I’m saving major money on my grocery bill at Aldi’s….

And I’m totally red faced about it.  Okay. I admit it, I’m a food snob.  I’m not a coupon clipper either… I’ve never liked store brands, detest cereal in those plastic bags, and avoid discount food stores such as  Sav-a-Lot like the plague.  So when Aldi’s came to town last month, I smugly went there and bought my produce, feeling sorry for the poor souls who piled their carts high with groceries, while I trotted off to the “grocery store” to buy my familiar brands.

Aldi’s isn’t new to me, we’ve had it in surrounding towns for years.  Mother was always a huge fan, and the boys and I would laugh about all of the strange brands in her pantry.

But, because of the great prices in their produce section, I started shopping there.  I was buying the same size package of fresh strawberries that sold at my local Schnucks for $3.99 for $1.00 at Aldi’s.  And fresh pineapples were under $2.00.  Celery was $.79, and everything was great quality,  nothing dated, or bruised and shriveled, it was just like produce from my regular market.  I was really impressed.  On a whim, I Googled Aldi’s, and quickly found out that they owned Trader Joes.  Trader Joes, my very favorite, cheap health food store.  Imagine that, no wonder Trader Joes had such good prices!  And their stuff is wonderful!  Reading further, people were absolutely gushing about the quality of the food from Aldi’s, how the quality equaled name brands, so Jan, the food snob, sucked it up and started buying their frozen green beans,.  That was my first purchase from the freezer case, tiny, whole green beans, haricot vertes, for $1.39 a pound.  You can’t even buy haricot vertes, except in gourmet food stores in this part of the country and they are really pricey… Oh my, they were wonderful, young tender, just delicious.  So I started filling my cart with other items.  $1.39 for a block of colby jack cheese.  Oh, it tastes just like Kraft, amazing.  Eggs for $.89, milk for $2.85 a gallon.  Even their tiny peas for $.69 a can tasted like Le Seur’s which are $1.39 a can at the grocers.  Shocking… I went totally Aldi’s crazy.

I’m no longer buying food from the grocery store, except for meat at the meat market, and a few items that I can’t find at Aldi’s.  It’s like a treasure hunt every time I go there.  This week I bought cream of chicken soup for $.45 a can, Campbell’s is $1.26 at the grocery store, it tastes the same.  All of the stuff tastes great, I can’t tell any difference in quality at all!

Angi, who usually shops at Wal-Mart for her family, started going, also.  She figured her bill and she’s saving 50% over what she was spending at Wal-Mart.  And we all know that Wal-Mart is cheaper than a regular grocery store.

So, I’m once again a smug food snob, with a twist.  I now trot into Aldi’s weekly, armed with my canvas shopping bags.  I’m buying quality food,  and I’m doing it on the cheap.  I wouldn’t be doing this if the food tasted even a little bit inferior, but it doesn’t, at all.  Looks like Mother knew what she was doing after all…