Here are the links to all the menu plans used during the experiment:
Search Results for: aldi
The Aldi Experiment: The complete summary
Make sure you read the introduction prior to reading this post.
Although we had planned on adding an additional two weeks to our Aldi experiment, we opted not to. One of the main reasons was all of the snow we’ve been having. We have a grocery store 5 minutes from our house and we decided that safety was more important that saving money. The other reason was we got lazy. I have no justification for why we got lazy; we just did. We were OK with the $130 we had saved through the 6 weeks of the experiment and decided that was enough.
While we opted not to continue with the experiment, we had internalized many of the lessons that we learned. The first one was that we do not go shopping without a list or a menu plan. This method was the most effective for saving money throughout the experiment and we figured it would be the most effective way to stay on our $100 budget. So far, it’s worked. The second lesson we learned was that having a stockpile of certain foods is also a good way of saving money. During one trip to Aldi, we purchased 5 boxes of pasta. These boxes have come in handy for quick dinners and as a staple to build other recipes around. Having these ingredients on hand meant that we don’t have to buy them from week to week, enabling us to save money. The third lesson we learned was that saving money is fun. Each week, we looked forward to how much money we would save. It was fun to watch the envelope getting more and more full and the possibilities for what we could do with the money continued to grow. We are still trying to save money each week now that it’s become habit, but we don’t stress if we spend all the money in our grocery budget for the week. We’ve decided that life is too short to stress over every penny. We’re just doing the best that we can.
We’ve learned some other lessons, too. For instance, the prices at Aldi are fantastic, particularly on produce and dairy, and many of the pantry goods like beans, tomatoes and cereal. However, the prices are misleading on many items such as pasta. A box of whole wheat pasta at Aldi is $1.09 which is fantastic. But there are only 6 servings in a box. A box from the supermarket has 8 servings. So you may be spending more money at the supermarket but you’re also getting more food.
Another lesson we learned is that we do enjoy having variety in our menus. During the experiment we did eat a varied menu and even tried many new recipes (some of which we will be trying again). But since the selection at Aldi is so much smaller than that of a regular supermarket, the main ingredients in our meals often did not change–we ate a lot of chicken, black beans and hamburger. It was fine for a short amount of time but if we had to sustain a diet like this for a significant amount of time, we’d get bored. However, if we ever find ourselves in a situation like we did when our daughter was first-born and we were drowning in debt, we’d switch to shopping at Aldi full-time without even batting an eye. Boredom takes a backseat to basic sustenance.
Perhaps the biggest lesson we learned throughout this experiment is this–having a small grocery budget does not mean you need to be unhealthy. It is popular thought that a small grocery budget means one is limited to Ramen noodles, macaroni and cheese, pasta and peanut butter. This is not true at all, especially if you switch from a traditional grocery store to a discount grocery like Aldi. $30 can go a long way at a store like Aldi. You can buy cereal, fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, lunch meat, bread and enough ingredients to feed yourself, or your family, for an entire week. For instance, $3 spent at Aldi can make an entire pot of chili…this includes 2-3 cans of beans, a can of tomatoes, a packet of seasoning mix and green peppers (what’s nice about the peppers is that they come 2 in a package for $.99. You can use one for the chili and one for another recipes). This makes enough chili to feed a family of 4 a nice, healthy filling dinner or a smaller family dinner plus leftovers for lunch. A box of whole wheat pasta and a jar of sauce costs approximately $2; if you add a can of tomatoes to the sauce for some extra veggies and fiber, make it $2.50. The list can go on as the lower prices makes it easier to stretch a dollar.
I’m the first to admit that shopping at Aldi is not entirely perfect. We did have some experiences with bad produce, finding low-fat or healthier versions of products is sometimes difficult and the limited selection can be frustrating at times, especially when you’re shopping for recipes obtained from the Aldi menu planner (I believe that if the recipe is going to call for certain ingredients, the stores should carry them). Always having to remember your own bags is hard (but you can buy bags at the store if you forget), as is always making sure you have a quarter on hand, but you get used to it. The shorter store hours are hard to get used to and it takes substantially more planning to ensure that you get to the store before it closes. And finally, the checkout lines can get quite long as there are only about 1-2 cashiers working at any given time and there are no self-checkout lanes. While all of these “downfalls” (with the exception of the bad produce) are designed to lower the overhead costs which drives the prices lower, they can become an inconvenience. But if you’re in a tight budget situation, these are minor inconveniences compared with feeling like you can’t feed your family.
Overall, this was a really positive experiment for my family. We saved $130, we reconnected with some long-lost habits and we learned to shop smarter. We tried some new recipes, didn’t go out to eat (except on 2 occasions) and even managed to pay off the last of our credit card debt during the experiment! It’s also made us appreciate the fact that we have the luxury of a $100 a week grocery budget because we know what it’s like not to, and we know how many people are in the same position we were in 3 years ago. Good, healthy, reasonably priced food is a right, not a privilege. And while food stamps may offer relief to some, they don’t offer relief to all who need it. Aldi fills the void for those individuals and families. So, we tip our hats to Aldi for granting access to that good, healthy, reasonably priced food to everyone. Hopefully, more stores will follow suit.
