign up for your two week free trial, you will see:

 

Click on the red box with a plus sign (circled in yellow above) to expose the detail about our Heart Healthy plan and then check ”I require a heart healthy diet” as show below.

 

You will then see the Heart Healthy menu choices and begin selecting your mix of meals.  Please note that not all of our dietary filters are available with the Heart Healthy menu plan at this time.

How do you define “Reduced Carb”?

Although there are many variations of what constitutes a reduced carb diet, our definition of reduced carb recipes are free of pasta, couscous, white rice, breads, breading, tortillas, and potatoes. We use minimal amounts of flour as thickener and natural sweeteners. Following the direction of our Registered Dietitians, we do include nutrient-rich complex carbs such as beans and other legumes in Reduced Carb menus.

How do you define “Gluten Free”?

Our GF recipes do not use ingredients that commonly contain gluten. While we have many other recipes that could easily be made GF by using gluten-free ingredients, such as gluten-free pasta, we have not included those at this time. Please note we do include in our GF options recipes that use soy sauce (or tamari) and salad dressings as GF versions of these ingredients are widely available.

How often do you repeat recipes?

As a general rule, for all menu choices other than vegetarian a main dish recipe will not be repeated on your menu for at least 2 months. Vegetarian dishes may repeat slightly more often. But we also add new recipes each week, so the increasing number of recipes in our database allows us to continually provide our subscribers with new meal ideas frequently, even if you have subscribed for a while. Do you have a recipe that fits our system of fresh basic ingredients, and easy to make, and you’d like to share it?  Wonderful! Send it to us at info@thedinnerdaily.com.

Can I save a recipe to reuse it?

Yes!  We have a “Favorites” feature to make it easy to save recipes. Just click on the heart symbol next to any main or side dish and it will be saved to your favorites. Your favorites are always available to you in your Switch It (See demo) options, so you can change to one of your favorites at any time and your shopping list will be updated.

How are your Nutritional Values calculated?

The Nutritional Values (NVs) shown are for one serving of the complete meal – main course and sides. For Family Plan the NVs are based on five servings out of the food prepared and for Meals for two, the NVs are based on 2.5 servings.

We calculate NVs using a third party service wherein we input the ingredients for each recipe, the serving size, and other information, and the service returns the nutritional values for that meal. Please note that our NVs are a “ballpark” value for your convenience and guideline only and should not be used as your only measure for important dietary considerations. Our NVs do not include any ingredients listed as “optional”. As explicitly stated in our own Terms and Conditions, we cannot be responsible for any errors that have come from a third-party source or service. Thank you for your understanding and please email us at support@thedinnerdaily.com if you have any questions.

What makes your recipes healthy?

Our recipes are developed to guidelines and reviewed by registered dietitians to ensure they are healthy and appropriate. While there are different standards out there to define “healthy,” our definition of healthy is very simple – we use real, whole, fresh foods that are unprocessed, and utilize healthy cooking methods.

 What format are the menus?

The menus, shopping list and coupon pages are all in HTML, so that means you can view them on any device – your PC, your tablet or your phone. And when you view them online you can change them using Switch It!  When you print them, our system automatically creates a pdf file which you can save or print. You can see example menus and shopping lists here.

Can I print the menus and shopping list from my phone or tablet?

Yes! Many smartphones and tablets have printing capabilities built in, but older smartphones require that you install an app to print. We suggest you check your printer manufacturer’s Web site which will often have links to the apps for their printers. Specifically, Epson, HP and Brother have apps that allow you to print from your mobile device to their printers.  If you have an Apple iPhone or iPad,  download Apple’s AirPrint. Google Cloud Print allows you to print documents directly from a Gmail or Google Docs account.  HP and Epson have ePrint-enabled printers that allow you to email print jobs from your mobile device directly to any ePrint enabled printer. You would need to check your printer user manual for how to set up that capability if you have an ePrint enabled printer.

 How does the coupon feature work?

We provide you with a page of weekly manufacturers coupons for the items on that week’s shopping list, or other items that most households use. (For example, if chicken broth is used in one or more of your menus, we search the major coupon sites and if there are coupons out there for chicken broth, we will find them!)

How much will the coupons save me?

On average, we will find between $4 to $6 in online printable coupons each week for items that you will actually need to prepare your dinners. If you take advantage of this feature just one or two times a month, our service will essentially be free!

 Must I register for manufacturers coupons?

Currently we offer links to manufacturers’ coupons and some manufacturer coupon sites ask you to sign into their site to download them. Having said that, it is our mission to continue trying to make  “couponing” easier for you and we’re working on it.

Who should contact if I have questions?

Your questions and concerns are important to us and we pride ourselves on our quick turnaround to get your issue resolved quickly or your question answered promptly!

