Tips for curbing spending on food

[Anonymous]

Stop eating take out and going out eat at home problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the Aldi hate on here. The one I go to is super popular and has fresh stuff. I’ve shopped there for years initially because they had the easiest to maneuver surface parking lot vs those awful parking garages at all the other stores. I’ve never had a problem with quality, ever.

If y’all want to throw money away, ok. Seems like a stupid way to go.

The two near me are messy and look dirty, their produce goes off quickly. Their berries will not last more than a few days before becoming moldy. Unreliable stocks. Sometimes they have stuff, sometimes they don't, so it's hard to plan a reliable shop around Aldis.

I value quality and Aldi isn't quality. It's a great option when you have to watch every penny. I don't have to watch every penny. Food retailing is so sensitive to pricing that the gap between Whole Foods or Wegmans and Aldis isn't that big, so it's a waste of time and money for me to bother with Aldis. If Aldis was really that great and cheap, all other supermarkets would go bankrupt. But they aren't and that tells you something.

Agreed. Maybe some Aldis are just better than others? Ours is more similar to this PP's. I'm not saving money if the produce goes bad in a couple days and I have to toss it.

Think it is true that some Aldis are better than others. The ones in Merrifield and Falls Church are "nicer". The one in Rockville is OK. The ones in Chantilly and Frederick are kinda gross.

And there's a nice one in Rutland VT. =)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the Aldi hate on here. The one I go to is super popular and has fresh stuff. I’ve shopped there for years initially because they had the easiest to maneuver surface parking lot vs those awful parking garages at all the other stores. I’ve never had a problem with quality, ever.

If y’all want to throw money away, ok. Seems like a stupid way to go.

The two near me are messy and look dirty, their produce goes off quickly. Their berries will not last more than a few days before becoming moldy. Unreliable stocks. Sometimes they have stuff, sometimes they don't, so it's hard to plan a reliable shop around Aldis.

I value quality and Aldi isn't quality. It's a great option when you have to watch every penny. I don't have to watch every penny. Food retailing is so sensitive to pricing that the gap between Whole Foods or Wegmans and Aldis isn't that big, so it's a waste of time and money for me to bother with Aldis. If Aldis was really that great and cheap, all other supermarkets would go bankrupt. But they aren't and that tells you something.

Agreed. Maybe some Aldis are just better than others? Ours is more similar to this PP's. I'm not saving money if the produce goes bad in a couple days and I have to toss it.

Think it is true that some Aldis are better than others. The ones in Merrifield and Falls Church are "nicer". The one in Rockville is OK. The ones in Chantilly and Frederick are kinda gross.

And there's a nice one in Rutland VT. =)

I have never seen a US grocery store as disgusting as the Aldi in Baileys Crossroads. Dried-out, wilted, and rotting produce. Empty shelves with boxes strewn all over. Dirty. I was baffled. I have been to the Del Ray Aldi, and while not great, was no where near as bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the Aldi hate on here. The one I go to is super popular and has fresh stuff. I’ve shopped there for years initially because they had the easiest to maneuver surface parking lot vs those awful parking garages at all the other stores. I’ve never had a problem with quality, ever.

If y’all want to throw money away, ok. Seems like a stupid way to go.

The two near me are messy and look dirty, their produce goes off quickly. Their berries will not last more than a few days before becoming moldy. Unreliable stocks. Sometimes they have stuff, sometimes they don't, so it's hard to plan a reliable shop around Aldis.

I value quality and Aldi isn't quality. It's a great option when you have to watch every penny. I don't have to watch every penny. Food retailing is so sensitive to pricing that the gap between Whole Foods or Wegmans and Aldis isn't that big, so it's a waste of time and money for me to bother with Aldis. If Aldis was really that great and cheap, all other supermarkets would go bankrupt. But they aren't and that tells you something.

Agreed. Maybe some Aldis are just better than others? Ours is more similar to this PP's. I'm not saving money if the produce goes bad in a couple days and I have to toss it.

Unfortunately we don't have one that close to us anymore but I grew up with Wegmans and still think it's the best balance between quality-selection-prices. It's not the cheapest but for most things we buy the prices are competitive with (or better than) other stores. And I can get everything I need in a single shopping trip, which is really valuable to me now that I have kids.

