So yes, I sorta, kinda, really like Aldi. You may have noticed that. 🙂
At any rate, I was pretty excited to see that I Am That Lady had put together a complete menu with 25 meals for less than $150! This menu plan includes main dishes, side dishes, and vegetables for a family of four.
Get the complete menu and shopping list here. (You can purchase the printable pack for $1.97 if you’d like to have all the details on the menu plan and shopping list. However, all the basics you’ll need to know are in the blog post free of charge.)
Hey there! The link takes us to a crock pot menu instead. Is the original post not up anymore?? Saw it and pinned it a while ago and remember I loved the meals, but it’s seemingly gone. 🙁
I wanted the recipes from the original post 25 meals under $150. I understand it’s been a couple.of.years. But I was still.hoping I could find those recipes online I was planning on making some but I dont have the recipes.
My husband and I do an Aldi’s run once a month for our food supplies. We might spend about 100.00, but at any other store it would be far more. I love their chocolate chips, and other baking supplies. Much cheaper, and taste as good, if not better than the national brands. A gallon of milk is half the price of other super markets, as well as eggs, yogurt, cheese, and bread.
I absolutely LOVE Aldi’s. I’ve had very good luck with the purchases I’ve made there. One opened about 100 miles from our house. We go about once a month and stock up on canned goods, mainly. Wish there was on closer to home! But, I’ll deal with what I can get right now!
I love ALDI. Any time I’ve ever had a problem they’ve refunded my money and given me a free product. I just went last night with the goal in mind of buying EVERYTHING I needed grocery wise there with a few minor exceptions. I did really well and stayed within budget. I love their prices 🙂
I’ve heard a new Aldi’s is coming here to the Austin-area (right on my path to work) I *can’t* wait. its only been like 10 years of waiting!
As in Austin, Texas? I’ve been shopping HEB and Sprouts, but would try Aldi if one came to south Austin.
I must be doing something wrong.
I have shopped several times at two different Aldi and had a terrible experience with the quality of the food – most of it went absolutely, completely, throw-me-away rotten within two days of bringing it home! I have quit shopping there because I don’t want to throw away my groceries when our budget is low to begin with.
I also wasn’t very impressed with their prices – most were higher than the sale prices at our local stores. In some cases a LOT higher (almost double and a few were higher than the regular prices).
After hearing so many people rave about Aldi it has been such a disappointment.
🙁
Lea
PS All that being said, I will stop there to buy crackers. We prefer their brand and they are cheaper than all but the best sales at the regular stores.
I agree about the produce. We try to use it up quickly because it does not last as long. I bought strawberries last week that were very good, but sometimes that is not the case. I have also observed the worker holding up boxes of bagged produce and shake the box to dump it into the bin. That doesn’t seem like a great way to handle produce to me.
Also, while there are items I buy at Aldi, I save more by buying our dairy at Costco and combining coupons/sales at Publix.
We just got an ALDI- will be checking it out on payday!
Remember if you are not happy with the quality of something you can price match it at walmart. We do this all the time with produce. Sadly our Aldis produce is very poor.
So she bought all these ingredients.. did she make all the meals at once? Did she freeze some? I can figure out how to freeze most of them, but some of them (like the 15 minute recipes) are a little more difficult…?
In the monthly meal plan we figured out how to use the produce that goes bad quickly earlier in the month. Then we froze the other produce and used it later on in the month. You can split it up into 2 different weeks if you want, but we made it super simple with the monthly calendar so you can do it all in 1 haul.
Does anyone know of a similar post like this that uses trader joe’s? I know the stores are similar/owned by the same company, but we are used to shopping at TJ and would like to incorporate some new recipes and maybe bring the budget down a bit. We eat three meals a day at home plus snacks (usually fruit) for the kids. So a plan including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks would MAKE MY DAY!!!!!:)
ooh that would be nice if someone already had one made out for TJs. We don’t live close to one, but when we visit family every other month or so we try to stop in and make a big shopping trip.
