Aldi Newbie

[Pupsiecola]

Recovering Waitrose shopper here. Just paid a visit to the new, large Aldi store nearby. Felt like I walked around mouth open the entire time. Wow. Those prices! We're a family of 4 (including 2 teenage boys) spending around £1k a month in Waitrose. I'm hoping to get that down to £600 to £700. We're health concscious, and animal welfare is important. I'm curious as to how they can sell stuff so cheaply. I worry about this in relation to the meat, but also the labels I've not heard of. I wasn't expecting organic milk and eggs. I guess I need to compare labelling info with the usual brands?

What's good/what should I avoid?

TY

We tried the strawberries which I usually only buy in the summer because the Waitrose ones are huge and taste of nothing imo at any other time of year. They were delicious. Small and really tasty.

I am not a big lover of Prosecco but I am reliably informed that that the organic Prosecco at Aldi is excellent. I think it gets snapped up so get it while you can.

Has anyone tried Amazon Pantry?

Bit off subject here, but I made a rare visit to Iceland today. Covent Garden soup £1, 4 pints of milk £1, mushrooms £1, baby plum tomatoes £1, brioche rolls £1.Total bill £6 and I could only just manage to carry it home.

We do all our shopping in Aldi and have done for years and years now.
I definitely think the Specially Selected range rivals M&S.
The only thing I don't buy there is coffee. I buy the Aldi French roast coffee for work but we buy a different brand once a week for home. I could easily use the Aldi one at home too but dh picks up the other bag as we both just about prefer it.
We LOVE Aldi

My mum swears blind by Iceland, not for frozen but the chiller cabinets. I have bought milk and toliet rolls in there when absolutely on the breadline in the past ... you know when the sofa gets checked for those magic £1's.

I do go to Iceland for their Swedish meatballs - they are delish especially if you make up a copycat Ikea gravy!

PS I haven't tried Amazon Pantry OP.

I’m on a near constant search for really strong, crumbly extra mature cheddar. I spent nearly £7 on a block from M&S last week that wasn’t all that great.
Got some in Aldi the other day, in a black wrapper. Bloody lovely stuff! And about two quid. I was quite impressed with a lot of things in there, the bread & rolls, croissants, the cheese of course, I got some massive onions too. Their fake Irish cream is nice, I had some rose wine that was good and the baklava was amazing. Really impressed.
I spend a fortune on groceries too, maybe £750 a month, and theres only me, DH & the cat plus dsd EOW. I will be using Aldi more often, even if only for cheese! And fussy DaftCat cat loved the mousse catfood in the little tins. Half the price of the Gourmet ones I usually buy him

How do Aldi get away with their dupes looking so much like the branded versions?!

I've not been in Iceland since circa 1987. I thought it was all just frozen stuff! They need a rebrand.

sarawish with the exception of the fact that Aldi staff AIM for a target amount of items scanned per hour, the rest of your post is completely and utterly false!!

Ate some ( whole pack between DH and I oops) of the Aldo mince pies with courvoisier. They were very very very lovely... the taste of orange was just perfect.

Don't buy them

Their Xmas food is lovely. Pate and cheese..mmmmm. Nappies are better than pampers.
Sandwiches are identical to M&S and have identical ingredients and calories per pack. I checked once.
Meat is excellent.
They do a lovely alcohol free sparkling wine now too.

Aldi cosmetics are good, some of the products are only on the "specials" their concealer is as good as Touche Eclat & it's less than a fiver, I normally buy 4 or 5 when it's in store. Their sandwich & freezerbags, foil & Teflon oven liners are brilliant, cleaning products are good, I stock up on magic erasers, dishcloths, pan scrubbers, white vinegar, washing up liquid, their version of flash for floors. I love their cauliflower cheese from the freezer, I buy sprouting broccoli, asparagus, chillies, tins of tomatoes, red kidney beans, pasta, ciabatta bread, their part cooked rolls are delicious, they sell Warburtons farmhouse loaves a lot cheaper than mainstream supermarkets, Fresh orange juice, smoothies, sugar, anything for baking. Only things I don't buy are branded table sauces, toilet rolls, they aren't as good as Andrex, milk as I like my cravendale, tea & coffee as I like my mainstream brands.

Do they have many veggie products...other than fruit and veg