Usually shop in Tesco, tried Aldi this month - didn't save as much as I hoped

[MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel]

The cost of my shop savings over 4 weeks was £92. But, there were items I usually get in Tesco that I couldn't get in Aldi. So ended up buying these separately from amazon.

Taking into account this calculation my savings equate to £6.73 over 4 weeks with the annoyance of needing to actually shop every month rather than have it delivered to my door.

In Tesco I mainly buy store brands, and many items the Tesco stuff is preferred. For example my daughter only like the Stockwell salad cream, cereal in Tesco is better value.

Some nice stuff in aldi, crackers are nicer (I eat these often as a dodgy stomach means dry crackers and eggs are a staple) but ham worked out cheaper for smaller packets in Tesco than aldi (we dont get through larger packs).

Cat biscuit we found in the middle aisle much cheaper than Tesco, but they only had it for 2 weeks and then was gone which was annoying.

But, frankly, a lot of prices were the same or similar and sometimes aldi was more expensive in so far as items were smaller packets.

I really hoped we would save more. Maybe if you buy more branded items in Tesco, then Aldi is a saving but I didn't find that. Plus, their laundry tablets caused my daughter a nasty skin rash and roll on deodorants were useless.

Wondered if anyone else found this?

I shop in person regardless because I don’t like other people picking my fruit and veg for me, and Aldi is closer than Tesco so Aldi makes more sense.

To people saying they feed their pets Aldi food, please don't, you will end up paying for it in vet fees it's pure shite. Take a look at somewhere like all about dog food for something that fits your budget but is better for your pet.

I just use their window cleaner with vinegar and a microfibre cloth
the trick is a clean cloth to wipe it over with, change the cloth more than you think you need to!

if your struggling though, white vinegar and screwed up newspaper is brilliant. Utterly brilliant!!! And the windowlene pink cream polish is also excellent - that one will not leave any streaks as you polish it off, so it’s not a liquid as such!

I’ve done animal nutrition courses and it’s not bad at all. It won’t suit all pets or ones on specific diet - nothing does suit all. But it is comparable to much more expensive premium standard ranges of pet food.

Thanks for the tip, my children aren't school age kids anymore so trickery won't work unfortunately but when they were younger we did do some blind tests with another family and just by looking at the things they could tell the difference

Among the Aldi brands they do prefer are Nordpak, pizzas, eggs and pasta. Cereals are one of the few big brands that I buy

The cheapest Aldi weetabix is shit and the bricks look immediately smaller and shit in comparison. However, they do one level up and those are just as good.

ham worked out cheaper for smaller packets in Tesco than aldi (we dont get through larger packs)

You can freeze ham (if means buying the larger pack is better value).

Thank you, I live in hope of finding a miracle method 😂

I thought the newspaper trick didn't work nowadays that newspaper production methods are so diffwrent to the past but maybe I'll buy one to test it out, any preference on which one 😂

Use paper towels or newspaper.

Yeah I’d heard something about the ink, I think if you stick to traditional black and white newspapers you’ll be ok. I think it’s the coloured ones that were causing the issue.
but I’m no cleaning or print expert!!
can’t hurt to give it a try though

Buying own brand Tesco seems to work out a similar price to own brand Aldi. Then taking into account that at Tesco there is much more choice, the option and low cost of delivery with a delivery pass and the fact that their fruit and veg is so much better, Aldi isn’t worth bothering with for us.

Any food I've ever looked at on Amazon was far more expensive than any supermarket!

I have an aldi nearby so buy basics from there- milk, vinegar, table sauces etc. I also have a delivery pass with sainsburys. My deliveries come from a massive store so there are rarely any subs. Many things are price matched with aldi and their fruit/veg is generally better. There are also lots of ingredients I just can get at aldi/lidl such as fish sauce, Thai basil, harissa, preserved lemons, tamarind paste etc.

Oh I do believe that some things taste differently, DH did a few blind tests with me and they didn’t work 🙂

Aldi washing up liquid is better than fairy.

I do a big shop at Sainburys & fill in at Aldi's. Agree Aldi's premium washing up liquid is far better than Fairy.
It's true there's not a big lot of difference price wise lately.

Apparently some of them get wetter at a different rate and the texture is different.

I have to occasionally do some tight budgeting spending other people's money on food. I have to account for every single penny.

Where Aldi comes up cheaper is on meat. It just is cheaper than Tesco. Generally speaking I find that fresh produce this is where Aldi excels on prices.

Where Tesco comes up cheaper is on stuff like bread and more processed goods and branded items. Anything that you'd call 'world foods' tends to come up well in Tesco unless it's on current promotion in Aldi.

If you cook from scratch I can't see how Aldi doesn't come in well and cheaper. They've tailored their pricing along these lines to win awards on the cost of a shopping basket because it gets people through the door. Tesco and Sainsbury's run an 'Aldi price match' promotion for a reason. It's not Aldi running a Tesco price match.

The thing is though, this isn't how a lot of people shop. Lots of people buy more processed food. This is where Tescos will come up better for many.

Buy a blade like window-cleaner use. Add a lot of washing-up liquid to water, apply with a sponge and use the blade to remove it. Clean-up the edges with a dry micro-fibre cloth.

(ex window cleaner)

I found for most things tesco is cheaper or as cheap as aldi.

I found that Lidl was not cheap at all compared to tesco.

Maybe I’ll give Aldi another go but I don’t see the hype.

It totally depends what you buy, often going to Aldi or Lidl means having to go to other shops for top ups as their fruit and veg is often past its best, dates are short or we don’t like their version.

That's interesting. The ingredients are exactly the same from what I can see:

Aldi - WHOLE WHEAT (95%), Barley Malt Extract, Sugar, Salt, Niacin, Iron, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Folic Acid.

Weetabix - 95% Wholegrain Wheat, Malted Barley Extract, Sugar, Salt, and added B vitamins (Niacin, Iron, Riboflavin, Thiamin) and Folic Acid.

My children like both so I buy the cheapest. I wouldn't expect anyone to buy food they don't like though.

Another example I see at Aldi is frozen veg. For example, Bird's-eye frozen peas are way more expensive than Aldi frozen peas but surely peas are peas ??

Aldi and Lidl are not better value for money. I have in the past done a shop at Lidl, then priced up the exact same shop in Tesco online. It was a bit cheaper, but where Lidl items were less (nuts for example), it’s because the weights were different, so Lidl’s 200g of nuts was marginally cheaper than Tesco’s 250g, but Tesco was better value. I also couldn’t get everything at Lidl and I couldn’t get it delivered, which was a pain (never mind cost of town centre parking to shop at Lidl, parking at Tesco is free).

I’ve been an Aldi / Lidl shopper for over 20 years. Where the differences started off was Aldi basic stuff was far superior to main supermarket basics. So Sainsbury’s cheap orange juice was disgusting but lidls was like Tropicana for the same or less money than the cheap shit one.
the main four have upped their game with quality on basics and price matched which has made the difference less noticeable than those early years.

also, if your fruit and veg is shit try a different store if you’ve one local. They aren’t all equal.

I do most of my top up shopping in Aldi and it’s good on the whole, but as PP have said the range is more limited. If you usually shop in Tesco OP have you looked at clubcard plus? You pay £8 a month for a 10 % discount on two shops and can save up to £20 on each. You need to do the maths, but I find I save around £30-£35 a month on my “big” fortnightly shops, so it’s worth the subscription. I also bulk buy frozen stuff, cleaning products and toiletries in a big shop to save a bit more.

You might find Aldi works for savings on in between shops and you save on the products you want in Tesco.