I really love their masala and curry sauces.. once a week for dinner I will make chicken masala or curry + the Trader Joe’s whole wheat couscous. We all love it – including my kids! Also we love TJ’s organic spaghetti sauces.. use for spaghetti, lasagna, cheeseburger casserole.. cheaper and quicker than making my own!
I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s (it’s too far and rather expensive) but I have 4 1/2 months worth of menus in a lower monthly amount that include 3 meals plus and afternoon snack. I have 4 weeks for each season and 2 weeks of pantry-only meals.
Here is my summer menu: http://theprudenthomemaker.com/index.php/menus/summer-menu
Thank you for sharing! I’ve been looking for good summer meals ideas in this hot Texas weather!
Jessica at lifeasmom.com has meal plans on a budget. She has one or two that you can find all of the ingredients for the plan at Trader Joe’s.
http://lifeasmom.com/2014/03/this-weeks-dinners-for-70-or-less-bonus-trader-joes-shopping-plan.html
I used Jessica’s Mostly Meatless $70 meal plan and my family loved it! We found some new recipes that are now part of our regular rotation. I spent less than the $70 because I had some items on hand and other things were on sale at the grocery store. We also had leftovers for lunch with most of the meals. There are four of us, and two are teenagers. =)
Jessica over at Life as Mom has TJ’s menus every week or so up. For people who don’t want to buy 150 pounds of one item or stockpile like crazy, I think TJ’s and Aldi are the way to go!
http://lifeasmom.com/2014/03/this-weeks-dinners-for-70-or-less-bonus-trader-joes-shopping-plan.html
I can’t wait to be back in IA again to shop at Aldis (none here in WY) and NOW having read your blogs you make me happy that the choices have grown since we last lived in IA (6 years ago). My husband and I also are eating the THM way (Trim Healthy Mama) and Aldis is offering more and more of the foods that we eat on this plan ;). YEAH!
I’ve shopped at Aldi in the past but just recently started doing most of our grocery shopping there. Last weekend I was so excited with my good deals that I arranged everything on the kitchen table, took a picture to send to my husband, and hung the receipt on the fridge. Haha!
Aww! That’s great! You should be proud! Menu planning and grocery shopping are hard work, especially when you’re trying to stay in budget. In can be stressful….so good for you! 🙂
I can’t say enough how much I love Aldi’s!!! It’s mainly where I shop and I’m able to feed our family of 5 on $220 a month. I’m always on the lookout for price cuts too. Often I’ve gotten the bread for .25c and will freeze it. And I watch for the chicken breast to go down to .99c a pound and then stock up. I love the produce prices as well. I continue to share about Aldi’s and I will also write the company about items I like or would like to see. They love the feedback.
Aldi is our first grocery stop every week! We love their quality, prices and now gluten free options, too.
I try to shop at Aldi but my husband likes me to use the American Express to get the cash back. I hope someday they will take credit cards. Has anyone ever had issues with the meat? I haven’t bought any meat because of some things is read a couple of months ago. Could you ladies share your thoughts? Thanks!! 🙂
I’ve bought meat there before and have never had an issue. I usually buy there frozen hamburger rolls (I think 3 lbs) and then I thaw it and cook it all at once and the divide it into 5 ziplock bags (then freeze) and that gets me five different meals and our price is $6.97 for that roll. I have also bought chicken and lunch meat and not had an issue either.
I never thought to cook it and Then freeze it! lol I usually just separate it and then freeze.. I’ll have to try that!
I love freezing it after its cooked. Makes dinner time so much quicker with ONE less pan to wash.
I but their meat from time to time. Mostly, I can get cheaper elsewhere though. When our local stores have their meat on sale, I usually stock up the deep freeze. Those are generally the “basic” meats such as ground beef, chicken, etc. However, my favorite meats to buy at Aldi are the ground lean turkey and the center cut bacon. I usually can’t find their prices at other stores.
