Terms of Use

Effective 19 October 2026

These terms apply to your use of the Mealpenny website and the Mealpenny iPhone app, operated by Gitesh Shastri. By using Mealpenny you agree to them. The iPhone app is also licensed under Apple's Standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement; where they conflict, these terms apply to the extent the law allows.

1. What Mealpenny does

Mealpenny plans a week of dinners around the budget, household and preferences you enter, creates a grocery list, and shows estimated costs. Recipes, plans and prices are general information for personal, non-commercial use.

2. Accounts

Planning needs a free account. You sign in with your Google account, or with Apple in the iPhone app; keep it secure, because anyone who can use it can sign in to Mealpenny. You can delete your account at any time in Settings.

3. Price

Mealpenny is free during early access, on the web and in the iPhone app. We plan to offer Mealpenny Plus, a paid tier with extras, later. We'll tell you before anything you use becomes paid, and nothing will be charged without you choosing to subscribe.

4. Prices are estimates

Costs in Mealpenny are estimates, not quotes. They are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average price data for your Census region, picked from your ZIP code, plus documented estimates for items it does not track. Your store, brands, sales, package sizes and sales tax will change what you actually pay. Mealpenny does not guarantee that any plan will cost a particular amount or stay within your budget. Nothing in Mealpenny is financial advice.

5. Not medical, nutrition or dietary advice

Options such as vegetarian, gluten-free or dairy-free are food preferences used to filter recipes. They are not medical, nutrition or dietary advice. Talk to a qualified health professional about your diet.

6. Allergies: always check labels

Mealpenny can skip recipes that contain foods you choose to skip, based on its own ingredient list. Ingredients, recipes and manufacturing vary by brand and can change, and products may contain or come into contact with allergens that are not listed. Always read product labels and check every ingredient yourself. Do not rely on Mealpenny to keep an allergy-safe kitchen.

7. AI-written answers

"Ask about this recipe" answers and the reading of your "Anything else?" note are produced by an AI model and can be wrong or incomplete. Use your own judgment, and always follow the safe cooking temperatures shown on the recipe.

8. Cooking safely

Follow the safe internal temperatures shown on recipes, use a food thermometer, and use your own judgment about food handling, storage and leftovers. You are responsible for how you prepare and store food.

9. Acceptable use and content

Mealpenny's recipes, text, price data and design belong to Mealpenny or its licensors. You may use them for your own household. Don't copy, resell, scrape or redistribute them, don't overload or attack the service, and don't use the AI features for anything other than cooking help.

10. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Mealpenny is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind, and we are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential damages, or for grocery costs, food preparation outcomes or allergic reactions arising from use of Mealpenny. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you. Nothing here limits rights you have under applicable consumer law.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of India. This does not limit consumer protection rights you have where you live.

12. Changes

We may update these terms. The effective date above shows the latest version. Continuing to use Mealpenny after a change means you accept it.

13. Contact

Gitesh Shastri · support@mealpenny.com