Money Saving Mom®

If you want to stretch your grocery budget, knowing the best things to buy at ALDI is key. This is my personal comprehensive list of the best things to buy at ALDI — meaning these are all items that I can almost always find for the lowest price at ALDI compared to other grocery stores.

And don’t miss my list of what NOT to buy at ALDI, too!

{Psst! Wondering why I love ALDI so much? Read this post on why I think everyone should shop at ALDI to save money!}

You all know how much I love ALDI. I mean, how could I not love the store that has saved us thousands of dollars over the years??

I often get questions from people asking what to buy at ALDI, so I thought it was high time I put together a post on my 25 favorite things to buy at ALDI. (Note: These are in no particular order!)

1. Salsa

While we love Pace Picante Sauce, we have bought countless jars of ALDI salsa throughout the years and find it to be good — especially for the regular price!

2. Tortilla Chips

We can’t tell one bit of difference between ALDI tortilla chips and any other store brand or even brand name of tortilla chips. Plus, we love the $1.95 regular price tag!

3. Chocolate Chips

We’ve purchased chocolate chips at ALDI for years and they are great! I can’t tell a difference between them and Nestle chocolate chips… well, except for the regular $3.75 price tag!

4. Coconut Oil

The fact that ALDI began carrying organic products a few years ago made me love them so much more! Their prices on coconut oil are so much better than what you’d pay many other places. (Note: TJ Maxx is also a great place to look for deals on organic coconut oil — only $4.99!)

5. Olive Oil

ALDI offers great prices on both organic olive oil and regular olive oil. (Note: TJ Maxx is also a great place to look for deals on olive oil!)

6. Sugar

We typically only buy cane sugar or raw sugar, but the regular ALDI prices on all sugar products usually beat out other grocery store prices by quite a bit. We’ve bought their white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, and cane sugar for years and haven’t ever had issues with any of them. They’re also under $2, which is a great price!

7. Peanut Butter

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better deal on peanut butter than what you’ll regularly find at ALDI. We have tried all of their peanut butter, but we typically buy their natural peanut butter and it’s really yummy!

8. Cereal

My kids absolutely love cereal, but I do not love the prices you usually find at the grocery store. Which is why, if we buy cereal, we almost always buy it at ALDI. You want to make sure to get the Millville brand, not the name brand cereals, though, as the name brand cereals at ALDI are NOT less expensive.

But many of the Millville cereals are priced at $2.49 to $2.79 per box. The only kind we don’t like are the knock-off Cheerios. We have yet to find any knock-off plain Cheerios that actually taste great. However, we do buy their knock-off Honey Nut Cheerios and my kids like those.

9. Tortillas

Remember my post on why I don’t make my own tortillas? This is why… because I can buy a bag of them for just $2.09!!

10. Canned Tomatoes

We have purchased pretty much all of the ALDI tomato products many times over the years and have been happy with all of them. Plus, you can’t really beat the $0.89 price tag!

11. Canned Green Beans

The ALDI French-style green beans take me back to our law school days. We ate SO many cans of these! They were well under a dollar at the time and one can would feed the two of us.

For the record, I think that the ALDI brand of French-style green beans is better than any other brand I’ve tried!

12. Milk

We’ve purchased milk at ALDI for years and have had great success with it. I’m not sure that milk ever tastes differently if purchased from different places, but I’d recommend their milk and you can get a whole gallon for well under $3.

13. Bananas

Their bananas are regularly priced at $0.49 per pound — which is a pretty good price! Sometimes, the selection isn’t that great, but I usually try to buy them when they are not very ripe and then let them ripen at home on the countertop. (Also, take them out of the bag as soon as you get home as that seems to help them ripen better.)

14. Berries

I basically can’t stomach paying regular grocery store prices for berries after the berry deals I’ve gotten at ALDI. A few times per year, they’ll have them on sale, but the regular price is just $2.79! So you can still stock up and try to buy some extra to freeze.

