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.

Well you can walk to B&M from the Aldi car park - it's just up Union Street - but you have to get across the viaduct roundabout which could be a bit hairy!

In the centre there's also a big Wilko's and, amazingly, loads of pound shops & charity shops Home & Bargain isn't there any more, apparently they have a bigger store up on Eastgate, where Netto is as well (on the Manchester Road)

Acc is the place for cheap shops round here - I should publish a guide

No, no, no DON'T go to Lidl.

Wendy, nope, Leigh is the place for cheap shops - Lidl, Netto, a big new Aldi, A newish B&Ms, Home & Bargains, farmfoods, Heron, Wilko's and tons of poundshops.

Leigh is 40 miles away though, Ambi - a little bit far for a quick cheap shop! (and apart from Heron - afaik, as I've never heard of it - Accy has all of those, and more, and I know my way around )

It doesn't say much for where we live does it?

I've shopped in Sainsbury's all my life - the actual shopping experience was so much better than Asda or Morrisons (Asda shoppers cannot steer trolleys, Morrisons play piped music).

However, our local Sainsbury's had a makeover so it now sells all sorts of crap clothes and a hugely reduced range of food.

As a result I started going to Morrisons instead. I've got used to it now and yes, there's a big saving on the weekly shop.

Aldi, however, might be more than I can cope with. My mum always shopped in Aldi when she was seriously skint and (perhaps it was because she was buying their own brands), the food was bloody awful.

ventured back to lidl today for mid-week fruit & veg top up and found it shut, cordoned off, news crews everywhere ... turns out a girl was stabbed to death in the vicinity last night

so drove on to morrisons, slightly more organised than lidl, way too crowded though ... total was just under £40, definitely less than Sains would've been

I've recently done the supermarket trolley checking, via Mad About Bargains - Off Your Trolley's website. It's stopped me shopping at Sainsbury's completely.

It's made me better at meal planning and everything gets based around the offers.

I have, however, neglected Aldi's and Netto's. I need to get my arse in gear and get myself into a serious shopping habit as both are within a couple of miles of home.

I have to drive to go to Sainsbury's, so why not pop into Aldi's/Netto's first. Then I can pick up the slack at Tesco or Sainsbury's and find the few things I can't get there.

I have been a few times and found that the fruit and vege were always nearly off and I have never even bothered buying it.

I also found the cereals they sell awful.

And could never get the stuff I wanted

I can't stand Sainsbury's. It's a really crap supermarket.

Wonder if Lidl do online shopping?

I don't think so.

"yousnob"

We love Lidl (Aldi is also good but personally not as good) You need to go into it with an open mind. No, they don't do Heinz beans but we think their own brand are better. They also do some great offers so weekly they might not have "deluxe" toilet roll but every few weeks they will have a special on very nice toilet roll, often in a large quantity. They also do really good special weeks where you get food from round the world (greek week is a personal favourite!) The only time we have to go anywhere else (at the moment we shop at the local market anyway) is when we do a recipe that needs a specific ingredient. Even then, smaller tescos etc might not stock it.

I so miss Lidl - even Tescos/Morrisons etc!

Only DH and I - food is astronomically priced where I live. We have a 'Waitrose' and say a packet of peas is £2.00 in UK - it costs double here (obviously imported) however, cannot go without my UK branded favs!

So this thread was started in 2008 and I didn't notice as the comparison still stands

Is it an urban myth that lidl doesn't treat their fresh fruit and veg with (cannot remember the precise thing) that the other big supermarkets do to pick green and ripen on demand?

Also the instant porridge in Lidl is no added sugar no added salt, I haven't found another.

Very little has changed in 9 years it seems.

I love Lidl. I was so shocked how much I saved the first time I shopped there. It's a lot nicer and fresher then some things I've got in Sainsbury's

I miss Lidl. We currently only have an Aldi and I find it really lacking in fruit & veg variety & quality. Can't wait to move into our new house, walking distance from a Lidl!

But what people save by shopping in Lidl, they spend immediately in the aisle of crap.

Saved £10 on food shopping.
Came home with an embroidery kit & a step ladder.

Not worth it to me.

I'm a bit weird in that I shop in several supermarkets because I like different products in each. I'm lucky as I have a Tesco, Morrison and Asda within half a mile of me and a Lidl in town, and a Co-op and Sainsbury's within a mile. I'm self employed, work from home so I'm able to shop about a bit, but realise of course for others it's not so easy.

I'm Vegetarian and Tesco do the best variety and range of products by far - streets ahead of the others. But Asda Halloumi Cheese at £1.80 knocks Tesco's version into oblivion - bigger, cheaper and nicer! But you can't beat Lidl's Columbian ground coffee - no-one else's comes close for price and taste and Morrison's sweet chilli sauce at just 75p is just half the price of anyone else's and is by far the best.

Then I always get my 'bag' salads from the Co-op as they are vastly superior to the others in my opinion.

If you want a 'take-away' Indian meal - all the little dishes (all vegetarian in my case) then it's Sainsbury's by a country mile.

So I don't shop in one place .. but one thing I do notice is a basketful of shopping in Lidl, when I get to the checkout it's always 'is that all?' when they tell me the price. It is so noticeably cheaper compared to the others, and I seem to have so much for my money. Second in line for checkout price 'pleasant surprise' is Asda. My daughter had a birthday get together here on Saturday for 12 girl friends and we bought all the booze for two vodka based cocktails - these 2 big jar/tap drink dispensers, 12 jam jar glasses with lids and straws that she wanted, that you could write their names on, a stack of Asda 'flatbreads' (only two quid each from the pizza counter) - all different toppings, just popped in the oven as and when they felt peckish - 55 quid for the whole party!

PS. I know I am writing long-winded crap but I am skiving. Self employed with a horrible job to do and I don't want to do it. Hence loitering around here looking for any possible distraction! Posts this evening may be meandering, boring and full of dull, uninteresting shite and so forth.

I do the bulk of my shopping in our fairly new Aldi, with some top-ups from Lidl (including Branston beans which are actually the best ) plus a very few absolute necessities elsewhere - Millicano coffee, Felix cat food, Head & Shoulders.

Incidentally Lidl's own brand crisps are better than any others, including Walkers.