Aldi had been my staple store for about 8 years. We have six stores within 30-35 minutes of our house with the closest being about 10 minutes away. They have really expanded their coverage area in the last 5 years. Our weekly grocery bill used to be around $40-50 for 3-4 people when we started shopping there. As our family has grown it has become closer to $60-80 if shopping weekly. But like everywhere else their prices are creeping up now. A typical total is now easily above $100 without fun extras (like chocolate) that I could usually sneak in on my previous totals. They are still a great place to go though and are for sure cheaper than the normal chains while also offering quite a variety of organic options. For all the totals I’ve listed about half my cart was comprised of organic items. Produce is something I always buy organic at Aldi. I don’t tend to use them for the bulk of my shopping now since I’ve been able to save more elsewhere which I’ll tell you about in tips #5 and #3. But I do still use them for filling in the gaps or if there is a very particular item I need such as their organic plain yogurt in the tub (it makes a great starter for home made yogurt). By using Aldi and now relying on tips #5 and #3 it is very rare that I need to shop at a big chain grocery store where I would be paying about 3-4 times as much.
Let me know in the comments if you’re already an Aldi shopper.
~The Crunchy Cheapskate