Is Aldi/Lidl actually cheaper?

[CPHB2021]

Hello! Thinking of ways to cut our costs each month. Usually spend about £100 per week in Tesco/asda. Family of 4. Don't drink alcohol. Do you think Aldi or Lidl are genuinely cheaper and ok quality?

The only thing I don't like about Aldi is the chicken, it's tasteless watery crap. Lidl is a bit better for meat. And I only buy branded laundry pods and fabric softener. The shops own brands don't smell of anything and don't get stuff clean. But everything else I try to buy from Aldi and Lidl.

Tesco sells lots of its products at Aldi/Lidl prices.

Another one saying it's a false economy. The meat tastes weird. Especially the chicken. The fruit and veg is the worst out of all the supermarkets. Its not even that much cheaper any more.

I regularly use most supermarkets if I'm.passing and I keep some thing ill go I'm not particularly loyal to any one. Nor am I a particularly brand heavy shopper.

Out of all of them I'd say morrissons is the most consistent/reliable one. Out of all the supermarkets the meat is probably the best quality fir supermarket meat. I find sainsbury's to be the most expensive one . The quality of some of the fancier taste the difference stuff is higher but I don't feel it is quite worth the price. Its not so significantly better its worth paying sainsbury price for. But I still use ot fir a change as I find I get bored of supermarkets quite easily so I have to mix it up a bit 😳

I.stopped bothering with aldi and lidl though. Too many bad experience. I just cant bring myself to eat half the stuff any more.

Doesn’t it also depend on your local one? I feel like the stock is different in a lot of them and the fruit and veg more or less fresh depending on which store you’re in.

Id love to know where there is a proper supermarket sized one though, the ones I’ve been to are about twice the size of a Tesco express. I’d like to go to one that’s the size of a proper hypermarket just to get more choice. Do they exist?

I tried really hard to like Aldi and Lidl but I don't rate their deli meat or fruit and veg, plus I can't get everything I want in one shop. I really don't see the economy in going to 3 different supermarkets to get what you need (as some of my friends do). I do a strict food plan each week and shop in Sainsburys where lots of food is price matched with Aldi and their value range is great. I spend about £58 a week for 2 adults. That includes all lunches too.

Much cheaper but the fresh fruit and veg doesn’t last as long. So if you shop week to week and eat the short date stuff first it’s fine.

Aldi steaks are actually very good considering the price and their cured meats and cheeses are good.

I think fruit and veg is definitely higher quality in Lidl, big packs of strawberries last well, the ones I get from Tesco seem to be going mouldy after a couple of days. And I like their fish and deli items. Haven't tried much of their meat because it really annoys be trying to do a big shop in there because of the set up at the check outs, but think I'll try to go there a bit more often.

Aldi is cheaper but my family always complains about the meat from Aldi so I've stopped shopping there.

Well it’s personal taste then isn’t it but no I don’t think the food from there taste nice at all and can’t understand why people rave about them so much, my local one is also two buses away so the money/time I would spend travelling there wouldn’t be worth it. Especially as people often say they can’t do a whole shop there so will be travelling around to different supermarkets anyway, I wouldn’t even touch the meat in there.

Most definitely cheaper. I alternate between aldi and Tesco and on a like for like shop I would save roughly £15 in aldi

I don’t find Aldi to be much cheaper now (it used to be) but Lidl is and the fresh food is much better, plus if you spend £200 a month, you get £10 off.

No, definitely not. I find the apples at our Lidl particularly bad. You can get a large bag and every single one will be bruised. I've spent ages searching through boxes of little oranges to find the bags that don't contain mouldy ones. I've thrown whole punnets of plums out because they've just disintegrated in my hands.

I'm sure other supermarkets have these problems occasionally, but it's every other week at our Lidl. It's never that bad when I've been to, say, Asda or Tesco.

@OddSocksSparklyDocsandDungaree and yet, I've been shopping there for 20 years and this has never happened to me. Only time I've had any mouldy fruit or veg is when the dc decide they don't like peaches {or whatever fruit is is} anymore, after I've bought them, and they sit in my kitchen for weeks - which obviously would happen if I bought them fresh from a farmer's field.

Good for dry products - biscuits etc but not for fresh. Eg. Broccoli - buy on Thursday and yellow by weekend
Again - never happened to me in 20 years.

However , as I often say on these threads, I am all for people believing these myths if it puts them off going - our Aldi is always full and it can be difficult to get a parking spot at busy times. I certainly don't want to encourage anyone else to find out what they are missing.

I only do one big shop a week, Aldi seems to be a false economy for fruit veg meat and fish it goes off so much quicker and doesn't last the full week. Lidl is slightly better. I shop at Sainsbury's or Asda online I end up spending less as I don't impulse buy and Sainsbury's always give me money off coupons.

Also hate shopping in store home delivery or click collect is so much better.

I’m not a fan of Lidl (mainly the shopping experience in our local store) but Aldi is great.

That being said, I’ve had some recent Asda deliveries and I think the value has been about the same - I’ve shopped from offers to make sure I get the best deal I can and shopping online means I don’t end up with a waste paper basket I don’t want or need!

I always shop at Aldi, quality is better than Tesco imo and much cheaper. Costs me about 40 more in Tesco.

It's not cheaper for us once we've factored in the cost of diesel to get to the nearest one in Bristol (we don't have either in our town) , whereas we can walk to our nearest tesco. If we walk we only buy what we can carry.

Only you can judge the quality for yourself.

ALDI is better if you cook from scratch. Not so good if you don't.
LIDL is better if you don't cook from scratch much.

I like Lidl. I find the veg lasts ok but I've heard others complain. Maybe it depends on how long you expect it to last. I buy what I need and it lasts until I use it

Favourites from Lidl are ice cream (don't bother with Aldi's), dairy, eggs, deli, washing powder, washing up liquid, crisps, moisturisers and shampoo.
DCat won't eat the catfood but will eat Aldi's.
Aldi wine is cheap and cheerful.

I've cut £70 off our shop by switching. Agree you can't get everything but actually some stuff is really good aldi in Scotland has a lot of Scottish produce so it's really good. Orsnges always go off really quickly

I'm very budget conscious and I don't think there is much difference between the major supermarket chains, bar the posh ones. What you save on one essential product you lose on another.

Also a supermarket will offer a reduced price on a product, say for a week, then raise it again, while for the same period another chain will do vice versa. Its swings and roundabouts

Personally I find some items at Lidl cheaper but because we buy Tesco own brand or the value brand it isn't worth doing a big shop there. We also use our Tesco vouchers to pay for the ferry to the Isle of Wight saving us over £100 each time we go. I also get tempted by the 'middle of Lidl' aisle wasting even more money! I find paying for delivery saver then getting online shopping the cheapest. Less temptations and less diesel!

We used Lidl last year as it was the closest to the holiday house; I actually found I spent more than at Tesco

I shop massively on special offers though usually and sort everything by price for .com shop and just don't find Lidl or Aldi have as many