Aldi switch and save a load of crap?

[Hugsgalore]

I'm based in Ireland so figures may be different...

I've been thinking about these ads for a while and wondering if anyone has switched and has a comparable story.

An Aldi ad a while back with an elderly couple claiming to have saved more per week than I spend feeding 3 people by simply switching to Aldi. I can't remember the exact amount and the ad is no longer shown.

Just seen another ad tonight with a couple from Cavan with two small boys claiming to have saved €482 over 4 weeks by switching to Aldi.

I do my weekly shop in Tesco and spend roughly €120-140 a week feeding myself, Dh and dd who is 5. I can't get my head around how they are managing these savings. Surely these figures are bullshit. I would imagine an extra 30-40 a week max for the extra kid... so the ad seems to suggest they feed 4 people from Aldi on €40-€60 a week.

Unless you are only eating cheap pasta and sauce this seems like bullshit to me.

There is small print on these adverts that they're comparing buying all branded stuff at Tesco, so honestly if you buy all own brand stuff at Tesco you probably wouldn't notice much price difference I don't think.

I was dubious as I thought it would all just be cheap quality food, we usually shop at Tesco.
I always check the dates but I do that in any store.

I now do a week shop at aldi.

I dont buy frozen food, except ice cream so I dont know about that.

The meat I buy is much better value for money, it's good quality for less money.

The fruit/veg is much cheaper and we go through it so quickly with having a 2 year old, it never goes off before its eaten.

I also find I dont buy extras as it only has the food we need.

I do a little nip in still though to tesco for my beans, tinned tomatoe Philadelphia, my sons yoghurt and cereal, mini hummus and Aldi dont sell breadsticks....what's that about ??

I used to do the majority of the food shopping at Aldi with a top up at Tesco of things that Aldi didn't stock. I was spending around £75 in total per week.

I've now switched to getting a Tesco home delivery and perhaps buying a few things from Aldi as my husband prefers their sausages and cooked meats and I find that I'm spending around £6 in Aldi and my Tesco delivery is usually between £50 and £60. I think that with a home delivery I've got more time to look at what's on offer rather than being in the store, in a rush and just picking the first thing that comes to hand off the shelf.

We shop in aldi and spend approx £40-£50 a week for 2 adults plus pet food for 2 dogs and a cat. We eat very well, everything from scratch and find we can get everything in Aldi except for dairy free bits which we get in Tesco. We shop to a meal plan so the food lasts as long as needed before it is used anyway. I have price checked and we would definite spend more in Tesco if we got like for like products (thats before the savings draw you in!). The quality maybe not as good but for the difference in price I think it’s worth it (but we only have a limited food budget of approx £250 a month for food)

How could your diet be limited shopping there,

They sell fish, chicken, meat, rice, beans, pasta, veg and fruit.

What else would you need ?

There aren't separate potato fields marked 'Aldi' and 'Marks & Spencer'

No but there are various grades of potato, some are better than others. Also some have been out the ground for longer then others.

The better quality more freshly picked potato isn't going into an Aldi bag...

I get all I need at Aldi!

Meat, fish, fruit, veg, store cupboard staples... packed lunch items... bread, milk... freezer stash... washing tablets, washing up liquid, nappies, wipes...

If you cook from scratch you can get most items from Aldi!

My turkey was also delicious and not off...

A few years ago I would have struggled to get a full shop in Aldi but their range must have increased because now I generally can. There are some things for preference I buy in other supermarkets but I wouldn’t go short if I had to buy everything in Aldi.

I find their mince can go a bit manky and milk go off while still in date so tend to avoid those.

As for the bread this is the U.K. not Ireland so maybe different but my dad was a bread delivery man for Hovis and they also made Aldi bread which he used to deliver, same stuff just a different wrapper.

Me and 2 teens. Weekly shop is £30-£40 with occasional top ups

Jeez. I am in awe! How do you manage that? I have a teenager who eats about the same as 2 adults

It really does depend on what they are comparing. Dishwasher tablets in Aldi are something like €1.40 for 40, whereas Sun, Finish or Fairy must be about 5 times that. Same with Aldi laundry liquid versus Persil.

Food wise broccoli is something like €0.90 for 500g and Supervalu is something like 1.30 for 350. Supervalu and Aldi are the same for butter, sugar, free range eggs, Barry's Tea. Supervalu kitchen roll was more expensive for poorer quality but I think they are a similar price now and I quite like the new supervalu one. €1.20 ish for 4 - and I'm sure any of the branded kitchen rolls are about a fiver for 4, and they are really not much better quality I have invested too much time in kitchen roll. Aldi firelighters are really cheap and really good compared to SV or Tesco.

Magnum Doubles - occasionally half price in supervalu/dunnes/ Tesco or 2 boxes for €5, Aldi version is always 2.50ish. According to DH the Angus steak from Aldi is the only steak that's nice from any supermarket. Nicest rashers are from Lidl Deluxe range. Cre range chicken in Aldi for €4 (I do wonder how cre range it could possibly be) but probably 2 or 3 times that price in SV. Free range chicken fillets work out cheaper by weight too.

Pineapples are a euro in all the supermarkets except SV, but I've found the Dunnes ones to be crap. Organic carrots, mushrooms, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and celery are way cheaper in Aldi than SV or Dunnes. DS prefers the Aldi ricecakes. They do a version of O Donnell crisps that are just the same. Potatoes are sometimes cheaper depending if Supervalu have the 10kg bags in of ones we like. Aldi usually only has roosters in big bags. Oh West cork buffalo mozzarella and vintage cheddar in Aldi are way cheaper too, and proper high quality.

