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?

I think Aldi and Lidl are fine for some things and others not so good.

My main gripe with Aldi is their click and collect grocery service (we put up with issues in the beginning but they've been running it for almost 2 years now I believe so it should be better!) the website is clunky and difficult to navigate. You pay £5 for click and collect (which with newborn twins was easier than trying to navigate a double pram and a trolley!)
But their substitutes are awful and often you don't realise until you're home. Countless times I have been subbed pork items when nobody in the house eats pork, but got home the other day to find they had subbed the nappies for a larger size! I emailed their customer service and still haven't had the courtesy of a reply. I won't be using that feature again.
Family worker works for Asda in the warehouse and he says they're actually quite strict on food hygiene and not allowing any off looking fruit and veg to make it to the basket.

You really don't get to tell people what's true or not! The arrogance.

We only used to have one Aldi here, and the fruit and veg were terrible from there (as per PPs, if it wasn't already mouldy when you got it home, it would be the day after). We had a second Aldi open a few years ago, and that one doesn't seem to have the same mouldering issues, so it is store-dependant.

I've had bad experiences with their meat going off before the due date, from both stores, so only buy it for use / freezing that day now.

I generally use Sainsbury's as I collect Nectar points / utilise the Nectar prices, and between those two things, Aldi doesn't work out cheap enough to switch to shopping there. I do buy our loo roll and dishwasher tablets there though. And will also go for a top up shop, as it's only a 5 minute walk from home.

Do pretty much all shopping from Lidl, with occasional forays to local Chinese and Indian supermarkets for other ingredients and bulk buy lentils/kidney beans etc. Have never had an issue with fruit, veg or meat (freeze meat on day of purchase). We eat a lot of veg and shop once a week - everything lasts perfectly well.

Love the cheese and deli meat, chocolate, especially the bars with whole hazelnuts. Aldi, especially, often have excellent wine - we've recently had some cracking Alsatian pinots and Clare Valley Riesling.

My local Aldi fruit and veg is always fine. It is my local Asda fruit and veg that isn't so good. It must vary depending on store management.

Much cheaper, cat food, the best, coffees pods, coffee ,nut butters big savings.
fruit good, oranges no go aldi, most rolls crap, dry and soda like.
find generally better quality on basics and no reasonable sized Tesco nearby

Depends what you buy IME.

I use Aldi mainly for kids snacks (some chocolate bars, snack packs of biscuits, own brand pepperami, smoothies, big multipack of ice lollies), cereal (apart from weetabix), biscoff spread, posh butter and bathroom cleaner. It’s much cheaper for all of these (apart from the bathroom cleaner but I buy that because of how good it is on our hard water marks). I also love the dark chocolate ginger biscuits and chocolate but try not to buy those often!
Deli meats and cheese are usually good, but we have had some sliced meat that was mainly fat and pate that tasted only of grease. Meat is cheaper cheese not so much.
Some meat is good, not chicken. However the meat is often more expensive than in Tesco.
Veg is usually ok, but I don’t tend to buy potatoes in there as I’ve had several bags where most of them were black. I don’t buy satsumas or berries from there any more as it’s impossible to find any packs without mouldy ones in. I think this depends on the store though because my friend buys loads of berries from her Aldi.
I get annoyed that the only pasta choices are spaghetti or fusilli in ours, and they only sell one pesto and not a vegetarian one. Also no organic milk or oat milk or apple juice that’s not from concentrate. They used to sell the Apple juice but don’t any more.

Aldi used to be quite a bit cheaper than Tesco overall but it doesn’t seem to be any more. I usually get my main shop from Tesco delivered then go to Aldi for any snacks we need but I don’t seem to spend any more doing that than when I get it all in Aldi and pop into Tesco for the bits I can’t get in Aldi.

Tesco is a fortune in comparison! You will definitely notice a difference at the till

No , just dont like mouldy fruit and veg, at least with ocado i can go on line and request a refund if it does go off within a day or so. I also get oddbox and the fruit and veg from their are lovely and fresh just wonky in shape, nothing food snobbery about that
I also dont like greasy bakery goods that leave a coating in your mouth.

I find the quality in Lidl and Aldi fine and have not noticed the fruit and veg not lasting very long but I have not bought much fruit from there other than 'veg' fruits. Not bought potatoes from there. I prefer Lidl to Aldi on most things, but a few things are better in Aldi.

