Aldi shoppers -- I need help!

FairyPrincessk

As SoWorried's commentary was so helpful, I've done it on this list as well. I also agree with someone above (sorry forgotten who!) that Aldi is much smaller so you may manage it. Granted, OH and I have been going for a long time so we know where everything is, but I'm a dawdler and he usually manages to drag me out of there in less than 30mins when we do our weekly shop for two.

mardatha wrote: »

This is last week's order-

Trolley summary

Sainsbury's Classic Round Tomatoes x6 Cost £0.60
Sainsbury's Strawberries, Basics 250g Cost £1.00I think this may be a better price than Aldi at the moment, but I can't remember the weight on theirs
Sainsbury's Cabbage & Leeks 240g Cost £1.00They may not have leeks in just yet, but should in the next few weeks when they come into season
Sainsbury's Scottish Double Cream 600ml Cost £1.60
Lactofree Skimmed Milk 1L -Quantity: 5- Cost £6.75As you noted, they won't have this
Sainsbury's Barn Eggs, Basics x15 -Quantity: 2- Cost £2.50
Sainsbury's Ground Almonds 200g Cost £2.20These may not be where you expect to see them--I've found them with the baking items at the very end, just after the eggs, they don't always have them but they definitely will nearer to Xmas.
Sainsbury's Duck Spring Rolls x6 240g Cost £2.00 I don't know if they do these or not, but they've recently expanded their range of pre-prepared food
Sainsbury's Cherry Tomatoes 335g Cost £0.65
Sainsbury's Scottish Single Cream 600ml Cost £1.35
Sainsbury's Little Gem Lettuce x2 Cost £1.20
Sainsbury's Lamb Neck Fillet (approx. 233g) Cost £3.50
Sainsbury's Fresh Salad Cress 20g Cost £0.25I don't often see cress in Aldi
Sainsbury's Scottish Whole Milk 3.4L (6 pint) Cost £2.96
Sainsbury's Lasagne, Basics 300g- Quantity3 -Cost £2.40
Nairn's Fine Oatcakes 218g Cost £1.00They do their own brand--I don't remember if they have Nairns as well, but I thought their own brand were nice--mind I don't eat them often so I may be a poor judge.
Sainsbury's Loose New Potatoes, Taste the Difference Cost £2.50
Sainsbury's British Mackerel Fillets x2 180g Cost £2.00
Sainsbury's British Chicken Thighs (3-4 pieces) 460g Cost £1.60
Sainsbury's Brie, Basics 200g Cost £1.15
Dreamies Cat Treats, Chicken & Duck 60g Cost £1.00They don't do dreamies and I've rarely ever seen them cheaper than £1
Twinings Settling Ginger x 20 Tea Bags 35g Cost £1.70They do a ginger and lemon flavour. We have a box, but I'm not a fan of ginger infusions, not sure how OH feels about it. They also do peppermint, cammomile and a berry/fruity flavour. HOWEVER berry is the least popular flavour and they often won't put out any more of the others until they empty the box so if you see a flavour you like, stock up. This is also a problem with cruncy peanut butter, sea salt biscuits (I happen to like the rosemary flavour that is always left) B vitamins, the green dishwashing liquid, Red Pepper Hummus, veggie stock and several other things.


Total to pay: £43.56

I've had a look at some recipes for you Mar--although it is hard to guess what you'd like. I'll do a new post with suggestions, but as you can see from above, you should be able to shop fairly normally at Aldi given what you buy. I suspect the main difference for you is that you may not be able to buy looks fruit and veg for many items, so you might have to try to use up a whole pack of, say, carrots. We're only two and we've managed it fairly well and they're doing more loose and smaller packets these days than they used to.

VfM4Me
They do actually do veggie stock cubes at Aldi--it is mixed in with the beef and chicken cubes in a green box but always seems to sell out very, very fast and then they wait for the beef and chicken to sell before putting out a new box.

mardatha

Living proof that's an idea- I'm sure they do a longlife Lactofree - I saw it once for sure. I could use that, just buy a load at once. Ta
FairyPrincessk thanks for this - really helpful of you ta I'm very lucky in that the RV will eat anything put under his nose - poor sod has learned to eat it or starve
So he does ok in summer on fish & salads, but as it gets colder I'll need to move to stews. Cooking and menu planning is just totally beyond me somehow and I've never been able to get my head round it even after 50 years married and 3 kids. Left alone I'd exist happily on crisps and cornflakes with the odd bun and sweetie thrown in.
I do hate spending £45 ish on two old people who hardly eat though and it has to stop now.

