More in Meals & Cooking.
Ask ChatGPT for a $50 weekly meal plan that added up to about $140
FailureEvidence: Described by posterPosted Last checked
Deniz Toksoz asked ChatGPT for a $50 weekly meal plan, but it missed: its own prices came to about $140 and store prices to $94.
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Create a healthy weekly meal plan with breakfast, lunch and dinner for a college student on a strict budget of $50 or less. Keep the meals easy to make, and include the approximate price of each meal so I can see what the week will cost.
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Optional stronger version
Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.
Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about the details below and wait for my answers. Once I've answered, confirm the plan in one line and run the whole task start to finish. Goal: Plan a week of meals that really fits my food budget, with a shopping list I can price. Questions to ask me first: - What's your weekly food budget and how many people? - Where do you shop? - What do you already have at home? Inputs (fill in or confirm): - Weekly budget: [AMOUNT] - People and meals per day: [DETAILS] - Store: [STORE] - Pantry items on hand: [LIST] - Foods to avoid: [LIST] Rules: - Build the plan from a shopping list, not from per-meal restaurant-style prices. - Reuse ingredients across meals to cut cost. - Label every price as an estimate and show the list total. - If the plan goes over budget, cut it before showing me. Checkpoint: Show me the shopping list with estimated prices and the total, and wait for my OK before writing the meals. If you get stuck: If you don't know store prices, give quantities and let me fill in [PRICE] for each item. Verify before you finish: Add up the list total and confirm it is at or under my budget. Output: A 7-day meal plan, the shopping list with estimated prices and the total. Done when: I have a plan whose shopping list fits my budget.
AI tool
Outcome
Deniz Toksoz of Spoon University asked ChatGPT for a week of healthy, easy meals for a strict budget of $50 or less, with the price of each meal. ChatGPT suggested dishes such as overnight oats, a turkey and avocado wrap and spaghetti with marinara, with estimates like $1.60 for the oats and $9.50 for the wrap. Adding up ChatGPT's own per-meal prices came to about $140 for the week, nearly three times the budget. Toksoz then priced the ingredients at real grocery store prices and got about $94 a week. That was cheaper than ChatGPT's estimates (the oats came to 73 cents a serving), but still well over $50.
Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.
Known limitations
FailureThe source says the AI did not get the job done.
What went wrong: The meal ideas were easy and healthy, but ChatGPT's own prices added up to about $140 against a $50 limit, and real store prices came to about $94.
Source
- Posted
- by Deniz Toksoz (Spoon University)
- Last checked
- Method:
- How we verify
https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/i-asked-chatgpt-to-create-a-weekly-meal-plan-on-a-budget/
Context: The exact prompt isn't quoted, so the prompt here is recreated. Toksoz priced the ingredients rather than buying and cooking the full week. Prices are from 2024.
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