To love aldi but get fed up of having to visit two supermarkets as they don't stick everything I need?

[Onabudget2015]

I love aldi so much it is saving me a fortune but I get so fed up of having to visit tesco afterwards to get the bits I can't get from aldi (oat milk, wholemeal finger rolls, wholemeal bagels, wholemeal pasta, alpro yogurts etc) it's bad enough dragging the twins round aldi but I hate having to then go to tesco straight after? It makes me want to go back to just shopping at tesco, grrrrrr.......

My bill is half in Lidl than it was in Sainsbo.Supporting British went out the window when I worked out I could feed my family of 5 on £80 a week and save best part of £300 a month.I can put up with a bit of inconvenience with savings like that.

If the powers that be want us to buy British they'd better stop squeezing families.

fusion I have multiple lists for different supermarkets too. I wait until I have several other errands to do in the car before I head to lidl.

Have to say that I'm not a fan of Lidl meat though, I usually go to the Coop for that which is my local shop, their ribeye steak is the best, and their other meat is good too with frequent discounts.

Lepetit am interested to know which cereals are healthier at Sainsbury. Ours have Aldi shreddies, branflakes and cheerios equivalent.
Not trying to be antagonistic, but I'm concerned I've missed something on the label!

I honestly never found lidl this much cheaper. I'd go ij, pick up a chicken, some mince, rolls from the bakery some chorizo and a couple of other bits. and it vane to 25 quid. Go to aldi and spend 80 or so as I'd have to stock.up on some things as they'd not had them. For weeks so instead of being able to hurl just one can of coconut milk in I have to get more just in case it's not there next week. so I've spent a hundred between the two shops and still have no bread flower, milks, yogurts, broccoli, onions and cucumber so that's another tenner in another shop.

It started costing more it really did. morrissons do 3 fir 10 pound on some meats. sainsbury sometimes reduce the milks to 3 fir 3 pound. by time I've paid teh taxi fare home I'm no better off than I was hitting morrissons

We have a lidl near us but I'm a bit suspect about the meat, most of Aldis meet is uk tractor assured, although I know a butcher would be better, if I can get organised enough I might change to the butcher after watching a programme on the iplayer last night about cutting food bills!! Sad I know on a Saturday night lol

Although that would up my shop to 3 different places, grrrrr

link to the programme please

as long as they dont advocate shopping in 3 shops in one day

I did toy with the idea if ordering neat boxes online. but it's hard to find one at a spruce I'm. willing to pay that isn't full of stuff I wouldn't use. sausages and mince from that kind if thing are always awful. I want good flow cooker joints and joints bug enough to do a few meals so resent paying fir a box that has like two chicken breast a small chicken some sausages likely to be rank. burgers I make myself I don't want them either. and one large steak.is useless as there are 4 of us. I use things like chicken thighs and brisket and MN chickens

excuse typos sure you can figure it out

Giles I plan a whole weeks shop so go in for a lot more than a few bits and it really adds up. I tend to cook meals also now with ingredients that I know I can get there.We are adventurous eaters. The list of things you say you can't get my Lidl sells without fail every week.Never had a prob getting broccoli etc.

Don't buy a lot of coconut milk but think they could branch out with their spices a bit.Recently had to buy saffron elsewhere at nearly £4 a tiny jar only for Lidl to stock it the following week at 45p on limited time only.That said it will last for ages and HFW's saffron and tomato risotto is a very cheap meal.Lidl sell big boxes of really nice risotto rice v cheaply.

Re cereal my kids tire of cereal v quick and I find the choice of lower sugar cereals to ring the changes in Lidl v low. Interestingly our Lidl has been trialling a lot of those expensive,brand meuslis,Weetabix,oatcakes and oat bars so maybe they are going to branch out a bit.

Re meat I buy free range chicken and organic mince at Lidl. Both a lot cheaper than Sainsbos.

Aldi is ok for the odd few items but the fruit and veg never seems to last as long as other shops and I don't like their meat. Add to that the number of items they don't sell and no online delivery and it means a limited shop.

Prefer to go to Tesco or Morrisons or book a delivery and have it done in one go.

