Good and bad buys from Aldi and Lidl

ProudMumMaggie

Hi all, been following for a while and after doing my first Aldi shop yesterday I decided it was time to join in!
What we have used so far and have liked :-
Cheesy Curls - my 14 month old gets these as a weekend treat and they got a big thumbs up!
Chocolate marble brioche loaf - had this with fruit and yogurt this morning for breakfast, very tasty!
Fat free strawberry Greek yogurts - again nice and good value
6 pack fromage frais - eaten by the baby, again thumbs up!
Blueberries - two handfuls scoffed by LO, Mum and Dad got 1 or 2!
Jive bars - hubby is a big Twix fan, he said they're nice enough when I told him they were 69p he was Really impressed!
Chocolate Wafer biscuits - tried one myself with a cup of tea - nicer than Blue Riband which don't taste the same to me anymore!
AquaV antibacterial handwash - very impressed, lots in the bottle for 59p, nice thick soap, good lather and smells nice, bit like honey.
Choceur fruit and nut bar - I'm a big Galaxy fan, followed closely by Cadbury, this was quite nice - decent price for a nice bar of chocolate.
Q10 day cream - I cleansed my skin as usual last night and put this on before bedtime. I have quite oily skin so wasn't expecting much but I am pretty impressed. My skin is softer than it's been in ages and has a bit of glow about it! Not bad for £1.99

We have still to try :-
Pulled pork
Premium baked beans
Premium lemonade
Premium cola
Scottish mince
Own brand jaffa cakes
EE choc chip cookies
Safari snacks
Part baked rolls (4x mini baguettes)
Scottish honey roast game
Chocolate waves
Garlic baguette
Plain flour
SR flour
Cheddar sticks
Blanco Italiano white wine.
Super 6 broccoli & carrots.
Bottle of Sangria - my husband proposed in Barcelona so we have a Spanish theme date night now and again when we have a baby sitter!

I had wanted to get the Super 6 chicken steaks but my local store sold out will try the one near my Grans house )
Anything else I should try?

welsh_mummy

We are due to get a brand new Aldi in our town in a few weeks and at the moment we occasionally use the big aldi's in our nearby big town so have tried some of the products already.

My question to you is what products would you recommend to avoid??

(wont be buying the cottage cheese again - yikes!!)

VfM4meplse

^^^^ I can't say there's anything much I dislike as I tend not to buy processed food; as with any supermarket, you have to watch the fruit and veg. If you can see its last its best / there's moisture in the packet, avoid it.

Air_Cooled_75

UnderPressure wrote: »

Washing powder is the worst thing you can use in any washing machine especially the modern day cold fill type machines, you are really trying your hardest to clog your internal pipes on the machine, also it takes so long for a machine to bring a drum full of cloths and cold water to temperature there is no way you are ever going to get full cleaning potential from any powder. Liquid is a much better solution, it is intermingling with the clothes straight away and is formulated to start to work from very low temperatures, also there is no chance of it clogging your internal washing machine pipes and filters, have you ever seen a lump of powder that has clogged in the draw? It almost sets like cement.

I can vouch for Aldi's bio liquid in the green bottle, it is a great price and excellent at cleaning even at low temperatures and is also good as a stain spotter put onto the stain neat. We have a small business that involves a lot of laundry on a weekly basis and after trying virtually everything on offer everywhere, even commercial solutions we ended up sticking with this liquid from Aldi, even with some really bad stains it has never let us down and we go through around 4 bottles a week of it!

Miele never advised against powder, I've never had any residue in the drawer, I use Fairy non-bio at 30 degrees at the moment. They used to say not to use fabric softener though.

Doc_N

ProudMumMaggie wrote: »

We have still to try :-
Pulled pork
Premium baked beans
Premium lemonade
Premium cola
Scottish mince
Own brand jaffa cakes
EE choc chip cookies
Safari snacks
Part baked rolls (4x mini baguettes)
Scottish honey roast game
Chocolate waves
Garlic baguette
Plain flour
SR flour
Cheddar sticks
Blanco Italiano white wine.
Super 6 broccoli & carrots.
Bottle of Sangria - my husband proposed in Barcelona so we have a Spanish theme date night now and again when we have a baby sitter!

I had wanted to get the Super 6 chicken steaks but my local store sold out will try the one near my Grans house )
Anything else I should try?

Try them all. Try everything. Aldi food is pretty much the same as the food from any other supermarket and you're unlikely to be disappointed. The odd thing about this whole thread is that there's somehow an unwritten assumption that Aldi food is different. Be assured - it isn't.

Ep007

The orange choc waves are fab....but once you start you will scoff the lot

patchwork_cat

UnderPressure wrote: »

You are right about the slime build up, we had this a couple of years ago and it was awful! Our machine is in use all day every day though sometimes literally upto 7 or 8 times a day so we put it down to the amount of use, we could not decide if the slime was from the washing liquid or the conditioner some research at the time pointed towards the conditioner. Anyway, the build up for us was not in the machine pipes but in the external waste pipes, it took me ages to dismantle it all and clean it all out. We have stopped it happening again by doing a regular monthly bleach boil was and then every 3 months we put through a commercial machine cleaner, we have not had the slime back for nearly 2 years now.

It never affected any of our machines when they were just used normally for domestic use only happened when we started a new small business that does a lot of laundry. We had a lot of problems with powder though especially with clogged drawer and the pipes from the draw to the drum. Liquids do not contain bleaching agents but the biological agents in the bio liquid are just as effective if not more as they are not harmful to colours as bleaching agents are with repeated washing.

So far as dissolving at low temperatures do an experiment yourself, see how long it takes to dissolve any of the powders in cold and them luke warm water, it takes ages but in hot water it happens instantly.

I have been advised by washing machine service engineers to use powder and not liquid as the liquid leaves a slimy residue. I have also heard others have the same.

Cornucopia

Doc_N wrote: »

Try them all. Try everything. Aldi food is pretty much the same as the food from any other supermarket and you're unlikely to be disappointed. The odd thing about this whole thread is that there's somehow an unwritten assumption that Aldi food is different. Be assured - it isn't.

This is absolutely right - the only really reliable way to explore Aldi/Lidl is to try stuff.

I think the reason why this thread exists, and why people are looking for reassurance about their choices is that most Aldi/Lidl shoppers also shop elsewhere, because of the more limited ranges.

It therefore becomes a question of what proportion of the shop comes from Aldi/Lidl and what from elsewhere. Which comes down to which shop offers best value/best products. And that's where the thread comes in...

duchy

I shall probably get slapped as it isn't MSE but Aldi rib eye steak is excellent. Always tender and flavourful
The chocolate marbled brioche is a favourite here as is the white sliced loaf with seeds.
I can and do manage a full week shop at Aldi.

On the bring it back list I'll add vegetable crisps

Nada666

duchy wrote: »

I shall probably get slapped as it isn't MSE but Aldi rib eye steak is excellent. Always tender and flavourful.

Yes, you deserve to be slapped- why, if a cut and supplier is regularly excellent, is that not expert money saving? Why is that not MSE??? Buying something cheap and nasty - that deserves a slap. Buying something at a fair price and of good value is always MSE.