(Note: Some stores have notoriously bad fruit. We’ve not had this experience at any of our ALDI stores in the different cities we’ve lived in. However, on occasion, they’ve been completely out of some produce item that was on sale or what’s left has very slim pickings. I suggest asking them when the produce gets restocked and trying to shop on that day. Also, really look through the produce. If you dig, you can usually find some great tubs of berries — but they might not be the ones that are right on top!)

15. Grapes

My kids love grapes and ALDI routinely sells them for $1.79 per 2-lb. bag. I find that these are one of their produce items that are usually the least picked over and often the longest lasting. It might just be that grapes hold up better, but regardless, I always buy grapes when they are on sale!

16. Melons

In the summer, ALDI often has great prices on melons — especially cantaloupe and watermelon. I love it when the cantaloupe goes on sale for $0.99! Yes, you do have to look carefully through the bins to find great watermelon and cantaloupe, but I can usually always find them if I search!

17. Butter

I love butter. Maybe I’m weird, but I do. It pretty much makes everything better! 😉

So I also love that ALDI doesn’t charge you an arm and a leg for their butter. That way, I can slather it on my muffins and toast freely.

18. Bread

While the ALDI bread isn’t the best bread on the market, it works great for sandwiches. We usually buy the 100% whole wheat bread (only $1.95!) and all of our family likes it.

(Note: I also check Kroger’s day-old bread area and often find whole wheat bread there for about the same price as ALDI. When I do, I buy it and stick it in the freezer!)

19. Hummus

Hummus is another item I enjoy that I will sometimes splurge on. I like the Pine Nut variety the best. 

20. Feta Cheese

I love feta cheese on my salads and it’s a special treat that I sometimes splurge on, thanks to the fantastic prices on it at ALDI!

21. Block, Sliced, and Shredded Cheeses

While the ALDI cheese prices have gone up in recent years (they used to be $1.39 per block back in the day!), their regular prices are still usually some of the best prices around. Blocks of cheese are only $1.69 currently, so the price didn’t increase by much. And, you can usually find packs of sliced cheese for $1.49. We sometimes splurge and buy the string cheese, too, because my kids love it!

22. Frozen Chicken Breasts

I don’t buy a lot of meat at ALDI, but one staple item we buy almost every time we go there is their frozen chicken breasts. You can get a full bag for just $8.79. I can’t tell any difference between them and the Kroger brand and they are usually at least $1 cheaper per bag.

23. Frozen Fruit

We love frozen fruit in our smoothies! If I can’t find some great deals on marked down fruit elsewhere, buying the bagged frozen fruit at ALDI will work — especially since the prices are pretty decent. Frozen blueberries are only $3.79 while frozen strawberries are $6.19 and you can get frozen mixed berries for $6.99.

24. Frozen Veggies

We usually buy all of our frozen vegetables at ALDI, unless there’s some really fantastic deal at Kroger. You can still get frozen bags of veggies for only $1.15 to $2.29.

25. Macaroni & Cheese

Their mac & cheese is not at all healthy and it’s one of the few pretty processed things we buy at ALDI, but for $0.58 a box, it makes for an occasional treat for my kids. And they love that they can make it themselves. I love that it doesn’t have any food coloring in it (something we try to avoid at our house).

In Jesse’s law school days, he and I ate many, many boxes of this stuff! So I’m very grateful for it — because it was a fallback meal anytime the grocery budget was especially lean!

P.S. New to shopping at ALDI? Read this post before you head to the store.

Related Links:

• 5 Things You Should NOT Buy at ALDI
• Kroger vs. ALDI: Which is Cheaper?
• How I Save with ALDI Special Buys
• An Open Letter to ALDI
• 52 Different Ways to Save $100 per Year: Shop at ALDI
• My 25 Favorite Things to Purchase at Dollar Tree
• 5 Things You Should NOT Buy at Dollar Tree

ALDI Shoppers: Do you agree with my list? Anything you would add or remove? What do you think are the best deals at ALDI? I’d love to hear!

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