Build a biweekly grocery list on a $175 budget with Gemini
- Posted
- by Elton Jones (Tom's Guide)
- Last checked
- Method:
- How we verify
Evidence: Article or interviewA newsletter, journalist or interview account of what happened.
Context: In a comparison test: from a head-to-head chatbot review, not a standalone agent test.
Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.
Outcome
Tom's Guide's Elton Jones gave Gemini and ChatGPT the same prompt: a $175 biweekly grocery budget, the foods he usually buys, and a request for a categorized, priced table. Gemini said $175 over two weeks was realistic if he balanced splurges like steak and shrimp with rice and potatoes, and gave a table by category, item, quantity and estimated cost with a total. ChatGPT's similar chart added items he doesn't usually buy, like eggs and shredded cheese. He picked Gemini as the better financial adviser overall.
Agent
Prompt Original prompt
Exact prompt as published in the source.
My biweekly grocery budget is $175. I like to buy chicken breast, frozen shrimp, vegetables, steak, rice, mashed potatoes, and assorted snacks. Provide a categorized grocery list in a table and estimate the price for each item.
Try this in:
Sends the Original prompt shown above. ChatGPT and Grok open with it filled in, and ChatGPT may send it straight away. Gemini opens empty, so we copy the prompt for you to paste. Every button also copies it.
Opens in a new tab. We don't see what you send.
These links are only a shortcut. We're not affiliated with OpenAI, Google or xAI, and your results may not match the source.
Optional stronger version
Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Turn my grocery budget and usual foods into a categorized shopping list with estimated prices that stays under budget. Fill in before running: - Budget and period: [e.g. $175 every two weeks] - Foods I usually buy: [LIST] - Store I shop at: [STORE] - People I'm feeding: [NUMBER] You're not my accountant or financial adviser. Show your working, label estimates as estimates, and tell me which points a professional or the official source should confirm. Rules: - Stick to foods I listed; ask before adding anything new. - Give a table: category, item, quantity, estimated price, with a total. - Balance pricier items with cheaper staples to stay under budget. - Label prices as estimates and suggest checking the store's app. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. - If there's money left, suggest one or two extras from my own list rather than new items. Output: A categorized table with a total and how much budget is left. You'll know it worked when: the list covers my usual foods, totals under my budget, and adds nothing I didn't ask for. Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.
Customize the stronger version
Answer these questions and we'll put your answers into the stronger version. The original prompt above stays exactly as published.
Your prompt
Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to. Goal: Turn my grocery budget and usual foods into a categorized shopping list with estimated prices that stays under budget. Fill in before running: - Budget and period: [e.g. $175 every two weeks] - Foods I usually buy: [LIST] - Store I shop at: [STORE] - People I'm feeding: [NUMBER] You're not my accountant or financial adviser. Show your working, label estimates as estimates, and tell me which points a professional or the official source should confirm. Rules: - Stick to foods I listed; ask before adding anything new. - Give a table: category, item, quantity, estimated price, with a total. - Balance pricier items with cheaper staples to stay under budget. - Label prices as estimates and suggest checking the store's app. - Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify. - If there's money left, suggest one or two extras from my own list rather than new items. Output: A categorized table with a total and how much budget is left. You'll know it worked when: the list covers my usual foods, totals under my budget, and adds nothing I didn't ask for. Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.
Scroll to see the whole prompt. Your answers show in green.
4 blanks are still empty: Budget and period; Foods I usually buy; Store I shop at; People I'm feeding. They'll stay in brackets in your prompt, so the chat tool may ask you about them.
What you type stays in this browser tab. We don't send it or save it, and it's gone when you leave the page.
Source
Related cases
- Cut a family's grocery spend from $400–$500 every few days to $140 a week with a ChatGPT meal planRecreated promptEvidence: Article or interviewBeginner-friendly
When Brooke Ferrier, a parent of two on the NSW Central Coast, and their partner both lost their jobs, Ferrier asked ChatGPT for a low-cost meal plan for two adults and two toddlers, then refined it with follow-ups: hidden vegetables, low-carb options and no lentils. ChatGPT gave one recipe per meal with variations for each person, compared supermarket prices and produced a categorised shopping list with quantities. A week of breakfasts, dinners and snacks came to $140, against the $400–$500 Ferrier had been spending every four or five days, with much less food thrown out. Ferrier also uses it to find recipes for long-forgotten pantry items.
ChatGPT · Personal · Source date:
- Plan 15 family meals a week from a recipe library and make the shopping list with Grok BotRecreated promptEvidence: Screenshots or logsBeginner-friendly
After a decade of trying to automate meal planning (a spreadsheet, then a self-built app), the poster now has a custom Grok Bot that plans 15 meals a week for the family. It keeps a library of recipes as Markdown files, makes a printable weekly meal plan and produces a shopping list, which the poster pastes into ChatGPT to fill an Instacart order.
Grok Bot, ChatGPT · Personal · Source date:
- Build a tiny house with no experience using ChatGPT for quantities, purchase order and cost-splitting, while catching frequent errorsRecreated promptEvidence: Article or interviewPartial
With no building experience, Simone Solazzo and Anne Leijdekkers built a tiny home in the Netherlands over five months in 2025, asking ChatGPT questions constantly. It helped them think through deviations from the plan, do sums and measurements, work out quantities and buying order for around 250 items, and split costs between them. But they often doubted its guidance, and an architect friend showed its answers were frequently wrong; sometimes it stated false things when it didn't know. They relied on the friend and family for ventilation, insulation, electricity and water.
ChatGPT · Personal · Source date: