Making my weekly grocery list meant jumping between several weekly ads, then searching for recipes that used as many sale items as possible. I thought there had to be an easier way. That routine is what led me to build Dishcount.
It works. My family eats well and our grocery bill dropped by real money, not coupon-clipping pennies. The catch is that doing it by hand takes most of a Sunday evening. This post covers the method start to finish, a real week as an example, and the shortcut I eventually built because I got tired of the manual version.
Looking for current Kroger deals? See Dishcount's Kroger deals and meal ideas, then enter your ZIP and select your store to check prices in your area. The prices in the example below are from mid-July 2026; they are not this week's offers.
Why the ad comes first
Start by looking for useful price drops in the ad, especially on ingredients you can use in more than one meal. Some promotions may be designed to bring shoppers into the store. Compare the price per pound or per unit with what you normally pay, and check whether a digital coupon or minimum purchase is required.
Proteins can be good dinner anchors when the price and package size work for your household. Choose two or three sale ingredients you will actually use, then build dinners and a complete shopping list around them.
When the new ad drops
Kroger's new ad starts on Wednesday in most regions. The digital version goes live on Kroger's site and app that morning. A few regions flip on different days, so check your store once and you'll know your rhythm forever.
One more Kroger quirk worth knowing. Many of the best prices need a digital coupon clipped to your loyalty card before checkout. The shelf tag will say so in small print and will usually have a QR code you can scan to add the coupon in your Kroger app. If a deal in the ad seems too good, look for the words "with digital coupon" before you plan a week around it.
The method, step by step
Step 1. Scan the ad for proteins first. Start with meat, seafood, eggs or plant proteins that fit your household. Compare unit prices and package sizes with what you usually buy. A useful deal is one that lowers the cost of meals you intend to make; a large percentage off is not enough by itself.
Step 2. Pick deals that stretch. A 6 pound pork shoulder is two dinners, pulled pork sandwiches one night and pork tacos the next. A family pack of chicken thighs splits into two meals. One deal that covers two dinners beats two deals that cover one each.
Step 3. Build each dinner around its deal. Now you pick recipes, but only ones whose main ingredient is already in your cart at the sale price. Fill in sides from whatever produce and pantry staples are also in the ad. Frozen vegetable bags and rice or pasta sides go on sale constantly and round out a plate for a few dollars.
Step 4. Check what you already have. Before anything goes on the list, walk the pantry and freezer. Half the supporting cast is usually already in the house. The list should include the sale items plus the true gaps, nothing else.
Step 5. Write the list from the plan, not the ad. The ad is full of good prices on things you don't need. If it's not part of one of the five dinners and it's not a true staple you'll use, it stays at the store. A deal on something you didn't need isn't savings. It's just spending with better marketing.
A real week, worked all the way through
Here's an actual week from the Kroger ad in my area, mid July 2026, so you can see the method produce real dinners at real prices.
The anchor deals that week. Pork shoulder at $1.99 a pound, down from $2.99. Cooked extra large shrimp at $6.00, normally $9.99. Eastern Seas scallops at $12.00, down from $17.99. Nature's Own honey wheat bread at $2.49, down from $4.29. Knorr rice sides at $1.00 a box.
Dinner 1 and 2. Slow-cooker pulled pork. A 6 pound bone-in butt ran about $12 and fed us twice. Chicken broth, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, 8 hours on low. Sandwiches on the sale bread night one, pork tacos night two.
Dinner 3. Bacon and butter shrimp over cheddar broccoli rice. The $6 shrimp, bacon, and two $1 rice boxes. About $13 in sale items for a dinner that feels like a restaurant made it.
Dinner 4. Pan-seared scallops. The kind of thing I never buy at full price, but $6 off is my splurge threshold. Pat them dry, sear in butter, 12 minutes start to finish.
Dinner 5. Chicken thigh skillet. Thighs were the fifth solid protein deal that week. Browned in a pan with mushrooms and onion, chicken broth and couscous added, cheese grated over the top.
Those five dinners show how one week's advertised items could shape a plan. They do not establish a full-basket savings amount: sides, pantry ingredients and any coupon conditions still need to be counted. The example prices are historical; check your store's current ad before shopping.
The mistakes I made so you can avoid them
Trusting the word "sale" without the math. Some ad items are barely marked down. If the regular price isn't shown, I look it up before planning around it. A real anchor deal is a real discount.
Buying deals without a dinner attached. Early on I'd grab every good price and end up with a freezer full of orphan ingredients. Now the rule is simple. No deal goes in the cart without a dinner assigned to it.
Missing the digital coupon fine print. I once planned a week around a price that needed a clip I never clipped. The register doesn't care about your meal plan. Check the fine print, clip before you shop.
Ignoring per-pound versus per-package pricing. Meat ads mix the two, and a great-looking package price can hide a mediocre per-pound number. Always convert to per pound before comparing.
The shortcut
Everything above is exactly what I did by hand every Sunday for a couple of years. Then I built a website that does it automatically, because I'm apparently the kind of person who would rather spend a year building a tool than 45 minutes a week using a calculator.
Dishcount helps turn available sale items into a meal plan. Enter your ZIP and choose a supported store, then use a quick five-meal plan or select the ingredients yourself. Kroger prices depend on the location you choose. With a free Dishcount account and a connected Kroger account, you can review matching products and send eligible items to your cart. Check the Kroger deals page for available examples, then search your ZIP for local deals.
If you'd rather keep doing it by hand, the method above is the whole playbook and it works. The ad doesn't care which of us reads it.
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