How Tokku AI Plans My Week's Groceries in 90 Seconds

I used to plan my week's groceries the slow way. Sit down on Sunday with a coffee, open Notes, write out the meals, write out the ingredients, cross out what we already had, sigh, open three supermarket apps, sigh again, and then go shopping anyway because I'd run out of patience.

Now I do it in 90 seconds. I'm not exaggerating for the headline. I genuinely timed it. I said the words "pasta night, two stir-fries, a curry, breakfast for the week," to my phone, hit send, and 90 seconds later I had a shopping list split across the cheapest stores for each item.

This is what changed.

The old workflow (15–20 minutes, on a good day)

1. Pick meals.
2. Write ingredients per meal.
3. Combine ingredients into one master list.
4. Open FairPrice app. Search a few items.
5. Open Sheng Siong app. Search same items.
6. Open Cold Storage / RedMart for the imported stuff.
7. Realise you forgot eggs.
8. Add eggs.
9. Add five other things you forgot.
10. Give up on price comparing the last 12 items because you have a life.

Net result: a list, sort of, with maybe three items genuinely price-checked. The rest is hope.

The Tokku workflow (90 seconds, on any day)

1. Open the AI assistant.
2. Tell it what you're cooking. In plain words. "Pasta with meatballs Monday, chicken stir-fry Tuesday, fish curry Wednesday, breakfasts for two adults two kids, plus snacks."
3. Tokku reads it, builds an ingredient list, deduplicates across meals, and pulls real-time prices from FairPrice, Sheng Siong, Cold Storage, RedMart, Guardian, and Watsons.
4. It outputs a multi-store list. Each item is tagged with the cheapest store right now.
5. You can adjust quantities, swap brands, save the list, share it with your spouse.

That's it. That's the whole thing.

Why it actually saves money (not just time)

The time saving is obvious. The money saving is sneakier and bigger. Three reasons:

It compares prices for every item, not just the ones you bothered to check. When you do this manually, you check the prices on the big-ticket items — meat, oils — and ignore the smaller ones. Tokku checks every item. The savings on the "small" items (sauces, spices, snacks) add up to more than the meat savings, in our data.

It catches promos you didn't know existed. You weren't planning to buy Greek yoghurt. But Greek yoghurt is half-price at Cold Storage this week. Tokku flags it. You decide whether to pivot. That's smart shopping you couldn't have done with a static list.

It removes brand drift. When the AI says "the cheapest comparable canned tuna is the Sheng Siong house brand at $1.20," you stop accidentally buying the $4.20 fancy one out of habit. Boring. Effective.

What it's not

It's not magic. It can't read your fridge. It won't know you already have half a bottle of soy sauce. (Yet — we're working on a fridge inventory feature.) For now, the workflow that works is: tell it the meals, get the list, then quickly cross off what you already have at home.

It also doesn't replace good cooking judgment. If you say "Italian pasta night," it'll suggest the cheapest passata, but it won't know your family won't eat anchovies. You're still the chef. Tokku is the sous-chef-slash-procurement-officer.

Three prompts that work surprisingly well

If you're not sure what to type, try these:

1. "Weekly groceries for a family of four, two kids, one Asian dinner per night, breakfasts and lunchboxes included." Good for a full week.
2. "Quick dinners under 20 minutes for the next 5 nights, no pork, no seafood." Good when you have constraints.
3. "Hosting 12 people this Saturday, simple BBQ, one halal option." Good for events.

You can be vague and Tokku will fill in defaults, or specific and it'll respect them. It's pretty forgiving.

If you've never used the assistant, the first time is slightly magical. Try it on this week's shopping. Worst case, you waste 90 seconds. Best case, you get your Sunday afternoon back.

For workflows to copy, see the three-supermarket weekly system, the $100 weekly grocery plan, and live cooking essentials comparisons.

→ Open the Tokku AI assistant and tell it what you're eating this week.