FAQ’s

How do I subscribe?

Just click on the “Get Started” link at the top of the website page.  Then select your food preferences, plan (Family -serves 4 to 6, or Meals for 2- serves 2 to 3), and the store where you do most of your shopping, and then select a plan length and put in your payment info.  That’s it! And don’t worry, you can always change your preferences from your Account Settings page.

How much does it cost?

Dinner Daily memberships pay for themselves over and over again! Memberships are just $1.50/week or less, depending on the plan you choose. ($18 for three months, $30 for six months, or $48 for a full year) Most of our members save many times the cost each week, because we maximize use of weekly sales at grocery stores across the country.

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

Yes! If your grocery store isn’t listed, you can always 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.

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. Menus are created on the first day of the weekly sales cycle of the store you have selected. You can see the full list here . If you sign up for email delivery, your menu and shopping list will arrive at or just after 4PM on the first day of your store’s weekly sales.

When will my weekly menu arrive?

Most menus are based on the weekly sales cycle of a particular store. We create and publish weekly menus on the day a store’s sale starts. You can see the full list of stores and the menu schedules here. If you sign up for email delivery, your menu email will arrive around 4PM on the first stay of your store’s sales.  But you can log on to your Dashboard anytime to get your menu too! (See Demo)

Can I customize my menu?

Yes you can! We have six menu plans to choose from – Everything, No Seafood, No Red Meat/Pork, Poultry & Vegetarian, Vegetarian & Seafood, and Vegetarian, and we plan to add more selections in the future.  We also offer lower carb and gluten free options for every plan – lower carb recipes are marked with this diamond shape: ◊ and GF recipes are marked with this shape: ∆   You can 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 also change any of your preferences on your Account Settings page.

How do you save your members money?
Our members save money in a number of ways. First, for over 8000 grocery stores in 48 states, we create menus based on their weekly sales. Our research and testing shows that families can save $1000 or more a year on groceries using our system. 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 ($1.50/week or less!)

 What will a typical weekly menu look like?

Each week your menu will be customized to your food preferences and what is on sale at the grocery store you select. If you select the “everything” menu, a typical week may contain meals based on chicken, pork, beef, seafood, or vegetarian. It all depends on what is on special and the plan you sign up for.  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 for all of the meal plans on this page.

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

Easy! Many of our members use two, three or four meals each week. You have lots of flexibility with our Switch It feature. On your menu, simply click on the pencil icon next to the title of an entree or side and select a replacement from the pull down list or choose exclude. On the shopping list just click on the Exclude button and click on the things you want to remove. If you remove or change something from the menu, those ingredients will automatically change or come off the shopping list, and visa versa! Click here to watch a short demo.

Do you have lower carb or Gluten Free (GF) options?

Yes! We have many lower carb and gluten free meals! Our lower carb options are marked with this diamond shape: ◊ and our GF options have this shape: ∆. You will see lower carb and GF options as a part of almost every menu, on any of our meal plans. If you want more lower carb or GF recipes in your weekly plan you can use our “Switch It” feature to replace any of your meals with lower carb or GF items. Click here to see a demo of our Switch It feature.

How do you define “lower carb”?

Although there are many variations of what constitutes a low carb diet, our definition of lower 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. We do include nutrient rich carbs such as sweet potatoes, beans, and legumes.

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.

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 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.

How are your Nutritional Values calculated?

We calculate the NVs (nutritional values) in all of our recipes by 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 night’s meal. We provide the NVs as a “ballpark” value only for your convenience.  We ask that you use these values as guidelines only.  If you or a member of your family has very strict dietary needs, please do not use our NVs as your only measure for important dietary considerations.  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 regarding the NVs (or any questions at all!)

What do you mean when you say you put “thought” into the menus?

We review every menu to ensure there is a balance of ingredients (i.e., so you do not have four dinners that all use the same ingredients in a given week) and a variety of recipe types (i.e., a skillet dinner, something for the grill, an easy make-ahead, a slow cooker meal etc.) We realize you do not want to have a week of casseroles or baked dinners so we spend the time to balance this for your week, every week, 52 weeks of the year. We keep our menus simple and do not use hard-to-find ingredients. We like to use fresh, healthy ingredients that are commonly found in any grocery store. We find this way of planning makes eating healthy less stressful, and gives you more time to focus on what is most important to you –  your loved ones.

What makes your recipes healthy?

Our recipes are 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.

 Where do your recipes come from?

Our recipes are created and tested by both professional chefs 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.

 

 How does the coupon search 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 a few 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.

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 a fabulous dessert!

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 two four-dinner make ahead menus of dishes that are great for making ahead and just reheating.   We will be updating these menus periodically.

 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 for all of our meal plan choices 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.

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.

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 at the bottom of the Account Settings page in your Dinner Daily account.

 Who should contact if I have questions?

If you have any questions related to billing, website access, or other more technical questions, please email support@thedinnerdaily.com. If you have questions related to offering The Dinner Daily as a Corporate Wellness benefit for your company, please email lisa@thedinnerdaily.com.

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!

 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 48 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-t0-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 Walmart, Target, Trader Joes or any other store that doesn’t have weekly sales.)

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.