We've all been there. It's Sunday evening, you're staring into the fridge, and the question hits: what are we actually eating this week?
Recipe box services like Gousto and Hello Fresh spotted this problem years ago. They promised to solve the mental load of meal planning—and they did, to a point. But they also created new problems: eye-watering costs, excessive packaging, and the nagging feeling that you're paying someone a premium to portion out ingredients you could buy yourself.
That's why we built Supermenu.
The recipe box trade-off
Recipe boxes are genuinely clever. You pick your meals, the ingredients arrive, you cook. Simple. But that simplicity comes at a cost—literally. A typical recipe box meal works out at £5-8 per portion. Cook the same dish with supermarket ingredients? You're looking at £2-3, sometimes less.
Then there's the packaging. Individual sachets of spices. Tiny pots of paste. Vacuum-sealed portions of vegetables you could have bought loose. It all adds up to a recycling bin full of guilt every single week.
What if you could keep the good bits?
The actual value of recipe boxes isn't the ingredients—it's the planning. Knowing what you're cooking. Having a list of exactly what to buy. Not standing in Tesco at 6pm wondering what goes with chicken thighs.
Supermenu gives you that planning without the premium. Browse recipes, build your weekly menu, and we'll generate a shopping list you can take to any supermarket—or order online for delivery. Same convenience, a fraction of the cost, and dramatically less packaging.
Real ingredients, real savings
When you buy ingredients from a supermarket, you're not paying for someone to weigh out 80g of rice into a branded pouch. You're buying a bag of rice that'll last you weeks. You're picking up a bottle of soy sauce you'll use again and again. The economics just make more sense.
And because you're shopping at actual supermarkets, you can compare prices, use loyalty cards, and take advantage of offers. Your meal planning works with your budget, not against it.
Fresh food, less faff
We're not anti-convenience. Life's busy. But we believe there's a middle ground between ready meals and spending your entire Sunday batch-cooking. Supermenu helps you plan meals that are realistic for your week—quick midweek dinners, something more ambitious for the weekend, and everything in between.
The result? More home-cooked food on the table, more money in your pocket, and less cardboard in your recycling.
Ready to plan your first week? Get started with Supermenu →