I have just done my first Aldi shop - I feel like i have arrived!

[LEMmingaround]

So normally shop at tesco but so many people say how they save £££s by shopping at aldi! I am a very frugal shopper we are skint so tend to buy own label/everyday value stuff. I am that much of a geek/tightwad that i came home and did an online "shop" from tesco for the same products - we saved £12!! So what would have been £62 for a weekly shop, was £50!! Not the £30 that friends have boasted but i think they spend more than we do anyway. Also, a tesco shop = 1 hour feelng rushed because we do it when DD is at an activity. Aldi = half an hour AND I think that i saved more than £12 because there is less "stuff" to be tempted by on the shelves, so its just essentials. There were a few things i couldnt get like cous cous/quinoa and fruit teas poncey middle class shite but can get these locally and don't buy every week anyway.

I'm converted - more by the time saving than anything else.

I've been to Aldi ( or was it Lidle? )

I hated it & never went back.
Crap food. Awful layout. bored looking staff.
& it didn't seem that cheap to me.

I only shop at Aldi now and again at the moment as I'm getting my shopping delivered due to working overtime. I do like Aldi though. They do sell cous cous - I love their coriander and lemon one.

Some of the supermarkets are trying to compete in their basics range, and slashing prices, but they are still poor value for money. I bought the Sainsbury's basics hummus and pitta bread, both small sizes- I don't want a tiny pot of hummus for the same price as a big pot in Lidl!

They don't get it and I wonder if they ever will.

I have also had bad experiences with meat off before the sell-by date in Morrisons lately, so the discounted 3 for £10 are not good value and as others have said, they are not free range.

I love Aldi and especially the fact that it takes half the time to do a big shop, as OP pointed out. Some stuff is crap. Some stuff is LOVELY!

YANBU!

It's like there's somebody standing guard over AIBU with a big stick slapping the backs of hands of anybody who dares to post things they think that they shouldn't. I keep seeing it, it's like echo

The crates of 12 aldi water I shot myself in the foot as it's now the only water my kids will drink, conning them with an asda 6 pack just doesn't work.

The only large problem I've found with aldi is that you become murderous at the tills in another supermarket.. I wonder if it's on purpose so you stay loyal.

Our aldi is next to a large sainsburys which I had to go to on Saturday for a birthday cake. The place was almost empty and no problem getting a parking space, whereas it used to be a nightmare. Went to aldi after to do the weekly shop and the place wad mobbed. it's got to be hurting the big chains. I love the place but I did treat myself yo some walkers crisps on offer when I popped into the coop last week

What is the quality of stuff like from aldi. (I'm thinking of making first trip)

I'm glad that Tesco is getting some much needed competition.

I love Aldi - cheap wine what's not to like!

The quality is fine. Their fruit and veg used to be a bit crap, it didnt last well so if you do a weekly shop your veg especially wouldnt last the week. It has massively improved now and is as good (if not better for some things) than the big 4. The meat is nice, YY to the free range chickens, they are about the same price as a standard chicken in tesco.

Their cleaning/laundry stuff is great. So much cheaper and has won awards as have their nappies. I used to only buy premium nappies, favouring pampers, but I have never bought them since I tried Aldi's own brand, and they are massively cheaper too.

I went to Aldi today (2nd time this week - last time was just a few bits in a basket).

Dh was very impressed with the bamboo base layer I bought for him.

But I noticed in the car park was a Lotus and 2 BMW soft tops. I don't normally see top of the range cars there - more likely to be Fords and Vauxhalls. (Or other bog standard cars)!

soaccident I used to work in a pub in the village next to ours, v v v posh, lots of multi millionaires. I have seen loads of them shopping in Aldi!

Aldi fruit and nut is the best. It's so good. Better than cadburys. The nuts are really big and it's crammed with both fruit and nut. I'm just a little bit gutted that I've eaten it all!

Glad you liked it . I've been getting most of my shopping there for years, just have to go to Tesco/Sainsbury for some bits like cat food and moggy is fussy. Trouble is I now hate having to queue at checkouts while people painstakingly pack their bags, much prefer the chuck it all in the trolley and pack afterwards approach!

Just musing about this thread.

Wasnt Kwiksave the same? Cheap and cheerful, pay for your bags and pack afterwards?

