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.

it was delicious, we had a fab sunday dinner for less than £10 for 5 of us. Roast free range chicken, dauphioise potatoes, roasted carrots and asparagus, brulee cheesecake for desert. The chicken alone would have cost more than that in the big 4. (I don't eat non free range chicken, would go veggie if couldn't buy free range)

I can do a big shop for a family of 4 on £100pw easy

Anyone could do that on £100 unless you live on caviar! Try doing it on £50 and then you will see why people like Aldi so much, the prices are great but there is no compromise on quality.

Our weekly budget for 7 of us is £130, and we never spend all of that now we shop at Aldi, but it was a struggle when I shopped at Tesco if I didnt buy everything from the Value brand.

There's no Aldi near enough to me to make it worth going. But I am saving a fortune by using the local market for fruit and veg, especially as I have imposed a diet on myself. see how long it lasts

I tend to have a good look online to see what is on offer before I meal plan for the week.

I have tried Aldi but as I buy a lot of own brand (morrisons) products already I didn't really notice that much of a difference in price.

Congratulations OP. Now you will begin your campaign to convert all of your friends! My friends are so bored of me. One, who resisted for a year has just started going just to shut me up and admitted that she went in thinking she would never go again and once she got to the till she was thinking this is so cheap its going to be shite. BUT once she started getting encouraging noises from the family about the food and no complaints about the lack of Heinz, Cadbury she has never looked back!

Yes 100 quid a week for a family of 4 would be too much for us. one week out of 4 yes as it's a stock up shop of none food stuff but I would expect 50-60 quid a week max for 3 weeks out of 4.

I am however a bit suspicious of the 'free range chicken' in aldi though.. it says free range but I don't think it behaves like a free range chicken, the legs are small and come off easy after cooking like a battery hens does.. a proper free range chicken has bigger and stronger legs IME.

I must have been doing something wrong then as I honestly didn't find it much cheaper - plus there was such a small range of foods that I just didn't bother going back. I'm sure if I really really tried I could save maybe £10 pw, but that's just not worth the effort.

shake I'm not sure what you are buying. I'm not shopping at Aldi because I have to, I just object to paying so much more elsewhere now and getting sucked in with the clothing and homewares, so spending even more!

I don't budget and I don't scrimp in Aldi, and am always underestimating my bill, Like I said a full, actually overflowing trolley on Saturday came to 74, there were a few bottles of lemonade, orange ade and cherry drinkl, 4 bottles of beer, and a bag of dog food that are quite bulky but rest as fruit veg, meat, deli type pasta salads coleslaw, ribs etc. The only thing we didn't buy for a bbq was the buns as brought them in local londis on offer for warburtons ones.

I looked in Aldi once but it seemed really dated and not much choice of foods I buy most weeks, no fresh fish counter with large selection, no deli counter. I don't eat meat so no idea about that. I shop at waitrose most weeks and find it good value, £30-40 per week for all meals inc packed lunches for two of us.

Maybe I should look in Aldi again judging by this thread though

Bogey face I was gutted when my local kwiksave closed. It had a quality butcher, extensive green grocery, a mini shop selling stationery, toys, kids clothing, the store itself couldn't be beaten on items like eggs, cheese, bread milk etc. the much derided 'no frills' range ( which paved the way for other companies basics range let's face it) was mostly really good. Never found a tastier stuffing mix yet. I'm not kidding. It was 11p and I'd make up a batch, bake it and use it for roast dinner and left over Turkey and bacon sub sandwiches. I agree. They were cheap, cheerful and the odd thing here and there were good quality. When I moved out years ago I got a lamp, clock, bin set, cutlery, plates, bedding, plants, kettle, toaster and two cushions for £50. That included food too. I miss kwiksave. Aldi is good but it lacks the warmth the staff of my old kwikkers provided.

I'm sure if I really really tried I could save maybe £10 pw, but that's just not worth the effort

If that's a weekly shop then that's £40 a month though, that's a big saving imo.

I think it takes time to get used to the limited ranges but I prefer less choice tbh and what is there is fantastic. I do think it's hit and miss as to whether your store is good or not. Fortunately ours is fantastic but I used to shop in one in London and it was like shopping in Grand Theft Auto!

Nearly £500 a year?! That's a nice weekend away, maybe a holiday, new iPad, iPhone, piece of jewellery, fancy dinner out for your nearest and dearest... Yeah I wouldn't bother either. :o

It's not £10 a week for me though. Cheapest supermarket shop was around £120 a week, on average at aldi I spend £70 a week usually closer to £60 though. So I save £50 a week!!

That's for 5 of us. In all honesty if i was only shopping for two is probably do what I used to do and go every few days and buy meal by meal. We used to eat out a lot as a couple though and rare for us to eat at home.

We save about that too Help, a saving of about 50 or 60 per week. It pays for petrol and ds's sports club.

What is your shopping list Shake? I find it really hard to believe you would only save £10 a week!

Aldi do Super 6, which is much reduced prices on 6 types of fruit and veg, I meal plan around those so I make leek and potato soup if leeks are on offer for example.

I have been twice now and afterwards put my whole shop through Tescos online and each time my shopping would have been 50% dearer at Tescos!!!

I reckon I am saving £200 a month by shopping there. Like PP I was surprised to see so many Mercedes etc in the gridlocked car park.

I love Aldi.
I do wonder if the prices will go up now its so popular, Primark was cheap before it was popular its not really much cheaper than new look/ H and M now.

Don't have an Aldi near us but we do have a Lidl. I do a mixture of Lidl and Morrisons for our shop and still spend £400 a month for two of us! That includes everything though - food, cleaning stuff and toiletries. I take packed lunch to work but DP buys his.

I do like Lidl for certain things - their fresh orange juice is the best - but I couldn't do a full shop there. DP is diabetic so have to be careful what we buy plus I'm fussy (DP says snobby) about meat. I also think their fruit and veg is awful.

see now I find lidl expensive for what it is unless things are on offer. Lidl is the closest to me, we have a shopping precinct that has waitrose, lidl and Iceland, but I rarely go into lidl as that is very untidy and feel unclean (I'm sure it isn't though)

I tried Aldi for the first time yesterday. I thought it was good value, but very limited in choice. I think its perfect if you are on low income, but if you want any kind of luxury then you need to look elsewhere.

Shake can't believe you only save a tenner a week?!

I save £50 a week and have never gone back to Waitrose, am a complete convert. The quality is fab, the tills are dreadful, the lack of choice is brilliant, fellow customers are scary, the savings are fantastic!!

It's the lack of magazines, books, cosmetics, toys etc that makes it so quick and cheap.

I think my problem was, I was expecting everything to be 7p or something I'd heard such great things that I had unrealistic expectations, but after reading this thread I will give it another try.

The business news on BBC1 shows a 1.2% rise in Aldi share of the market.

Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys all down. They must be crapping themselves !