FairyPrincessk

Main Meals--I'm struggling a bit to work out what you'd normally eat from your list, but here are a few ideas that you could easily make with ingredients from Aldi that are similar to what is on your list:

Fish Options (We'll Eat Again-I've included the page numbers from my book but you may have a different edition)
-Fish in Savoury Custard (if you particularly like Mackerel it could work well in this, but you'll have to cook veg separately) (22)
-Cod Casserole (22) (This already has the veg in it. I'd use any white fish you fancy--we get the frozen fillets and they'd work beautifully if defrosted for this)

Lamb
I'm guessing you roast this? If not, you could adapt the lancashire hotpot recipe on p32. It uses potatoes, which I'm guessing aren't great for the RV. I'd use some of the leftover parsnips from the cod casserole along with bulking out the carrots and onion/leek and omit/reduce the number of spuds. You could substitute sweet potato if you fancy.


Chicken Options
There aren't many recipes for chicken in these books, but there is a chicken and mushroom salad recipe that would probably suit on page 96 of postwar kitchen. You'd have to cook the chicken beforehand, but you could just do extra when you make whatever you normally make with it.

Chicken Quenelles (variation of Haddock Quenelles on page 87 of postwar kitchen)--you'd have to do veg (probably steamed as with the fish) to go with these. I'm also not sure about the breadcrumbs--that might be too many carbs for you.

Sausages
I'm not sure if you eat sausages, but if so the Stuff Cabbage on p 47 of We'll Eat again might suit.

I'd also suggest one of the two quick soup recipes on p13 of postwar kitchen, omelettes, and if you eat sausages, the sausages in Cider might be nice but the cider may be too high in sugar.

I'm not sure if you fancy any of these, but I think the only things you'd need to buy differently would be a different fish, carrots, onions/leeks, breadcrumbs if you don't have bread to make them (they don't sell these at Aldi), sausages and parsnips.

I think you're probably much lighter eaters than we are. We'd probably need all of these meals to get through a week but it sounds like you don't (we're both gannets, so probably no judge of anything normal).

Hopefully that helps a bit with the menu/list making.x

mardatha

Fish & veg in butter sauce would be perfect for him.
Lamb we eat any way cos we love it, hotpot is terrific yes and I just add veg and leave out potatoes. If he's really fedup I add in ONE potato lol.
Chicken is dead easy anyway - I think they were too precious during the war years when this books was written, to slaughter, people maybe needed the eggs more.
Sausages he will eat yes and he likes cabbage.
The soups in the book are great and I make them in winter- so that's soon then..

We found that if you keep eating as you did when you were working, you get fat fast. We are both old we are both ill and we both sit around all day I enjoy that, he does not! So you don't burn the calories off. I feel much more organised now, thank you very much for this. I know our diet will horrify many lol but you have to eat what you fancy. I buy new cookbooks or LC cookbooks and its full of stuff I never heard of, it's like a foreign language.

thriftmonster

Mardatha, re the lactofree. I just checked the skimmed one in the fridge which I bought last Saturday and it's dated to 15 September and I have found that it does last much longer than normal milk. I have to stock up when I go to either Burnley or Halifax so I get enough for 2 or 3 weeks without resorting to longlife. That does take up quite a bit of fridge real estate though!

maman

Al1x wrote: »

I've started using Mysupermarket lately and its great how you can compare the prices from the different supermarkets.

VfM4meplse wrote: »

It depends on your list. There's only one thing I can't get at Aldi, and that is vegetable stock cubes.

I didn't mean that Aldi don't stock many things (I probably do 90+% of my shop there) but that many of the things they sell aren't listed on mysupermarket or don't come up as comparable.


mardatha, if you have Farmfoods near you (another small shop) I'd recommend you try their frozen leeks. I find them good value and no tedious cleaning and prepping. They're perfect for adding to casseroles. Own brand frozen veg there is generally good and certainly worth a look for stocking up on other things too.

FairyPrincessk

Glad it helped!

Maman I know what you mean about mysupermarket. I've found that if you just look for things at Aldi to generate a list that you can do fairly well. I've only found the odd item missing. It isn't great for price comparison since the system doesn't compare well between own brands and things seem to be categorized differently at Aldi. I wish they'd sort it out though!

mardatha

Farmfoods is reachable but no parking. RV won't go. Bah lol

thriftmonster

Morrisons do frozen leeks as well but I don't know if they're over the border?

purpleivy

hello Mardatha and OPs.

Although the core stock list at Aldi is less than the other big supermarkets, they do have offers on meat specials every week/two, so lots of variety. You can find details of these online.

I do most of my shopping there, then stuff I can't get there I do an as and when shop online from OCADO. Also stock up on their specials there as well!