We made a quick run to the health food store and Aldi today. Here’s what we bought:
Tuesday’s Shopping Trip
Health Food Store
4 bags of organic oranges marked down to $0.99 each!
Total with tax: $4.25
Aldi
2 bags of spinach — $1.69 each
1 gallon of milk — $2.82
1 tub artisan lettuce — $1.99
6 avocados — $0.29 each
1 head cauliflower — $0.99
1 bag sweet onions — $1.49
1 bag baby carrots — $0.99
3 multi-colored peppers — $2.69
1 package of kiwi — $1.69
2 bags of bananas — $1.21 + $1.29
Total with tax: $21.76
Man why can’t our produce markets have marked down organic oranges for .99? LOL nice deals as always loving the produce! Fresh is best!
I live in Houston where the cost of living is comparatively low, but no way can I find prices like this! A gallon of milk is $3, avocados are .79, cauliflower is 2.49…
Milk at my Aldi here in Oswego, IL is $1.58 & it’s $1.78 at Walmart. I’ve never had my Aldi milk go bad before the date.
Those milk prices are awesome! our milk here in PA is 4.11 a gallon.
I do not like Aldi’s there produce is sub par and their “money back guarentee” is a joke! the lines are always so long and they rarely open a second reg. The produce goes bad in like 1 day, the food is all generic. I hope we never have to buy more from there. Price chopper is my store, prices are higher, but at least I am not throwing food away and I never have a problem returning an item.
You can price-match the Aldi ad at Walmart/Target.
Great produce haul. I, too am in love with Aldi. I’m sure we save hundreds if not a thousand or more dollars a year by doing our main grocery shopping there.
Aldi is my first line of savings before coupons (I write up my shopping list, then hit Aldi first for any items I don’t have coupons for, for which I know Aldi prices are cheaper, like bananas at 44¢/lb.)
Last week’s Aldi produce deals were AMAZING here. Fresh whole pineapple was 99¢, avacado 49¢, baby carrots 49¢, grapefruit 49¢, and a bag of navel oranges 99¢ (and they were so sweet and juicy).
I loooove Aldi.
I was confused about there being tax on your bill, as I thought food was never taxed in any state. Had to look that one up. Apparently 14 states still impart sales tax on food? Crazy!
Love Aldi produce! For a few years I got away from shopping at Aldi but now I am back and buying much more there than expected. Since we eat fresh fruits/veggies with nearly every meal it helps to get produce at such great prices. The only thing I don’t buy at Aldi’s is bananas. Not that Aldi’s bananas aren’t good, I personally just like my bananas to be yellow when I buy them and they are rarely yellow at Aldi.
Artisan lettuce is only 99 cents starting with today’s ad at my Aldi in SC. I have found that the artisan lettuce needs to be really well washed. I cut the bottom off each head and separate the leaves and soak it all in a large bowl of water with produce wash. Then rinse well and run it through my salad spinner. I put it in a Hefty Fresh Extend produce bag and it keeps well for a week or more. All the gunk that washes off that lettuce is in the bottom of the bowl and it is pretty disgusting.
I am just curious what y’all do with all that produce. You got some great prices, but much of what you got won’t last long. Do you use most of it for smoothies? Do you have a juicer? We have been thinking of getting a juicer for 2 months now and I am really curious how much produce it will take to get a cup of juice. My blender which I currently use for slushies (smoothies with no milk because my dd is allergic) but I find it doesn’t break up spinach very well at all and then I have some explaining to do to my kid LOL.
We’ll juice all of the oranges, the spinach is for smoothies, and the rest we’ll eat/use in smoothies.
Plus, when spinach starts to get kinda wilted, I just toss the rest into whatever dish I’m making for the evening. A lot of spinach wilts down to hardly anything in a cooked dish, and you can’t even tell that is was starting to go bad. 🙂
We do this too, Crystal. I make a coconut spinach soup and I can literally fill the pot with spinach and within minutes, it has wilted into the broth and you can’t tell that it had already been wilting.
