I Finally Went to Aldi
Okay, so I finally went to Aldi. It replaced another store near my house and some folks in the neighborhood have been praising it’s accolades…so, I finally went. Well, I actually sent my husband first to pick up a few things after work and he briefed me before I went myself the other day.
Interesting. But, not bad. It’s brand new, so it’s super clean, which is nice. The open boxes on shelves is different, but didn’t bother me at all.
And I am amazed at how cheap some of the things are. I do buy a lot of organic and am pretty particular about ingredients (no high fructose corn syrup of lots of added sugar for us), so I definitely will only be buying certain items there, however when hubby came home after the first trip with a whole sackful of groceries for ten bucks, I was amazed.
For those who are big couponers, this is probably not that amazing to you, but I have yet to be able to save tons on what I buy with coupons, so I was pretty impressed!
Where I live the big chains are Kroger, Publix, Whole Foods and just recently (yahoo!) Trader Joe’s. For what it’s worth, I think both Kroger and Publix are pretty expensive grocery store for what you are getting. Granted, Publix does great BOGO sales, but I don’t really have a Publix near me, so it’s not worth going. Plus, many, if not most, of the foods I buy cost less at either Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. I am building a price book to prove this to a friend of mine, but I’ve always had a knack for remembering prices of things in my head.
I am just getting the hang of menu planning, but I do feel it will help me keep my grocery budget lower.
But, as for Aldi’s, I will definitely be going back for certain foods. Does anyone have any tips for shopping and saving at Aldi’s?
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03/26/2009 | Frugal & Green Living.
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May 29th, 2009 at 12:24 am
Don’t be afraid to try anything you’re interested in. They have a double quality guarantee; they give you your money back AND a replacement of what you purchased (in case it was of substandard quality). They’re very nice about it, too.
I buy lots of things at Aldi. Their milk usually comes from the same plant as the tasty name brand, but it’s about half the price. I pretty much buy all of my dairy there (unless Kroger is having their BOGO on cheese).
I recently got a box of generic Cheerios, and they were very good (they had the same nutritional value as far as I could tell). Their triple berry has a lot of sugar in it, but I like picking out the freeze dried berries. They have the best price on rolled oats around here, and theirs doesn’t have hard pieces of bran like other inexpensive brands. Before I started making my own tortillas, I would always buy them there ($0.99 vs. ~$2.50)
Their produce is better at some store locations. The ones in MO seemed to have higher quality and lower prices than the one I’ve been to in KY.
We usually pick up a bag or two of frozen cooked shrimp to put in curries or stir fry. Also, they have a decent price on dried beans. Their Special Purchases (usually located in a central location) are fun to look at, but the quality on most of the appliances seems to be poor.
That’s about all I can think of at the moment…