Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! The core weekly planner — generating meal plans, viewing recipes, and downloading shopping lists — is completely free. We may introduce premium features in the future, but the essentials will always remain free.

The planner picks 5 lunch menus for the week from the recipe database. It prioritises variety across categories (Sandwich, Hot, Baking, Cold) and applies any allergy or dietary filters you've set. You can also add fridge leftovers or favourite ingredients to influence the selection. It is variety by category — it does not score a week for nutritional balance.

An account is optional — everything on the planner works without one. You can generate a week, download the PDF and print the shopping list as a guest. If you do create an account (email and password; there is no Google or Facebook login), you can star favourite menus so they come up more often, and email a plan to yourself.

Yes! Once your weekly plan is generated, you can download a PDF of the shopping list, grouped by category (Produce, Meat & Seafood, Dairy & Eggs, Bakery, etc.) with estimated prices. You can also email the list to yourself.

Kiwi Lunchbox Planner supports English, Korean (한국어), and Chinese (中文). Use the language selector in the top navigation bar to switch.

Yes. Kiwi Lunchbox Planner is fully responsive and works on smartphones and tablets. You can plan your week and view shopping lists on the go.

Getting started is simple and takes under a minute. Visit the Planner page and you'll see a sidebar with customisation options. You can set allergy filters (nut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan), exclude specific ingredients your child doesn't like, and even add fridge leftovers you want to use up. Once you're happy with your settings, click 'Generate Plan' and you'll have a complete 5-day school lunch plan within about 5 seconds. Each day includes a main lunch item with ingredients, estimated cost from Woolworths or Pak'nSave, and a suggested snack. You can then download the whole plan as a PDF or email the shopping list to yourself. No account is needed for the basic features — just open the page and start planning.

Currently, the planner generates a fresh 5-day plan each time you click Generate. If you don't like one of the suggested meals, the quickest approach is to regenerate — the planner picks from 94 recipes, so you'll get a different combination each time. You can also influence results by adding ingredients you want to prioritise (using the 'Fridge Leftovers' field) or by excluding ingredients you'd rather avoid. We're working on a feature that will let you swap individual days without regenerating the whole plan, which we expect to launch later in 2026.

Yes. The menus are built around a school lunchbox, but none of them are only for children — they are ordinary meals in lunchbox form. If you are already making one, the simplest approach is a bigger portion of the same meal, drawn from the shopping list you already have. One thing to keep in mind: the per-box costs shown in the planner are sized for a child's lunchbox, so an adult portion will cost more than the figure shown. We would rather say that than let you plan a week's budget on a number that does not fit.

Yes. Before generating your plan, you can select from the following filters: Nut Allergy, Dairy Allergy, Gluten Allergy, Egg Allergy, Vegetarian, and Vegan. The planner will exclude any menus that contain those allergens.

We take allergy safety seriously and have carefully tagged every recipe in our database. However, we cannot guarantee that commercial products you buy are free from allergens — manufacturers change formulations and cross-contamination can occur. Always read the label on every product you purchase. For severe allergies, consult your healthcare provider.

Yes. Enable the 'Nut Allergy' filter and the planner will only suggest nut-free menus. All menus in our database are reviewed for nut content. Remember to also check snack items separately.

Yes, absolutely. You can enable as many allergy filters as you need simultaneously. For example, if your child is both nut-free and dairy-free, select both filters and the planner will only suggest meals that are free of both allergens. All six filters (nut, dairy, gluten, egg, vegetarian, vegan) can be combined in any combination. The planner will warn you if there are very few recipes available for your specific filter combination, so you'll know if you need to relax one of the restrictions to get a full 5-day plan.

Our recipes are tagged based on their listed ingredients — if a recipe doesn't contain nuts in its ingredient list, it's tagged as nut-free. However, we cannot account for cross-contamination that may occur during manufacturing of commercial products or in your own kitchen. For children with severe allergies (particularly anaphylaxis risk), we strongly recommend always checking the label of every product you purchase, even if you've bought it before, as manufacturers can change formulations and production lines. Our planner is a planning aid, not a medical device. For severe allergies, please consult your child's allergist or immunologist and inform the school directly.

