Good and bad buys from Aldi and Lidl

littleowl_

I've recently started doing a bit of shopping at Aldi, i've loved reading through this thread! My absolute favourites so far are the nappies which are ridiculously cheap and just as good as Pampers. Food wise, i'm a bit obsessed with the smoked BBQ ribs, goats cheese, mixer drinks (the mexican lime is SO good!), frozen spicy bean burgers and the BBQ chicken wings in the fridge section.

recovering_spendaholic

I really like the Lidl Jasmine Rice - it is loads cheaper than elsewhere and is just as delicious.


I also like Lidl Emmenthal cheese slices - I have to ration them though because I could eat them all day!


Aldi tinned tomato soup is also good for a quick meal, and their Brioche burger and hot dog buns are fab!


Aldi (orange bottle) spray cleaner with bleach is better than any other kitchen cleaner I have tried, and is only 79p.

maman

littleowl_ wrote: »

I've recently started doing a bit of shopping at Aldi, i've loved reading through this thread!

I started off doing 'a bit of shopping' at Aldi but over time they've increased their range and I've tried new things so that I can almost do a weekly shop there. You'll save a fortune! Then there's the added bonus that Aldi and Lidl are forcing the other SMs to bring their prices down so win/win.

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I really like the Lidl Jasmine Rice - it is loads cheaper than elsewhere and is just as delicious.

I also like Lidl Emmenthal cheese slices - I have to ration them though because I could eat them all day!

I only use Lidl for a few bits because the ones near me either don't have a car park or the traffic is dreadful. Thanks for the tip on jasmine rice, I'll stock up when I'm there. We buy the luxury muesli (blue or green bag) and the Emmental blocks of cheese are excellent as is their camembert (and Aldi to a lovely dolce gorgonzola if you're in there). I buy Lidl dishwasher bits especially the salt as it's in a brilliant box with a pourer. I'm told Formil washing powder is good but haven't tried it yet.

Make-it-3

Am getting a bit fed up with the wastage with Lidl onions too. May switch back to loose from Sainsburys.

I'm not a meat eater, but OH proclaimed the steak I bought for BBQ recently like boot leather. The pack of strawberries I purchased for same BBQ were about 80% mould ridden - yuck.

Still think Lidl has some way to go to keep on top of the turn around for fresh fruit and veg

A._Badger

Make-it-3 wrote: »

Still think Lidl has some way to go to keep on top of the turn around for fresh fruit and veg

Sad to say, I feel the same about Aldi. The quality of the potatoes in both my local(ish) branches is consistently poor and although you can get good quality products (some English strawberries for 99p weren't at all bad last week) I find the overall standard quite low.

And, while I'm grumbling, Aldi seems to have stopped selling its Choceur Belgian milk chocolate, which was of extremely high quality.

I'd more aggrieved if I didn't have the same trouble with most supermarkets - just when you've settled with a product, so often they change it - but all the same, it's annoying. Unlike some other Forum denizens I am not a fan of Aldi's supposedly up market alternative 'Moser Roth'.

Happygreen

No issues here in either store on their fresh produce. Just don't buy it if it's not up to your standards
A & L don't employ staff to throw fruit end veg out constantly as T's or the other biggies. Each time I'm in there there is a guy cruising the fresh shelves to chuck anything out that doesn't look 100%. A friend tried to get him to reduce a slightly bruised avocado but he INSISTED on throwing it out. That's why the big 4's veg always looks nice.

A.Penny.Saved

ivfmummy wrote: »

I like Aldi stackers, i actually prefer them to pringles they are less fatty tasting.

Can anyone tell me if the washing up liquid is any good, in the past I haven't heard good reviews has it improved?

An old post from earlier in this thread but no it has not improved. I purchased some for the first time recently and it is like water. If you don't close the top and the tall bottle falls over, it runs all over the place it's so thin. The worst quality washing up liquid that I have ever had. The stuff from poundland or 99p stores is considerably better, especially the double packs of bottles with 30% or so extra per bottle which is pretty decent for the money. 1.3-1.5 litres for 99p/£1 and nice and thick.

