My first Aldi shop - thoughts

stormywaters

I finally persueded my OH to try a week's shop at Aldi, so we can see what all the fuss is about at most importantly save some money. Well, we did get most of what we needed in there, but did still have to swing by Adsa on the way back to get a few other bits. I was dead chuffed that instead of the 50-odd quid we normally spend on a weeks's shop, we only spent a total of £45. Wow, I thought, we saved a bit, at least.

BUT! I've just been on the web to see how much we have actually saved. Answer: not as much as I thought.

I compared the cost of the items we bought in Aldi with the cost of the same/similar in Adsa, and it turns out that although we bought a few extra items which are unique to Aldi, we only actually saved just over a fiver. OK, so a fiver's a fiver, but here are my findings.

Aldi is great value for items such as beans, soups, jars of sauces, ketchup etc.

Wine is considerably cheaper (though not tasted it yet!), but only a few pence off bottled beer/ales, which OH drinks.

They sell whole chickens for £2.99, compared with £3.58 in Adsa, which is great, but minced beef actually worked out dearer.

6 Pack yogurts were 11p more in Aldi. Own brand chocolate was also dearer.

So, all in all, I think that Aldi is going to be more cost effective for store cupboard items, but in future I will still use Adsa for everything else.

What have others found?

kathie1101

The thing I would say is that in general you can't compare Aldi's own to Asda value or Tesco value brands. Most of Aldi's products are far better than the basics brands offered by the supermarkets and I would normally put them on a par with either the branded products or the supermarkets main range. I find if you compare prices this way then you are quids in by shopping at Aldi.

I switched to shopping at Aldi quite some time back and have noticed a real difference in what I am spending. Yes there are certain products that I can't get there, but I just go to the other supermarkets for those. This weekend I shopped the other way round (going to the supermarket first) and there are always some products that are hit and miss whether Aldi have in stock or not, so as it was late on on Sunday I didn't want to take the chance so just bought them at Mr T's. To say I was shocked :eek: at what I had spent is an understatement. I shall certainly be making sure I stick to shopping at Aldi first in future.

rachbc

what kathie said - aldi 31p tinned toms are more like napoli than smart price. Cereals fantastic - their crunch cereal compares to jordans at £3 a box, cold meats/ deli items and bread are all better and cheaper.

Mince at aldi is £2.67 per kg but at asda its £4.00 - unless you are talking smartprice mince but again the quality is far better.

other good buys are tea, toiletries, laundry/ dish wash

puddy

ive said on here before that we started shopping in lidl and aldi purely for financial reasons. i will now continue to shop there for quality and the quietness/calmness!

i compared a shop done recently for lidl which saved over £10 compared to asda and that was comparing with asda cheapest stuff, so the quality was much better in lidl

i will compare one soon with aldi. i have noticed there are a couple of things i could see were more expensive, 500g of cod in batter for example in aldi was £2.69 and £2.50 in asda, but largely i find that the quality is better, the prices cheaper or the packets are bigger so frozen prawns for example was 550g for around about £3.60 or something whereas its a bit cheaper in asda but the bag size is 250g

i cant stand even setting foot in tesco and asda now, too big, too busy, too noisy and too expensive

we have to still get stuff from the other supermarkets as obviously they dont sell everything, but largely we get our weekly shop there

julietiff

I agree too, although the prices might be simular, Lidl quality
is far better than Asda basic- The tomato soup from Lidl is
lovely

vasseur

Aldi is so much better than going to one of the big 4!

The quality is so much better and it's a far less stressful experience in general.

Mince, chicken, ham, cereals, fruit juice, frozen fish, pizzas, smoked salmon, parma ham, cheese, coffee, dried fruit, toilet rolls, baby wipes all really good quality, I could list loads more.

I save about £10 p/w shopping there and only pop to one of the big 4 for things I can't get or don't like the taste of in Aldi.

torbrex

I have been shopping in Aldi for more than 5 years and I am well past the experimental stage.

I use it for what it is, a supermarket, if I like the product they sell, I will buy it. I dont go out of my way to shop there but will happily drop in if i am nearby and stock up on cupboard stuff.
I was in today and if it had not been for the fact that my freezer is already full, I certainly could have filled it with reduced meat stuff that was close to date.
I am a bit wary of the fruit & veg as it does not seem to have a long shelf life after purchase.

JLL

I now shop in Aldi for financial reasons. We've saved between 30-40 quid a week. Their fruit and veg are a lot cheaper than Asda. I do top up in Asda as Aldi don't sell Whiskas cat food and my cat won't eat anything else. The other week Aldi were doing lettuce for 39p but had sold out. So when i went to Asda the were selling them on special offer for 50p. Great i thought but it didn't even last 2 meals, so i still had to go and buy another from Aldi for my lunch the rest of the week.

Also my OH loves granny smiths apples, they are never below £1.50 in Asda, a bag of 6 in Aldi are 99p. The only thing i wish Aldi had that other supermarkets do is shopping baskets. Why can't they have shopping baskets?

kathie1101

JLL wrote: »

The only thing i wish Aldi had that other supermarkets do is shopping baskets. Why can't they have shopping baskets?

I must admit this has always been my pet hate with both Aldi and Lidl. Unless I am planning to buy quite a bit I never grab a trolley as I go in and I have often ended up with my arms aching from all the stuff I have grabbed as I have wandered round. There have been lots of times I have not bought things because I am unable to carry any more in my arms, so I am sure there are lots of others like this.

I noticed at our branch that quite a few people use their own bags (not necessary Aldi bags or even carrier bags) to put their shopping in as they go round and then just unpack it at the tills. None of the staff seem to have a problem with people doing this, and I have done it a couple of times myself recently.

I'm sure I read somewhere that Lidl did a trial at some stores of having baskets, but they all got stolen:eek:

daveyjp

"Own brand chocolate was also dearer."

But it's not equivalent to Asda own brand - check the ingredients. Aldi chocolate (especially the Lindt style one) is excellent and far cheaper.

piknie47

kathie1101 wrote: »

I must admit this has always been my pet hate with both Aldi and Lidl. Unless I am planning to buy quite a bit I never grab a trolley as I go in and I have often ended up with my arms aching from all the stuff I have grabbed as I have wandered round. There have been lots of times I have not bought things because I am unable to carry any more in my arms, so I am sure there are lots of others like this.

I noticed at our branch that quite a few people use their own bags (not necessary Aldi bags or even carrier bags) to put their shopping in as they go round and then just unpack it at the tills. None of the staff seem to have a problem with people doing this, and I have done it a couple of times myself recently.

I'm sure I read somewhere that Lidl did a trial at some stores of having baskets, but they all got stolen:eek:

There's baskets in both Aldi and Lidl in my local in B**stol and they've had them for a little while now. Before that I just used to put stuff straight into my re-usable bag and take it to the checkout at Aldi. Did this for years and no one ever said a thing and I saw a few others doing similar. Maybe they get to know and trust the regulars. Either way it worked fine, but much better now they've got baskets.