They actually did an article saying that Aldi hamburger contained horse meat, I am pretty sure they corrected this, and are now using real beef, but I am not a 100%, I have bought Aldis meat before I knew of this and it seemed fine tome. However the truth is you can pay top dollar, and eat stuff and still not be sure what is in it, or you can pay lower price, and same principle. I buy most my meat at Kroger. My chicken has to be hormone and antibiotic free, or I won’t but it anyway. Aldis has great deals on everything else, which gives a little extra money to buy meats elsewhere.
Stop and Shop was fined last year for putting too much fat into their hamburger. Unless you have a butcher grinding it for you it’s hard to tell just what your getting.
I have eaten Aldi hamburger and the horse meat article has turned me off as well. Neigh!
The FDA requires ALL chicken to be antibiotic and hormone free, so don’t let the packaging tactics deceive you 🙂
Just to clarify…the horse meat issue happened in Europe and was due to a French supplier who blamed it on one of their suppliers, who claimed the meat was from France but really originated in Romania. It wasn’t limited to just Aldi. There were other stores in Europe who got tainted meat from the same supplier. It was never an issue in the US.
Thanks Emily – I was just going to comment the same thing! No reason to pay more for hormone free chicken – it all is.
What I read was that the tainted hamburger was only in certain pre-made meals like beef stroganoff or burritos or something like that. So if you were buying plain hamburger, then you had nothing to worry about. Even so, food-grade horse meat is perfectly safe and it wasn’t a public safety issue, just a labelling issue – they’re required to honestly inform their customers of what really goes into their food. If someone doesn’t want to buy food containing horse meat then that should be their right, and it obviously does need to be labelled correctly.
You all are making me impatient for our Aldi! We get one in October!
So glad you’re getting one in October — yay!!
Between Aldi’s and Trader Joes, you can rarely go wrong with the quality of food and the cost. No one should ever say that you can not eat healthy on a budget and still have room for a few sweet treats. Love them both! Thanks for sharing!
Unless you don’t have Aldi OR Trader Joe’s for 150 miles…
I love Aldi’s as well. I go every 2 wks for my groceries and spend about $80 for 2 wks feeding a family of 4.
I’m a big Aldi fan too. I wave that flag loud and proud! 🙂
I’m joining you with the loud and proud ALDI flag-waving!! 🙂
Me too! Thanks for sharing Crystal!
We went to Aldi for the first time this weekend. We live in the middle of nowhere and I mean no.where. in southeast KS. All we have is a Walmart and that is 30min away. So we made the 1hr 15 min drive to Aldi and spent $100 on groceries for 2weeks to feed our family of 7 (and I’m pregnant as well). My husband was just shocked at the register at the total. So far we aren’t disappointed in the food at all. So, I’d say it was worth the drive and time. My only complaint was that it was pretty crowded, which can be a little hectic with five small children, so next time we are going to try going on a weekday and see if that is better. I can see why everyone raves about this store now. 😉
Yes, sometimes it can be VERY crowded. I try to go on off-peak hours and I find I can usually get in and out of the store very quickly because it’s so much smaller than a regular grocery store and there aren’t options of many different brands and sizes. I love how that simplifies my shopping trip and reduces the decision-making and price-comparing!
Our ALDI is NEVER crowded! That’s interesting. Ours is right next door to a Wal-Mart, which is always packed!
Charity – I thought I was the only one living in southeast Kansas! We have started driving 1 hour to the closest Aldi because I’m so tired of Wal-Mart. The last time we went was early on a Friday morning and it wasn’t too terribly crowded and everything was well stocked. I cannot believe how much worth the drive it is! If you are close to a community that participates in Bountiful Baskets I highly recommend that as well. We have found that helps our budget and variety a great deal.
Oh Lynn, wow! Someone else in my neck-of-the-woods! We just moved here two months ago from SC (transferred with my husband’s job) and I don’t think we could have moved anywhere more opposite than where we came from! We have had quite the shock and still have a lot of adjusting to do still. I will check out Bountiful Baskets; never heard of it. We live near no community at all though. Middle.of.no.where. :-/
I’ve found that it is much better to shop Aldi on weekdays before 5 pm!