All those gimmicks just teach you portion control which you can do on your own. Go buy some measuring spoons/cups and a food weigher and it will be a lot cheaper. The points systems that they use just substitute counting calories with counting points, but its the same thing. I bet if you divided out the amount of calories per point its probably uniform across the board. Just track your caloric intake, measure your foods to teach yourself portion control. I use
FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal, i know people who use myfooddiary.com or something like that as well. both are free