We do Aldi then somewhere else to top up. Usually either Iceland, Tesco or Sainsbury's depending what we need or where I fancy going.

We used to spend £120-£150 a week for the 5 of us. Now we spend £70 in Aldi and another £30-£50 on a top up elsewhere. So our weekly bill has gone down to £100-£120 a week.

Though where I live they are all fairly close so its not too bad.

Every so often we pop up to a large butchers near us which is really cheap and lovely. You can buy a pack of 16 sausages for less than £3, a pack of 4 large pork chops for a fiver, a large sack of potatoes for a few quid. We have a large chest freezer and bulk buy lots of meat.

I dont like Lidl though, it didn't seem that cheap to me. Yes a bit cheaper than Tesco or Sainsbury's, but not as cheap as Aldi.

I use Lidl every week. The meat I buy is Red Tractor and very good quality. They just expanded their quorn range massively, too.

Also buy a few bits from Asda when in town. Once a month I get some things from Sainsbo that I can't get from Asda - strictly limited because of the prices.

The meat in our Aldi is good. Most of it is Scottish so lower food miles.
They do a really nice selection of Scottish cheese - Carnegie Brie, Caledonian Blue and Crowdie - all really tasty
Their hand cooked salt and balsamic vinegar crisps are on a par with Tyrells and are only about 70p

Things we mostly get at Tesco:
Binliners (Aldi ones are useless)
Firelighters
Wholesale pasta
Less common herbs and spices
Actimels (I use these as a starter in my Easyo and Aldi ones just don't work)
Toothpaste (pump one which is expensive but I can't bear the mess in the bathroom)
Flash with bleach ( only thing that gets rid of bathroom mould)
San-pro
Knorr stock pot thingies

That's about it really. It used to be more but I think we've possibly adapted our eating habits.

I do one monthly shop online at Morrisons to stock up on meat and other stuff i can't get at Aldi like almond milk, coconut oil etc, plus they are the only ones i have yet to have any substitutions with at all, never mine weird ones.
I have twins too (they are nearly 3) and i agree it's a ballache to drag them around places especially as most Aldi shops don't have twin trollies so i end up carrying one or one walks and runs away. For that reason i do my shopping at 8am on a Sat as most other people are sensibly still asleep. lol

See we used to get a few buts in links that we couldn't get in aldi then walk across to aldi. it was then impossible to carry all the stuff back across just to get the stuff they didn't have. inevitable there would only be one till open so id be stuck queuing and miss the taxi dp called whilst waiting with the kids in aldi car park. It was all becoming a pointless exercise. plus in all honesty prices have gone up on alot of stuff and quality has definitely gone down

I love aldi but ours is in town and doesn't have a car park so I'm limited to what I can carry. So I buy bulky stuff from Tesco and top up with a few bits from aldi when I'm in town.

Yabu! Most of my food comes from a small organic shop and I have a diet more interesting and varied than 99% of people out there and eat seasonly.

Tesco is shit, but some people like yo have two crisp aisle.

Ok I love lidl and aldi but don't be under any impressions the other have been ripping you off
Investment in food sourcing and food quality and overall reduction of cost of good have only come from that
Remember horse meat gate- those who didn't know where there food came from should surely have been a concern?
Taxes from aldi and lidl don't go to uk purse
Food has never cost so pointless for such high quality
We have forgotten what it costs elsewhere too-Europe can't shop for the prices we do (except wine )

some of these threads are just impossible to make sense of

I go to Iceland, tesco and aldi every week. doing the 3 and browsing charity shops takes a total of 1.5 hours. Sometimes I even walk up to sainsburys.

then every couple of weeks i go to town for £ shop and savers for toiletries and other bits that are cheaper!

I now go on a Wednesday as opposed to Monday while dd2 is at playschool because they have sold everything over the weekend.

oh and I don't drive I just use a backpack and reusable bags currently waiting for a shopping trolley to be delivered.

I find that really annoiying as well but theN whenever I go into sainsburys it costs a fortune. it doesn't help that every time I pop into sainsburys I end up buying everything I can't get in aldi all at Once and buying treats because I know I can't get them from aldi. I'm sticking to aldi but doing an asda order once a month for the other bits which seems to be working ok so far.