I love to shop at Aldi. I remember my first trip there. It was with my friend, Erin, from The Humbled Homemaker. I was visiting her and she told me we HAD to go, because I didn’t yet have an Aldi at home…but now we DO!
And now? I’m hooked!
My favorite thing about Aldi…okay that’s a lie. I have many favorite things about Aldi! We’ll get to that shortly, and we’ll talk about what I buy at Aldi that is whole foods friendly.
1. I love that there aren’t a BAZILLION choices.
You usually get one or two options for whatever you want. Do I want this mustard or…[seeing only one brand of mustard is sold there] oh, this mustard it is! I suffer with decision fatigue, so this is a huge selling point for me to shop at Aldi vs. a lot of other stores. I don’t need 50,000 mustard varieties.
2. It’s like a treasure hunt every time you shop at Aldi!
Because Aldi carries a few staples, they have room to carry other seasonal or specialty items. I never know what I am going to find while I am there and that is SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!
I have found: socks, undies, tents such as the best waterproof 6 person family tent, pillows, skillets, flowers, rain boots, letterboards, etc…all at a FOOD STORE. Although I know I could be blasted for blasphemy – because I love Target as much as the next girl – but I would wager to say that when I shop at Aldi, it is JUST AS GOOD as Target Dollar Spot!!!!!!!!!!
3. The prices are so great!
And it’s not because the quality is crappy, no matter what other people say. They don’t have to pay people to stock pretty displays and fix shelves because everything stays in boxes. You pay a deposit for your cart ($.25) that you get back when you return it, so that they don’t pay bag-boys (do they still call “stock clerks” that?). They don’t even have bag boys! Because YOU BAG YOUR OWN GROCERIES when you shop at Aldi.
I might be in the minority here, but I love that I can bag my own groceries when I shop at Aldi. I PREFER that, actually. The prices are lower because they don’t have to pay as many staff people – you are doing the work. And I don’t mind a bit.
Let’s get to the shopping list already…
I get asked all the time about my favorites from Aldi, so I promise we’ll get there in just a moment. But before I dive in, let me make sure we’re on the same page about “whole foods”. The reason I used quotes is because my idea of whole foods isn’t everyone’s. When I say “whole foods,” I mainly mean, “stuff without a ton of crap in it.”
Folks have told me: but shopping at Aldi means you’re just buying junk! Ummmmmmmmmmm, just about every store is full of junk. Even Whole Foods (Yes, I said it). It just falls under the label of ORGANIC JUNK…which apparently is kosher, while Aldi JUNK is just…junk. Not sure how that works. But moving on!
Here are my favorites:
- Organic veggies (ours has a great selection!)
- Organic fruits (again, great selection)
- Ciabatta bread (I don’t always get this, but I do as a treat occasionally because I LOVE IT)
- Oyster crackers (many crackers have bad ingredients. This one at Aldi, doesn’t.)
- Cheese, cheese, and more cheese! We love Aldi cheese! And they have an amazing selection of all sorts of gourmet cheeses!
- Nitrate free lunch meat
- Avocados (they get their own spot)
- Organic strawberry jelly
- Natural peanut butter
- Organic ketchup
- Canned chicken
- Organic corn tortilla chips (THE BOMB!!!!)
- Organic pastas
- Canned fruits and veggies
- Suck applesauce (that’s what my kids call it applesauce in a packet)
- Canned beans
- Whole wheat tortillas
- Organic marinara sauce
- Organic, unbleached sugar
- All sorts of spices
- Granola (when it’s too hot to make it)
- Protein bars
- Paper goods of all sorts, plates, napkins, and toilet paper, etc.
- Take & Bake pizza (this isn’t a whole food but I wanted to make sure you knew they were AMAZING)
- Coffee
- LaCroix water
- Frozen fruits and veggies, organic and otherwise
- Turkey burgers
- StirFry frozen veggies
- Eggs
- Organic, whole milk yogurt
- Nitrate free bacon
- Almond milk
- Coconut milk
- BUTTER!!!!!!! Grass-fed!!!!
- Whipping cream
But wait…there’s more!
This does NOT take into account all the special things I find here and there when I go shopping at Aldi: specialty juices, seasonal items like apples and Thanksgiving foods, Kombucha. Oh my gosh – it’s so much fun because you never know what you’re going to find!!!!!!!!!!
So friend, if you aren’t going to Aldi yet, and you have one close by, PLEASE CHECK IT OUT! You will not be sorry!!!
Are any of your favorites on my list??
That’s a great list! I save SO much money on produce there! And I always find that my store is best stocked early in the morning on the first day of the new ad. 🙂
I usually get there on Sunday, because of location, so I take the sale paper leftovers. LOL
Love your tips and sense of humor.. always up to learn new things about food and food prep and acquisition. I am probably luckier than you or many of your other subscribers…. I have 9 or 10 grocery stores less than 3 miles from me. including an Aldi’s which is exactly 2 miles.. and a Sam’s club which is about 6 miles.
Yup! You have a ton of options for sure!
Great article! I have my Aldi orders delivered here in Chicago. I’m a pescatarian, so I will be trying their ‘fake meat’ next month. Love, love Aldi!
That’s a nice city perk!!!
I want an Aldi so bad 😭
I hope you get one soon! They are expanding!
We love our Aldi store! Ours just got a make-over, which means it was closed for about 6 weeks. Needless-to-say we stocked up on certain things before they closed and it was cutting it pretty close to freaking out before they opened! I love the meat choices, and we also love the CHEESE! So many things that we ONLY buy at Aldi!
When ours did that, I felt like an addict in withdrawl.
We have TWO ALDIs where I live! I can get allllmost everything I need there, except my coffee creamer. So thankful for the selection and savings that ALDI provides my family!
My Aldi has GREAT coffee creamer options!!!!
Aldi’s makes my husband’s very favorite brownie mix!
Ya know, I have heard more than one person say that.
I LOVE Aldi!!! I have one about a mile or so from my house!! That can be dangerous!! LOL I go there first and what I can’t get there I go to a “regular” grocery store.
WHOA!!!!!!!!!! I am crazy jealous! Ours is 35 minutes away!
Ours is less than a mile away too, which is such a blessing! I am with you… we go to Aldi first and what we can’t find there we go to a ‘regular’ grocery store…. or we just decide that maybe we don’t really need that.
Right there too! But the kids love going and I love going, so WIN!
Stacy, I LOVE Aldi’s! I started going back in March but recently stopped because I was going to another grocery store to get whatever Aldi doesn’t stock. I work full time and was getting tired of shopping at two stores each weekend among other things I do on the weekends. But after reading this post I really miss it! I’ll need to figure out a way to make it more doable for me. What I love besides the cheap, cheap prices is the variety like you said. All the quality items they have at great prices! You said something awhile back about loving their naan bread so I tried and loved it, too! Thank you for this post!
Oh yes! We love their naan for pizzas!!!
So, what I do is go to Aldi when I can and supplement with Walmart Grocery Pick-Up when I can’t get there.
Oh, that’s a great idea!!