Hey, Texas readers, have you heard the big news? ALDI is finally here!
I first heard of Aldi a couple of years ago while perusing one of my favorite blogs, Mom Advice. I was intrigued by the no frills discount shopping approach, but quickly disappointed when I realized there were no Aldis in Texas. That all changed this week!
The Grand Opening preview of my local Aldi was quite the event. Doors opened to long line of eager shoppers, just waiting to peek inside. Promises of free goodies and samples lured a huge crowd, myself included.
I loaded up my kidlets and met my friend Kim for my first glimpse of Aldi yesterday. We were practically giddy over the shiny new store and the amazingly low prices! Are we geeks, or what? 😀
I was especially impressed by the prices on staples such as dairy and juice. Their hormone-free milk is priced at $1.79 a gallon!
Our children enjoyed the unlimited samples of snacks, while we ooed and ahhhd over the produce prices.
Even their meat selection was impressive.
Colin enjoyed a few samples himself.
But the best part of the whole day, hands down, was the fun that followed at home. Each guest at the special preview received a jumbo reuseable tote filled with goodies at the door. They were kind enough to give one to each child as well.
The girls decided the totes are much more useful as toys, potato sack style, and proceeded to have races around the kitchen.
Of course, these bags will come in handy for shopping at Aldi, since bags there actually cost money. Bringing your own is the way to go! Even the carts buggies will cost you a quarter.
Although Aldi does not accept coupons (gasp!), I can certainly see how a family can enjoy a smaller grocery budget by shopping there. Just remember to take those reuseable bags!
So, seasoned Aldi shoppers: What are your favorite things to purchase at Aldi? What are some things to avoid, if any? I would love to hear your tips!
you get your quarter back if you return your cart! ;D
I shopped at the Aldi’s in our city 5 or 6 years ago when I was still working full-time, and I just couldn’t get into the routine of the store, bagging your own groceries,etc. So, I went back to the higher price, fancier stores. Then, when I decided to retire from teaching and work part-time, I began to look for ways to cut my food bill. I took a second look at Aldi, began to buy there in bulk , and started cooking almost every meal from scratch at home. I am saving so much money! I go once a week for milk, eggs, fresh produce,etc. and keep a large supply of their frozen and canned goods. I can truthfully say I have not found any of their products that I do not like, and they are so much cheaper than the other grocery stores. They don’t have every item I need, but I pick that up at the Wal-mart Superstore, which I feel is the next cheapest place to buy groceries. I encourage everyone to give Aldi a try!!
Always get your quarter back for your cart. Sign up for Alid’s free e-mail newsletter. They have great name-brand ice cream deals – but go on the first few days of sale – the ice cream goes quick!
The slice cheese is not good. Their brand of Frosted Mini Wheats is better than the name brand!! Their ice cream sandwiches are the best I’ve had and go on great sales! Sometimes their bread goes on sale for .50 a loaf and it has always been really good. We love their P.B. and all their cookies. Canned green beans are great, too! And their brownie mix is our favorite!!!!
I am glad you got another grocery chain there to keep prices down. Here in San Antonio I won’t be holding my breath, as HEB has the monopoly here as the only large grocery chain, sigh. I’m still holding out for Trader Joe’s though! (A CA transplant)
Love your work and your blog, keep it up!
@Dee, Trader joes is coming to the quarry, I heard that they will be taking over the borders space.
Keep ahold of the ad. And, if your store is like ours, the have next week’s ad that you can take as well for planning! Sometimes I don’t have time to run to Aldi’s(even though it’s only 10 minutes away), so I have Wal-Mart or Target price match their ad on fruits and veggies and sometimes the name brand items if they carry them.
I love Aldi and do most of my shopping there. Canned goods are cheaper than Walmart and snacks like crackers & chips are good quality and great prices! I love their produce and am almost always impressed at how yummy it is for such a low price. And my kids love shopping there for some reason. It’s really helped with our grocery budget and saves time because it is so small! I can’t think of anything I’ve really been disappointed with. Hope you enjoy it too!
I love Aldi! I typically buy canned fruits/vegetables, cream of chicken/mushroom soup, spaghettios, pancake mix, syrup, and their spiral sliced hams – they are wonderful! Enjoy!
Aldi is the first store I shop during my monthly shopping trip. What I can’t get there or what I prefer to get organic, I go to a second store for. We usually fill 2 carts!
Here are a few of the things we get:
tomato sauce, canned fruit, cheese, bagels, much of our produce, canned veggies and soups.
I am very impressed with the quality overall.
Can’t imagine what you’ve been doing all these years without one Texas! Congrats! 🙂
.-= Amy @ Raising Arrows´s last blog ..Setting Up a School Schedule – Part 2 =-.
I love Aldi’s too! Here in Central FLorida. I love alot of things there. Here are a couple of things I dont like : THE PRODUCE and the cereals. I prefer picking my vegetables and fruits from the farm or the farmers markets (thats obviously a personal choice and the prices are lower.)
