Availability

Our meal plans use straightforward ingredients that most medium-sized supermarkets will have in stock in the required pack sizes. If you're cooking for one you may find that it's helpful to shop at a supermarket with counter services so that you can buy cheese, cold meats, etc. in smaller quantities (otherwise you may need to buy the smallest pack on the shelves instead, which may be larger than needed). If you're cooking from meal plans that require a cook's store cupboard you may find it's helpful to shop at a larger supermarket so you can be sure to get hold of fresh herbs, etc.

We make sure that Asda, Tesco & Sainsbury's stock the ingredients you'll need in the sizes we show on your shopping list, but because supermarket ranges are increasingly standardised you'll find the meal plans work at other supermarkets too.

Prices

We update our prices at least weekly and they're based on online prices at Asda, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Ocado.

We calculate the cost of a meal plan like this: We start with the costs of all the perishable ingredients we ask you to buy (meat, vegetable, short-shelf life dairy products); then we add the cost of just the amounts of store cupboard ingredients (pasta, rice, flour etc.) that you'll need to use for the recipes in your meal plan; finally we add an allowance for very small amounts of seasonings and flavourings (salt & pepper, herbs & spices, oil, etc.)

You will find that the cost of the ingredients when you shop will vary from our prices in the following ways. If you shop at a very competitive supermarket (Asda say) you may find you spend less. If you shop at supermarket with an emphasis on quality (Waitrose) you may find you spend more. If you already have plenty of things like pasta or oil you won't need to buy them - you may find you spend less. If on the other hand you're low on store cupboard ingredients you may need to stock up - you may find you spend more. Averaged out over about a month though, you will find that your spending should be a good match for the prices we show.