Yes, the gluten-free filter removes all recipes that contain wheat, barley, rye, and oats (unless specified as certified gluten-free). This covers the main gluten-containing grains. However, coeliac disease requires strict avoidance of even trace amounts of gluten, and cross-contamination in manufacturing is a real concern. We recommend using our gluten-free filter as a starting point for meal ideas, but always verify that the specific products and brands you buy are certified gluten-free and suitable for coeliac diets. Coeliac New Zealand (coeliac.org.nz) maintains a list of certified products that can help with shopping.

Each day's figure covers every ingredient in the meal, plus the snacks listed on that card. Each ingredient is costed as the share of a supermarket pack you'd actually use — two slices from a loaf, not the whole loaf. It does not include a drink, or anything visible in a photo that isn't on the ingredient list; the photos are illustrative rather than a picture of the exact box. Prices come from Woolworths NZ and move week to week. In July 2026 we found and fixed a bug that had been mis-costing pack fractions, so figures published before then were unreliable — the numbers you see now are recalculated. Across our full menu set a box currently works out at a median of about $3.80, ranging from roughly $2 to $7.20 depending on the main.

Price estimates are based on regular Woolworths NZ prices, updated periodically. Prices are approximations and may differ at your local store or on sale days. Pak'nSave and New World prices may vary. Use the estimates as a planning guide rather than exact values.

A few things move the number more than the rest. First, protein is what drives a lunchbox budget — the single biggest line in a costed week is usually the meat, so a meat-free day or two saves more than trimming snacks. On our menu set a vegetarian main runs about 40% less than one with meat. Second, check unit price rather than sticker price: a yoghurt pouch can cost two to three times the same yoghurt from a tub even when the pouch is on special. Third, use the planner's 'Fridge Leftovers' field so the week is built around what you already have. Fourth, store choice matters, but less than people assume — the last time I priced the basket on the same day, Pak'nSave came out 7.6% cheaper across the 20 staples I could compare fairly (6 September 2026 — Woolworths $112.47, Pak'nSave $103.93), and about half of that gap sat in just three items: sliced chicken, cheese and bread. New World is run by the same co-operative as Pak'nSave and came out dearer than both — $100.62 against Woolworths $97.57 and Pak'nSave $91.95 on the 18 items I could compare across all three on the same day. The NZ Lunchbox Price Index shows that comparison item by item, including when the two columns are too far apart in time to be fair.

Both, and they are kept separate on purpose. The baseline cost of every menu uses regular Woolworths shelf prices, refreshed weekly - that is the honest 'any week of the year' figure. On top of that I read the Woolworths and New World mailers each Monday and record what is on special, and the planner builds your week around those deals by default. You can untick that if you would rather plan on regular prices. Regular prices are tracked separately at the NZ Lunchbox Price Index, which is how you can tell a real discount from a sticker.

The planner currently generates one week at a time. For a two-week shopping list, we recommend generating two separate plans and combining the shopping lists manually. Many parents find it useful to generate both weeks on Sunday, then buy the non-perishable items (canned goods, pasta, crackers, etc.) for both weeks at once, and pick up fresh items (bread, fruit, deli meats) at the start of each week. This approach reduces shopping trips while keeping ingredients fresh.

Calorie estimates are based on standard portion sizes and average nutritional values from generic food databases. They are rough estimates intended to give a ballpark idea of energy content — not a substitute for precise nutritional tracking. Actual calories will vary based on specific brands and portion sizes used.

Honest answer: the planner does not check a week against the Ministry of Health's five food groups. There is no food-group logic in the code. What it does is enforce variety across recipe categories (Sandwich, Hot, Baking, Cold) so a week is not five sandwiches, apply your allergy and dietary filters, and show an estimated calorie figure per lunch based on standard portion sizes. That estimate is not a substitute for a nutrition plan. The nutrition writing on this site — the the complete nutrition guide in particular — is benchmarked against Ministry of Health and Heart Foundation NZ guidance and cites its sources. If your child has specific dietary requirements, see a registered dietitian.

