Aldi Shopping Trip
4 packages of tortillas — $0.99 each
4 bags of baby carrots — $0.49 each
7 packages of cheese — $1.79 each
2 cucumbers — $0.29 each
1 package mushrooms — $0.79
1 bag boneless, skinless chicken breasts — $5.49
1/4 boneless ham — $6.67
Total with tax: $34.31
Also shown, 2 cans of enchilada sauce from Dillon’s (I forgot to get these yesterday.) — $1.81 total
We would love to buy blocks of cheese and shred them into smaller bags but our cheese will always dry up and get crumbly. any suggestions as how to keep it like the store bought shredded cheese?
Can you freeze the blocks of cheese? We love cheese at our house and I would love to stock up on it when it’s on sale like that but I don’t want it to go to waste.
You can, but they thaw out kind of funny, so I’d recommend pre-shredding them, if possible. Unless you don’t care if they are somewhat crumbly after thawing.
Thaw the cheese at room temperature until it is thawed all through. The cheese may seem to get “greasy”, as someone told me, but that’s how you want it. Then refrigerate it and it will not be crumbly when you slice it! This works for sharp cheddar, and I imagine it would for any other hard cheese.
I second the Aldi post! I shop there and LOVE some things (yogurt) and avoid others at ALL costs (chocolate chips). I’ve read Kristin’s post but would love to hear from people all over about what they like and what they don’t! Maybe a future post idea, Crystal? In all your free time–haha! 🙂
I am curious about Aldi’s tortillas. Does anyone know what kind of ingredients they have in there? I used to buy tortillas at Whole Foods that just had a few basic ingredients – water, flour, etc. But when I was at a regular supermarket and needed some I was appalled at all of the ingredients and preservatives in there that I couldn’t pronounce. What ingredients are in the Aldi’s ones? (And I know I can make them, but I’m not willing to do that right now.)
They definitely aren’t as healthful as Whole Foods tortillas, so I’d recommend buying them at the health food store if you don’t want to make them from scratch and want to avoid certain ingredients.
Most Mexican food restaurants will sell their tortillas “to go” by the dozen. It won’t be as inexpensive as Aldi, but if someone is looking for a homemade tortilla without having to make homemade tortillas this is a great alternative.
Ooh, I didn’t know Whole Foods sold tortillas. I have bought them at Trader Joe’s before, but unfortunately, they got moldy before we even had a chance to try them because they don’t have any preservatives. I’ll check out Whole Foods.
I always put the tortillas in the freezer until I am ready to use them. The ones at Whole Foods are on the smaller side, and they are in the refrigerated section – sometimes near the eggs. You may have to hunt for them. The reason I was looking for a new source is that the Whole Foods near my old home sold them for $1.29 per package (for 6). But we recently moved, and at the closest Whole Foods, they sell them for $1.99 per package! I may have to try my hand at making them. 🙂
Was at mine tonight-LOVE the Aldi prices and don’t see why everyone doesn’t shop there if they have one. I go there and get anything on my list I can and then head across the street to the regular grocery store for the rest-makes a huge difference in our budget!
Our Aldi in St. Louis changes produce prices on Sunday and everything else in the ad on Wednesday. We have baby carrots for 0.39/bag and mushrooms 0.69/pack. However, our butter is still 2.29/lb and cheese 1.99/lb. Love it when their carrots are so cheap! They’ll keep a long time in the veggie drawer in the fridge!
This makes me miss having Aldi close to me! We moved away and there are NONE in our area. Yay for your savings, though!
Love that you bought so much cheese! I always feel kinda crazy when I only buy produce and like 10 blocks of cheese, but it such a good price and so much better than preshredded!
It’s for all the freezer cooking I’m planning to do this week and I’m thankful it was $0.20 less per block than it’s been recently!
See, here, the pre-shredded is cheaper than block! We can get 16 oz. of shredded cheese for $3 at Aldi (in WI), whereas 2 (8 oz.) blocks of cheese would $3.60 (plus then I have to shred it all by hand!)
I find it so interesting because most other people seem to say the opposite 🙂
I went to Aldi’s and got similiar items–4 packs of tortillas, 1 ham, 2 bags of carrots, 1 pack of salad, sliced pepperonis, 2 chili bean cans, 4 cans of low fat refried beans, and 2 Vanilla coffee drinks for me! OOP $18. Had to get the enchilada sauce at Walmart $1.38/can x2 (0uch!). I had everything else and spent the remainder of my budget money for the week.