I am wondering why the folded when Aldi and Lidl are so popular. I have a theory that its because they were big at a time when being seen as not being able to afford to shop in the more expensive places was something to be ashamed of. Everyone was aspiring to be MC and a bit "what will the neighbours think?" Whereas now there is no shame in cutting back on food bills etc.

I love Aldi, people used to look at me as if I was scum for shopping there about 5 years ago. Now everyone loves it, our local one is gridlocked at the weekend.

I have now mastered packing and avoid the cashier sweeping all the stuff into the trolly at 8000 miles per hour and having to pack it all on the shelf at the back.

They also do a moisturiser for 1.49. It has an SPF 15 in it and is the best moisturiser in the whole world.

I love Aldi

Aldi nappies are the best. Much better leakage wise & much less rash inducing than pampers - and much cheaper too!

There were a lot of land and range rovers at the local aldi this weekend.

We recently had a family picnic at rugby and most of the parents are in v v good jobs and huge houses etc but I was the only one with m&s food the rest had lidl or aldi branded juices, pasties, pasta salads etc. I wasn't organised and only remembered on the way it was the picnic and not just training so choices were m&s garage or m&s simply food. It really upset me to spend £20 on so little food.

Unfortunately there's not an Aldi near us. But we do go when we visit parents and love their biscuits pasta, sauces, tinned veg!

I don't know what your Aldi is like OP but I do know the two Tescos in our town are huuuuge. Aldi about a quarter the size.

The upshot is everyone is in and out in no time and the carparking near the entrance is regularly empty, unlike T which requires a half mile walk to your parking place.

The other nice thing about Aldi imo is the different makes, over the last few years Tesco has Tescoised nearly all products, why I don't know because I didn't shop in Tesco for the quality of their products but because it was nearer. So as I can now only buy Tesco stuff I am limited in what I buy.

Anyway, Terry Leahy was the 'hero' who supposedly turned Tesco around (by building huge stores and tescoising everything), the new bosses are reaping those bad decisions.

My local Aldi is also next to a huge - pretty empty - sainsburys Blib. I now need to stop popping into sainsburys for the 'few' items I couldn't get in Aldi as I ended up spending over £100 there on top of my Aldi shop yesterday!

There's nothing wrong with saving money, especially on the everyday essentials like food, but you really can shop just as cheaply in the big supermarkets if you're careful. if Aldi & Lidl really were that great surely all the other supermarkets would have closed down by now? I think it's a fashion thing to shop in these discount stores, a bit like when Kate Moss was seen carrying a Primark carrier bag, plus a lot of middle-class people are desperate to appear poor for some reason. I shop in Sainsbury's, & I can do a big shop for a family of 4 on £100pw easy. Plus I'd rather pay a bit extra to have a better shopping experience.

I love Aldi!

Every time I go to Sainsburys, there is someone ahead of me with VOUCHERS. They pull them out, and my heart sinks, because I know that I am going to be delayed at leats 10 minutes while the cashier tells them the amount, and then they have to go darting BACK into the shop to buy more to make it up to the right amount to get money off. I have honestly had to wait quarter of an hour while they sorted out an older fella with repeated trips into the store. I'm pretty impatient, and I find it annoying.

Go to Aldi, and you get the food cheaper without any of this nonsense. And you literally can't keep up with the person putting things through the checkout. No real queuing, no real waiting. Fabulous.

you can't shop in sainsburys etc for the same price as aldi, not without compromising on quality and buying lots of basics items, which are of lower quality to the aldi brand. I have tried it and written list after list many times, but even when shop is below £100 at a big supermarket more food gets wasted as the dc don't like it, or the meat is not nice.

The cheapest big supermarket is waitrose, at least there the essentials range is of a decent standard as opposed to sainsburys basics. I used to be a loyal sainsburys shopper, online shopping delivered once a week and top ups in between as sainsburys is the closest supermarket to work. but the cost was going up and up no matter how I shopped and the vouchers dried up for free delivery etc, so now I sacrifice an hour on a Saturday morning and dash around aldis. We eat really well and don't feel like we are missing out at all.

Waitrose is the nearest supermarket to home, so I do buy bread and milk and if extra salad or veg needed in the week. I also shop at Costco occasionally for big bulk buying items, but haven't done this for a while.

Vouchers and receipts are a real pain, if they can add your points by using your barcoded tab/card why can't they also deduct the 'savings' you received when you were doing your last shop.

They are just trying to get you back in the shop think we are stupid