Saving Money and Time With Food on the Table

Update – For a limited time, get the Food on the Table service free for life by entering code SUMMERFREE when you sign up!

Food on the Table is a very interesting service that I think some of you may benefit from. While I normally don’t post about things that don’t involve earning money, I have decided to do a write up on this one because it’s so unique and also because money saved is technically money-earned, right? The people at Food on the Table sent over some info and invited me to take a look at what they have to offer because they also felt that it might interest my readers.

What is Food on the Table?

Food on the Table helps you with several things that probably drain your time each week — planning meals, creating grocery lists around the meals you’ve planned, and saving money on the items on your list. In the past, I was a member of another website (I paid a monthly subscription fee) that showed me where I could save the most and on what at my local grocery store. However, that site did not help with meal planning nor did it do much in the way of cranking out a detailed grocery list. Food on the Table does all these things, and the best part is that it’s free. However, a premium option is also available with more features.

How does it work?

You can create an account either manually or associate Food on the Table with your Facebook page. When you log in, you are asked what you feel like eating this week. Then, you go down the line and check off the ingredients for things you think you’ll probably be making. After you’ve done that, you’re asked what you want to cook. The page then auto-populates with some yummy sounding recipes that would include the ingredients you checked off on the previous page. If none of those appeal to you, you can also submit your own recipes of things your family eats a lot.

After you’ve selected the recipes, Food on the Table will let you see your grocery list and then give you the option to print it off. Be sure to put in your zip code and find the stores you shop at most for groceries because then you’ll also be able to see where the maximum savings are for the things on your list. When you’re all done, you can choose to have your customized grocery list emailed to you, sent to your iPhone (I love this option!), or printed off. The list will contain everything you need to buy to make the recipes you’ve planned for the week. Before you print, you can of course delete the items you know you already have on hand.

If the grocery store you’ve added to your profile has any deals or sales on the items you’ve listed, this will show up underneath those items on your list. This is my favorite part of this whole service — how easy it makes it to know where to save money when you shop. If you have added two stores to your list of favorite stores for grocery shopping, you will also have the option of comparing sales to see where you can get the lowest price on the items you need between the two stores.

Free vs. Premium Subscriptions

You actually get a lot with just the free membership. With the free option, you can get three meals per week planned out for you complete with store savings on all items you need. With the premium membership, that number goes up to seven meals per week. The premium membership also allows you to add more of your own recipes to your account.

If you try it and decide that you love Food on the Table, you may find it worth it to pay for the premium subscription. The cost for premium is $9.95 a month or you can do a three month trial and just pay $15 for three months ($5 a month for the first three months). After that, it’s $9.95 a month. That’s a 50 percent savings off the paid price just so you can try Premium for a bit and see how much more money you save.

I know a lot of people aren’t in favor of paid subscriptions to things, but with something like this you pretty much know that your extra savings on groceries will help offset the cost of the subscription. So if it is really helping you to save more and is also taking a lot of the hard work out of your meal-planning, it could be worth it. And I honestly think it’s extremely helpful even with just the free option.

What I Think

Food on the Table is way more customizable than anything I’ve ever seen out of other grocery savings sites. That said, I would like to see coupon match-ups. While they do show you what’s on sale and how much you can save with your rewards cards, you still have to do all your coupon match-ups yourself. Maybe that’s a feature they’ll consider adding in the future.

Assuming you have difficulty managing meal planning and money-saving at the grocery store, I would recommend signing up for the free account and playing around with it for a bit to see what you think. See how much money you save, and then decide if the premium option would be worthwhile for you. The site is very interactive, easy to personalize, and user-friendly. I really enjoyed tinkering around with it.

If you want to sign up for the free or premium account, you can do so by following this link.