Aldi?

We do our weekly shop there. We have to nip to Tesco for things like ginger as Aldi don't always have it. We buy meat there and find it OK. Their free range large chickens are £4.99 and good quality. I think you're fine with all of it if I'm honest.

Exactly what Dave said.

Thanks Dave. Someone else mentioned their free range chickens being nice. I can't wait to go! I've been badgering H for months now! He's finally gave in, he's such a snob when it comes to food!

We dont but keep meaning to! we get our chicken from a local farm as weight wise it works out nearly half price compared to tesco and you get huge chicken breasts!!

When I met Mr S I was a huge food snob and wouldn't buy anything other than branded food. Once we bought a house that soon changed! We save a minimum of £10 a week by shopping at Aldi.

I've just returned from Aldi!! I know people can be snobby but I bloody love it there. I love their little quirky items that you would probably miss in a massive supermarket. The apple pie biscuits are lush. They have sour cherry jam in at the moment which is "le bolleaux". I've just bought an absolute ruck of stuff for £30.

Do they still do Wenslydale & Cranberry cheese?

Ooh not sure, but that is my favourite kind of cheese!

Probably quite unlikely. I would be surprised if you don't have to 'top up' from Tesco/Asda etc.

It's worth it though.

I'm almost sure I got some there once! I get most of my food there, but I have to go to Sainsburys for my quorn.

I think Aldi is fab and I now hate Tesco with a passion. I get everything from Aldi except my meat (wholesale butchers) and some herbs, spices and rice (local asian shop)

Aldi stuff has won awards too recently, cheese, wine. Also alot of their cleaning stuff has been given approval from good housekeeping recently.

For odd things that are ace try their nasang gori (sp) it is a rice based dish in the fridge bit. A bit like fried rice. Huge portion and great for a quick tea.

Our chef at work raves about Aldi and says how good their fresh fruit and veg is especially.

H was a bit unsure about getting veg & meat from Aldi, but we gave it whirl thinking if he was right about the quality the dogs would get an excellent dinner!

We haven't had a bad thing from Aldi yet - we get chicken from there, and it's lovely. The only thing is, and it might just be a regional thing, our nearest aldi doesn't have much in the way of meat-free stuff (like veggie sausages - they had quorn mince, and that was it).

I love the "Orchard" cider - looks and tastes just like bulmers only cheaper. We did a shop on Saturday, and H said as we loaded it into the car "we got a sh!tload of shopping for not very much".

I ❤️ Aldi

We do our weekly shop at Aldi too. The bakery stuff(particulary croissants, pastries etc), fruit and veg and cheeses/deli meats are lovely. Especially parma ham and chorizo. The jumbo king prawns (frozen) are amazing! I buy 2 bags every week for my asian noodle soups/stir fries etc. Their prosecco is also very good and has won awards I believe! £6 a bottle too. Bargainous! Oh and they do have wensleydale with cranberry, we have some in our fridge right now!

We have to go to Asda for some things like stir fry veg, weetabix, washing tablets etc but most things we get from Aldi. Saves a fortune!

Where we are moving to has an Aldi 5 miles away and a Lidl right on the doorstep... is there much difference between Lidl and Aldi?

Lidl doesn't tend to have the same selection but I go there as well as Aldi.

I've found Aldi to be a bit hit and miss. The veg in the one near our old house always looked really old and not fresh at all. Sounds like this is rare though.

That's definitely rare.

Yes I would say the fruit and veg are the best thing about it. Its always lovely and fresh where we go. They only have in season vegetables so for example, at the moment the savoy cabbages have been replaced with tenderhearts- that type of thing. They do a deal every week where 5 items of fruit and veg are 39p too!

We don't have an Aldi but we have a Lidl and think its great. I love all their random stuff in the middle! Fruit and veg is cheap and good and they sell good beer, wine and ice cream. We did our Christmas shop there and not only did we not spend much but the shop was empty yet everyone was going crazy in asda. A much better experience.

Would that be Swiss Farm? They have mutant chicken's there! Regularly get £20 worth of chicken breast from them at the Stowmarket market and it's a carrier bag full.

We've recently started to use Lidl for their washing tablets, washing up liquid, shower gel (so cheap!) and recently had a look at their meat - looks very good quality and comparable price to the other supermarkets so will be trying that soon.

It is cheap and fairly good quality but I just can't be arsed with the faff of going there. I HATE the way they scan the goods at the checkout. It's like a race to see how many items they can scan per second and I get all in a muddle as they're practically chucking my shopping at me. They've just installed a new parking system at our local one too where you have to put your car reg into a computer after paying for your shopping - needless to say I forgot and they tried to fine me £60 for the pleasure.

I know I'm lazy but I'd rather spend an extra tenner and go to Sainsburys.

See I love the Aldi checkout system - I'd much rather take my time and pack my stuff at the shelf at the back than try to shove it into bags as it's going through (no matter how carefully I load the conveyor belt elsewhere it NEVER comes through in the order I think it will). And packing away from the till avoids the pressure of knowing that I'm holding up the bloke behind me that's rolling his eyes cos all he wants to pay for is a pack of bog roll and crate of lager.

It's not the taking it to the back to pack away that irritates me, it's the way they lob everything at me and I end up with squished bread and broken biscuits.

Ah, I see. They must be different at ours cos I've never had any problems with it but seems to be a common complaint elsewhere

I have never been in an Aldi- am I missing out then?

My parents went on an economy drive a few years back and did their shopping at Lidls. I just seem to remember that most of the food came in lurid packaging. They did however do awesome sweets. The sour apple rings were a favourite.

When I live alone and was destitute I sometimes did my shopping in Farm Foods ? tbf at the time I didn't/couldn't cook so lived on pasta and pringles. Its a wonder I don't have scurvy.

Apparently they are speed tested and have to scan so many per minute. I found this out when I lost my cool one day and asked to just "Chill out and stop throwing it at me fgs!" ?

I just make sure my bread, eggs, biscuits, crisps etc are last on the conveyor bel so therefore last in the trolley. No squashedness!

?

That would make sense, I just get my own back by having a good rummage for my card in my rather large bag and then take my time enterin my pin whilst H casually tries to limit the damage to the shopping.

Their fresh fruit and veg is great, I like it because of the fact they don't have massive operations and storage facilities (like Tesco) their produce is fresher and not stored for up to a year before making it to the shelves! (eugh!)

Yep it is fresher because they can't store it as long! What is done to 'fresh' food before it reaches the shelves is shocking!!

I shop at Asda too as its closest to me, but will be avoiding it completely because of current issues with their payment and treatment of dairy farmers. Not usually one to get on my high horse over things like that, but it will be tesco or sainsburys for me now, although I don't think I can afford to shop at sainsburys!

I buy a lot of my canned stuff from ALdi, so much cheaper than the supermarkets and exactly the same. Their Super Six is great in the summer for fruit and salad and in the winter for soup vegetables. Cereal bars are good, cottage cheese and dairy stuff is good and massive jars of pickles

Our local one is terrible for fresh fruit and veg always looks very old or half the section un stocked i couldnt do my full weekly shop there and the queues always crazy busy and they have like 1 till open. So most of the time i cant be bothered with it.

There deli (cooked/continental) meats work out better value then most supermarkets as do their fresh fruit juice, they do some nice cheeses (yummy mini garlic brie is worth a special mention), there frozen potato wedges are good too.