Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I wish it was. ALDI, I CAN BE BOUGHT. *Wink, Wink*!
If you’ve been reading here awhile, you know that I loves me a bargain and a coupon. But with the advent of that devilish show Extreme Couponing, and with the popularity of couponing surging because of all the awesome savings blogs out there, drug stores and grocery stores have really been pullllllling back big time on the sale and coupon opportunities. Gone are the days when I had a huge stockpile of CVS Extra Care Bucks, not to mention toothpaste and body wash! I used to have tons of cereal all the time, and now I’m pretty much buying it week-to-week. It’s sad. S-A-D, SAD! I can still do “ok” with coupons and sales, but alas, I no longer gleefully take a photo of my spoils as soon as I return home from the grocery. Sigh.
So, last spring when I was preparing to head to Mom 2.0 Summit, I decided to try ALDI. They sprang to mind because they were sponsoring Mom 2.0 and I’d been there before occasionally, but since I was having such great luck with couponing, I had faithfully stuck by Kroger for years. But feeling the pinch of our budget, rising food costs (when did peanut butter get so expensive!?), and lack of sales, I decided to give ALDI another chance.
And I’m glad I did! Since that time I’ve been going to ALDI about every-other-week. I love the low prices, and the small size of the store is perfect for when you grocery shop with kids, because you get what you need and get out of there in a flash! I’ve loved the quality of the products, too. Here are some of my very favorite items:
Bobby and I go through Splenda like it’s water. We use it in our coffee and we like coffee. (See also, coffee pictured above, ha!) The ALDI brand Splenda-like product is $1.99 for 100 packets! Do you know how ridiculously CHEAP that is? It makes me ever so happy! It goes perfectly with their coffee, which is also very good and only $3.99-$4.49 for a pound of whole bean, and we are totes snobby so we like to buy whole bean and grind it. They have ground, also. We’ve been really pleased with it, and the coffee savings for us is significant. I also love their Fit & Active pasta and the Fit & Active fruit strips (not pictured) are super-yummy and great for my kids’ school lunches. They LOVE them. They are not pictured because I’m out and need to go get more today, along with their Happy Farms cheese sticks which my kids and I also love to snack on. They are priced way less than any brand Kroger sells, too. I eat one of the tortillas pictured above with ALDI turkey lunch meat and ALDI sliced cheese for lunch every day at home. Affordable and yummy!
Anyway, the point is, I am glad I undertook the ALDI experiment. I still go to Kroger every-other-week or so for their Mega-Event sales and to get my must-haves like Hershey’s chocolate syrup (mama needs her chocolate milk in the morning before her coffee, don’t judge!) and I’ve found a really good balance between the two stores. I’m really happy I made this change because it’s helped our budget out a lot and I’ve found some great new products at ALDI.
So, tell me, all you who are more frugal than me, do YOU ALDI? What are some of your fave products?