I make 25 little baggies out of the carrots for our lunches. I plan on heading back to Aldi’s to get some more bags of carrots so I have enough till the end of school at end of May.
Tammy from tammysrecipes.com has a really easy and fast recipe for Enchilada sauce. I will never buy it again because its so cheap and easy to make. Crystal you should check it out!
Hmm, I just checked it out and it looks like you would only save about $0.50 per can if you got all the ingredients on sale — which doesn’t seem like a lot of savings when you calculate in the time it takes to make and clean up. But maybe I’m calculating incorrectly?
I only use it a few times per year, but if I were using cans and cans of it on a regular basis, I can see where it might be more worth it to make a huge batch and freeze it to use as needed.
inspiring me to not be so lazy and put back my weekly grocery trip to aldi’s in my schedule!
How many lbs was the boneless skinless chicken breast?
It’s a 3 lb bag. A staple item in our house that we pick up just about every trip to Aldi. The regular price beats even most sale prices by me.
How did you get the bags of carrots and the cheese so cheap?? I was just in my Aldis today and the cheese there was $2 and change…
The mushrooms I got from Aldi’s yesterday were not that price and I even live in the state with the largest mushroom production!
In our area, the sale prices change on Wednesdays. I think they change on different days in different parts of the country, though.
I think most grocers (not superstores) except the Kroger chain change on Wednesday. However, I have noticed that our Aldi has some different prices than the ones that Crystal’s store has. Perhaps it’s regional? I’m in the mid-Atlantic.
Also remember that someone mentioned before that you can price match Aldi’s prices (especially the produce) with Wal-Mart. If you are already going to Wal-Mart, it might save you an extra trip to another store.
That is cool. However our Wal-Mart is not also a grocery store and does not have any produce. Just a small food section :-/
Are these regular prices?! We are finally getting an Aldi nearby and if these are the kinds of prices I’m psyched 🙂
Aldi offers different “Produce Picks” each week, so the prices often fluctuate. However, quite often, their prices are regularly below other stores!
They have different price on produce depending on the season. You can find their ad for the current week and the next week on their website.
FYI, I can’t have canned enchilada sauce because it has soy, but I found a delicious enchilada recipe on food.com. I found it searching “homemade enchilada sauce”. It is the first one that comes up under that search and it was posted by SweetsLady. It produces restaurant quality enchiladas.
I am pretty sure I made the same sauce:) It is fantastic. I don’t see why you can’t make a big batch and can it. I think I will can some next time around because it came out so good.
I made a big batch and put some in the freezer. When I used it from the freezer it didn’t quite get back to the same smooth texture, but it still tasted great. Now I just think I will make it as we need it.
For those who are just starting out in canning: You would definitely have to tweak the recipe for canning. It requires a pressure canner (not a water bath) and the cornstarch isn’t good for canning, so it would have to be Clear Jel, instead and that would change the cooking times. I’d probably decrease the oil, too.
Can’t wait to go find that recipe.
I have currently(over the past three months) become an Aldi shopper. I love most of their produce(always get the picks of the week) -the only thing I don’t like are the bananas-when they ripen-they are often bad. I would love to see a thread about the items pple LOVE at Aldi. For instance-the clumping kitty litter is great. But the ‘fit’ lasagna meal is awful-so are their pizza bites. I have heard the soup is not so great eiher. I just think it is an awesome store……
I love the produce but the cream cheese wontons (frozen) need to be avoided at all costs.
I agree about the bananas. I never buy bananas there even if they are really cheap. I think it’s because of the bag they keep them in. To me it always makes the outside of the bananas stink.
Also, Kristin from The Frugal Girl has a great article about what she buys at Aldi. It might be exactly what you’re looking for!
http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2010/03/what-to-buy-and-not-buy-at-aldi/
Was planning to hit Aldi tomorrow! Can’t resist the produce there!
Awesome price on the mushrooms! Everything looks great. I love this time of year for the fresh produce.
I’m curious about the 4 bags of carrots. Can you freeze them? Our store also had them for .49cents and I’d love to get more but didn’t know if or how freezing them would work?
You could cook and freeze them, but we’ll just eat 4 bags raw over the next 2-3 weeks.
Does anyone know if you can freeze the bagged/precut carrots as is?
thx
You only need to “blanche” and cool them in order to freeze them. These are the directions that I use:
http://www.pickyourown.org/carrotsfreezing.htm
It’s super easy!
I love pickyourown!!!! It is such a great resource.