If you have been following my blog for awhile, you probably know by now how much I love Aldi. I have been a loyal Aldi shopper for the last 15 years. I shop around to find the best price, but by and large, I do the majority of my shopping at Aldi.
Why do I love Aldi? I love it because I can get the most bang for my buck there. I cook primarily from scratch, and so I love the inexpensive prices for all of my staple items. In addition, you can find many convenience items there as well...all for very low prices. How do they keep their prices so low, but offer high quality items? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First of all, they don't stock shelves the way that a traditional grocery store might. They open cases and the products are left in their boxes. This allows Aldi to hire less people for stocking and maintaining their shelves. In addition, Aldi's asks that you purchase your own bags and bag your own groceries. Personally, I prefer to bag my own things. I like to organize my things, and I don't like to pack meat with raw veggies or anything that won't be cooked. I understand sanitation, while most cashiers just don't pay attention. Also, Aldi requires that you "rent" a shopping cart for $0.25. This is a great idea in my opinion. You have to return the cart to the store to get your "deposit" back. Aldi then doesn't have to hire an employee to go outside to the parking lot to gather carts and there are always carts available for use when you arrive. They are all dry because they are housed in an enclosed area. This is very nice, especially if you have little ones that still ride in a cart.
But now, there are a few more reasons to love Aldi even more than I already do! This is my exciting news for the day! Aldi has recently just started to accept credit cards in addition to accepting debit, cash, and EBT. Why am I excited about this? I am on a tight budget right? Well, we use our credit cards for 90% of our purchases and then pay the balance in full every month. We do this because we get points for the purchases, which then pays us back in the long run. This may not be appropriate for all families, and Aldi does accept cash if you prefer, but since we are using our points very wisely (we have a card that pays us in cash for our points), it works well for us. Now that Aldi accepts credit cards, I can use the points that I earn as "coupon" credit for future purchases there, which is going to save me even more money!
In addition, I mentioned in a previous post that Aldi has focused it's branding on offering healthy, natural products. It has accomplished this by eliminating artificial colors and sweeteners from all of it's products. They are also eliminating preservatives, chemicals, and msg. With a promise to continue offer even more healthy options in the future. Organic and gluten free options are becoming more available and the price difference is very reasonable. For example, I can purchase a 32 oz. box of regular chicken broth for $1.39. The organic version, same size, for $1.79. This makes purchasing organic more reasonable for those who choose that lifestyle. They also have a wide variety of fresh fruits and veggies that are locally grown and organic, and in addition, they are offering an entire section of grass-fed meats as well.
They are also making strides to help our bee populations by eliminating farms that use pesticides that are known to kill bees. This is huge since bees are ESSENTIAL to our existence on earth!
Let me just say that I am not being paid by Aldi for anything that I have said. I truly believe in what they offer and have been feeding my family well by shopping there all of these years.
My grocery shopping trip this week was actually a combination trip because I never made it to the grocery store last week. We have basically been living on our pantry and freezer for the last two weeks. This meant that I had to replenish the meat and the pantry in this trip. The cost was more as a result. I don't stress when that happens because it will all average out in the long run. So here is our meal plan for the week.
School starts again tomorrow! Yay! I am so excited because my kids are beginning to drive me crazy. You know how that can happen right? It's the middle of winter, we just had a huge snow storm, and everyone has a bit of the cranky pants, get away from me blues! Needless to say, I am tired of the fighting. (Now I know how my mother felt when I was a kid fighting with my sisters!)
I am working just a few days this week to ease us back into the routine (that is the beauty of choosing my own schedule.) So, this week I have some delicious meals on the menu. While I was at Aldi's yesterday, they had bone-in chicken thighs on sale for $0.49/ pound. It was a family pack deal which is awesome! I picked up two. I also picked up some 73% ground beef for $1.99/ pound. I realize that the beef isn't as healthy as it could be, but I cook and drain it really well. I have also heard that some people rinse the beef to make it healthier too. I haven't tried that, but if you do, let me know how it works because I may be willing to try it too. So, basically, I planned all of my meals around those two meats.
Here it is:
Saturday- (last night) We had tacos for dinner when I got home from the store. I also splurged a bit and we had ice cream sundaes. (Ethan had a friend over for dinner and it was a nice treat!)
Sunday- Cereal and bananas
Ham, Turkey, or PB&J sandwiches, pretzels or chips
Lemon chicken thighs with potatoes and carrots, green beans, cornbread
Monday- Oatmeal bake with blueberries
Packed lunches
Popcorn (snack after school)
Sloppy Joes, tator tots, and corn
Tuesday- French toast sticks (homemade), bananas
Packed Lunches
Animal crackers (snack)
Chicken and wild rice soup, biscuits
Wednesday- Cereal and bananas
Packed lunches
Homemade rice crispy treats
Garlic and parmesan pasta, tomato,
Thursday- Cereal and bananas
Packed lunches
Animal crackers or rice crispy treats
Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, peas
Friday- Breakfast frittata or baked egg casserole
Packed lunches
peanut butter crackers (handmade)
Chicken Noodle casserole
Saturday- Pancakes and sausage
Macaroni and Cheese (homemade)
Spaghetti and Meatballs, homemade bread
The meals for this week are very inexpensive, however, I have been purchasing more convenient lunch items for kids lunch boxes. I do that because my husband hates making lunches for the kids and when I am working, he has to work the wheel (so to speak), he prefers to grab and pack. For their lunches this week, they have yogurt, applesauce cups, and fruit cups. In addition, my daughter asked for raisins, I grabbed some cheese crackers, and pretzels. I also had to purchase juice boxes as well. These conveniences will still cost less than having our kids buy lunch at school, especially because our school lunches cost $2.25 per child this year. That is a whopping $9.00 every time my kids buy their lunch! That is just craziness to me.
Let me break down the cost of our groceries so far this month so that you can see how it has all played out...then we can examine the budget to see where I fall.
I went grocery shopping on January 26th and spent $130. Then I shopped on February 14th and spent $60 (I went to Walmart for milk, bread, and a few other items to get through the week). I went on February 20th and spent $220. So here is the weekly break down of $82.00 per week because that covered 5 weeks. Still under budget for the month. Yay! Now that things are going back to normal, I will be shopping week to week again and that will make it easier to keep track.
Whoa! I just realized how long this post was! I hope that you found it informative and helpful!
Now I'm off to make dinner and get the kids ready for school tomorrow!
Blessings to All!
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