For the last two years, I have shopped pretty much exclusively at Aldi. Prior to that, we lived much closer to a Walmart, so I would try to do my weekly shopping at Aldi, but felt like I was always running to Walmart just to grab a few more things. Then we moved, and the Aldi was 5 minutes away whereas Walmart was 15 minutes in the other direction- a direction that I would have absolutely no other reason to go in.
When I was a kid, Aldi was messy, disorganized and for the discount/poor man’s grocery store. Even when I was first married, I had a long list of things that I couldn’t find at Aldi that I would have to run to another store for. Now, my list is very short and honestly involves things that we CAN get at Aldi, but just don’t like the Aldi brand of it. Things like my chai tea, pepperoni and pet food are on my very short list of things that I don’t buy there.
Why do I love Aldi?
- It’s a small store so I can be in and out without much distraction or taking tons of time. Even grocery shopping with my kids I’m always in and out in less than 30 minutes
- They have everything I need without having to make 25 choices for each item. The selection is much more limited, which I really like. It helps so much with my decision fatigue. Don’t get me wrong- there are plenty of choices to make, but it’s so much less decision making than any other store!
- The checkout process is streamlined and quick. It’s kind of overwhelming if you haven’t been there before, to be honest. The cashiers are VERY fast and literally scan and throw into the cart. Since I am responsible for bagging, it removes a significant chunk of time that the cashier spends with each customer, which always makes the line go fast!
- The prices are lower! Yes, this is a fact!
On one of my last trips to Aldi, I snapped some pictures of some of my favorite things to buy there. If you shop at Aldi, maybe it will give you some ideas to throw into your cart! And if you don’t shop at Aldi, maybe this will encourage you to give it a try!
We love this fresh garden salsa!
If I’m completely honest, we are not salad eaters in my household at all. But I recently started to pick up one of these salad kits and I will eat for for lunch once or twice a week. The Southwestern one is my favorite but they have several different varieties!
I love these cauliflower chips! They have the nacho flavored ones and also a sea salt version.
They do have a variety of breads, and I usually snag both of these types! The pita bread is so yummy cut in half with a tuna salad put inside the pocket. The kids also love it with cheese and pepperoni inside like a pocket quesadilla! We use the naan bread for pizza on Thursday nights, which is our “get home from school and crash hard” night.
These are yummy sprinkled on salad, on veggies or even just one or two grabbed while running out the door. I love me some Parmesan!
Truthfully we don’t eat a ton of nuts, but I do keep a canister on hand to grab for a quick bite of protein for me. I honestly prefer the unsalted, but they also have salted and a couple other flavors.
Of course, Aldi has THE AISLE. If you have been to Aldi, you know exactly what I am talking about. Some people call it The Aisle of Shame. We call it the Aisle of Temptation. Basically, it’s an aisle of seasonal goods that are usually cheap but fantastic quality. And the thing about this aisle is that if it there one week, it will be GONE by the next week. I have gotten quite a few of my household items from that aisle. I also try to really limit myself and not buy a lot of stuff from the aisle, because it really is a temptation to grab everything I see since I know it will be gone by the next week!
I grabbed these because I thought they might taste like a roasted sesame cake that we used to be able to buy in Niger. BUT NOPE. They were gross. So that was a fail!
Nutella used to be on my list of things that I couldn’t find at Aldi. Well, this week, they had name-brand Nutella!
There are usually all kinds of interesting finds in the freezer section, too. These didn’t come home with me, but they sure did look yummy!
I do buy all my meat at Aldi, and typically end up just buying chicken and ground beef. But sometimes I stock up on some of these frozen meats for a quick meal at home on a busy night.
I’m not much a cheese coinissure, but I’m usually impressed with the variety of cheese that Aldi has available! They have a large selection and I know many people build amazing charcuterie boards with stuff from Aldi. We kind of just stick to the plain old Colby Jack, but one day maybe we will become a bit more adventurous eaters and have some taste testing with some of this cheese!
And that’s a wrap on some of my Aldi favorites! Do you shop at Aldi? What are some of your favorites there?
Here are some of my other blog posts about grocery shopping:
My Grocery Shopping Routine (this was written in 2017 so take it with a grain of salt!)
I love that salsa! I’m the only one that will eat it, but chips and salsa for a snack is the best. We also buy all of our meat there, we love their roasts, pork chops, and Italian sausage, plus the chicken and ground beef. I don’t buy bacon there, because we prefer one of the Walmart brands of Turkey bacon. They have a really good smoked gouda there, that I have started adding to soups along with their sharp cheddar. It’s so so good!
My mom shopped at Aldi when I was younger because we were definitely poor people who truly needed to save money. Now I am older and thankfully not poor but I still love the savings. I live way closer to a Kroger than to an Aldi so I still do most of my shopping at Kroger. But I do go to Aldi- I try to go at least once every two weeks and I stock up. I love so many of their items.
The Aldi brand decaf coffee grounds are great. If you add a teaspoon of brandy while brewing, it tastes like gourmet coffee.