If you have any questions related to billing, website access, or other more technical questions, please contact our support desk at  support@thedinnerdaily.com or through the Live Chat feature on our website during business hours. IF YOU THINK A CHARGE IS IN ERROR, PLEASE CONTACT US BEFORE DISPUTING A CHARGE. 

If you have questions related to offering The Dinner Daily as a Corporate Wellness benefit for your company, please email info@thedinnerdaily.com

My needs have changed, how can I cancel my membership?

We’d be sorry to see you go, and hope that you remember that your savings can be many times the cost of our service. However if you want to cancel your membership, you can do that yourself without contacting us at the bottom of your Account Settings page.   Your membership will continue until the last day of your current membership period but will not auto renew.  If you signed up under the Stop & Shop promotion, please contact us to cancel

I love my membership to Daily Dinner and was wondering if I could upgrade from to a longer subscription and the lower cost?

Absolutely! Just contact us and let us know and we’ll take care of it and any remaining value on your current subscription will be applied to your longer one!

Can I change my selected menu preferences, store or family size after my subscription starts?

Yes! You can easily change your preferences at any time from your Account Settings page, once you log into your Dinner Daily account. So if you travel, you can change your state and store preference and take The Dinner Daily with you!

Can I use The Dinner Daily on my phone or tablet?

Yes! Our service has been designed to provide mobile users with an excellent experience.  We recommend that you add a Dinner Daily icon to your phone’s home screen.   To do that, navigate to www.thedinnerdaily.com on your phone browser and log into your Dinner Daily account.  When you are on your Dinner Daily dashboard, on iPhones click on the square icon with an arrow coming out (See photo below on right)  or on Android the three vertical dots in the upper right (using Chrome – see photo below on left). Then select the “Add to Home Screen” option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m having trouble connecting my Dinner Daily account to Peapod

If you have the Peapod app on your phone, make sure you are logged out of the app (or delete the app) before trying to connect your Dinner Daily account to Peapod. The Peapod app prevents the connection from being made. After connecting your accounts, you can log back into, or reinstall the Peapod app.

For any questions about using The Dinner Daily on your phone, please contact our support team.

I am having a dinner party and have no time to plan! Can you help with that?

Yes! We love to plan dinner parties! On your Dashboard near the bottom, you will find a fun feature called  “Dinner Party Plans”. In a format similar to our weekly menus, we provide you with a one page menu, complete with the starter, main meal and sides, and the shopping list for all of the ingredients.  We plan a new Dinner Party Menu typically three times a year in different seasons and you can see our menus for past Dinner Parties.

I travel sometimes and would like to make some meals ahead of time.  Can you help with that?

Yes! On your Dashboard below your menu links you’ll see a “Make Ahead Menus” icon that will take you to several make ahead menus of dishes that are great for making ahead and just reheating.   We add new make-ahead  menus periodically.

 How where you started?

Our founder, Laurin Mills, started The Dinner Daily from her kitchen table to solve her own “nightly dinner dilemma” as a result of being a working mom with three kids. Despite a demanding job and a long commute, her most stressful thing each day was trying to figure out dinner every night! So she created a system where she planned out a week of meals, utilizing her store’s weekly specials, and went shopping once a week. And now we make that same money, time and stress-saving solution available to thousands of people in all 50 states!

How are you different than other meal planning services and the large recipe websites?

We are specifically focused on making dinner easy, more affordable and less stress for busy families and couples. Recipe sites make you do the work of searching and planning. We make a meal plan for you each week so you don’t have to search for recipes! They are easy to cook, use fresh easy-to-find ingredients, and delicious. Other meal plan services cost you money, we save it! To save money we build plans around the weekly sale items at a growing list of stores and our research shows that members can save $1000 or more each year on groceries using our system. (We have our Any Store option that can be used with any store, but is not linked to store sales. This is good for shopping at stores that don’t have weekly sales on fresh ingredients such as Target or Trader Joes )

 Where do your recipes come from?

Our recipes are created and tested by The Dinner Daily team which includes professional chefs, registered dieticians and home cooks. We strive to make sure our recipes will be well-received by your family before they ever go on a menu. Sometimes we test a menu that all the adults love but the kids hate. If that is the case, we do not use it! Do you have one that fits our system of fresh basic ingredients, and easy to make, and you’d like to share it?  Wonderful! Send it to us at info@thedinnerdaily.com.

What do you mean when you say all the thinking, all the planning, all the budgeting is done for you?

We mean that we do it all for you! All you need to do is simply print the menus and shopping lists and go! There is no need to scroll through endless recipes to put together a menu, select side dishes to go with each meal, and then hope it all works. Our service saves you time and money while keeping your family eating healthy in the process.