Our recipes are designed for primary school children aged 5-12, which covers Years 1-8 in the NZ school system. Portion sizes are set for an 'average' child in this range — roughly 300-450 calories per lunch, which is appropriate for most school-age children. Younger children (5-7) may not finish everything, while older children (11-12) or very active kids might need a larger portion or an extra snack. We recommend adjusting quantities based on what your child actually eats — if they consistently bring food home, reduce the portion. If they're hungry after school, add an extra component like a piece of fruit or a small muesli bar.

Our calorie and nutritional estimates are based on standard portion sizes using generic food composition databases, primarily the New Zealand Food Composition Database maintained by Plant & Food Research. These are approximate values intended to give parents a general sense of energy content — they are not precise enough for clinical use. Actual nutritional values will vary depending on the specific brands and quantities you use. For children with medical conditions that require precise nutritional tracking (such as diabetes), please use a clinical-grade food tracking tool and consult your healthcare provider.

Absolutely! We'd love your feedback. Use our Contact page to send us recipe suggestions, report incorrect allergy tags, or flag any issues. We review all submissions and update the database regularly.

In the Planner sidebar, you'll find a 'Fridge Leftovers' field. Type in an ingredient you already have (e.g., 'chicken', 'spinach'), and the planner will prioritise menus that use that ingredient. This helps reduce food waste and save money.

Supermarket prices are refreshed weekly — every chain column in the price index is read from that chain's own online shop in the same run. New recipes are added in batches rather than on a schedule: the database went from 63 to 94 menus across July 2026 and has been at 94 since. Corrections happen whenever something is found to be wrong — two gluten-free flags were fixed on 20 August 2026, for instance. If you notice a recipe that looks outdated or a price that seems wrong, please tell me via the Contact page.

Yes! The easiest way is to download the plan as a PDF and share it via email, messaging app, or AirDrop. The PDF includes the full 5-day menu, all recipes, and the complete shopping list — everything your partner needs to help with prep or shopping. You can also email the plan directly from the planner using the 'Email Plan' button (requires a free account). We're considering adding shared accounts for families, where both parents can access and edit the same plan — let us know via the Contact page if this would be useful for your family.

We appreciate your help in keeping Kiwi Lunchbox accurate! Head to our Contact page and select 'Technical Support' as the subject. Please include as much detail as possible: the recipe name, what seems incorrect (wrong ingredient, allergy tag error, broken pricing, etc.), and if it's a technical issue, your browser name and version plus a screenshot if possible. We review all reports and aim to fix confirmed issues within 48 hours for allergy-related errors, or within one week for other corrections. Your feedback directly improves the experience for all NZ families using the planner.

We take data security seriously. If you create an account, we store your email address, saved meal plans, and favourite recipes using Supabase (a trusted, SOC 2-compliant database platform). We do not store payment information, dietary health records, or any information about your children. Anonymous usage data (pages visited, features used) is collected via Google Analytics with IP anonymisation enabled. We use cookies only for essential functions (session management, language preference) and advertising (Google AdSense). You can opt out of non-essential cookies at any time. We never sell your personal data. For full details, see our Privacy Policy.

The planner requires an internet connection to generate plans, as it calls our recipe database and pricing API in real-time. However, once you've generated a plan, you can download it as a PDF, which works fully offline. Many parents generate their plan on Sunday evening when they have Wi-Fi, download the PDF, and refer to it throughout the week — even without internet access. If offline functionality is important to you, we recommend saving the PDF to your phone's Files app for easy access anytime.

Menus are added in small batches rather than on a fixed schedule. Each one is costed against tracked Woolworths prices, tagged for the six dietary filters (nut-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, vegetarian, vegan) and checked against what is actually stocked in New Zealand supermarkets. Prices move faster than menus: every chain column in the price index is refreshed weekly from that chain's own online shop, and the current mailer specials are recorded every Monday. This is a one-person project, so there is no editorial team — just me and the receipts. Recipe suggestions are welcome via the Contact page.