Make-it-3 wrote: »

Am getting a bit fed up with the wastage with Lidl onions too. May switch back to loose from Sainsburys.

I'm not a meat eater, but OH proclaimed the steak I bought for BBQ recently like boot leather. The pack of strawberries I purchased for same BBQ were about 80% mould ridden - yuck.

Still think Lidl has some way to go to keep on top of the turn around for fresh fruit and veg

It's the same with the Aldi onions for the majority of the time. Often mouldy or very close to going off. If you have them at home for a few days they have gone off, gone soft or covered in mould.

A._Badger wrote: »

Sad to say, I feel the same about Aldi. The quality of the potatoes in both my local(ish) branches is consistently poor and although you can get good quality products (some English strawberries for 99p weren't at all bad last week) I find the overall standard quite low.

And, while I'm grumbling, Aldi seems to have stopped selling its Choceur Belgian milk chocolate, which was of extremely high quality.

I'd more aggrieved if I didn't have the same trouble with most supermarkets - just when you've settled with a product, so often they change it - but all the same, it's annoying. Unlike some other Forum denizens I am not a fan of Aldi's supposedly up market alternative 'Moser Roth'.

Happygreen wrote: »

No issues here in either store on their fresh produce. Just don't buy it if it's not up to your standards
A & L don't employ staff to throw fruit end veg out constantly as T's or the other biggies. Each time I'm in there there is a guy cruising the fresh shelves to chuck anything out that doesn't look 100%. A friend tried to get him to reduce a slightly bruised avocado but he INSISTED on throwing it out. That's why the big 4's veg always looks nice.

Most of it is bagged and not easy to see very well. Trying to turn veg inside bags to see if it is okay is quite time consuming especially if you want to buy more than one bag.

I think it is the way that they store it that is the problem. About 7 times out of 10 the quality is very poor.

I cannot agree with you about what you say about the big 4, not if you are including Sainsburys anyway. Some of the Sainsbury fruit can be pretty terrible at times, not what I would like to eat anyway.

Cornucopia

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

It's the same with the Aldi onions for the majority of the time. Often mouldy or very close to going off. If you have them at home for a few days they have gone off, gone soft or covered in mould.

I've genuinely never come across that with Aldi onions. I have a bad habit of keeping them for several weeks before finally getting through all 9, and even then, they maybe on the turn, but certainly aren't mouldy. I keep them in a dark, dry cupboard, rather than the fridge.

Most of it is bagged and not easy to see very well. Trying to turn veg inside bags to see if it is okay is quite time consuming especially if you want to buy more than one bag.

I think it is the way that they store it that is the problem. About 7 times out of 10 the quality is very poor.

I cannot agree with you about what you say about the big 4, not if you are including Sainsburys anyway. Some of the Sainsbury fruit can be pretty terrible at times, not what I would like to eat anyway.

I've bought the following over the past few weeks from Aldi, with no problems at all...

- Red Onions
- Baby Sweetcorn
- Blueberries
- Strawberries
- Apples
- Bananas
- Oranges
- Mixed Peppers
- Sweetbite Peppers
- White Mushrooms
- Chestnut Mushrooms
- Iceberg Lettuce
- Tomatoes (various)
- Celery
- New Potatoes
- Coriander
- Garlic

Has anyone tried their Pak Choi?

System

I live on my own and I find it cheaper to buy loose onions than buy a pack of Aldi's and throwing half away. I rather pay 49p on 4 loose medium onions which are all used than 59p for 9 and binning 5.

The 33 pips in a satsuma was about 2 years ago. So I did try some Aldi's satsumas and they are still not up to my standards - dry and pippy.

Doc_N

What surprises me is that Aldi don't sort out their wretched onions and change the supplier.

There have been any number of complaints about them in this thread (and I can't believe that Aldi don't have someone keeping an eye on it)
and it's also been raised on their Twitter/Facebook pages.

There aren't that many problems with Aldi products, but this is a particularly glaring one.