New recipe saver added to MySupermarket’s Companion App

A few weeks ago I reviewed the MySupermarket Companion App – a downloadable toolbar that sits in the background while you’re browsing for groceries and toiletries, and pops up to show you ways to save.

It spotted a couple of pretty good in-store deals that my eyes had skimmed over and missed, and compared basket prices between different supermarkets so I saved a fair amount of money during a weekly grocery shop.

Now the Companion App has been upgraded with a new functionality that’s aimed at people who browse recipes online, and who bake and/or like to cook meals from scratch. People like me, then, and a whole lot of others too. I’ve had the chance to review it, and thought you might like to know how it worked out.

It currently works with many big recipe sites, including Delia Online, BBC Good Food and Jamie Oliver. There’s a full list of them on the MySupermarket blog.

The process is very simple, and it saves time as well as money. First, visit the food website and select any recipe you like the look of. As you start reading the online recipe, the Companion App pops up a small panel in the bottom left of your screen (if you don’t want to use it at that time, you can minimise it very easily with one click).

The pop-up then gives you the entire shopping list for the recipe, including weights and measures, and gives you the option of going to one of the five big British supermarkets to buy them.

If you already have some of the ingredients in stock at home, there’s the option to check boxes on the left hand side to remove them from the shopping list. Again, this is very quick and easy, and done with a single click.

Then you find yourself presented with a supermarket interface (for me this was the supermarket I use most often), with options for buying all the ingredients remaining on your list right in front of you. They’re laid out in the same order as the shopping list.

For example, if the first ingredient on the recipe is 200g of caster sugar, you will have options to buy different brands of caster sugar, the supermarket’s own brand version, and different pack sizes. The Companion App automatically highlights special offers and ways to swap and save while you’re going along.

Once you’ve selected a brand and a size, you quickly get to move down the list to the next item, and the process continues until you have everything in your basket. You then have the option to check out, or to save it as part of your grocery list if you want to come back later to do a bigger weekly shop as well.

I chose the ‘check out’ option, and was then given the opportunity to compare how much the basket contents would cost at different supermarkets, and switch to a cheaper alternative.

My test recipe was a cheese and leek flan, and using the suggested special offers, own brand items, and a cheaper supermarket, I managed to save £2.18 on the ingredients over the space of four clicks – not bad for a recipe that’s fairly cheap in the first place. It has potential to save lots more money if you’re planning a dinner party, a barbeque, buffet or a Christmas dinner.

If you’d like to give it a try, it’s free to use and can be downloaded via the link above.

Full disclosure: I am a longstanding mySupermarket customer. All comments and opinions are my own, and are based on my personal research and experiences.