AIBU to not be able to exclusively shop at Aldi?? If you manage it please tell me how!

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I have been shopping at Aldi since January this year in an attempt to save money, which I have, about 50 per cent of my food bill so I am very happy.

However, after going to Aldi I always have to 'top up' at Tesco, which is not convenient as I have to take a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a 6 month old with me, so two supermarkets is a bit much for them! I would love to buy everything from Aldi as the top up shop also costs a lot for one bag at the checkout.

The trouble I am having is getting everything I need from Aldi, especially fresh and dried herbs. Do I just need to change my recipes so I only cook things that they stock? This might not work though as they are always changing stock and running out of things? They ran out of tomato puree last week so if I didn't top up at Tesco I would not have been able to make spag bol, lasagne or pizza. I did try last month doing a Tesco shop for the first shop of the month and then Aldi for the other shops but my Tesco bill was nearly £200!!!!!!! It was a disaster. I also tried going to Aldi one day in the week and Tesco another which did not work as I needed some bits from Tesco ahead of the day I went there. And I had to plan a whole month of meals which took me hours.

Where am I going wrong? Anyone who manages to just use Aldi please tell me how!!

BacktoBedlam - don't know if it's just you, but it's certainly not my experience. Quality is excellent, but the price has spoilt me and I can't bring myself to pay the prices the other main supermarkets charge now.

I love Aldi and think the quality of the fruit and veg has improved over the years since they first got a foothold over here. We have Aldi across the road from Morrisons so I do my main shop in Aldi then cross the road and top up. This week I spent twice as long in Morrisons and came out with relatively little, for the same price I had paid for loads of stuff in Aldi.

Aldi here have a pretty good range of herbs, both dried (all the time) and fresh "as and when" - presumably in season or something. They sell potted ones so you can grow your own too.
That said, do you NEED herbs? I find I dislike the taste of a lot of the most common ones, the bane of my life is that everywhere we ever go out to eat, if they have lamb, always do it with Rosemary, which I loath
We do a big shop once a month, and the get little bits at least every other day - we go through a LOT of bread/milk/cereal/fruit/youghurt/sandwich filling stuff and such like as there are 6 of us, and the three littles all take packed lunches, but we get it all from Aldi.
The only thing we regularly get elsewhere is my sanpro because I like particular brands, and cheese singles because my youngest son is addicted to the damn things, and will only eat Morrison's own make
Everything else comes from Aldi...

I live in Australia where you only really have a choice of two supermarkets, Coles or Safeway/Woolies, both of which are pretty crap really. We discovered Aldi and realised they have exactly the same brands of fruit and veg which you can buy from Coles and Safeway but at a third of the price. We have adapted our meals each night knowing we can buy everything from Aldi. We are able to buy, humungous amounts of fresh vegies, including Kale, fresh berries, avocaodos, mangos, brocollini, fresh salmon fillets, free range chicken, organic beef mince, greek yoghurt, goats cheese, gluten free cereal, decent toilet roll, frozen pastry, soy lin bread, whitening toothpaste, dried herbs, fresh potted herbs, frozen spinach, free range eggs, vintage cheese, liquid laundry detergent, and so on. The reason I list these specific items is that in Coles these items are very expensive, if we buy them in Aldi we save around $50-$70 a week!! which is a lot when you work it out over a 12 month period. We eat recipies mainly from Hugh WS veg everyday book and Jamie Oliver 30 min meals. I don't think we have ever eaten so healthily! and the biggest bonus is that we are in and out of the shop in 30 minutes flat.

We can get everything in ours, they've even started stocking red lentils!

I could do our entire shop at our Aldi, they have fresh and dried herbs, the fruit and veg is great, we only tend to buy chicken but theirs is very good.

As a vegetarian, I think Aldi is amazing and if it wasn't for our local one, I don't know how he'd eat!

Conquita, I'm in Aus too, and aldi has been a real lifesaver for our ropey financial situation!

It's great isn't it TM! especially the $1.49 laundry detergent, we were spending up to $15 buying this in Coles

I tend to buy things like tomato puree from Approved Foods - they often have enormous catering tins for next to nothing. It freezes well in ice cube trays.

Storage space is key - we stash piles of tins/jars of whatever's on offer from AF in a cellar room. Then I do a fresh veg/more tins top up at Aldi, & then dh tops that up with a Sainsbo shop; I'm gradually weaning him off that...

I end up in umpteen supermarkets because of DS's allergies. My fresh food and basics come from Lidl, a top-up at Morrisons, then some specific products from a couple of others. I bulk buy where I can to reduce trips. Sone weeks I can manage on one supermarket and alternate. If I need a big brands shop, then I'll go online and save lugging a baby and toddler with me.

30 years ago, my family lived out of supermarkets similar to Lidl/ Aldi so it's possible depending on your expectations. Unfortunately I can't buy bread and "milk" in one shop as the shops that sell the appropriate bread don't sell the appropriate milk.

It's just amazing how things like toilet roll, detergent, insect spray etc are at least half the price!! Including meal planning, we slashed our grocery bill. I don't even find i need to top up much at all, just the odd thing eg yeast. Although I do enjoy a cooked chicken from woollies the odd time.

Shop three weeks at aldi and one week at tesco and stock up on all the things you can't get from aldi

No, just unrealistic as it turns out. If I were you I'd shop at Aldi, but once a month have a tesco delivery for your tesco usuals. Good things about deliveries are you don't get tempted by stuff you see walking around.

I always stock up well on tins and tubes eg purée, if you can carry them, or order from tesco.

Good luck.

Fortunately my Aldi is pretty good and stocks most things I need (It must vary from store to store because mine stocks beans and beans and sausages )

I do a full shop in Asda approximately every 6 weeks. I buy my usual weekly stuff, and get the few things I can't get in Aldi, which to be honest is mostly branded stuff I can't be parted with. Aussie shampoo, Lenor Exhilarations softener and, oddly enough, chocolate digestives! My Aldi stopped stocking them so I buy lots some Smart Price digestives to stock up my cupboard!

We manage all food shopping at Aldi. We find their meat and fruit/veg is brilliant and they have everything else we need. if we do fancy anything different as a one off we nip to the Tesco Express up the road and sometimes we get meat from the local butcher. We've saved a fortune!

Hmmm We shop at aldi 1x a month approx and bulk buy staple things. Tinned toms, rice, pasta, frozen fish, cheese etc. another supermarket 1 x per month - this one varies morrisons, waitrose, Sainsburys but never tescos.
We have a veg box delivered each week and have started having an organic meat box 1 x per month. Also visit a farmers market 1 x per month. Strangely the food we are eating costs about the same as our old supermarket shop but I am hoping it is healthier!