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Price five dinners across nearby supermarkets with Claude
WorkedEvidence: Described by posterPosted Last checked
Steven Zinsli's Claude meal-and-price prompt came in $50-plus cheaper than the usual supermarket shop.
Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.
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- Tap Copy prompt.
- Open Claude.
- Paste it into the message box.
- Send it, then read the answer before acting on it.
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Prompt
These are the person's own words, as shared in the source.
Act as my home chef, dietitian-minded meal planner, and personal supermarket shopper. Plan 5 dinners for [N] people, cooking [N+1] servings each night so 1 portion is left for the next day's lunch. Reuse ingredients across dishes so little is wasted, and flag any ingredient used only once. Nutrition (per person, per day): [calories], [protein g], [other targets]. Dietary needs: [allergies / diet]. Dislikes: [list]. Cooking constraints: Max [X] minutes per night, [equipment], [skill level]. Assume I already have [pantry staples]. Budget: [currency][X]–[Y] total for the week. Location: [suburb/postcode], willing to travel [X km] / delivery or click-and-collect. Shopping: Compare [named supermarkets or "all near me"] using live prices from their websites. Price whole pack sizes, show unit prices, and tell me the date of the prices. Once recipes are set, add them to a Google Drive folder I can reopen all week.
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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 five dinners and a priced supermarket list under my weekly food budget. Questions to ask me first: - How many people, leftovers needed, and hard dietary rules? - Which stores and max travel distance? - What is the weekly budget ceiling? Inputs (fill in or confirm): - People/servings: [N / N+1] - Nutrition targets: [CALORIES / PROTEIN] - Stores: [LIST] - Budget: [CURRENCY AMOUNT] - Pantry already owned: [LIST] Rules: - Reuse ingredients across dinners and flag single-use items. - Price whole packs with unit prices and price dates. - Stay at or under the budget, or show the overage clearly. - Save final recipes to my Drive folder when I confirm. Checkpoint: Show the five dinner titles and estimated total before full pricing. If you get stuck: If a store site blocks live prices, say so and use last-known unit prices labeled as estimates. Verify before you finish: Basket total and unit prices are shown with a price date. Output: Five recipes, a store-by-store priced list, and Drive folder links. Done when: I can buy the list and cook from the saved recipes.
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e.g. 50 dollars
Your prompt
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 five dinners and a priced supermarket list under my weekly food budget. Questions to ask me first: - How many people, leftovers needed, and hard dietary rules? - Which stores and max travel distance? - What is the weekly budget ceiling? Inputs (fill in or confirm): - People/servings: [N / N+1] - Nutrition targets: [CALORIES / PROTEIN] - Stores: [LIST] - Budget: [CURRENCY AMOUNT] - Pantry already owned: [LIST] Rules: - Reuse ingredients across dinners and flag single-use items. - Price whole packs with unit prices and price dates. - Stay at or under the budget, or show the overage clearly. - Save final recipes to my Drive folder when I confirm. Checkpoint: Show the five dinner titles and estimated total before full pricing. If you get stuck: If a store site blocks live prices, say so and use last-known unit prices labeled as estimates. Verify before you finish: Basket total and unit prices are shown with a price date. Output: Five recipes, a store-by-store priced list, and Drive folder links. Done when: I can buy the list and cook from the saved recipes.
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AI tool
Outcome
Steven Zinsli asked Claude to plan five dinners and price them at every nearby supermarket. The priced plan came in $50-plus cheaper than the usual shop. Zinsli published a long shopping prompt covering servings, nutrition targets, cooking time, pantry staples, budget, postcode and live supermarket price comparison, and recommends saving finished recipes to a Google Drive folder for the week.
Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.
Source
- Posted
- by Steven Zinsli
- Last checked
- Method:
- How we verify
Context: Date estimated from LinkedIn's 3-week stamp. $50-plus savings is self-reported versus the author's usual shop.
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