The Aldi Experiment
Admin note: At the end of 2009, I started my very first blog, The Empty Kitchen. The purpose of that blog was to disseminate information on feeding a family on a small budget. It was a pretty decent website, especially for my first foray into blogging. However, I quickly realized that I was not cut out to be a food blogger and that site was abandoned. I’ve decided to incorporate some of the information that I wrote for that site on Jana Says.
The biggest project that I completed while working on that site was the Aldi Experiment. I spent 6 weeks at the beginning of 2010 shopping almost exclusively at Aldi. The information that I learned transformed my grocery shopping, and many of the tips I gathered I still use. I’ve opted to make the Aldi Experiment archives available on Jana Says for several reasons, the biggest ones being it’s relevance to finance and eating well on a fairly small budget.
It is necessary to note that all of the information in this series was documented in January-February 2010.
I hope you enjoy it.
When a family, or an individual, is looking to trim expenses, one of the first budget items that gets the ax is groceries. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to trim the grocery budget and still eat a healthy, well-balanced diet. One of those ways is by shopping at Aldi.
I first heard of Aldi from watching TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting. The Duggars would shop there and basically brag about how much money they were saving (which is really important when you have an army to feed). Then, on the message board that I frequent, shopping at Aldi was always a suggestion when someone came looking for advice on how to trim grocery costs. I was curious about it but could never have my curiousity satisfied since there was no Aldi anywhere near my house. But this past summer, that all changed. Aldi moved in. And my grocery shopping experience became vastly different (in the spirit of full disclosure, I loathe grocery shopping. Everything about it, to me, is unpleasant).
So what is Aldi? Well, Aldi is a discount grocery store that looks a little different from a traditional supermarket. You’ll find very few name brands; almost the entire inventory is their private label brand. Rather than the 20,000 or so items at a regular grocery store, there’s only about 1,400 at Aldi. There are no baggers, no one in the parking lot gathering up shopping cart, no grocery bags and no shelves. You bag your own groceries in bags brought from home, return your carts yourself (you must put a quarter in to get your cart and when you return it, you get your quarter back), and the products are aligned in self-displaying cases. It’s all a bit overwhelming at first, but you get used to it. And the savings are ridiculous.
Armed with all of this information, and a desire to save money, my family has decided to embark on a 6 week experiment. The experiment? Shop primarily at Aldi and see how much money we can save.
Here’s what happened:
Dollar store shopping: My top 5
I’ll be honest with you. For the longest time, I never understood the allure of a dollar store. To me, it just smacked of cheap, crappy items and people who love to shop for junk. But as I got older, I notice that
people everywhere–at work, at daycare, in my neighborhood–couldn’t stop raving about the damn place. So one day, I went into one.
And I understood.
For starters, the store was just so…clean. Not at all what I pictured. And it had everything! Toiletries, groceries, household staples, craft and school supplies, party supplies, candy, balloons…I don’t think there was anything I could have needed that I couldn’t find at the dollar store. From that point forward, I was hooked.
It made me glad I stopped being all judgy and went inside. My budget is stretched just a little farther in certain areas now that I shop at the dollar store, which, at certain times of the year (what’s up, December), pretty much reaches capacity no matter how much we save in advance.
I won’t say that I do all my shopping at the dollar store. For instance, I’m not big on grocery shopping at the there for a number of reasons (number 1 being there’s an Aldi 3 miles down the road. More items, similar prices). I’m also not fond of buying certain household products because the quality is somewhat compromised (unless I’m in a huge financial pinch. Then I’m not in any position to be picky). But there are certain items that I do buy with some regularity. Inspired by a post on Money Saving Mom, I’ve compiled my list of my 5 favorite things I buy at the dollar store (really Dollar Tree):
- Storage containers. It may not seem like it on the outside, but I am a mess. Well, not so much me as my child, husband, and house. Since clutter drives my anxiety, I’ve been on a huge kick to organize as much as possible. Enter Dollar Tree. For under $20, I’ve been able to buy a number of storage containers, caddies, and laundry baskets to help organize all the shit that litters my house and my pantry closet. These have worked just as well as the fancy ones I bought at other places and will continue to work well as long as the other people in my home use them with the same regularity that I do (hint, hint, husband. I know you’re reading this).
- Greeting cards. I’ll say it. I hate greeting cards. It pains me to spend money on something that just gets thrown away or recycled almost immediately. And I don’t quite understand why the cards cost so much. I’ve thought about making my own since the discount card store went out of business but I’m not crafty at all so instead, I purchase them from the dollar store. This way, I still look all polite and fancy, and it doesn’t bother me as much to know that they’re going right in the trash when I’ve only spent $.50 on a card.
