How much of a shop can be done at Aldi/Lidl?

candygirl

I do most of my shopping at ALDI, n bits at Farmfoods 😊

pumpkin89

suki1964 wrote: »

so you are blindly putting the same proc=duct in your basket every week, sticking to brands you trust

Thats not MSE

No, absolutely not. We try different products and find our favourites, then I track them over a few months and learn what the best promotion is, and stock up when the price is right. Apart from fresh fruit, veg and milk, there's very little I ever pay full price for. That's the MSE bit.

My mum does the same. She comes home with a big slab of cathedral city cheese because its on offer. But price per kilo still means that Lidls is cheaper and tastes just as good. Indeed if in Tesco the Dromora and even their own brand would be cheaper and taste as good. But she is brand blind

When shopping in Lidl/Aldi, you have to take the leap of faith, give it a try, and see if the price difference isn't worth a bit of compromise sometimes

I'm not willing to compromise on quality/taste in order to save a few pence. Obviously this will vary depending on different people's budgets and preferences. To be honest, though, if you can't tell the difference between Cathedral City and Tesco own brand I think you are lucky to have cheap tastes, and I will take your other recommendations with a pinch of salt.

Nick_C

pumpkin89 wrote: »

No, absolutely not. We try different products and find our favourites, then I track them over a few months and learn what the best promotion is, and stock up when the price is right. Apart from fresh fruit, veg and milk, there's very little I ever pay full price for. That's the MSE bit.



I'm not willing to compromise on quality/taste in order to save a few pence. Obviously this will vary depending on different people's budgets and preferences. To be honest, though, if you can't tell the difference between Cathedral City and Tesco own brand I think you are lucky to have cheap tastes, and I will take your other recommendations with a pinch of salt.

Cathedral City is just another cheap mass produced cheese. And if you really think its a top quality cheese you should pay a visit to a good cheese shop such as Neal's Yard.

Its fine for everyday use though. As is Aldi's own!

pumpkin89

Nick_C wrote: »

Cathedral City is just another cheap mass produced cheese. And if you really think its a top quality cheese you should pay a visit to a good cheese shop such as Neal's Yard.

Its fine for everyday use though. As is Aldi's own!

It's not a top quality cheese but it's significantly better than other mass produced cheeses I've tried. It's not actually the brand I buy but I'd be happy with it as an ingredient. For a cheeseboard I agree you'd want something more artisan.

VfM4meplse

pumpkin89 wrote: »

I'm not willing to compromise on quality/taste in order to save a few pence. Obviously this will vary depending on different people's budgets and preferences. To be honest, though, if you can't tell the difference between Cathedral City and Tesco own brand I think you are lucky to have cheap tastes, and I will take your other recommendations with a pinch of salt.

I realise that I have been conditioned to be price rather than taste driven. There are lots of foodstuffs on supermarket shelves that I'm sure are delicious but I just wouldn't buy them because once you go down that route, you could spend all of your income that way, buying nicer and nicer food. I much prefer the security blanket of having a rainy-day pot, because you never know how long and hard it's going to rain for.

I would hazard a guess that some people who have resorted to using food banks have spent more money than is strictly necessary on food shopping previously on the spurious grounds of "quality" when it's actually been a question of taste.

pumpkin89

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I realise that I have been conditioned to be price rather than taste driven. There are lots of foodstuffs on supermarket shelves that I'm sure are delicious but I just wouldn't buy them because once you go down that route, you could spend all of your income that way, buying nicer and nicer food. I much prefer the security blanket of having a rainy-day pot, because you never know how long and hard it's going to rain for.

I agree the rainy-day pot is more important, and I acknowledge I'm lucky that I have that and can also afford "discretionary" food.

I would hazard a guess that some people who have resorted to using food banks have spent more money than is strictly necessary on food shopping previously on the spurious grounds of "quality" when it's actually been a question of taste.

Probably true. People mean different things by quality - for me, it's about real food (lack of additives etc.) and, where animals are involved, decent welfare standards. So I would say free range chicken is unquestionably higher quality than battery farmed chicken, though there may not be that much difference in taste. Conversely, a luxury flavoured yogurt might taste nicer than a basic plain yogurt, but it's probably not higher quality.

Cornucopia

There *might* be some objective value to be had from buying superior brands for a product type like cheese, where there is the potential for "quality" to be added to the production process at virtually all stages of production, but I am not convinced that it is universally so.

Even then, I'm not sure that to talk about "cheap tastes" is particularly fair.

As an example: I've never liked Weetabix. In particular, I don't like the way it turns almost instantly from dry and crunchy to mush, when you add milk. I've always wondered whether there was a slightly different product that doesn't do that, and I finally found it in Aldi's Everyday Essentials Wheat Bisks. They are the only "value" grade breakfast cereal I would ever buy, but for me they are superior to the brand leader (and so much cheaper).

pumpkin89

Cornucopia wrote: »

There *might* be some objective value to be had from buying superior brands for a product type like cheese, where there is the potential for "quality" to be added to the production process at virtually all stages of production, but I am not convinced that it is universally so.

Even then, I'm not sure that to talk about "cheap tastes" is particularly fair.

As an example: I've never liked Weetabix. In particular, I don't like the way it turns almost instantly from dry and crunchy to mush, when you add milk. I've always wondered whether there was a slightly different product that doesn't do that, and I finally found it in Aldi's Everyday Essentials Wheat Bisks. They are the only "value" grade breakfast cereal I would ever buy, but for me they are superior to the brand leader (and so much cheaper).

I should clarify that when I said "cheap tastes", I meant it in the same way people say "expensive tastes"; it wasn't meant to be derogatory.

Sometimes "value" products are genuinely nicer than more expensive ones, but in my experience that's the exception rather than the rule. If you know the true price of things (in the big supermarkets this means best promotional price, not current shelf price), then generally you get what you pay for.

FTBNow

We do about 85-90% of our shop at a Lidl or an Aldi - usually Lidl more so as their meat, juices and cheese are brilliant quality and value. We usually go to Tesco for frozen food (just as there's a bit more choice really) and Home Bargains or B&M for shampoo and shower gel as I'm a bit of a brand snob when it comes to that kind of thing.

But washing powder/softener and deodorant I get from Aldi as their range is great.

A._Badger

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I would hazard a guess that some people who have resorted to using food banks have spent more money than is strictly necessary on food shopping previously on the spurious grounds of "quality" when it's actually been a question of taste.

Or on iPhones, fags and scratch cards!