Maybe we just have a good one, but Aldi produce going bad quickly is not an issue for my family at all.

I went to Aldi last Thursday, 2/15 and all of the produce I bought is still good. I have no idea what people are babbling about that their food isn't good quality and goes rotten. Can you buy some strawberries that seem to go back in 2-3 days, sure, but I've had that happen at Wegmans, WF, Safeway and HT. This is not an Aldi problem. People are just snobs for some reason and are uptight about shopping there, except in my neighborhood where I see plenty of people I know there on a regular basis. NBD.

This thread was asking for tips on curbing spending on food and one of the obvious ones for me would be to shop at a less expensive grocery store, like Aldi. But it seems that people come up with every counter argument to not take the obvious advice, so keep spending I guess.

DP- this is purely anecdotal but for a while our Aldi seemed to have frequent refrigeration issues. A lot of people complained and it must have been fixed because things were cold again and it made a huge difference. Was obviously not a big deal for things like bananas and avocados but I stopped buying stuff like lettuce and broccoli for a while because it was lukewarm and already looked poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the Aldi hate on here. The one I go to is super popular and has fresh stuff. I’ve shopped there for years initially because they had the easiest to maneuver surface parking lot vs those awful parking garages at all the other stores. I’ve never had a problem with quality, ever.

If y’all want to throw money away, ok. Seems like a stupid way to go.

The two near me are messy and look dirty, their produce goes off quickly. Their berries will not last more than a few days before becoming moldy. Unreliable stocks. Sometimes they have stuff, sometimes they don't, so it's hard to plan a reliable shop around Aldis.

I value quality and Aldi isn't quality. It's a great option when you have to watch every penny. I don't have to watch every penny. Food retailing is so sensitive to pricing that the gap between Whole Foods or Wegmans and Aldis isn't that big, so it's a waste of time and money for me to bother with Aldis. If Aldis was really that great and cheap, all other supermarkets would go bankrupt. But they aren't and that tells you something.

Agreed. Maybe some Aldis are just better than others? Ours is more similar to this PP's. I'm not saving money if the produce goes bad in a couple days and I have to toss it.

Think it is true that some Aldis are better than others. The ones in Merrifield and Falls Church are "nicer". The one in Rockville is OK. The ones in Chantilly and Frederick are kinda gross.

And there's a nice one in Rutland VT. =)

I have never seen a US grocery store as disgusting as the Aldi in Baileys Crossroads. Dried-out, wilted, and rotting produce. Empty shelves with boxes strewn all over. Dirty. I was baffled. I have been to the Del Ray Aldi, and while not great, was no where near as bad.

OMG yes to the Bailey's Crossroads one. Is Aldi's franchised? Otheriwse I wonder why it's so inconsistent.

[Anonymous]

Three days of takeout a week is too much takeout OP. I would find easy homemade dinners that could substitute for the takeout, and get take out once a week at the most.

We have homemade tacos one night, homemade stir fry one night, and mostly homemade pizza (store bought crust). It's a lot cheaper than ordering out; you can use grassfed meat and it still costs less.

All those organic fruits and vegetables are fine, but takeout is usually not organic and is not adding much to your health but high sodium.

[Anonymous]

You are crazy indulgent.

Our meals most days are

Breakfast: yogurt and toast, or Grapenuts, coffee

Lunch: homemade sandwiches, soup, salad, fruit

Dinners: Tacos or enchiladas; stir fries, homemade lo mien, London broil; hamburger, pasta with chicken and veggies, pasta with spaghetti and meat balls, lasagna soup, chicken casseroles, pot roast with veggies. All meals have salads or other veggies.

DH and I go out Friday nights, kids make frozen pizza at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the Aldi hate on here. The one I go to is super popular and has fresh stuff. I’ve shopped there for years initially because they had the easiest to maneuver surface parking lot vs those awful parking garages at all the other stores. I’ve never had a problem with quality, ever.

If y’all want to throw money away, ok. Seems like a stupid way to go.

The two near me are messy and look dirty, their produce goes off quickly. Their berries will not last more than a few days before becoming moldy. Unreliable stocks. Sometimes they have stuff, sometimes they don't, so it's hard to plan a reliable shop around Aldis.

