Sainsbury vs Lidl - OH MY GOD!!

[Stargazing]

Just did my first Lidl shop after years of shopping at Sainso's and being increasingly terrified by hundreds of pounds of groceries disappearing in a matter of days, despite regular supplementation (is that a word?) from the local shops.

Our household -

DH, works odd hours so often not home for dinner, never takes lunch with him, manages to wolf a bowl fo cornflakes in the morning.

Me - very health conscious, weight conscious etc - vegan, wheat-free, dairy-free, all round pain in the a*se dinner guest

DD - not quite 2, good appetite, eats all her veg and fruit, likes meat, 3 solid meals a day plus 1 or 2 snacks, mostly of the dried fruit variety.

DS - just over 6 months, has been on purees for 2 months, has just started eating fish/ meat/ chicken as well as veg, lentils etc.

Today at Lidl I spent .... £74.18

In the interests of being a TOTAL geek, I did the same shop online at Sainso's and it came to... £122.99

I tried to get weights. sizes, etc the same, only chose the basic brand stuff etc etc .. and it still came out nearly £50 more expensive!!!! Am in total shock. Granted, it was not nearly so pleasant a shopping experience (had to do it myself, for one thing, with the infants, rather than having some delivery man bring it round, and was accosted by someone wanting 'just a few pence for a hot meal' in the car park ... ) but OH MY GOD - am sooo converted.

LOL notjustmom ... I got some poor fella to get the loo roll for me today ... I played incapacitated though, as had smaller dc in sling and difficult to bend down

re peanut butter, I happen to have jars of both Lidl & SunPat in the cupboard:

Lidl - peanuts 95%, cane sugar, veg oil, sea salt.

SunPat - peanuts 95%, cane sugar, stabiliser: E471, sea salt

454g jar Lidl p butter, c 70p; 340g jar SunPat, £1.17 at tesco.com

BUY LIDL PEANUT BUTTER!!!!

I live in a little town with a netto and small sainsbury's in the town centre, an aldi 3 miles away down the main road, and Lidl 5 miles in the opposite direction.
I do find its hard to get all your shopping week after week in just one of the cheaper stores, but I know what I get from each one, and so go in when passing and buy twice as much of particular things than if I went there each week.
Netto I can walk to and stagger home with milk etc.

These places are 'rough and ready' but its the lack of staff wages that keeps the costs down!

I only go to the sainsburys rarely for one or two speciality or luxury items, I can't imagine doing a full shop there these days!
I have been going in these cheapo shops for years but have def noticed that the customers are more upmarket recently... and now I know... its you lot!!

I get the whole Earth one,the dc love it,it's sugar fee,bugs me that everybody else shoves sugar in.

A lot of the Lidl stuff has less crap in eg the squeezy mayonnaise,ketchup(they do organic too incidentally for 95p). It's odd they then go and put hydronated fat in some of their biscuits.

oh right. we get the plain yoghurt from lidl and i treat myself to one of those chocolate and cream mousse things that are about 17p

The Aldi Special K type ceral with strawberry bits in is good,masses of strawberries in as opposed to 3 in the whole box which you tend to find in other brands. This was my latest discovery

anyway.. having saved so much money ... and with the prospect of doing so week after week .. I now feel that Ihave been given carte blanche to go and buy something lovely from the netporter sale ... I've got my eye on a Derek Lam dress, down to £800 from £1350ish!!! anyone want to come with?

where would you go with a portable toilet?

camping!!

anywhere! isn't that the point?

I do a lot of my shopping in Aldi and Netto, and Home Bargains and swear by the chicken kiev in Aldi, it is delicious and children love it. The german meat and frikadellas and meatballs are gorgeous.

I go to home bargains which sell label goods at cheaper prices ie 4 tins of branston baked beans for 99p, supernoodles 29p, which hubby loves as a quick snack.

I find that if i go to the bigger supermarkets i spend too much down the aisles , like clothing, toys, electricals and pick up stuff that isn't on the list.

I buy most of my veg from the chap in the village that grows his own and sells it cheaper, then the supermarkets.

B&M is a chain? There was one near my Nana's and a visit was a highlight of our holidays {blush}.
(tight-fisted family)

I love Aldi as one opened recently within an easy toddler walk from the house. We get everything except smooth OJ from there, their nappies and wipes are great, and I love their salt your own crisps as a snack for DD1!

The fruit is great as well, rarely a bad strawberry or grape, but my favourite thing is that it is so small and quiet that DD1 can walk round and help shop by getting things off the shelf, and all the staff now us by sight so are really friendly and chatty.

Best thing about Lidl are the exotic brand names. My particular favourite is Master Crumble's Wellness Flakes (their version of Special K) and Snacky Cracks (or is it Cracky Snacks, can never remember) the pretzel/cracker brand.

I've just spent 5 years living in Austria and love Aldi (or Hofer as it's known there). I'm a bit disraught to find I now need to drive 6.5 miles to my mearest Aldi, 13 miles for a Netto and 4.5 miles to a Lidl . Added to that my nearest Tesco is 2 miles and Sainsburys 4 miles. The only supermarket within walking distance is Waitrose, great but doesn't help my economy drive!

very impressed with the knowledge on this thread

we went to lidl yesterday - we normally do an online at ocado (if feeling flush) or tesco if not - but now i am converted. seriously good food and cheap. you have to watch some of the stuff, but my word it was amazing. totally different shopping experience though!!!!

we got a full trolley for £80 and i compared it to tescos and we saved over £40 - and thats not being generous - it was probably more.

x

I did the same once, have shopped at Lidl ever since! The difference was huge!
Over time have realised there are some items that are false economy, e.g. still get things like frozen veg and breakfast cereal at Sainsbury.

Over time you get used to the cheaper prices. I used to go to netto and think 'oh thats cheap for x bags full of stuff', whereas now I take their prices for granted and nearly pass out at the till if I've had to nip into a Sainsburys for one or two things. (Cos thats all I ever go into Sainsbury's for these days).
I can't remember the last time I went into a Tesco. I know sometimes its more convenient to do a Tesco online shop as opposed to visiting lidl netto aldi morrisons in rotation, but if time is money....

Some Lidl things are actually quite expensive, I've found, so you have to watch out.

the centre aisle never fails to make me smile. Last week it was scuba diving equipment. Who on earth thinks they'll just chuck some aqualungs and a snorkel into their trolley for the hell of it?

Lidl jaffa cakes are waaaay better than McVities, but the oven chips were foul.

Would you buy meat from there? And what about soya products?

Can I recommend you all go to Wilkos for your toiletries as well, lots cheaper than anywhere else (possibly bar Home Bargins!)

I bought a 10 ft trampoline (with enclosure and cover) from Netto. Less than £80.

But, by God, it was a grim shopping experience. Makes Lidl look like Waitrose.

Lidl meat is OK, but I have to question how they sell it so cheap. Most of the beef is UK produced (I think) and is OK. But stewing steak for less than £1.50? Its actually fine (cooked in the best part of a £2.50 bottle of red).

I told one of my students recently that I'd treated us to cadburys choc finger biscuits as they were BOGOF in Tesco so about £1.40 for two packs I think.

She told me they are permanently on 2 for £1 at Home Bargains!

Students always know where the bargains are (they come back from charity shops I can't find anything in with Monsoon Fusion dresses and BNWT handbags orig price £40-£50 costing them a couple of quid!)