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Shopping and pantry

The shopping list combines what your meals need and accounts for food already at home. Core lists and pantry tracking work without AI or a store connection.

Before you start

Add recipes with readable quantities and plan meals with the servings you intend to make.
Select the household whose list and pantry you want to change; members share this data.
Record pantry amounts before creating the list. Unknown amounts are treated as enough to cover a matching ingredient, so use quantities when you need accurate deductions.

Record what you have

Open Pantry and enter an item, such as 500 g rice or 2 cans black beans, then choose Add.
Use the item’s menu → Change to correct Name, How much, Kept in, or Use by, then Save.
Review Always on hand. Items here are left off lists made from the plan. Use Change to maintain that list and tap a staple when you are running low to add it to shopping.

Expected result: the pantry shows the food available to your household. Use soon highlights dated or leftover stock; dates assigned during put-away are estimates that you can correct.

When something is gone, choose Used up. For partial use outside a planned meal, edit How much to the amount left.

Create a list from the plan

Open List → Add from plan, or Plan → Add the week to the list.
Select This week or Next week and review the meals shown.
Choose Add … meals. If only recurring items remain, the action can be Add every-week items.
Review the resulting lines and the message explaining items already at home or always on hand.

Expected result: ingredients from eligible planned meals are combined, with their planned serving amounts, plus configured every-week items. Past days are not added. Already listed meals are not added again simply by repeating this action. Later changes to listed meals update their outstanding list contributions.

Add extra food or household supplies by typing into the list’s add field. Split the list and Edit lists let you maintain lists for different trips or stores; a list name by itself does not connect a retailer account.

Understand quantities and deductions

Merran combines recognized foods with compatible quantities. For example, two meals needing 200 g and 300 g of the same food can become one 500 g line. If 100 g of compatible stock is available, 400 g remains to buy. Stock already set aside for another upcoming meal is not counted again.

There are limits:

Food names must resolve to the same food. Use an item’s Change controls and Same as to teach matching names. Joined from can keep incorrectly combined names apart for future lists.
Compatible units can be added or converted; unknown units and missing food weights cannot always be reconciled.
A pantry item without a numeric amount counts as having enough. “Some rice” will not produce the same deduction as 100 g rice.
Always on hand means omit from generated lists, not a measured inventory of that staple.

Creating the list sets pantry stock aside for meals; it does not mean the food has been eaten. Marking a planned meal cooked consumes the recorded stock. Reversing that cooked status restores its recorded deductions.

Shop and put purchases away

Check off each item as you buy it. Review amounts if the actual purchase differs from the list.
When finished, choose Put away for the list, or Put it all away for all checked purchases.
Open Pantry and check the amounts, storage locations, use-by dates, and meal reservations.

Expected result: checked food moves into the pantry and purchases are recorded. Household supplies and always-on-hand staples are cleared without creating pantry stock. Unchecked items stay on the list. Merely checking an item does not put it away.

Where a supported cart handoff recorded pack sizes, put-away can use purchased packs instead of the recipe’s required amount. Otherwise it uses the list’s amount. Correct the pantry if you actually bought a different pack. Purchase history can later produce Due about now suggestions; adding those remains your choice.

Optional store connections

The stores module is optional. Find can open searches at selected stores without a direct cart integration. Prices, product choices, and Send depend on the configured integration; support is not universal.

For Kroger-family cart handoff:

Ask the server admin to configure the stores module and Kroger application credentials.
In Settings → Household → Stores, find a store by ZIP code and choose pickup or delivery.
Link the retailer account. The household sends to that linked account’s cart.
In List, use Find or Send, review product choices and quantities, and confirm the handoff.
Review the retailer cart and complete checkout on the retailer’s site. Sending a list does not purchase the order.

Walmart cart filling is experimental and off by default. It requires the server admin to enable it and the Merran browser extension to operate a Walmart tab. It may stop for a retailer verification check. Other stores may offer search links only; do not assume they support cart filling or live prices.

Optional receipt import

With AI receipt reading available, choose Pantry → Scan a receipt, then take a photo, choose files, or paste receipt text. Choose Read it, review names and amounts, select the food to keep, and choose Add … to the pantry. Review the items that will come off the list before confirming. Receipt reading can make mistakes and may incur provider charges; it is an alternative to manual put-away, so avoid recording the same purchase twice.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What to try
An ingredient is missing from the list	Check Always on hand, pantry entries without amounts, meal dates/status, and whether the meal is already listed.
Too much is listed or lines do not combine	Check recipe and pantry units, food names, meal servings, and stock reserved for other meals. Correct mistaken aliases under Your own foods.
Checked food is not in the pantry	Finish with Put away. Household supplies and always-on-hand items intentionally do not create stock.
Pantry amount differs from the actual purchase	Edit How much, especially after substitutions or different pack sizes.
Send or prices are unavailable	Check module availability, store selection, account linking, and whether that retailer has an integration. The manual list still works.
Receipt controls are missing	Check the household’s AI setup and module availability with the administrator.

Next steps

Set up Kroger products and carts, experimental Walmart, or the extension’s shopping sidebar when you want a store connection.

Cook the planned meals, then update stock or plan the next week around what remains.