Here are answers to all the most frequently asked questions about using Real Plans together with Steph Gaudreau.
General FAQs
What is Real Plans?
Unlike meal delivery kits, Real Plans is a highly customizable meal planning tool for people who want to cook.
Real Plans tailors to your family’s specific size, diets, tastes, and preferences—giving you a schedule of recipes and an interactive shopping list so you can streamline the process to getting wholesome, home-cooked food on your table.
Unlike common, static PDF meal planners, Real Plans remains flexible to changing tastes and schedules—no matter who you’re feeding, how often you plan to cook, and what you feel like eating this week.
We also provide you with over 1600 kitchen-tested recipes to get started (and many more to add from your favorite food bloggers), so you don’t have to scour the internet for inspiration.
How long does it take to cook the meals?
Real Planning tip number one: be realistic about how often you’ll cook. Time in the kitchen depends on how many recipes you’re game to prep.
In Real Plans settings, you can specify how many breakfasts, lunches, and dinners you’d like included each week.
You can always filter for “simple recipes.”
Batch cooking, yummy leftovers and the occasional cooking holiday (ahem, takeout + wine) encouraged.
What is the average food budget for Real Plans?
Real Plans is used globally and costs of food vary greatly country to country, state to state. That said, we love happy bellies and happy wallets.
We’ve built a pricing filter that allows you to choose recipes based on cost and have a recipe tag for “budget meals.”
Savvy Real Planners find they save money by selecting a realistic number of meals they’ll cook in a week and because ingredients map to a specific recipe, food actually gets cooked (and gobbled).
Less food waste equals less money wasted.
Our Facebook group has some pretty clutch budget-tips and a boatload of ideas for swapping out pricey ingredients.
Can I gift Real Plans to someone else?
Yes. At checkout, you will be asked to provide a recipient email address and gift message.
You can choose the date you’d like the gift sent and you’ll only pay for the first subscription period. After that, it’s up to your pal to keep up the planning and add her own payment method.
You’ll be sent a confirmation email once your order is complete.
I don’t live in the US, will the recipes still work for me?
We have customers from all over the world!
Your plan will be generated using seasonal recipes for your hemisphere.
And, you can choose metric measurements if you’d like.
Diet FAQs
Can I change my plan to a different diet type after I subscribe?
Yes, and as often as you like. We hope the recipes in your planner inspire you to love new types of food, meet personal goals or improve health challenges. Whenever you update your food groups and ingredient exceptions in the settings tab, Real Plans will put together new meal plans for the following four weeks.
I have a food allergy. Can I customize my meal plan to exclude this item?
Yes. Allergies were one of the reasons we created Real Plans—they can throw a real wrench in everyday cooking. You can remove any food group you’re allergic to (or just don’t like) in the settings tab.
Shopping FAQs
Can I change the day my week starts on?
You can choose the day you would like to start your week in your settings. So, if your CSA box arrives on a Wednesday or you do most of your grocery shopping on Sundays, you can plan accordingly.
Recipes FAQs
What about meatless Mondays or a slow cooker meal every Wednesday?
Ready to be a meal planning pro, are you? Love it. You can customize your schedule by meal size, main ingredient, prep time, tags, cuisine and origin.
Can I tell the planner which days to plan meals for?
Yes, you can plan your ideal week on the My Schedule page. You can choose exactly which days and meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, extras) you’d like recipes scheduled for.
Do you have seasonal menus for the southern hemisphere?
All recipes are catalogued by season. Real Plans only picks recipes based on the season where you live—if you’re soaking up sun in Melbourne while someone else is shoveling snow in Boston, we’ve got your back.
How do I get the nutritional information?
Each recipe has nutritional information on the recipe card. You can read it just like any other nutritional label— calories, carbohydrates, fats, etc. in each serving.
Are the recipes new each week?
Yes, successful meal planning means keeping you from food boredom. So let’s say you eat chicken. We’ll mix up variations on roast chicken—one month it’ll be our Roast Garlic Chicken, and the next our Rosemary Roast Chicken. However, the more restrictive you make your diet, the more repetition you will find.
Billing FAQs
How do I get a refund?
If you are within the first 10 days and wish to be refunded, contact us via the leave a message button on the bottom right or email us support(at)realplans.com. The 10 day period begins on the initial date of purchase and after 10 days we cannot issue refunds. Renewal payments are non-refundable and you will have access to your account through the paid time frame.
If you purchased on iTunes, the payment was processed by Apple and we cannot refund you directly. To directly ask for a refund from Apple, please open your iTunes receipt. Apple usually sends the receipt within one or two days. On the receipt, click on the “Report a Problem” link in the “Item” column, right next to “Write a Review.” A new window will open where you can ask for a refund directly from Apple.
Can I cancel my subscription at any time?
YES. To cancel, simply follow this link and log in to your account if not already. You will have access to your plan for the remainder of the subscription cycle. Since renewals are not refundable, we suggest you cancel your subscription 2 working days before the renewal is due in order to make sure the cancellation is processed in time.
If you purchased from iTunes, you will need to manage your subscription through your iTunes account. See here for the latest updates from Apple on the process.
How secure is your website for sending my credit card number?
We are an authorize.net verified merchant and process thousands of transactions per year. We use 128-bit bank level security for all communications involving financial transactions. Also, realplans.com uses HTTPS for all communication. All your data is encrypted.
