by Hannah Lazarus
Like many people, I’ve been shocked at how much my family food
bills have been going up over the past year. I seem to be spending an awful lot
of money every week on not very much! Those student days of doing my weekly
shop for £10 are long gone!
I was made redundant when I was on maternity leave and have
taken the opportunity to stay at home while my daughter is small. My husband’s
wages seem to cover most of the bills (until the dreaded day that the base rate
starts to rise!) but all of the food shopping and petrol comes out of my
rapidly-depleting savings! So I’m desperately trying to find ways of reducing
my family's weekly food bill.
So, this week, I decided to try Ely’s new Aldi...
It was a bit of a mixed experience. Here’s my verdict!
Trolleys
First obstacle – you need a £1 coin for the trolley. Luckily
I had one! There were trolleys with child seats in but they didn’t have any
straps. Not great if your child is a wriggler!
Layout
So it’s not the most aesthetically-pleasing supermarket I’ve
been in, with its no-frills layout, but I’m here to save some cash, so let’s
not worry about that!
It’s a small supermarket – there aren’t aisles and aisles of
choice. But for me, that’s a good thing as I was in and out much quicker! It’s
very much focused on groceries, so not many homewares, clothes and special
offers to distract you and entice you to part with more cash!
It was a challenge for me to find what I was after, but that’s
the same with any new supermarket that I’ve visited. After a few visits, I’m
sure I’ll get used to it!
At the Till
A few challenges for me here. Firstly, no credit cards!
Living on savings, I usually do all of my shopping on my credit card and pay it
off at the end of the month. But it was debit cards only! Luckily, I’d checked
my balance the previous day so I knew I had enough to cover it! Otherwise, I’d
be in panic-stations!
Then for the rather unconventional way of packing your
shopping! There isn’t much room at the end of the till and the check-out operators
seem to be taking part in some sort of speed competition! So you have to put
all your groceries back in the trolley, pay and then pack it all in your bags on
the shelf behind the tills! (By the way, they charge 3p for a carrier bag – but
I brought my own.)
Price
The important part – was it cheaper?!
YES! My shopping came to a grand total of £49.90. I don’t
think there was anything I bought that was more expensive than in Tesco, so I
must have saved something – although I’m not sure exactly how much! The biggest
savings were on non-food items like washing liquid and shampoo. There wasn’t much
by way of big brands in Aldi. The only brands I recall seeing were the baby
food jars.
The only issue was that I couldn’t get everything I wanted. My
daughter has a dairy allergy so needs things like infant soya milk, which I
couldn’t get. She also likes the Organix/Goodies children’s snacks, of which
there wasn’t much by way of non-brand alternatives. And I needed some eye
make-up remover and a lettuce, which I couldn’t find. So I ended up going to
Tesco on the way home to pick up a few extras (dashing round as I had meat and
some frozen items in the car)! After my Aldi bargains, I couldn’t believe that
my two tiny Tesco bags of shopping came to £25!
I was a little annoyed, however, when I noticed that Tesco
were offering £5 off if you spend over £40! Although I’m pretty sure that I saved over
£5...!! If I’m going to start budget shopping, I’m going to have to stop
getting lured in by these deals! Then there’s the thorny issue of my Tesco Clubcard!
It really does make me feel bound to Tesco! I love the money-off vouchers and
reward system! I often buy Christmas presents with them (although I recently
spent a voucher on something I didn’t really want because it was almost out of
date)! Can I let it go...?!!! Reluctantly, if I save enough money.
The Quality Test
So, I saved some money, but were my cheaper and non-branded
items any good?! So far, the meat, fruit and vegetables have all passed the
quality test! And I haven’t noticed any difference between the shampoo I bought
and my usual branded shampoo, and this was less than half the price. But some
of the canned and boxed items I got weren’t the best! The carton of passata was
a third of the price of Tesco’s but was a bit watery and the box of bran flakes
was less than half the price of Tesco’s own-brand but looked a bit insipid (although
they taste ok!)
Overall verdict
Now I know that I was paying over-the-odds for some items, I’m
loathe to go back to paying higher prices for things. But it’s going to be a
bit of a faff to do shopping in more than one place. I might alternate and do
an Aldi shop one week and freeze some stuff and get my other bits from Tesco another
week to save me going to two supermarkets a week.
If I’m honest, I’ll be shopping at Aldi out of a need to
save money rather than because I enjoy shopping there! But I’m sure I’ll get used
to it after a while and, even if I wasn’t desperate to save money, I’d still go
every now and again to stock up on a few essentials.
Have you tried budget supermarkets? What was your
experience? Let us know by commenting below...
We switched to lidl recwntly and have been saving so much! I have found their vegetarian choice limited, and I feel I have to really look at every option before selecting (probably not a bad thing) whereas I used to just grab my usuals. My husband & children dont seem to mind the changes. We love their selection of cheeses at great prices and love their laundry powder scent. We saved £100 a month hy shopping at lidl... and now, we wont switch back... as for an enjoyable shopping experience. ..? Is any supermarket shopping trip enjoyable with a 4 & 2 yr old?!
ReplyDeleteI have been getting all my fruit and vegetables from the market. One week I entered everything I bought onto moneysupermarket so that I could compare prices - it was just under HALF the average supermarket price, and better produce too! Needless to say I am now a market convert!
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't tried them, try Aldi nappies. They're amazingly good value, super soft and just as good as named brands. From memory my size 2 nappies were £2.70 for 44.
ReplyDelete