Good and bad buys from Aldi and Lidl

VfM4meplse

mcculloch29 wrote: »

If anyone comes across any of the top iced Christmas cakes reduced, nab them. Ours was moist, packed with fruit and tasted heavenly.

Well going on your recommendation I nabbed quite a few this morning

mcculloch29 wrote: »

Her response was that there is an Aldi somewhere in the Greater Manchester area that is absolutely massive, with 137 staff on the payroll - it's actually built over 2 floors. Does anyone know about this Aldi? Sounds great!

Isn't this the one off the Arndale Centre slap bang in the centre of town? Not that I've been there for years.....or perhaps that was a Lidl.:o

mcculloch29 wrote: »

Similarly Andrex toilet paper isn't as good as Triple Velvet, which I normally get for £1.99 for 6 rolls from Savers. Yet Andrex continues to be a market leader.

The Aldi toilet rolls are as good as and better than Andrex, depending on which ones you pick up imo, but Aldi can't match the value at Savers.

As it is so highly recommended, I'll take your advice and risk it

Doc_N wrote: »

Your theory has been proved once more with Cadbury's (well, Kraft's) decision to cheapen the 'chocolate' shell on their Creme Eggs. What was Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate is now 'standard cocoa mix'.

In that case they have done my waistline a big fat favour

Cornucopia

sharond101 wrote: »

Totally disagree. We get our entire weekly shop and eat healthily cooking from scratch everyday. They have a wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables, pulses, starches, meats and fish. They also have, as do the other supermarkets, chocolate, wine, cake, pie and burgers.

I totally agree.

You have to see the bigger picture. Avoid the 89p pizzas, no matter how tempting and go for healthy quantities of fresh fruit, veg, meat and fish.

What there isn't is shelves & shelves of gimmicky low fat or low calorie stuff, which anyone aiming to eat healthily probably doesn't need, anyway.

There are one or two lower fat alternate products, many of which are very good. I'd cite the Aldi healthier chilled ready meals. The Chicken Tikka Masala is particularly nice (5 green traffic lights).

If you have a special dietary requirement, then you do have to do the donkey-work of checking products carefully, but this is probably the best way, anyway.

quoia

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Are the (normal) stollen properly reduced yet? I saw them at 99p the other week, but last year I picked a load up at just 50p each!

normal ? NORMAL ???

How about the Specially Selected Luxury Topped Stollen ?



https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/product-range/winter-sale/product-detail/ps/p/specially-selected-luxury-topped-stollen/

700g - Was £4.99 down to £2.99

Hand decorated ....

Crammed with rich cherries, marzipan, almonds, spices

and LACED with JAMAICAN RUM :beer:


Our store had some dated 15.01.2015 (tomorrow)




















































I picked a few up

























would be RUDE NOT TO























at just 9p

:rotfl:

dandelionclock30

Yeah but they are probably as dry as a witches XXX.

maman

supermassive wrote: »

I think Lidl/Aldi are great if you're shopping and don't much care about your waistline, but as someone with a bit of a mental relationship with food/fatness, I'd rather avoid junk food and pre-prepared food, but that seems to be what the emphasis is in Lidl and Aldi.

For some reason, it's all about cheap versions of chocolate bars, wine, cake, pie, burgers etc etc etc. When it comes to trying to shop realistically for 2 people who are attempting to live very healthily, the range of choice in those places is very small.

That really isn't true. I lost 3.5 stone with Slimming World and have kept the weight off for 3.5 years and all on Aldi and Lidl produce: lean meat, fruit and veg, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, porage etc etc.


Aldi were market leaders (and still are IMO) in having offers on fruit and veg. They don't have heaps of offers on junk food like most supermarkets. They sell ready meals but I choose not to buy them. They sell chocolate, cakes, crisps and biscuits which I buy in moderation and keep for occasional treats only.

System

I do buy some of my ingredients from Aldi but they don't stock a lot of choice when it comes to herbs and spices. Those that bake say the same with baking ingredients, though has vastly improved but still have to visit Asian supermarkets to get the cheapest.

I bet Aldi don't stock smoked paprika or smoked garlic.

Cornucopia

Probably not, but there's a balance to be had between having niche products on the shelves, and having niche products left on the shelves for months because very few customers want them.

OTOH, they do have very nice antipasti, which is also very good VFM (a third of the price of Sacla).

I'd be interested to know how Aldi sources stock in the first place. Why are there regular lapses in the supply of popular products like tinned Mackerel, for example? Why are new products adopted (Granola) and old products dropped (where have my fat-free Greek Yogurts gone?)

Cornucopia

quoia wrote: »

normal ? NORMAL ???

The "normal" Stollen is still very nice, and has the distinct advantage of a May 2015 expiry date.

Like it wouldn't get eaten way before then.

maman

ScarletMarble wrote: »

I do buy some of my ingredients from Aldi but they don't stock a lot of choice when it comes to herbs and spices. Those that bake say the same with baking ingredients, though has vastly improved but still have to visit Asian supermarkets to get the cheapest.

I bet Aldi don't stock smoked paprika or smoked garlic.

No they don't but they sell their basic herbs and spices very cheaply which frees up cash to go to Waitrose/Sainsbury's for the more unusual ones. At least I will when I've finished the paprika I brought back from Spanish trip.


They do sell anchovies though.;)

mcculloch29

Re lack of specialist stuff. Every so often the Aldi Specialbuys come up with some different buys. I do wish they would stock at least one brown rice in the usual range but it comes up regularly on Specialbuy. The Tilda brown rice microwave pouches were on offer the other week.
The ready to use chopped garlic and chopped chillis are brilliant. I think the range is called something like 'Too Lazy"
I second the anchovies, great for pizzas.
I also second the tortillas, great as an instant low calorie pizza base. There were some low fat tortillas on Specialbuy the other week. I didn't even know these existed.
In fact that's one example of a relatively healthy lunch made with Aldi ingredients - Pizza, low fat tortilla base (Aldi), covered with tomato puree (Aldi) spinach leaves (Aldi) and sundried tomatoes (Aldi), anchovies (Aldi) and defrosted prawns, (Aldi) or defrosted ready to use cooked chicken breast strips (Aldi) or sliced bratwurst (Aldi), with a sprinkle of grated low fat cheddar (Aldi) or mozzarella (Aldi). Assemble in 5 minutes and shove in a hot oven for 8. Tastes wonderful.

I rest my case. The cooked chicken breast strips have been reduced atm by the way . They are fine for stir-fries, normally I use Quorn chicken type pieces as they are only £1.49 for 300g.
We had a luxury stollen post - Christmas. It was sealed inside an inner plastic wrap and extremely moist.
9p ... sniff, sniff. Oh well. My waistline will thank me.