Hellobee Boards

They just built one in my area, I've heard mixed reviews

The store itself isn't like TJ's, but I shop there similarly. I go there for certain things but wouldn't do all of my shopping at either place. Some specific suggestions...
They have great prices on dried fruit and nuts. They have well-priced preschool snacks (penguin crackers that are like goldfish, peanut butter crackers). They have a four flavor hummus tray my mom loves and some of their cheeses (the Gouda for one) are both good and cheap. My kids like their refrigerated tortellini a lot. My fave find recently was 15-can cases of LaCroix for $3.99, which is literally half the price of my local grocery store/Target.

Oh, and a couple other things that are good to know: One, you need a quarter to use the shopping carts. You get it back, but you put it in to unlock one. Two, you need to bring your own bags.

We used to and I loooooved it. I literally cut my grocery budget in half. I still had to stop at Publix to pick up a few things that Aldi didn't have but it was worth it. I Googled and read some articles about Aldi shopping tips before I went and that helped me not look like a total idiot wondering where the grocery bags are and why they won't take credit cards I wish they had it in our new city!

If you eat lots of freezer meals and snacks, this is the place to go. Not the place to go for fresh produce. I didn't like it, but it is extremely cheap.

Quirky money-saving stuff you need to know before you go:

- You pay a quarter to get a cart, which you get back when you return your cart.
- When the cashier rings your stuff up, she puts your stuff in the cart of the person in front of you (I think?).
- You bag your own stuff after everything's rung up on the counter.

The Aldi near me accepts cards. I tend to buy produce, cheese, almond milk, canned goods, prepacked snacks and nuts. I do not care for their lunch meat or regular meat. Try it out! Great deals!

We have an Aldi equivalent around the corner from our apartment. It's the same logo, but it has a different name. I like it because it sells a lot of organic products like milk, eggs and meat. They produce is mixed and not always cheaper than elsewhere. I probably go in at least twice a week to pick up a few things. That said, I don't find it to be that much cheaper than other grocery stores in my neighborhood (and I have like 7 within a 10min radius). Milk and egg prices are about the same, even for organics. I think food prices where I live are pretty cheap in general, if you stick to basic stuff and whole foods.

They just built one in our town this year. I know it saves us money but I can't give you a realistic number since about the time we started shopping there LO really started eating lots of solids so our grocery budget changed. I would say I do at least 50% of my shopping there and maybe go two to three times per month. We haven't tried anything we didn't like!

I used to when I lived abroad and my husband was really against it...they basically import a lot of items and my husband felt that we should be buying local, even if it cost more money.

We don't have any around where we live now, though.

@Rainbow Sprinkles: same! I think we might get one soon because the Haggen that opened near us is closing soon!

I've never even seen one before. Are they in california?

We get the majority of our grocery list at Aldi. But there still specific things I have to stop at a major grocery store for. We get nuts (almonds, pistachios, peanuts), peanut butter, condiments, coffee (they have fair trade), milk, almond milk, eggs, yogurt, baking goods, lots of great snacks, frozen meals, fresh salsa, etc. We also get produce there if it looks good... But I spend time looking through it to make sure. We also get toilet paper and paper towels there. I don't get meat there... I'm sure it's fine, but we just always get it at the other grocery store.

How interesting about the trader Joe link. As far as I know, Aldi's parent company is German. We've been to one in Germany and it is so much nicer. We don't buy a ton of frozen or prepackaged so Aldis isn't really advantageous to use. We have given it a fair shot, at different neighborhoods and the produce section is just sooo bad. And the items we have gone for that were on sale were always sold out. Frustrating.

@reverie: haha. I have never liked their cereal...i always skip that section.

@Bao: all the time. Especially for things like spices, oils, flour, coconut oil, etc. like others said - literally cut our bill in half.

We only buy the produce if we're going to consume it within two days (even refrigerated). It doesn't last as long from stores such as Kroger and Publix.

We shop there weekly and love it! I've found that the produce in ours can be pretty good for certain items - we get red/yellow potatoes, sweet potatoes, stone fruit, onions, carrots, bananas and occasionally bagged salad and berries from there (depending how the salad/berries look). From what I've read an aldi with good produce tends to be an exception.

Other stuff that I love and buy almost exclusively from aldi:
-baking goods (their cocoa is awesome)
-coconut oil
-nitrate free bacon
-lactose free milk
-eggs
-butter
-random seasonal items (eg I got a puzzle and baby socks a couple of weeks back)
-baby wipes (cheap and awesome!)
-frozen berries

Stuff I avoid:
-yoghurt - we don't like it much
-meat - I get it cheaper, ethically raised and antibiotic free from a farmer about an hour away. I make a bimonthly trip to stock up
-frozen convenience foods - trader joes is nicer and typically healthier for those days you just can't cook...
-frozen veggies - I prefer the steamable ones

We sometimes buy the bread, but know a place that sells yesterday's bakery breads for $1, so try to go there instead.

I also love the size - a lot more toddler friendly than a giant supermarket. They always pack in our cart so DD doesn't have to move. They take cash and debit