I LOVE THE BAGGED FROZEN CHICKEN!!! It cooks up great and the prices are super low. If I HAVE to buy processed meat, like chicken nuggest, bagel bites, fish sticks, etc, they are pretty good. We love the oj and the tropical juice they have in the refrig. section for $0.99, eggs are cheap, but i find them cheaper at walgreens.
I didn’t know about the horomone free milk, this is interesting to me. How do you know it is horomone free? Is it advertised that way?
Thanks for your blog its great!
just be aware – if your store is like ours, you cannot use credit cards or checks – only cash or debit cards – this can be a problem if you’re not prepared. Also – be awake- the snack foods are the first aisle- it’s wisdom to get the basic foods and then go back to the snacks if any money is left.
my family LOVES their stuffing and spanish rice . . . I always get my buns there for cookouts – saltines, cheese curls
We go to ALDI once a month to load up on canned goods. My daughter loves soup, so we stock up on soup, canned veggies, rice, and snacks. Their yellow rice is delicious and is cheap! Their store brand of gummies (in the orange box – sorry, can’t remember the name) is delicious. They’re my kids’ favorite. Their meat and produce prices are hit/miss, but you can’t beat their milk prices. Would definitely pass up the cheese, though. Also, we get their frozen pizza for pizza night. It’s good & cheaper than carry-out.
We ALWAYS buy our canned soups and veggies at Aldi’s – their fresh fruits and veggies seem to last a LOT longer than other stores.
We LOVE to get oyster crackers there to make our own snack mix (although they are seasonal).
Oh, and of course, their baking supplies such as Chocolate chips are sooo much cheaper – over Christmastime, they had milk chocolate, semi-sweet and white chocolate for only $1.29 a bag (in WI) – I stocked up! 🙂
So keep an eye on seasonal stuff- they will also drastically reduce seasonal buys after the season is over – I have gotten cake mixes for as low as 59 cents a box (a treat at our house!)
.-= Jessica´s last blog ..MORE dishwasher secrets! =-.
Did you notice if they carry any organics?
We’re so excited that an Aldi is days away from opening a block from our DFW neighborhood – I can actually walk there on a pretty day!
Dee – I’ve been told that Aldi is owned by the same company that owns Trader Joe’s and BJ’s Warehouse. So, when the Aldi stores open in your area, the other two follow not long after. Fingers crossed! I love shopping Trader Joe’s when I’m in Atlanta visiting family.
I LOVE Aldi! I am so happy for you! I really enjoy there fit and active brand. I love that you can eat healthy and save money at the same time!! And every time I check out I am AMAZED at how much money I spent. SO happy.
I love the “quarter for a cart” thing at Aldi. (My nearest is an hour away, though.) NEVER have to worry about stray carts, and it’s kinda fun to just GIVE someone your cart with your quarter in it. 🙂
Aldi has NATURAL peanut butter! The only thing I avoid is the fish. Got that once. Yuck.
We have one in town now and I just haven’t had a chance to check it out. After I read this I know I need to check it out ASAP!!
I LoVe saving money!!
~traci 😀
.-= Traci´s last blog ..I Like Flowers… =-.
No Aldi here in Colorado Springs 🙁 But when I was stationed in SC I shopped there all the time 🙂
cream soups are a must! I also like canned beans and tomatoes for chili, whole grain white bread, pizza crusts (in the bread section; think veggie pizza), turkey hams, humus, frozen burritos, and dairy. Oh, and try the chicken/broccoli packets in the freezer section (.99 each, pricey, but soooo good and easy= better than takeout!) We don’t care for their hotdogs or sausages. Have fun!
I LOVE Aldi! My favs are milk, eggs, shredded cheese (you get a 3 cup bag for the same or less than a 2 cup at Walmart! Also like their Fit N Active brand- 100 cal packs, ice cream and frozen sandwiches, etc.. They’re always cheaper on canned goods, and cereal prices can’t be beat! Their gum is disgusting, though- don’t get it! Surprisingly, the chocolate bars are pretty good, and you can get fancy ones at just $1.79 (in MO). Keep an eye on the special buys of the week, I saw in the ad they had Zhu Zhu pets for just $5.99!! I tried to find them and couldn’t, but man, what a deal!
Mmmm, wasn’t their produce BEAUTIFUL? If it always looks like that – at those prices – I will never buy produce anywhere else!
Their meat is priced fairly low, and we get most of ours there. However, their dinosaur ck nuggets didn’t go over w/ my girls who are used to Tyson all natural ones. i think everyone else has covered the rest 🙂
I love Aldi! They’ve come a long way in the last 10 years. I used to be wary of their produce, but not anymore. The quality you can get there has really improved.
If you need a fast dinner my family loves their frozen cheese ravioli. You throw it into a pot a boiling water for 2 minutes and add pasta sauce to it when it’s done.
Their brownie mix is incredible. Sooo much better than the name brand ones. I’m not a big fan of their cheese. I think they’re more oily than the name brand ones. I’ve heard their beef hot dogs are really good.
Congrats on the Aldi! They are great. I agree with a few other commenters, the sliced cheese is not very good, but I’ve always loved the shredded and block cheese.