I find it cheaper than Tesco on most things. I don't shop in Asda or Sainsbury's.I sometimes shop in Waitrose but l usually stick to only things that I prefer from there.

I can assure you it is true. Aldi fruit and veg in ALL the Aldi stores I have been in has been disgusting.

As I said, the only time I have had mouldy slimy mushrooms.

I am no food snob. I will buy food from anywhere as long as it is good quality.

When someone uses an anecdote to assume everything will be the same everywhere, of course I can say it's not true

LIDL is about 2/3 the price of branded goods, on a weight for weight comparison.
Whether the washing products are as efficient or the food is as tasty is a different matter.

I want to like ALDI but every time I’ve shopped there I’ve been disappointed.

Of course this isn’t true

A supermarket whose USP is exclusively mouldy fruit and veg would go out of business pretty quickly!

Lidl is much cheaper on some things so I buy them there and other stuff elsewhere.

Fruit juice, kitchen roll, paracetamol, fruit and veg, bread, yoghurts, biscuits, cream, cleaning products, nuts, cereal - all much cheaper than my usual Waitrose/Ocado.

Weirdly some stuff eg milk, Marmite is no cheaper at all.

But once you've realised how much less you can spend on a lot of stuff, it's hard not to go there.

It's funny that a supermarket that so often wins this award apparently singles out MNetters to sell their rotten produce to, isn't it?

link

Ah - we're back to disappearing links!

Missing link

www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/aldi-named-fruit-vegetable-retailer-22307104

I have found the quality of some of the products very poor in Aldi precisely because I don’t buy brands or much processed food. We eat less meat but buy in the butcher which despite what people say, can be much cheaper as you only buy what you need and not packs of four if you only need three. Plus they are often good with cooking advice. I prefer veg from the market which is very cheap and lasts much longer but I realise I am lucky to have access to the market. The Aldi veg looks very old and tomatoes we had from there were tasteless and soggy, courgettes very soft.

I think Aldi can vary a lot between branches but ours is very light on things like lentils, chick peas etc and heavy on things in sauce and cured meat, tinned stuff always seems to be in sweetened water rather than plain and tuna in spring water is a mystery to them. The yoghurt and jam is nice though . I think Home Bargains is much cheaper for toiletries, loo roll and cleaning stuff.

Love the implication that only people who don't cook, only buy brands and/or who are reliant on processed foods, will be the ones who like Aldi/Lidl.

Isn’t that what you just did , you assumed that people who didn’t like it are people who buy brands or are a ‘food snob’ whatever that is. I was just challenging your assumption.

I don’t buy brands and I’m not a food snob as far as I know but I don’t like our local Aldi ( happy to accept other branches may be different)

Fruit and veg at ours doesn't last 10 mins. It's interesting hearing some people saying they last longer - I guess it depends where you are in the logistics chain. Maybe we are the last supermarket in the delivery run?

Tbh, I find the old-school greengrocer down the road is actually on-par with Lidl for veg prices.

I think it's cheaper. I started trying out Aldi and the fruit and veg, cooked meats and fillet steaks are great. My son wolfs down masses of berries which are definitely cheaper and we now buy a really nice wine there for £5.99 instead of the £8.99 we were spending elsewhere. But the middle aisle stops you making a saving if you're too weak willed to pass it by. Last time I came away with a garden sprinkler that can be operated by a dog and that definitely wasn't on the list!

They are cheaper but quality of fresh food is not comparable. I consider myself lucky if I get 48 hours out of fresh berries and some other fruit they sell. However, if I want fruit to be eaten soon it is perfect. Lidl's £3.50 veg boxes are so cheap, usually about £15 worth of veg in there but all due to expire so need to plan and use accordingly (make and freeze in my case)

They can be more expensive for the few branded items they sell so you need to know your prices if that is what you are getting. Their own brand items and themes of each week are usually brilliant value for money as are frozen fruits and veg. Cleaning products fantastic and so are the imitation items

I don’t think I save money by shipping at Aldi. My family is all too fussy and won’t eat any of the brand dupes so I end up going to Tesco as well to do a top up and probably spend more overall. Very frustrating. If I literally had to manage on less then yes I think it’s a good way of saving money but I know everyone in my family would just endlessly moan. They’re all arses.