I think it just depends on what you buy. It's definitely cheaper for fresh stuff, and it's own brand household stuff is usually a bit cheaper than Supervalu or Tesco own brand. I'd imagine I save about a tenner a month on broccoli as we eat that every day. I've never figured it out and I wouldn't be buying branded stuff anyway, but I'd say it's significant if I added up everything.

Aldi where I live was cheaper but is much less so these days.
I can get fresh and long lasting ultra cheap potatoes by getting a sack at a time.

I really rate Aldi. There's a few things we've tried and don't like (baked beans, cheese spread & mini cheddars) but loved everything else.

Their range has increased I think and I can definitely do a full shop there.

The only thing I don't like is that you can't buy individual items of veg. We're only a family of three, so for example I don't need a whole big bag of carrots and would prefer to just be able to buy 2 or 3. Having said that, the bag of carrots will still cost me less than buying 3 carrots in Sainsburys!

Things I buy often and think are great are -
Washing powder
Dishwasher tablets
Shower Gel
Shampoo & Conditioner
Face wash
Lacura face creams
Razors
Cereal
Muesli
Tinned tomatoes
Passata
Tomato purée
Most of the wine is decent!
Chocolate bars
Nordpak butter

I love Aldi and we spend £65-70 a week for a family of four. Have been doing a weekly shop at Aldi for months now so might give Asda another to just to see how it compares these days.

I think a lot of the snacky bits we are are cheaper in Aldi and the chicken tends to be cheaper I think for the mini fillets I buy but maybe not?

Would love to be able to do my shop online again.

I agree with you OP. I tried Aldi for a few times and it was no more cheaper than Tesco’s.

There are some things we get at Aldi that are as just as good as branded items but cheaper, such as Aldi Olive Oil Spread, Frozen Tuna Steaks, Pasta Bake Jars, Butter, Kitchen Roll, Freezer Bags, Alcohol, Salami/Pepperoni, so we do a shop there every fortnight to stock up.
But we can't do a full shop there as the fruit & veg goes off very quickly (I've given up on the bags of onions as I've found many rotten ones in a newly opened pack) whilst my veg from Sainsburys seems to last forever as just finished my bag of onions that bought back in November & not a rotten one amongst them. Fed up with the potatoes from Aldi's as about a quarter of the pack are rotting inside.
The majority of the fresh meat tastes awful (only the free range chickens are any good but they're tiny)
The crisps/snacks taste oily.
They don't sell proper squash.
The washing powder/liquid doesn't get stains out of whites like Ariel or Persil do. The washing up liquid hasn't lasted as long as Fairy or Sainsburys or Asda's own.
The Aldi dishwasher tabs were good but the last pack we had wasn't cleaning the plates/cutlery so may have been an off batch.

Though the cereals & chocolate are always good.

I don't know anyone who does a complete & full shop in Aldi, everyone I know does either bits or a third to a half shop in there.

I save around £40 a week shopping at Aldi over Sainsbury’s. I bloody love it.

Also, I bought a turkey crown from Aldi for Xmas and it was the best turkey I’ve ever eaten in my life.

I switched by monthly big shop from tesco to Lidl (buymie app) and have gone from spending about 320-350 to 190. That's all our dried goods, meats, tins, detergents etc for the month and includes that weeks fresh fruit, veg and dairy for family of 4?

I think fruit and veg going off quick is about different stores and how they are stored, rather than aldi or lidl as a company.
There was one local store I couldnt buy from as their aircon above the veg, was blowing warm air onto them. The other aldi its fine. I was finding asda bad for food perishing quickly for ages, but its ok now.
Stuff like that is invariably down to store conditions. Tell the manager maybe if you're not getting long out of them

The advert tonight had brands like weetabix in the Tesco basket and own brand in the Aldi basket so not comparing like with like.

I think you can make savings by shopping at Aldi, but their fruit/veg/bread only lasts 2-3 days so it only works if you have the time and resources to go shopping twice a week.

There's 2 adults and 3 dcs aged 6 and under in our family and I shop at SV for convenience. It's expensive but the produce is good, and I spend on average €120-140 per week, which includes all toiletries, nappies and laundry products. If I shop at tesco/Lidl I can do it for €100 if I really try, and if I shopped at Aldi I could probably knock another €20-30 off that.

I think a lot of the supposed savings that these families are making is probably down to switching from high priced top brands to aldi own brands, in which case they are making a sacrifice cos the Aldi products just aren't as good.

Weetabix in Tesco is expensive. In ireland €3.99 for a 24 unit pack. Tesco own brand €1.65 x 24. You would save over 50% by simply buying own brand in Tesco.

I agree OP that the advert is b. s.

Also Aldi and Lidl fruit and veg are very low quality. They are always very near their off date in any of the stores I have bought them in (three or four different locations so the shop conditions must be frequently poor!).

Had the same problem with Aldi fruit & veg in 3 out of the last 4 locations around the UK we've lived in over the last 20 years. The only Aldi that had 'good' fruit & veg was the one opposite the Waitrose store.

,Also Aldi and Lidl fruit and veg are very low quality.
Agree goes off very quickly in Lidls. I've shopped at various lidls and they are all the same.

I don't find the quality of a lot of the Aldi stuff good enough for what I want. That said some stuff is good and I do at times go there or to Lidl. I do not buy many fresh items though as I just don't find them good. However some hidden gems

I save a fortune at Aldi and get to have more luxury too like salmon etc. I do buy baked beans and tomato ketchup from Tesco as the difference in non branded is noticeable, and also occasionally when I’m cooking from scratch I might need a specific ingredient I can’t get from Aldi but generally fine. I’ve not had an issue with products going off or being less tasty and find the thick bread and sliced meats nicer than other supermarkets. Part of the reason it’s cheaper is limited choice but at the same time I whizz round and my shop takes a fraction of the time it used to. I’m a convert!