I am often asked what groceries I buy and where I buy them. Obviously we do not all have the same grocery store options because we all live on different parts of the globe! (And how fun is it that we all connect here in one community!)
I decided to write a small series of posts to share what groceries I purchase from each of my favorite stores – either online, co-op, or from an brick and mortar grocery store where I actually have to wear clothes and shoes to do my shopping. Not that I shop online without clothes on. I think that might have come out wrong. Well, anyway…
First stop: Aldi
We live just over an hour away from the nearest Aldi. It doesn’t make sense for me to drive there often, even though I love many of the groceries they offer! I make it there only once every three months now, and as you can imagine, I stock up on my favorites while I’m there!
I’ve definitely found that not all of the food Aldi offers is of the highest quality. But they do carry many real food items that I trust, so I skip their processed junk food aisles and grab their good food options for great prices!
Real Food Groceries I Buy At Aldi
- Simply Nature Organic Salsa – We go through loads of salsa at our house!
- Rotel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies (knock off) – So I can always and forever make this Real Food “Velveeta” and Rotel Dip. :)
- Simply Nature Organic Black Beans
- Simply Nature Pasta Sauce
- 100% Grass Fed Beef – We buy a half-cow every year from local farming friends. But we go through a lot of ground beef at our house so I buy hamburger at Aldi whenever I’m there. It costs about $5.65 per pound which is a great price for the quality!
- Cream Cheese – They carry this for the best price I’ve seen consistently (only $0.79 each!!), but unfortunately they don’t always have it in stock!
- Butter – Usually this is priced at $2.50 or less per pound, which is much cheaper than my local options.
- Brown Sugar – I keep brown sugar on hand at home for baking (since it’s cheaper than sucanat and as far as our bodies are concerned, sugar is sugar!). Aldi almost always has the lowest price.
Real Food Groceries I Buy at Aldi…sometimes
- Produce – Often the Aldi closest to me doesn’t have great quality produce. They have great prices on produce, though, so usually I use their prices to price-match at my local Wal-mart.
- 100% Whole Wheat Bread – It’s not full of the greatest ingredients, but I do like having a few loaves stashed in my freezer for busy travel days.
- 100% Fruit Pouches – My boys like their fruit squeeze pouches, which tend to be a little bit less expensive at Aldi most of the time. Sometimes I’ll grab a few boxes while I’m there so we can take them to soccer or basketball games.
- Sliced Cheese – I often check the quality and price on Colby jack and pepper jack slices if we need them for sandwiches on the road or grilled cheese at home.
- Lunch Meat or Hot Dogs – Sometimes they have a “Never Any” brand or a nitrite-free hotdog that I’ll take advantage of while I’m there. I’m not a huge fan of these as the quality is still kind of so-so, but if we need them and I want to avoid an additional trip to another store on my way home, I get these.
- A special treat to take home to the kids – Sometimes I’ll grab a pouch of granola or something else that I know my boys will like. I’ve discovered that my kids are not too old to become excited when Mom gets home from the store!
Do you shop at Aldi? What groceries do you frequently buy there?
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Psst!
I love your blog and your easy to follow real food example! Just a question/comment on sugar. I do not spend the extra money to buy organic sugar, because I agree sugar is sugar, but if it isn’t cane sugar, it’s beet sugar which is a major GMO crop. I don’t buy all organic food but I do try to avoid GMOs. You don’t mind buying GMO sugar?? … Which is what Aldi offers.
Eew, you’re right. I had kind of forgotten about this in my “sugar is sugar” mindset. I guess I haven’t thought too much about it because when it comes to making brownies or cookies for extras like I do so often (not that I don’t want to give them the best of the best), I just don’t always have the resources to avoid all the GMOs. I’m glad you brought this up though because I’m going to keep it in mind and see what my options are around here. Maybe I will find a good source of non-GMO sugar that is affordable !! :)
I try to avoid GMO food also. The Zulka Morena sugar that I buy from Aldi is non-GMO project verified. Aldi also has some organic produce and other products that I buy regularly including toilet paper and tissues. We aren’t perfect with all our food choices, but we do the best we can. We are blessed to have an Aldi store about 10 minutes from our house.
