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Shopping at
Aldi by
Tawra Kellam
I spend $250-$300 a month on groceries for my family of five. One
of the best things I do to keep my budget is to do most of my food shopping at
Aldi. You can get a good price, get in and get out fast and you don't have to
mess with using coupons.
Aldi is a small discount warehouse store. It is not an outlet store and does not
sell outdated or rejected products. They offer a double your money back
guarantee for all of their products. If you don't like it, they will give you
your money back plus a new item. The foods are mostly Aldi brand foods. The Aldi
brand is usually very good quality. I have only had one or two items where my
family preferred the name brand
over the Aldi brand.
The savings are significant. On a lot of items, I can save $1 or more over the
price at a regular grocery store. Here's an example: Chocolate chips at the
local supermarket cost $1.99. Aldis regular price is .99. White bread in the
supermarket costs $1. Aldis bread costs .59. Whole
grain bread costs $2.59 in regular grocery store, but Aldi's regular price is
$1.29.
Aldi stores are all over the world. Here is the link to the Aldi
website to see if one is near you:
http://www.aldi.com
There are a few rules to follow that keep their prices low:
They accept only cash, debit or food stamps.
They don't accept coupons.
You have to pay a .25 deposit to get a shopping basket. There is a little
quarter machine on the basket. When you return your basket, it gives you the
quarter back. This keeps prices down because they don't have to pay someone to
get baskets.
You bag your own groceries. Bring your own bags. Put all your extra plastic
sacks in an empty tissue box and bring it with you. You can also use the boxes
they have there for free. If they don't have any boxes available and you forget
your bags, they charge $.10 per bag for you to buy them.
To get the freshest produce, ask when their truck comes and go shopping the next
morning.
Be prepared. The checkers check you out
very fast.
I have timed it and on average it's 2-3 minutes check
out time with a full basket of groceries. It may be a
little awkward the first time getting used to a
different way of shopping, but once you do it once or
twice, the savings are addicting!
By shopping at Aldi, I get two weeks worth of groceries
(excluding meat -- I buy it as a loss leader from other
stores when it's $2 or less a pound. ) for $100.00. I am
in and out of the store in 30 minutes including bagging
my groceries. Plan a little longer the first time as you
learn your way around the store. Try it a couple of
times and see if you grocery bill doesn't go down!
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