I value quality and Aldi isn't quality. It's a great option when you have to watch every penny. I don't have to watch every penny. Food retailing is so sensitive to pricing that the gap between Whole Foods or Wegmans and Aldis isn't that big, so it's a waste of time and money for me to bother with Aldis. If Aldis was really that great and cheap, all other supermarkets would go bankrupt. But they aren't and that tells you something.

Agreed. Maybe some Aldis are just better than others? Ours is more similar to this PP's. I'm not saving money if the produce goes bad in a couple days and I have to toss it.

Think it is true that some Aldis are better than others. The ones in Merrifield and Falls Church are "nicer". The one in Rockville is OK. The ones in Chantilly and Frederick are kinda gross.

And there's a nice one in Rutland VT. =)

I have never seen a US grocery store as disgusting as the Aldi in Baileys Crossroads. Dried-out, wilted, and rotting produce. Empty shelves with boxes strewn all over. Dirty. I was baffled. I have been to the Del Ray Aldi, and while not great, was no where near as bad.

OMG yes to the Bailey's Crossroads one. Is Aldi's franchised? Otheriwse I wonder why it's so inconsistent.

Bailey’s one is gross. Del Ray one is great IMO. Never had a problem. I’ve been shopping there since the Giant left, way pre covid.

[Anonymous]

Agree the aldi locations vary widely!

Separately, anyone use a meal prep service they love? We typically do Hello Fresh or Home Chef for 3 meals per week in Jan/Feb because we are all bogged down with work and school and the family is tired of my recipes. If you do for 6-8 weeks and then cancel it is surprisingly inexpensive because of the introductory discounts. Wish they had organic meat though.

[Anonymous]

I feel you, OP, because we're in a similar boat (special needs kids makes a lot of this harder). I agree that it might be helpful to cut down on takeout. But the convenience factor, especially with a SN kid is totally understandable. For us, finding very easy meals that was as easy as takeout was key. This could look like assembling frozen meals at Trader Joe's (try the TJ's for busy moms facebook group); assembling crock pot "dump" bags once a month to make it easy to have a meal ready; and Costco also has some great easy prep meals that are way cheaper than takeout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the Aldi hate on here. The one I go to is super popular and has fresh stuff. I’ve shopped there for years initially because they had the easiest to maneuver surface parking lot vs those awful parking garages at all the other stores. I’ve never had a problem with quality, ever.

If y’all want to throw money away, ok. Seems like a stupid way to go.

The two near me are messy and look dirty, their produce goes off quickly. Their berries will not last more than a few days before becoming moldy. Unreliable stocks. Sometimes they have stuff, sometimes they don't, so it's hard to plan a reliable shop around Aldis.

I value quality and Aldi isn't quality. It's a great option when you have to watch every penny. I don't have to watch every penny. Food retailing is so sensitive to pricing that the gap between Whole Foods or Wegmans and Aldis isn't that big, so it's a waste of time and money for me to bother with Aldis. If Aldis was really that great and cheap, all other supermarkets would go bankrupt. But they aren't and that tells you something.

Agreed. Maybe some Aldis are just better than others? Ours is more similar to this PP's. I'm not saving money if the produce goes bad in a couple days and I have to toss it.

Unfortunately we don't have one that close to us anymore but I grew up with Wegmans and still think it's the best balance between quality-selection-prices. It's not the cheapest but for most things we buy the prices are competitive with (or better than) other stores. And I can get everything I need in a single shopping trip, which is really valuable to me now that I have kids.

Maybe we just have a good one, but Aldi produce going bad quickly is not an issue for my family at all.

I went to Aldi last Thursday, 2/15 and all of the produce I bought is still good. I have no idea what people are babbling about that their food isn't good quality and goes rotten. Can you buy some strawberries that seem to go back in 2-3 days, sure, but I've had that happen at Wegmans, WF, Safeway and HT. This is not an Aldi problem. People are just snobs for some reason and are uptight about shopping there, except in my neighborhood where I see plenty of people I know there on a regular basis. NBD.

This thread was asking for tips on curbing spending on food and one of the obvious ones for me would be to shop at a less expensive grocery store, like Aldi. But it seems that people come up with every counter argument to not take the obvious advice, so keep spending I guess.

