We'd rather you make this call with clear information than a countdown timer, so here's the straight version: what's free, what Pro adds, and — genuinely — who shouldn't bother upgrading.

What the free plan includes (forever)

The free plan isn't a trial with the good bits removed. Every week you get:

  • 7 new recipes, built around that Wednesday's actual Woolworths, Coles and Aldi specials
  • Real catalogue pricing on every recipe, adjusted for your state
  • The full shopping list, grouped by store with per-store subtotals
  • Family-size scaling — ingredients and costs re-scale to your household
  • The savings tracker, keeping a running total of what specials-planning has saved you

Seven recipes covers most families' proper cooking nights. If your week is four dinners plus leftovers and a takeaway, free may be all you ever need — and we're fine with that. A free user who saves money and tells a mate is worth more to us than a reluctant subscriber.

What Pro adds for $4.99/month

  • All 42 recipes every week instead of 7 — six times the choice across quick meals, slow-cooker dinners, lunches and kid-friendly options
  • Dietary filters — vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, low-carb, kid-friendly
  • Saved favourites — when a recipe becomes a household staple, keep it and bring it back any week
  • Full shopping history — every past list and what it cost

The current $4.99 is launch pricing, and early subscribers keep it.

The actual maths

Pro costs about $1.15 a week. For it to pay for itself, the extra 35 recipes need to produce roughly one better ingredient swap per week — one dinner built on a deeper special than the free selection happened to include. A single half-price protein swap is typically $3–5 saved, so for families cooking five-plus nights a week, Pro usually pays for itself in the first shop, then it's margin.

Who should stay on Free

Honestly:

  • You cook three or fewer dinners a week. Seven recipes already covers you twice over.
  • You're a one- or two-person household with no dietary needs. The free selection will usually stretch.
  • You want to test whether specials-led planning suits you at all. Start free, watch the savings tracker for a month, then decide with your own numbers.

Who gets clear value from Pro

  • Bigger families cooking most nights — more recipes means more of the week's deepest discounts actually get used
  • Anyone with a dietary requirement — filters turn 42 recipes into your 42, instead of scanning 7 and hoping
  • Fussy-eater households — six times the choice matters when only a third of any menu survives the kids' veto

The low-risk way to decide

Subscriptions run through Google Play, so cancelling takes about three taps and you keep Pro until your billing period ends. The test we'd suggest: run one month of Pro during a normal (not school-holiday) month, and compare your savings tracker against your free-plan weeks. If the number doesn't clearly beat $4.99, go back to free with our blessing — you'll still get your 7 recipes every Wednesday.

BudgetPlate is on Google Play — free plan first, no card required.