Plan the week from what you already buy
Not a stranger's recipe feed. SpendScan's meal planner is a planning layer on top of your own grocery history — component-based, AI-assisted, and connected to a shopping list that actually knows your prices and aisles.
Most meal planning apps are recipe databases: thousands of recipes, a heavy content library, and you living inside their ecosystem. SpendScan takes a different approach — meals are planning objects, not a content product. Keep using Cookidoo, Samsung Food, or your favourite YouTube channel; SpendScan answers when and what fits the week.
It starts from a title if that's all you have time for, and gracefully expands to ingredients, components, and instructions whenever you want the detail.
Think in bowls and trays, not recipe IDs
Families think in building blocks — chicken + broccoli + rice — not “Recipe #4821”. Components let you filter your library without reading every recipe, and power a free ranking engine that needs no AI at all.
- ✓Onboarding seeds components from what you actually buy
- ✓Filter chips surface what you bought in the last 7 days first
- ✓Near-duplicates (cucumber / cucumbers) group automatically
A weekly board that respects your week
Drag meals from your library onto any day, reorder within a day, and mark meals cooked as you go — each cook updates your rotation so the same three dinners don't keep resurfacing.
Week starts on whichever day you choose, with live nutrition and estimated cost strips that update as you plan.
AI that fills gaps — it doesn't replace your library
Paste a recipe link and AI extracts the title, ingredients, and steps. Describe a meal in one sentence — “something fast with eggs and spinach” — and get a draft to review. Bulk-import an entire Cookidoo or Samsung Food collection at once.
- ✓Generated meal plans are previews — nothing saves until you say so
- ✓Respects your diet, restrictions, and excluded ingredients
- ✓Bulk import flags duplicates before anything is added
See nutrition and cost before you shop
Every meal gets an estimated macro breakdown and balance score, adjustable by portion size. The week strip totals nutrition and estimated grocery cost from your own last-known prices — always labelled as an estimate, never a substitute for a food diary or a receipt.
Your rotation learns from what you actually cook
Mark a meal cooked, rate it, add a note. Suggestions boost meals due for a comeback after about 30 days and downrank anything you cooked this week — a rotation built from your kitchen, not likes on a feed.
A practical weekly rhythm
Meal planning sticks when it matches how you already shop — not when it demands a perfect recipe for every slot.
- Seed from your receipts. Components and regular meals grow out of what you buy, so the library feels familiar from day one.
- Sketch the week lightly. Titles are enough for busy nights; add ingredients when you want cost and shopping accuracy.
- Fill gaps with AI only when stuck. Describe a meal or paste a link — review the draft before anything is saved.
- Shop the week once. Push missing ingredients into the free shopping list, aisle-sorted with rough costs from your history.
- Mark meals cooked. Ratings and notes tune the rotation so last week's dinners do not dominate next week.
Who this meal planner is for
Families with a rotation
Build a living set of meals from what you actually cook — see meal rotations from grocery receipts.
Cookidoo & recipe-app users
Keep your favourite recipe sources; SpendScan is the planning layer. Bulk-import from Cookidoo, Samsung Food, or YouTube when you want meals in the library.
Dietary and picky-eater households
Set restrictions once and plan around them — more in dietary restrictions and picky eaters.
People who hate food waste
Plan from what is already in the fridge and on recent receipts. Practical tactics in reducing food waste with a weekly plan.
Meal planning FAQs
Is the meal planner free?
The meal planner, meal library, and AI features are part of Pro, with a 7-day free trial. The shopping list that receives your plan stays free forever.
How is this different from a recipe app?
Recipe apps store content; SpendScan plans your week and connects it to spending and shopping. Read meal planning apps vs recipe box apps and component-based planning.
Do I have to use AI?
No. Drag meals from your library, type titles, or import recipes. AI is optional for drafts, link extraction, and bulk import — nothing saves until you confirm.
Can I estimate cost and nutrition?
Yes — week strips show estimated macros and grocery cost from your last-known prices, clearly labelled as estimates. See estimating grocery costs and nutrition estimates without a food diary.
Every plan ends in a shopping list
Add a single meal or the whole week to SpendScan's free shopping list — aisle-sorted, price-estimated, and merged with what you already planned to buy. The shopping list itself is free forever; the planner that fills it is Pro.
See the shopping list