What are your Lidl must buys?

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I’ve got the day off work and I’m going to Lidl later (yes my life is very exciting and glamorous). I usually do one big Asda order once per fortnight but I want to see if doing smaller Lidl shops would be more cost effective.

What are your favourite Lidl offerings? Our cupboards are completely bare so need all the usuals. Anything to avoid?

Pickled Cornichons! (NOT gherkins) So good.

Organic Prosecco (normal stuff gives me a headache this doesnt)

I only go to Lidl for;
Formil (?) Laundry liquid, the purple one, is cheap and really strong smelling
Cat food and cat biscuits
Antihistamines in the yellow/green packet only 79p! I use these to knock me out at night because I get perimenopausal insomnia!
Bakewell tart fruit bar thing they sell at the checkout
And love the £1.50 mixed vegetables boxes

Seeded wholemeal bread - we like it and it keeps longer than other breads. Wraps, ready to cook bread and rolls aren't bad either. Fish is good, especially salmon as it's always lovely and moist. DH likes their yogurts (packs of eight) and cheese and onion deluxe crisps. Pasta, tinned veg, flour absolutely fine - if you're used to Waitrose/M&S you might notice the difference. Budget spread (similar to Clover) is good.

The malted loaf ( bread) is nice, anything from the bakery, cranberry and white chocolate cookies, formil washing products, cheap lemon dishwasher tablets.

The low gi cob - it’s like a granary cob, from bakery shelves not prepackaged. Lasts well and tasty.
I find the premium stuff pretty good and on a par with Waitrose in general.
Sourdough crumpets are good(I really fancy some now!)
Tinned tons/tomato puree fine and cheap to stock up on.
Check out middle of Lidl.. sometimes crap sometimes a bargain. I got swimming costumes for the DC there that lasted years despite being in chlorine weekly.
I haven’t checked recently but they usually do seasonal chocolate including easer eggs that are palm oil free and not bad quality - better than usual Easter egg chocolate.

Nuts. Big selection. Much cheaper.
Chocolate. Smoked salmon.
Croissants, pains au chocolate. Excellent and vg value. Cooked in relays throughout the day.
We only have a little Lidl but I never go past it without nipping in for the above items.

Their Greek yoghurts-I love their honey and coconut one.

The platinum washing up liquid- absolutely brilliant, great consistency , few drops goes long enough.

Bakery- lovely and tasty.

Hummus is nice too.

Their peanut butter is good too.

Laundry detergent, household cleaners.
Breadsticks, extra large eggs, breaded fish, cheeses, deli meats and half salmon sides, condiments and pickles. Some of their monthly international specials are good, too.

Fruit and veg can be a bit tired, find Aldi better quality.

Ground coffee, big soft pretzels from the bakery section, wasabi and chili snack mix. Also the dried fruit and nuts are way cheaper than the main supermarkets and just as nice.
I'm not very keen on their fresh fruit and veg...the quality is not great, IMHO.

And bakery brownies

Really nutty muesli
Pickled gherkins
Salmon en croute
Frozen pastry parcel but not sure these are stocked all the time
Cottage cheese, only place I've found that sells cottage cheese that isn't a load of slop.

fussychica

Cottage cheese, only place I've found that sells cottage cheese that isn't a load of slop.”

Absolutely this. Their 5% fat cream cheese is really good too.

I do most of my regular shopping in Lidl, the only things I tend not to buy are the cleaning products and washing up liquid. I used to buy them but started buying branded ones again and found them to last longer as I didn’t need to use as much.

Their muesli is really good and the dcs love their version of nak’d bars, dp swears their instant hot chocolate is the best, I don’t love it but drink it very rarely and it is cheap. I haven’t ever bought anything that’s been awful from there, the veg used to be a bit hit or miss but it depends where you live and has improved lately.

RosieRoww

Their Greek yoghurts-I love their honey and coconut one.“

Ours hasn’t had the honey one for a month now

Formil washing liquid, sour dough bread, olive oil, bratwurst, herrings in cream sauce, £1.50 veg boxes, cat food, various tea bags, Polish honey,
Curry pastes. The only thing we really don't like from there is canned fish. Sadly tho the savings don't make up for all the stuff I buy from the middle aisle.

We love the family bag of chocolate chip Madeleines. Annoying plastic use but they're great for mid afternoon snacks and for taking to work.

I love love love their red pepper and feta quiche. I buy it weekly for lunches.
I'd you like shellfish their microwavable mussels in garlic sauce are delicious and great for lunches.

We just bought a pack of filled pasta with truffle in their most recent promotion. It was amazing, but they didn't have any left when I went in yesterday. So keeping an eye out for those. That and the tin of stuffed vine leaves.

Dark chocolate with hazelnuts, and salt and vinegar potato sticks. They always have decent fresh pineapples in my local one at a third of the cost of Waitrose. Also things like Brazil nuts are good from Lidl.

It really depends on the individual and your preferences. It’s been a long time since we’ve shopped at Lidl because we’re closer to an Aldi and do our shopping there, so I can’t tell you specifics.

What I can say though is don’t be put off if you can’t get your head round the lack of choice at first - once you get used to that it actually makes life a lot easier and generally cheaper too.

If you try something (pre-made things in particular) and you don’t like it, just don’t buy it again! Everyone has slightly different tastes and asking what to buy or not buy doesn’t take account for that. I always try own-brand things (ketchup, cereal, baked beans, whatever) and give it a good few weeks to try them because sometimes it takes time to get used to a different texture/flavour/whatever. If at the end of the bottle/box/tins I still don’t think it’s as nice, I just don’t buy it again. So I’m happy to buy own brand baked beans, ketchup, other condiments, but if I’m in the mood for cornflakes (which I can’t have often anyway) I know that only Kellogg’s will do.

We don’t buy ready meals or pizzas etc so I can’t advise on those. Again you’re better off just trying it.

I think we found the meat at Lidl of better quality than Aldi IIRC (generally speaking). We buy all our meat from local farm shop now so I can’t really say what’s best at Aldi. I do still buy chorizo, bacon or pancetta and sausages from there. And ham/salami once in a while (we don’t eat it often)

If you’re a reasonable cook and can go with the flow on changing meal plans slightly if it turns out they haven’t got X Y and Z that’s on your list then I think you’ll find it just fine.

Cleaning products, washing detergent, dishwasher tablets, all that stuff, the own brand works brilliantly.

Wines, cheeses, olives and antipasti, etc, there’s plenty of that of good quality.

Be aware that branded goods are often same price or sometimes quite a bit more than in supermarkets.

Watch out for the aisles of doom!! Only buy things if you actually need them. You can find really good things there though.

Mind you on washing detergent/powder we don’t have young children so none of our clothes ever need extreme washing - test it out and see. You could always add soda crystals to your wash which will be beneficial anyway and still cheaper than branded.

Their basic white tissues are good value and we like the red top fizzy vitamins

I'm a weekly Lidl shopper and everything I buy is good, they have some brands as well unlike Aldi. However their stock control is abysmal, empty shelves of entire varieties of items eg crisps or toilet roll. If it wasn't for the app and the £12 monthly bonus I'd swap to Aldi.

West Country butter (I think, the one in the black tub). And their own brand Actimel-alike.

Ohhhh I forgot the bakery! That’s how long it’s been since we’ve been to a Lidl. Watch out for the pretzel rolls, they’re like crack to me.

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