It amazes me that Aldi’s has avocados for 29 cents and right across the street, both Publix and Winn Dixie (where I live, anyway) call “2 for $3.00” a sale! Love Aldi, better quality and DEFINITELY better prices. Only thing is I had to give my roma tomatoes a little bath with some mild dish detergent (just a teeny tiny drop) to get the slime off of ’em.
Those are both fantastic prices for avocados! I just paid 99 cents each at Aldi the other day, and that’s as low as I can ever expect to pay around here (MD/DC)… I don’t buy them if they are more than $1.
Hey Crystal,
You might have already mentioned this at some point before, but I’ve always wondered what you mean by “Health Food Store.” Is it a local store? A chain? How did you find it? I can’t really think of anything like that in my area – but I’d like to 🙂
Ditto!!
It’s a local chain. I *wish* they were nationwide!
I think that if you save money you should spend it on something that you want/like. Produce is our splurge nothing like awesome produce to help make your menu worthwhile. Nice job!
Wow, I want to know what you’re going to do with so many oranges! I have a ton on hand, too, and not quite sure what to do with them-the family is tired of eating them just plain.
I also want to know what you are going to do with the oranges. My Mother-in-law brought us 3 full grocery bags of fresh picked oranges and I am clueless on what to do with them. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! We don’t eat many oranges plain so I need some ideas!
Thanks!
We’re juicing them. We can easily go through one or two bags a day just by making juice!
Oranges are great for baking too! Use them in a lemon bar recipe, just cut the sugar by about 25%. Or use them with chicken. Marinade them with a little OJ, soy sauce, and honey then throw the whole thing int he oven at 350. The sauce thickens and is this wonderful sticky delish dish. You can also freeze the juice in an ice cube tray for future use when oranges are not in season. Or make orange loaf, look up a lemon loaf recipe and just sub in the OJ. Hope this helps some!
I got excited this week when our avocados were on sale for $1. $0.29….that’s unbelievable!!!!
I was just thinking it would look like black Friday at our grocery store if they ever had .29 avocados! $1 is as low as they go here!
I think I saw in a previous post that you order items from Azure sometimes. I’m just wondering what criteria, if any, you have for purchasing organic items? I go by the http://www.ewg.org website for what produce I buy organic. I’m pretty strict with buying organic anything that’s on their dirty dozen list (unless I’m picking it from a farm and know the farmer doesn’t use pestacides). Have you ever ordered produce from Azure? I glanced at the website but not sure how that will work out for me because I live in Atlanta and it seems like they are located in Oregon. Great price on the oranges and avocados.
You can get artisan lettuce for 1.49 at kroger….and aldi ALWAYS has moldy peppers so make sure you take a good look around the stem area.
Is it the 4-head of lettuce pack like Aldi carries? The best price I’ve ever found at Dillon’s (our Kroger affiliate) is one head for $0.99–and that’s pretty rare. But maybe they started carrying something new recently? I’ll definitely check the next time I’m there!
The peppers and all of the produce is very good at my store. I have never gotten a moldy pepper.
FYI… I was always a little hesitant to buy Aldi produce— a few people mentioned the quality was hit or miss at their stores and that was my concern. Then, one time I bought grapes and they were all soft. I decided to bring them back to the sore. They gave me my money back AND gave me a new package of grapes!! That certainly changed my tune!! We go through so much produce in a week that I’m glad that I can at least buy some of it there.
Has anyone else had trouble with Aldi’s milk going bad several days before the sell by date? This has happened to me on more than one occasion. 🙁
I would talk to the manager at your Aldi’s… Like Julie mentioned below, Aldi’s can be really good about standing behind the quality of their food. I’ve had to take back something before, too. Since I have two small children, it was several days later, and they still replaced it for me. My Aldi’s also carries local produce when they can. One time my toddler spilled an entire container of blueberries on the floor, and they wouldn’t let me pay for it! I get most of my produce at Aldi’s these days because the quality at my store stays consistently good and you can’t beat the prices (and the produce at walmart hasn’t been as good, and they give me trouble about price matching Aldi’s prices)
This just happened to me this week. I had bought 2 gallons and a few days away from exp (5 or so) I had to throw them out.
