Just a quick disclaimer before we begin - neither of us work for or are in any way affiliated with these establishments.
Our favorite grocery store in the world. One word: ALDI. If there is an ALDI near you and you have not experienced it yet, you are missing out. On almost every staple we buy, ALDI has the lowest price, hands down. Notice I said every staple. That's not to say that ALDI does not carry a wide variety of products. They do carry a lot, but you won't find too many specialty items there. No fresh herbs, etc.
What ALDI does have is a no-frills approach to grocery shopping that allows them to keep costs low. In order to fully appreciate the grocery store, you need to know a few things:
- You need to bring a quarter with you when you go. ALDI uses a shopping cart deposit system; you put a quarter in a slot on the cart, use it, and then replace the cart and get your quarter back. No need to hire employees to fetch carts equals savings for you and me!
- You should bring your own grocery bags. This is no big deal nowadays; it is the green thing to do after all. If you don't bring your own bags, you can buy them for 5 cents for a paper bag and 10 cents for a plastic bag. No costs incurred by ALDI for plastic bags equals savings for you and me!
- There are no "baggers." That is, unless you want to count yourself. For me, I get to relive my glory days as an employee of Harris Teeter. One plus about this is that you can organize the bags as you want to - some for frozen foods, some for the pantry, etc. No need for ALDI to pay for baggers equals savings for you and me!
- ALDI does not carry the "normal" name brands. They have their own brands. Never fear, however. The quality standards are high and almost nothing that we have ever bought at ALDI has tasted like a "generic" store brand. Plus, they have a double guarantee. If you don't like something, you can take it back to the store and they will replace the product AND refund your money. Not paying for the name brand on the packaging equals savings for you and me!
- ALDI does not take credit cards. Only cash or DEBIT CARDS.
Where we buy bulk. Sam's Club. We shop at Sam's Club for most of our bulk items- things like diapers and wipes. We buy most of our meats there, too. We buy ten pound bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, family-sized packages of pork chops (or whole pork loins that you can cut up at home into boneless chops), two pound bags of frozen shrimp, and ten pound packages of hamburger. The hamburger we buy is 90/10 burger (the 10 refers to fat content) at about $2 per pound. That's a pretty good price for leaner than average hamburger, which is usually 80/20 or 70/30. For us, especially with kids, the membership pays for itself. One warning about Sam's Club - go with a list in hand and buy ONLY what is on the list! Otherwise, you'll drop a fortune in there.
Everything else. For specialty items that we can't find at ALDI or Sam's Club, we go to local grocery stores like Food Lion and Publix. For these items, we try to use coupons if possible. There are a lot of people who have great success at these grocery stores by clipping coupons, but we have not been able to get the hang of that process yet. If we do, we'll be sure to let you know!
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