{"id":"par-meal-plan-grocery-budget","audience":"parents","category":"data","technique":"examples","title":"Turn a meal plan into a priced grocery list","free":false,"task":"You planned this week's dinners and want a grocery list priced from the store flyer, to check against your $40 budget. Make one numbered line per item you need to buy (combine repeats across meals, skip what you already have), each showing the math in the same shape, like \"1. Eggs, 1 dozen: 1 x $3.29 = $3.29\". End with a Total line that says whether you're under the $40 budget and by how much. Under 100 words, plain text. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.","materialLabel":"Meal plan, pantry and flyer (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"DINNERS THIS WEEK\nMon - Tacos: 2 lb ground beef, 1 pack tortillas, 1 bag shredded cheese\nTue - Chicken stir-fry: 3 lb chicken thighs, 1 bag frozen stir-fry vegetables, rice\nWed - Spaghetti: 1 lb ground beef, 1 box pasta, 1 jar pasta sauce\nThu - Breakfast for dinner: 1 dozen eggs, pancake mix\nFri - Pizza night (ordering from Tony's, no groceries)\n\nALREADY HAVE (checked the pantry Sunday)\nRice, pasta (2 boxes), pancake mix, 1 unopened bag of shredded cheese, milk\n\nFRESHWAY WEEKLY FLYER\nGround beef - $3.99/lb\nTortillas, 10-pack - $2.79\nShredded cheese, 8 oz bag - $3.49\nChicken thighs - $2.29/lb\nFrozen stir-fry vegetables - $3.00/bag\nPasta sauce, 24 oz jar - $2.50\nEggs, large, dozen - $3.29\nPasta, 1 lb box - $1.25\nPancake mix - $2.99\n\nFRESHWAY CORRECTION (posted at the store entrance):\n\"Our printed flyer listed ground beef at $3.99/lb in error. The correct price this week is $4.99/lb. We apologize for the mistake.\"\n\nNotes:\n- Kids want ice cream but that's not in the budget this week\n- Grandpa says Brightmart has cheaper chicken, but we're only going to FreshWay","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":100},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Not showing the line you want","why":"The AI picks its own layout, often a table or a list grouped by aisle with no math, and you can't check the total.","fix":"Show one line: \"Format each item like: 1. Eggs, 1 dozen: 1 x $3.29 = $3.29\".","checks":["r2","plainText"]},{"title":"Missing the price correction","why":"The AI reads the flyer price first and uses it, skipping the store's correction below.","fix":"Add: \"Use the store's correction for ground beef, not the flyer price.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Forgetting the pantry","why":"The AI lists every ingredient in the meal plan, including the cheese and pasta you already have.","fix":"Add: \"Skip anything already in the pantry. Combine the beef from both meals into one line.\"","checks":["r1","r0"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for \"under 100 words\" and it often adds notes and tips that push it over.","fix":"Cap each part: \"each line under 12 words, nothing after the Total line.\"","checks":["maxWords"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Shows an example line","patterns":["like:?\\s*[\"'“]?\\d","\\d\\s*x\\s*\\$","example","format each"]},{"label":"Skips what you already have","patterns":["pantry","already have","skip","don't need"]},{"label":"Uses the price correction","patterns":["correct","4\\.99","update","error"]},{"label":"Ends with the budget check","patterns":["\\$?40","budget","total"]},{"label":"Asks for plain text","patterns":["plain","no bold","no table","no markdown","no headings"]}],"hint":"Describing a format in words leaves room for the AI to improvise. Show it one finished line exactly as you want it, and tell it which prices and items to trust.","rubricLabels":["Uses the corrected ground beef price ($4.99/lb, combined 3 lb = $14.97) and the total is $33.42","Lists only the 6 items to buy (ground beef, tortillas, chicken thighs, frozen stir-fry vegetables, pasta sauce, eggs) and leaves out what's already in the pantry (rice, pasta, pancake mix, shredded cheese), Friday's pizza, ice cream and other stores","Each item is its own numbered line showing quantity x price = cost (like \"1 x $3.29 = $3.29\"), and the last line gives the total and says it's under the $40 budget (by $6.58)"]}