How to plan a week of dinners on a grocery budget
Pick the weekly number first. Divide it by nights and people. Then choose dinners whose estimated ingredients fit. A planner that starts from recipes and hopes the receipt works is a different method.
Set the weekly dinner number before you pick recipes
If you have $75 for five dinners for four people, that is $15 a dinner or $3.75 a person each night. Use the free dinner budget calculator to run your own nights, people and total. It is arithmetic, not a live price feed.
Keep groceries you already own out of the cap, or the plan will buy a second bag of rice. Whole packs still hit the receipt even when a recipe uses half.
Check estimated dinners at your store
Carby’s public store pages list catalog estimates for a family of four, cheapest first. They are not shelf prices. Open Walmart or Aldi and compare the five cheapest against the cap you just set.
If your store runs a weekly ad, a sales-based planner uses a different input: what is on special, not what you typed. That can be cheaper. It is not the same as enforcing $75.
Pick the tool that matches the input you actually have
Typed dollar cap and named store: Carby. Weekly sales flyer: The Dinner Daily. List into a pickup cart: eMeals. Your own recipes: Plan to Eat. Free Mealime recipes: Meals Hub.
The next page puts Carby next to The Dinner Daily, because that is the usual fork: your number versus their flyer.
The comparison that answers the next question
Next: Carby vs The Dinner DailySources checked October 20, 2026: App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 6779585429 · Carby billing policy · Carby refund help · eMeals homepage FAQ · eMeals terms of use · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 575756462 · Plan to Eat homepage · Plan to Eat pricing · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 1215348056 · Eat This Much pricing · Eat This Much homepage · Eat This Much help: what you get · Eat This Much help: cancel any time · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 981637806 · The Dinner Daily FAQ · The Dinner Daily pricing · The Dinner Daily terms · Mealime closing notice · App Store listing · iTunes Lookup id 1079999103. Competitor facts come from those public pages and US iTunes Lookup. Missing cells were omitted, not guessed.