Cutting food costs: I let AI plan my meals for a month and saved £173

Eager to cut her £360 monthly food bill, Katy Ward asked AI to help her plan a cheaper shopping list for 30 days.

Having heard reports of AI stealing jobs and fuelling a terrifying new breed of cyber scams, it’s fair to say this technology makes me more than a little nervous.

As a personal finance journalist, however, I’m always on the lookout for new ways to save money.

So, when a colleague told me that she had slashed her monthly food bill by letting AI plan her meals, I was intrigued.

I decided to hand over control of my food shopping to AI for 30 days to see how much (if anything) I could save.

Here’s how I got on.

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A sickeningly high food bill

Before I get into the details of my experiment, I need to confess exactly how much I spend on groceries every month.

As a food enthusiast (or perhaps more accurately) a greedy person, groceries are one of my biggest outgoings.

A serious family history of heart disease also means that I try to eat as healthily as possible and am perhaps a little too easily taken in by promises of ‘organic’ or ‘cholesterol-lowering’ miracle foods.

As a result, my supermarket bill can easily run to £90 a week or £360 per month.

How to use AI as a meal planner

At first, I wasn’t really sure where to start. I do have a ChatGPT account, but I rarely use it.

All I really knew was that if I asked a question, the technology would give me a detailed answer almost immediately.

Feeling as though I was in an episode of Star Trek, I nervously typed in “suggest a cheap and healthy meal plan for a day”.

In less than a second, the chatbot obliged with the following:

BREAKFAST

Oatmeal (porridge) with sliced bananas and a sprinkle of cinnamon

• Oatmeal is inexpensive and provides complex carbohydrates for energy
• Bananas add natural sweetness and potassium

LUNCH

Vegetable stir-fry with brown rice

• Use whatever vegetables are on sale or in season (eg bell peppers, carrots, broccoli)
• Stir-fry in a bit of olive oil with garlic and ginger for flavour
• Serve over brown rice for fibre and nutrients

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DINNER

Black bean and sweet potato tacos

• Use canned black beans for convenience and affordability
• Roast sweet potato slices with olive oil, salt and pepper for a nutritious filling
• Serve in corn tortillas with your favourite toppings like salsa, avocado, and cilantro (coriander)

Perhaps unsurprisingly when I asked for both healthy and cheap food, the AI suggested a meat-free diet.

Although breakfast and lunch suggestions were a little bland, I was intrigued by the black bean and sweet potato tacos (and they were absolutely delicious).

Doing the sums

Putting these ingredients into my Tesco app, I quickly calculated that the day’s food would set me back a little under £6.

Porridge: 45p

Banana: 16p

Red pepper: 59p

Broccoli: 82p

Carrot: 65p

Brown rice: 45p

Black beans: 59p

Avocado: 75p

Sweet potato: 42p

Taco shells: £1

_______________

TOTAL: £5.88

Without the AI, a typical day would have also started with porridge and banana, although I would have added unprocessed peanut butter from a tub that usually costs £7 every two weeks.

For lunch, I usually have organic humous (£2.50) on sourdough bread (£2 per loaf). A typical dinner could be tuna steaks (£8 for two) with salad.

In total, this would mean an average of around £12 per day.

A personalised meal planner

As I got further into my experiment, I realised that being specific is key with AI.

After a few days, I began requesting menus that catered to my specific tastes, specifying that I love bananas and can’t eat spicy food.

As I got more confident using the technology, I asked for low-effort suggestions on days on which I couldn’t be bothered to cook after a stressful day at work.

This is where the experiment started to get fun. It was like having my own Gordon Ramsay – one who’d work for free and wouldn’t swear if I’d didn’t like its suggestions.

Porridge (and smoked salmon?)

There were some comical moments as the weeks went on.

When I told the AI that I wanted to add some fish to my diet, it suggested I try porridge with sliced banana, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a side of smoked salmon.

Personally, I’ve never considered smoked salmon a budget-friendly option (or used it to top my porridge!).

It also took me a while to get used to some of the American vocabulary for certain foods. I now know that ‘eggplant’ is ‘aubergine’, ‘zucchini’ is ‘courgette’’ and ‘sliders’ are small sandwiches.

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Suggestions for store cupboard leftovers

The greatest success of the challenge came when I asked AI for help to use up my store cupboard leftovers, which included 11 tins of chickpeas that had been gathering dust.

While some of the suggestions were pretty dull such as roasting them, others would never have occurred to me such as mashing them with breadcrumbs to make burgers.

I also made my own houmous based on its recommendation, which significantly cut  the amount I spent on lunch every day.

When I asked for interesting things I could do with tinned hot dogs, it suggested putting them on skewers with pineapple and red peppers (these were much tastier than they sound).

During the month, I made lunch for nine days from items in my store cupboard, which saved me approximately £25.

Cutting my food bill by nearly 50%

During the course of the month, I spent £187 on my grocery shop, which represents a saving of £173. In essence, I pretty much halved my usual bill.

The majority of these savings came from ditching overpriced (and possibly rip-off) ‘superfoods’ such as manuka honey or organic peanut butter.

Likewise, knowing what I’d be eating every day definitely helped me plan my shopping list more effectively to avoid waste.

Admittedly, I could have made some of these savings myself without the help of AI if I’d been a little more disciplined about my food shop.

In particular, the challenge hammered home the message that I don’t need to shell out on expensive organic brands to have a healthy diet.

And it, of course, goes without saying that you shouldn’t let AI plan your meals if you have a serious dietary-related health issue (or should take a common sense approach to its suggestions).

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Am I an AI convert?

As well as saving me money, the AI meal planner was a great time saver as I didn’t spend half an hour deciding what to cook every night.

On top of this, my experiment introduced me to some new foods such as black bean and sweet potato tacos that will certainly become regulars on my menu.

So, while I did miss the creativity of planning my own meals, I will definitely use AI from time to time to help me slash unnecessary luxuries from my diet or find uses for my store cupboard leftovers.