I love Aldi! My mom shops at the Lincoln store once in a while and doesn’t love the produce either, which is such a bummer because here in Nashville it’s the best produce around, at least in my opinion. At any rate, it’s fun to see what you get at yours!
Aldi is my primary store. I get meat from Zaycon or local rancher or locker but otherwise it’s Aldi.
I don’t buy anything fancy for sugar. Just regular C&H brand from Walmart. It’s cane sugar, non GMO project verified. I try to not stress about food sources, but just to do the best I can. Your blog is an encouragement and a blessing! Above everything we can or can’t do about our food sources, God is in control. I simply ask Him to protect us from the bad and try to leave that with Him. That’s easier said than done, but He is able :)
Aldi plain fat free greek yogurt is half the price of other grocery stores. About 2.90 a quart. We go thru three or four a week.
I personally dont do aldi ground beef. Even their graSs fed is imported. We prefer all US grown meat.
And their organic soymilk is very high quality non gmo whole bean milk we have found.
I buy their Greek yogurt, too.
I buy organic milk, produce (it’s usually pretty good at our Aldi’s), sometimes meat. I also but multi grain bread and snacks. We do go through a lot of potato chips, most of which we buy at Aldi’s, oh and breakfast cereals and yogurt. My daughter and I really like the coconut and chia granola.
We are blessed to have several Aldi stores in our city and my closest is 7 minutes away! Some items we purchase there: nitrate-free bacon, organic milk/lactose free milk, organic eggs (if I can’t get from a friend), sliced/stick cheese, organic frozen veggies, sprouted bread, applesauce pouches, guacamole, organic produce (love when they have grapes/strawberries/apples/carrots, etc), organic spinach/salad blend, Feta cheese, cream cheese, butter, canned beans/tomatoes, organic chicken/beef broth, brown rice, organic coconut oil, canned pumpkin (seasonal), chocolate chips, organic spices (super cheap), and snacks (pretzels, veggie straws, tortilla chips, raisins). I will pick up a $4.99 Take and Bake pizza there about once a month for an easy dinner on my busy shopping day.
My children love the Simply Nature organic granola cereals as a treat for breakfast a few times a week. They also eat the organic grape tomatoes like candy. Other products we purchase at Aldi: organic frozen fruit bars, organic apple juice, organic spaghetti and linguine (as much as we’ve tried them, we just don’t like whole wheat pasta, and we don’t eat pasta often, so I don’t stress about it!), organic plain yogurt, large tub of organic spring lettuce mix, cottage cheese (I haven’t found a good organic brand), Simply Nature fruit leather, and Simply Nature organic granola bars. We also occasionally purchase the grass fed ground beef, when I run out between farm orders. And as a rare treat, we love the (probably not real food) take and bake pizza! :)
Aldi is my favorite! Besides what so many have already mentioned, I buy their natural peanut butter, Simply Nature Asian ginger salad dressing, spring mix lettuce, canned pineapple, grated parmesan cheese and pasta. And their chocolate!!! Oh yum! And no corn syrup ????
We love kefir and Aldi’s prices are about HALF of what the grocery charges – and Aldi’s carries the same national brand. Their dairy offerings in general can’t be beat!
I mostly get the bagged/canned products from Aldi. Especially their Simply Nature line and real maple syrups. And we don’t eat a lot of cold cereal, but their knock off brands taste just as good as the name brands.
I never buy their meat. It’s packaged with the plastic flat across the tray, which is usually indicative of having special treated air piped in the keeps the meat pink. Ew! The produce, to me, is iffy. It never seems to spoil, which I find….concerning.
When we lived in St Louis I shopped at Aldi all of the time….and my parents have an Aldi in Michigan , but here in Northeast Nebraska, the closest one to me is 3 hours away…I sure wish I knew how to get an Aldi store in our area.
I was in another store the other day looking for butter and out of the 7 types of butter only two didn’t have flavoring in it, and they were two of the more expensive brands. Aldi’s butter doesnt have flavoring. The produce is pretty good at our store most of the time. I’ve tried their spaghetti sauce and didn’t love the taste, it seemed way too sweet to me. I don’t always shop at aldi but I do like a good number of things there!
thank you for these earlier posts! As of this month, we now have an Aldi 8 min. away! I used to shop there in IL and IN years ago. I now have a list of items to check out thanks to all of your and your reader’s suggestions.