Westford Woman Aims to Cure the Daily Dinner Dilemma

For anyone finding that they’re going to the grocery store one too many times a week, don’t worry: Laurin Mills is here to save the day.

That was Mills’ dilemma before the Westford mom created the Dinner Daily: a website focused around minimizing trips and costs at the grocery store while maximizing the nutrition of meals.

A former certified public accountant, Mills found herself during one snow day several years back with three kids, no food, and no motivation to head to after just coming back a few days earlier.

“I thought, ‘I’m so sick of feeling so disorganized over dinner.’ So I started compiling recipes,” she said.

From there, the informal process evolved with the help of friends and was merged with local grocery circulars to make a string of meals that would cost less than $100 per grocery trip.

Slowly but surely, Mills’ circular-based recipes saved herself and her friends thousands of dollars in grocery costs as she sent her discoveries through her personal networks.

That’s when the idea of turning this concept into a business and a website was born.

Today, Mills has expanded across to circulars around New England, and is in discussion with the Federal Business Administration with the hopes of going national.

While the concept has grown from its early roots, the key impetus remains the same.

“I think for mothers, this is one of the most dreaded parts of your day, trying to decide what’s for dinner, and you have to do it day in and day out,” said Mills. “This offers you a new alternative and all the work’s been done for you.”

Mills says that she’s gotten e-mails from happy users on her site with the savings in time and money they’ve gotten thanks to her, with each set of five meals for four to six people costing an average of $85.

However, despite the savings, nutrition is still a factor in the recipes, going as far to bring on a dietitian for the site.

“Healthy food is a big part of what we look at, we’d never use convenience foods even if they were on sale,” she said.   

Monthly subscriptions for the Dinner Daily currently run at $5, more information is available directly on the site.