MealZo
I didn't set out to build a meal planning app.
I set out to stop wasting money at the grocery store.
Every Sunday I'd do the same thing — find a meal plan
online, write out the ingredients, drive to the store,
and somehow spend way more than I planned. Every single time.
The app said one thing. The receipt said something else.
I started paying closer attention. The "estimated costs"
these apps showed had nothing to do with real prices.
They were guesses. Comfortable, rounded, completely
fictional numbers designed to make the app look useful.
That bothered me.
Then I noticed the second problem. I'd buy onions — not
realising I already had onions. I'd buy garlic, chicken,
canned tomatoes — all things already sitting in my fridge
going bad. I was essentially buying the same groceries
twice every month.
Two problems. Same root cause. No one had fixed either.
So I started building.
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**What I built:**
MealZo (mealzo.app) — a free AI meal planner that solves both.
Here's what it does:
🧊 Scan your fridge
Take a photo of your fridge — AI identifies what you
already have — meal plan gets built around those
ingredients first. Nothing gets wasted. Nothing gets
bought twice.
🍽️ Generate a 5-day dinner plan
Set your budget, household size, diet preferences and
cook time. AI plans 5 dinners within your budget in seconds.
🛒 Real grocery prices
Connects to Kroger's API to pull actual shelf prices
at your nearest store by ZIP code. Not estimates.
The real number before you leave the house.
💪 Full nutrition breakdown
Calories, protein, carbs and fat per meal. Toggle
between total and per-person for your household.
📋 Past plans saved
Every plan is saved so you can go back and view old
grocery lists anytime.
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**Tech stack (for the curious):**
- Next.js 16 + React 19
- Supabase (auth + Postgres)
- Groq — LLaMA 3.3-70b for meal generation
- Groq — LLaMA 4 Scout for fridge vision
- Kroger Public API for real prices
- Vercel for hosting
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**Honest limitations:**
- Dinner planning only right now (breakfast & lunch
is built but gated — turning on soon)
- Kroger stores only for live prices
- Early stage — rough edges exist
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**What's next:**
- Breakfast & lunch meal types
- More store integrations beyond Kroger
- Pro tier for power users
- Mobile app eventually
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Is it perfect? No.
Does it solve the two things that frustrated me most? Yes.
If you've ever stood at checkout thinking "how did I
spend this much?" — MealZo was built for you.
👉 mealzo.app
Would love honest feedback from this community —
especially from anyone who actually meal preps.
What's missing? What would make you use this every week?