Be sure to take it back if that happens to you again – Aldi has a double guarantee. They will refund your money and replace the product!
I took something back to Aldi, it was chocolate covered pretzels I had splurged on. I opened it and there was two in the bag!!!! I just thought it was light. Anywho, I got a replacement and my money back. I also had written and commented to Aldi corporate. Two weeks later there was a box at my door with four more bags of pretzels! Don’t worry about taking them back….they are more than generous!
I second the fact about Aldis- I live in Evansville, IN and get my daughters milk there- I have never had a problem with it going bad and they are so nice there (milk is 1.99 and goes on sale a few times a month for 1.69!). I dropped a jar of spaghetti sauce and told someone about it right away- they told me not to worry, had it cleaned up in 2 min and wouldn’t let me pay either. Love them!
Hi, Becky! I live in Owensville, IN! 🙂
My Aldi milk on average lasts a week PAST the due date!
Wow! You really made out like a bandit!
I just heard that we are getting an Aldi close to us! I was so excited that I almost fainted. LOL
Wow! Your Aldi produce prices are amazing!! I live in central NY and our prices are MUCH higher….and the quality is hit or miss.
I wish I had an Aldi to go shopping at 🙁 I have Hannaford or Wal-mart here in Central Maine. Glad that you got such good deals! I found 3lb bags of clementines for $2.98 🙂
Normally they run about $4.28 for 3lbs
I get so jealous when I see the awesome deals you get at Aldi!! My goodness, I practically pay .50-.62 (highest) for a lb. of bananas.. and for a gallon of milk? $3.60-$3.90 for a gallon. These prices have been averages for the past 6 months! I’m in Southwest Florida. What a deal you’re getting! 🙂
Check Hispanic/Asian Markets, I’m in Central Florida and get SUPER cheap produce and meats!
I’ll have to try your suggestion. I live in Southern California so we have LOTS of Hispanic/Asian markets.
Kathy not sure where you live in Sothern California but check out Super King. There are locations throughout So Cal and they have excellent prices!
Our Aldi’s had the 2pk gr. pepper on sale for .39 cents last week!!! And they were still super crispy! Deal!!
Do you have a Sam’s membership? If so, you can get the 1 lb. box of the Taylor Organic Spinach for $3.90. It is a pretty large box and would be great for your smoothies. 🙂
We don’t, but I do go there when they have free days–so good to know that they have that price. Thank you!
We get to use my husband’s business membership, and we get lots of organic produce from Sam’s. They have the best prices anywhere I can find for organic spinach, spring mix, baby carrots, etc. I LOVE it!!
Excellent deal on those oranges!
I love Aldi! I stock up there on basics like plain rice, macaroni and cheese or cans of diced tomatoes. I find the produce to be hit-or-miss at times, but I’ve been loving the grapefruit at my store for 59 cents each.
With an autistic child that has multiple therapy sessions every week, a toddler and an older child with ballet classes twice a week, sometimes I just don’t have time to clip coupons or read through all the store ads. Aldi is my lifesaver because I can get what we need without breaking our strict budget.
Oh my goodness, did you score or what? I live in California and I haven’t found prices like that on organic oranges. Avocados for .29 each? WOW! Great job shopping, Crystal!
not sure where you are in cali, but check out sprouts and sunflower markets! sprouts this week has avocados for 33 cents and sunflower has asparagus for 97 cents a lb
I am in socal and yup spouts is great price compare to Ralph’s,Von’s and Albies but if you live closer to any Hispanic stores you can get cheap produce but I don’t know if its organic.
Michelle–I live in SoCal and every time I read MSM’s Aldi’s deals I get so envious. I wish we had Aldi’s here!
Love Aldi’s produce! I always save at least 50% compared to local chain stores and the quality is so much better!
Seeing the prices you pay for produce makes me feel a lot better! I always feel like I’m spending too much for fresh fruit and veggies, but I can rarely find prices lower than about the same prices you just listed. I guess I’m doing okay. 😉