How so?
Well, there are a couple ways that Aldi makes me feel like I’m living a life of luxury.
I can buy as much produce as I want.
In our very lean days, it was tough to afford a lot of produce, especially when it came to pricier produces like strawberries, blackberries, pineapples, baby spinach, and avocados.
But since Aldi carries these things at such great prices, it’s easy to expand beyond cheap stuff like bananas, apples, and carrots.
Having fresh pineapple around all the time feels pretty darn fantastic.
I can buy fancy foods.
Before Aldi came around, items like fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and wedges of Parmesan cheese were a little out of my price range and I just never bought them.
And now I do! I feel like I’m living extravagantly, except I’m totally not. 😉
While Aldi originally started as a store that carried the very basics, they currently carry a whole lot of items that go beyond the basics (goat cheese! quinoa! Jasmine rice! marinated mozzarella!), and they’re all super affordable.
I love it.
(This is especially handy if you are hosting an hors d’ouevres party. So many great crackers and cheese and such to choose from.)
Ooh! Another item that still feels luxurious to me: gallon containers of apple cider. These are frequently $5 at the regular grocery store, and they’re about half the price at Aldi.
I can afford natural and organic products.
Items like plain shredded wheat, real maple syrup, almond butter, 100% fruit strips, and organic greens are totally within my budget at Aldi. Whee!
I’m not a servant to the sale cycles.
Before I became an Aldi shopper, I worked hard to make my meals fit around what I could get cheaply. I stocked up when things went on sale and skipped buying non-sale items.
This worked pretty well, but it took a fair amount of thinking and was also rather restricting.
“Can I make that chicken pasta salad this week? Hmm, nope, red peppers are too expensive right now. And my freezer stash of sale-price chicken is gone.”
Since things are the same low price at Aldi every week, I don’t have to bother stocking up.
And I don’t have to plan my menu around sale items; instead I can make whatever I want to make, which feels rather luxurious.
I don’t know that “luxury” is the first word that comes to people’s minds when they think of Aldi, but shopping there definitely makes me feel like I’m living the good life.
And the fact that I can eat luxuriously while still keeping money in the bank? That makes me feel even more fabulous. 😉
This post was not underwritten or sponsored by Aldi. I just really dig Aldi!
Janice
Monday 19th of December 2016
This is a late comment but I have scoured and devoured your blog for the last 3-4 months. Could you tell me if you get your shrimp at Aldis? I am going to give the store a try! We usually do our shopping at Lucky's and Trader Joes. Thank you!
Kristen
Monday 19th of December 2016
I do sometimes, although I can often get it a little cheaper if I watch a sale at a regular grocery store or buy it at Costco.
chris
Saturday 1st of October 2016
Back when I was a fresh-faced young woman and new yo the grocery-buying scene (but after college when I only bought milk, pasta, parm in the can, butter, cookie dough in the tube and peas because...well...college) I would trek to our Cubs to buy cheap food for my fiance and myself. It promptly closed and we were adrift in a sea of overpriced stores. There was a Sam's but we couldn't fit that kind of quantity in our tiny apartment. I began several years of just shopping at the closest store and muddling along. We had a bunch of kids and our groceries got crazy high so I discovered Aldi's and got them down to $435 every month (that's how we paid off all of our debt and our house) and THEN our son was dxed with autism and GI problems, the latter was also apparent in the younger brothers. Ruh roh. They needed a grain-free diet for 2 years (it worked, everyone started, um, going normally and growing properly again) and now a gluten free, lactose free diet. Both are expensive and require diligent menu planning/store flyer watching/creative shopping. I shop at three/four stores and two online sites to get everything I need at the best prices. Aldi's is part of the plan but most of it's gf stuff is sadly not very good. It's okay, though, because I can stock up on their produce (very good in our area) and the yum gf pretzels and cheap eggs and cheap hard cheeses and have plenty left for the sale prices at Kroger, Meijer, Whole Foods and Fresh Thyme. Fresh Thyme also has excellent produce prices every week and on Thursday the flyer from the preceding week and the flyer from the current week are both on sale. THIS IS AMAZING. Between Aldi's and Fresh Thyme I can afford higher quality meat and seafood, the almond flour and gf flour I use to make pancakes and treats, all bought at other places. We are a family of five with three teenage or almost-teen boys on special diets and our groceries are under $800 for the month. It is a miracle. In 2009 I was spending $1200 and the youngest was a newborn. We eat less nut flour now but not $400 a month less, maybe $50?? The 75%ish of our groceries is produce (I have 10 pounds of potatoes, 2 bunches of bananas, 6 piunds of apples and 3 pounds of onions at my feet...just for the coming week and more in the car and on the list) but I spend only a third of the budget on produce. Aldi's and Fresh Thyme for the win. And Kroger's for transferring our grocery spending to gas savings at Shell for my husband and our pest control business. It's helped a lot.
Karen L
Saturday 1st of October 2016
Kristen, I would guess you're not a huge fan of single-use gadgets, but this year we got the neatest thing that cores and slices a pineapple into a perfect spiral of rings so easily. It is great, and we've been eating way more fresh pineapple since we bought it (and fresh pineapple has been really cheap this year, was it always so cheap?) There are different brands & models out there, but ours is by OXO and cost about $11. at Target.
Stacey
Friday 30th of September 2016
Unfortunately we don't have a single Aldi's in Colorado but I did in New York. Boy, do I miss them!!! My husband is interviewing for a job in Virginia next week and I've been very unsure of it (the majority of my family and my job are in CO then there is 1 of our children who is stationed in WA) I read your post and thought "WOW! I wonder if there is an Aldi in Roanoke?" Sure enough there is! Groceries are crazy expensive here and the cost of living is one of the highest in the country. I felt instantly better about the move. I may be further away but I can afford to visit! Lemonade out of lemons maybe? But I'll take what I can!
Cassandra
Tuesday 4th of October 2016
Geez I know! I love Colorado, but groceries ARE expensive here. We're behind the times... JUST got a trader joes, no Aldi (had no idea what this was til I read this blog) and only Sprouts really for anything resembling a bargain on produce(and even that is relatively new to CO, 5 years ago that wasn't a thing here either). It's the price we pay for living in the middle of the country where everything is trucked in! Way to put a positive spin on a move!
Barbe
Friday 30th of September 2016
I completely agree! You can buy gourmet products and healthy products for a fraction of supermarket prices!