Aldi and Lidl - what do you think of them?

[agora1]

We are overspending every month and it is mainly due to food shopping. We currently shop at Asda but wondered if we would save much if I switched to Aldi or Lidl for our big shop but still went to Asda midweek to top up on the things we may not find in Aldi/Lidl.

I would be interested to hear what your experience has been.

We have both Aldi and Lidl close to us. The Lidl is a very strange shop which seems to sell lots of special offers on branded food which didn't sell very well in main stream shops (like you get in some of the pound shops). Its very disorganised and you can spend ages if you are looking for something specific, but you can get some real bargains if you have time to look at all the shelves.

The Aldi is fantastic - its about 6 months old, very neatly laid out and I can buy most basic foodstuffs there - particularly free range chicken/FR chicken breasts and eggs loads cheaper than mainstream supermarkets, mince beef, nice bacon and assorted frozen fish, plus tins, pasta, rice etc. The fruit & veg are OK but if you buy the special offer ones you need to eat them within about 2 days but I'd just bear that in mind if I chose to buy them. Lacura beauty range is brilliant - particularly the concealer pen. The only things I'm not keen on are their yogurts and instant coffee. The majority of other things I find are really good quality.

I don't think Aldi would be very good if you tend to buy ready meals which Asda does do a lot of, plus the kind of rubbish snacks aimed at children which they always want but you'd prefer not to buy - so as well as being cheaper I think that you would eat more healthily at Aldi as there isn't the temptation to buy these things. (perhaps its just our local shops but I find Asda more 'down market' than Aldi!!)

Aldi is the only reason we can afford to eat healthily. Their specials on fruit and veg are amazing. This week that had cherries for 79c (3.99 in tesco) blueberries 79c (3.00 in tesco) vine tomatoes 79c (2.00 tesco) and apples and something else. Meat is better and cheaper, tins and frozen veg excellent and the deli meats, cheeses etc are all far cheaper. And they do rye bread!

I did my big shop in lidl this month. Hand on heart it was no cheaper than asda (who deliver to my door) and it was v. Stressful wrangling the baby whilst grabbing stuff off the belt and into the trolley and then out if the trolley and into bags. I am going back to Internet shopping.

Weeks after starting this thread, I'm heading off to Aldi this afternoon. We are ridiculously into our overdraft so even DH reluctantly agrees

agora, If he didnt know where it was from on a lot of it he wouldnt have noticed anyway.

My DH was against it but I informed him he had been drinking the pop for ages without even noticing. That shut him up.

It's stepping out of their comfort zone, thats what people dont like.

Well, I only spent £35 which is good, although there were no expensive items, nappies, washing powder etc. There were also no distractions so just the food I wanted to buy instead of cbeebies magazines, clothes etc. too. DD2 came with me and seemed to enjoy herself.

The food we've had so far seems good quality. I would prefer their tinned fruit to be in juice rather than syrup and some things like kitkats were more expensive, however I think if we can stick to the original plan, Aldi for main shop and Asda midweek we should make a saving and still eat well.

The £shop do kitkats, so do Homebargains. Mil buys them from there.

I just rinse the fruit off, I think sainsburys smartprice fruit is in juice iirc.

yes i can confirm sainsburys basics fruit is in juice

i do a 6 weekly stock up of aspartane free drinks / cordials, and tinned fruit from there

the tinned fruit from sainsburys is lovely IMO

I don't know Aldi but I think Lidl is overrated. It's just a cheap supermarket. Like Tescos but smaller. Some things are cheap(ish) and some things go off within minutes. Nothing is delicious.

I'm an Aldi/Ocado person too. We find Aldi is great for:

Fruit
Veg
Bread (but the olive bread in the chiller is vile, so avoid)
Jam
Basmati rice
Pasta
Tinned pulses
Tinned tomatoes
Cheese (but not their pineapple cottage cheese which is inedibly sweet)
Sausages (if you buy the top of the range ones)
Chorizo
Some fish
Frozen peas/oven chips/ice cream
Washing powder/liquid
Dishwasher powder/tablets
Cleaning stuff
Wine - their prosecco is loooooovely
High juice squash
Flour/sugar/eggs etc

DH scoffed the Aldi biscuits last night. I may get banned from going there as all his hard lost weight goes back on

The only things I've found that are not brilliant are the cornflakes, normal and honey nut. But thats all.

The skin creams good too.

I hope you saved a bundle of cash.

Aldi saves us a fortune. Only things we have tried and don't like are their coffee and the tinned sweetcorn.
Their ALmat washing pwder tabs are great and magnun washing up liquid is a steal. We love their cold meats, pasta, pasta sauces, cheese..pretty much everything. they do a lovely Salmon in pastry dish (frozen) which is their best kept secret. I buy several whenever they have them in - yum!!

Don't know if someone has already mentioned this, but Aldi do 4 pints of milk for £1, which is about the cheapest I have found (except Farm Foods, but I have found that their milk tends to go off very quickly).

Also jars of baby food (Heinz 7 months+) are 60p, which is very reasonable.

However, I would not recommend their toffee popcorn (like Butterkist). I can't remember the price, but I found it so sticky as to be virtually inedible (stuck to teeth) & ended up leaving most of the bag.

That was only £38 this week which includes most of our meals. Even with a top up shop at Asda mid week it is still going to be cheaper

What does your DH think of it? even my MIL has been in so hell must have frozen over some time since Thursday.

He was hunting through the cupboards for the biscuits I bought last time, so I think he's coming round to the idea. I hope at the end of the month not to be in our overdraft and prove my point

tesco do 4 pints of milk for £1. its in purple packaging

Aldi, saves me a fortune now I go there for my main shop.

I am usually about £100 a week in there for 2 adults and three children.

I am about another £100 a month in asda stocking up on nappies/wipes/oxo cubes/Aussie shampoo & conditioner.

We prob save about £60 a week now, we are all big eaters though and spend a fair whack on alcohol

I know this is an old thread, but I wondered if any of you knew whether Aldi/Lidl sells QUORN (veggie meat substitute) products? Or Linda McCartney frozen foods?