I visisted an Aldi in Germany, where they are the number one grocery stores. They are just about the same as in the States, just bigger. It was cool to see the consistency.
Be sure to get the hazelnut spread when they have it. We LOVE it on about everything and I think it’s better than Nutella.
I grew up in Chicago and have fond memories of running around the parking lot collecting carts, so I could get enough change to buy myself a treat. Touring Aldi the other day showed me how far along Aldi has come since 1982… loved the european chocolate, hormone free milk, and their brand of vitamin water (no benzonate). I’ll be shopping there for sure… and I’ll be sure to offer to bring someone’s cart up for them, to save that quarter!
We just had one open around here last month! Got alot of great produce for soo much cheaper than i would have at the big grocery stores!! We also got a free shopping cart and made a quarter [haha] cause someone left theirs in the parking lot 😉
.-= tammy´s last blog ..***HOT*** $10/$20 K-Mart Coupon! =-.
I love Aldis. I think their produce prices are super.
Years ago I always would forget to take boxes or brown paper bags…. but now I have so many re-useable shopping bags and keep them in my car, it’s no big deal. I prefer to bag my own groceries.
.-= LisaB´s last blog ..Walgreens Rimmel Mascara Deal & April All You Coupons =-.
If you forget a bag, just collect boxes as you shop. They don’t charge you for them and they don’t look at you funny when you take them. I constantly forget my bags, so look for sturdy boxes!
I don’t buy string cheese, peanut butter, or fruit snacks (my husband eats their dinosaur snacks like a 4-year-old!) anywhere else because they have the best (and unless it’s a BOGO sale, the cheapest too!).
They also have the cheapest FLOWERS in town, so if you like fresh flowers, check them out!
Bri- I noticed that about the flowers, great tip! I think they were about $3.00 a bunch. Very good price, indeed, for fresh flowers!
I never had the pleasure of shopping at Aldi’s when I was younger, but my husband would go as a child with his mom. When he was a teen she even bought him a computer there (which I think was a one time thing.) Because we are both very computer savvy he still has much of that same computer, although he has upgraded it countless times. It is kind of ironic that a discount store like Aldi’s sold him something that has lasted so long (close to ten years, really long in computer years!). Would love to try shopping there for groceries sometime.
.-= Shirley´s last blog ..Keeping Theme: New (to me) Author =-.
Shirley- what a fun story! I am so impressed with your husband’s thriftiness and ability to make a computer last so long. He probably has the last surviving computer ever sold at Aldi. 🙂
I love Aldi and have been shopping there for several years now. It is the main store I shop at. Their prices are so much better than any of the other stores here and we do have quite a variety of stores to shop at. Aldi always beats their prices hands down and most of the time even beats the warehouse prices. I have two Aldi stores within 15 mintues of my house.
.-= Michele´s last blog ..Olde World Style Maps~Review =-.
Slow to catch up on Google Reader. I love Aldi! I find that almost everything is cheaper than it would be at Wal-mart w/ a coupon. I do not have access to a double couponing store, so that is out.
The only thing we didn’t like (after shopping for 10+ yrs) is a frozen dinner – forget which flavor, but it was not good.
We always buy condiments (steak sauce is good as A1), tortilla chips, nilla wafers, animal crackers, shredded & sliced cheese (not the singles type), Lite N Fit yogurt, cottage cheese, canned foods, artichoke hearts (much cheaper than reg. store), etc. I shop them first & then get what I can at WM. I am eating mostly God-made food, so of course, I hit the produce pretty heavy. We love their turkey mignon!
I moved from Chicago to Houston, where we do not have one yet. I sure hope that they build one soon out here. When my family drives from Chicago to Houston they load up the pick up truck with nothing but Aldi’s for me. I miss going and I cannot wait. Looks like my husband will have to take a road trip with me. I cannot say anthing bad about Aldi at all. I have shopped there for over 10 years. I love that store.
Oh if I am not mistaken my daugther still has a computer from Aldi as well.
I had heard great things about this store so when I was visiting a friend of mine in another state a few years back I shopped in there with my family. I enjoyed my experience so much I was hoping that they would eventually open one in my neighborhood. Now more than ever we are in major need of more competitors in my neighborhood. Since Hurricane Katrina the only thing that has reopened back up Waveland, MS is a Super Walmart. I have to drive between 30-45 minutes to find more competition. We have 2 other locations where a Winn Dixie use to be and another local grocery store. Now that Aldi is in Texas would you consider coming to Waveland, MS to give Walmart some competition?
I love Aldi’s salsa (it comes in a clear plastic container), it has lots of cilantra in it and tastes like homemade. Only $1.99 compared to many other stores version for $3.99. Their version of “Rotel” is excellent too. I never leave Aldi’s disappointed!
We don’t have an Aldi in San Antonio. However, whenever I am in Germany (Frankfurt) I shop at Aldi and I love it.
hey guys…can I get an address for the Aldi please? I love shopping at it in Germany, but here stateside for a few more days and would love to check it out. Thanks