This is essentially it. Produce sometimes goes bad wherever you get it from. And all grocery stores have return policies. I’ve talked to friends who complain about the shopping cart quarter, bagging your own groceries, needing your own bags, the produce stacked in their original boxes, less selection, etc. if you want to spend 2x the Aldi price for milk, great.

[Anonymous]

that’s. A LOt of takeout and a LOT of garbage you are shoving in your mouth. what a waste that you buy organic when you negate all of that with the chronic take out junk.

[Anonymous]

OP--you are at a stressful stage of life. Assuming you can "afford" the $40 K for food, I think it's important that you give yourselves a little grace. Maybe the takeout gives you time to spend with your young children that you wouldn't otherwise have. Or time for some self-care to deal with the stress of your work life which allows you to pay for food and everything else. When I was in your shoes, there were plenty of nights (pre-pandemic) when we needed a break and we'd go out for an impromptu restaurant meal or order takeout.

My only suggestion is to watch what you are drinking as that can add up. Of course, any alcohol adds expense to your "grocery" budget, but also things like teas, juices, etc. Then there's water: if you're buying bottled, that's an area to consider reducing.

Also, "tipflation" is a thing, so if you are tipping 20-25% and picking up your own takeout, I'd consider whether that's appropriate given the level of service provided. The excessive tipping on meals that involved no service other than meal prep is a practice from the pandemic years that needs to be scaled back. Let the restaurant owners pay their employees a decent wage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get the Aldi hate on here. The one I go to is super popular and has fresh stuff. I’ve shopped there for years initially because they had the easiest to maneuver surface parking lot vs those awful parking garages at all the other stores. I’ve never had a problem with quality, ever.

If y’all want to throw money away, ok. Seems like a stupid way to go.

The two near me are messy and look dirty, their produce goes off quickly. Their berries will not last more than a few days before becoming moldy. Unreliable stocks. Sometimes they have stuff, sometimes they don't, so it's hard to plan a reliable shop around Aldis.

I value quality and Aldi isn't quality. It's a great option when you have to watch every penny. I don't have to watch every penny. Food retailing is so sensitive to pricing that the gap between Whole Foods or Wegmans and Aldis isn't that big, so it's a waste of time and money for me to bother with Aldis. If Aldis was really that great and cheap, all other supermarkets would go bankrupt. But they aren't and that tells you something.

Agreed. Maybe some Aldis are just better than others? Ours is more similar to this PP's. I'm not saving money if the produce goes bad in a couple days and I have to toss it.

Unfortunately we don't have one that close to us anymore but I grew up with Wegmans and still think it's the best balance between quality-selection-prices. It's not the cheapest but for most things we buy the prices are competitive with (or better than) other stores. And I can get everything I need in a single shopping trip, which is really valuable to me now that I have kids.

Maybe we just have a good one, but Aldi produce going bad quickly is not an issue for my family at all.

I went to Aldi last Thursday, 2/15 and all of the produce I bought is still good. I have no idea what people are babbling about that their food isn't good quality and goes rotten. Can you buy some strawberries that seem to go back in 2-3 days, sure, but I've had that happen at Wegmans, WF, Safeway and HT. This is not an Aldi problem. People are just snobs for some reason and are uptight about shopping there, except in my neighborhood where I see plenty of people I know there on a regular basis. NBD.

This thread was asking for tips on curbing spending on food and one of the obvious ones for me would be to shop at a less expensive grocery store, like Aldi. But it seems that people come up with every counter argument to not take the obvious advice, so keep spending I guess.

This is essentially it. Produce sometimes goes bad wherever you get it from. And all grocery stores have return policies. I’ve talked to friends who complain about the shopping cart quarter, bagging your own groceries, needing your own bags, the produce stacked in their original boxes, less selection, etc. if you want to spend 2x the Aldi price for milk, great.

No, “this [people being snobs]” is not the reason many people avoid Aldi.

I already have to go to a health food supermarket to get many of the items that I use regularly. And then I still also go to a regular supermarket to get other some other items I like (gasp, Doritos). I don’t want to add a third supermarket, especially given that they have limited selection and the lines are often long (at least at the Rockville store).

I consider myself very frugal, but it’s still not worth it for me.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand how you can possibly be spending that much! We eat out or get take out at least twice a week, often more and I feel bad that we spend about $1k a month doing so. How on earth do you get to $40k a year?!