- Gift wrap. Along the same lines as greeting cards, I can’t stand spending money on something that looks nice for about 17 seconds and then gets torn to shreds. While I usually use tissue paper instead of wrapping paper, it’s still a better value at the dollar store than anywhere else. So, when I’m in need of gift bags, bows, ribbons, and all of the other accoutrements that go with making your gifts look fit for Pinterest, I hit up the dollar store. $10 and I’m set for 6 years, give or take. That’s a sweet deal.
- Kid stuff. My daughter is one of those kids that will draw one stick figure on a piece of paper and call it done. As a result, we go through lots of construction paper, doodle paper, coloring books, crayons (which, I’ll admit, I stock up on during back to school sales), and assorted other craft supplies. Rather than spend unnecessarily at the craft store, I can hit up the dollar store and for $5, buy 5 pads of paper that last, surprisingly, for quite a while. While we’re there, we also stock up on some of the other crafts they have as well. A few extra dollar to save my sanity on a rainy day? So worth it!
- Candy. Here we go. Another confession. When I go to the movies, I bring in my own candy. And drinks. I hide them in my (very) large purse and once we’re settled into our seats, we dig in. Fortunately for me, the dollar store and the movie theater are in the same shopping center so I don’t have to lug the stuff around for a while. It’s just a nicer deal to spend less than $4 on snacks instead of close to $5 for a bottle of water. I’ll also buy bagged candy around the holidays and fine, yes, sometimes I go in and just buy myself a Butterfinger because I want one.
So those are my favorite and most frequently bought items at the dollar store. I’ve been known to purchase other things, too, but those really aren’t worth talking about.
Readers, do you frequent a dollar store in your area? What do you purchase the most often? Do you also sneak candy and drinks into the movie theater?
What would you do with $25?
The moment you realize you’re officially getting old? It happened to me a few weeks ago.
I was not happy.
I was having a conversation with someone, I don’t remember who (yes, this is also a sign of my impending aging), about going to the movies. We were discussing how expensive it is to go, particularly if we take our kids and they want to go to a 3D movie. We joked that we needed second mortgages to do so, especially when we factor in the cost of babysitting, and then I said this:
“I remember when I could take $10, buy a movie ticket, a snack, and still have money left over for the next week.”
Um, what? When did I reach the age that I could lament how cheap things were in “my day” (and it be acceptable)? But sadly, it’s true (both the fact that I am old enough to do so and the fact that things are exponentially more expensive. AAHH…Grandma! Get off my blog!). Anyway…
A few days after that, I received a search term referral to DMS, “what to do with $25”. It’s a really good question and one that I feel compelled to answer (because, you know, I do that). It’s interesting, reflecting on my movie ticket conversation, how differently I would have responded 20 years ago than I will now. Twenty years ago, I would have said: buy a concert ticket, buy CDs (the music kind, not the money kind), buy clothes…pretty much all superficial stuff. That’s not to say I wouldn’t have the same answers now, particularly if the person asking the question needs new clothes or the concert ticket is a really good deal. But I’d probably offer some practical advice, too:
- Start an emergency fund. As I’m a big proponent of the $20 emergency fund, coming into a random $25 is a great place to start that, particularly if you have no emergency fund to speak of. Many people complain that it’s difficult to find money to save, but if you have found money, why not use it for that?
- Buy some groceries. $25 can buy a week’s worth of groceries at a discount grocery store like Aldi (for a single person or small family, not necessarily a family of 4 or more). It can also serve as money to stockpile necessities like pasta, beans, frozen vegetables, baking ingredients like flour and butter, and canned tomatoes. With those items on hand, you can make a number of meals and what better way to create a stockpile than with unexpected money?
- Use it as a “snowflake”. If you’re paying off debt, you know how much it sucks to watch your hard earned money disappear to pay for past expenses. However, when you receive some unplanned cash, your knee jerk reaction might be to use it on a splurge but the practical side of you should prevail and say “hey, you know what? Let’s put this on some debt. It’s only $25 but it still puts us $25 closer to our goal of being debt free”. Remember, every little bit counts.
- Put it into savings. It doesn’t matter what kind of savings account: holiday shopping, your dream trip savings account, back-to-school shopping, birthday presents…whatever. Just save the money somewhere that it can a) earn a tiny bit of interest and b) provide you with the funds you need to purchase gifts, wants or necessities later on. Or just put it into your regular savings account, and watch it sit there. That’s fun, too.
- Purchase something practical that you’ve been putting off. Do you need new sheets or towels? Do you need to go to the eye doctor but haven’t had the co-pay? Do you need to rent a carpet cleaner for steam cleaning your carpets? Is there anything you’ve been putting off because you’ve just been a bit short on cash? Use this money for that. If you do, don’t beat yourself up that you could have done something else with it. These are important to take care of, just as much as beefing up your savings or snowflaking your debt.
- Splurge. I certainly don’t recommend using all of the money on a splurge (well, in some instances I might but for the purpose of giving practical advice, I don’t) but taking a few dollars to treat yourself to a RedBox movie and a box of candy from the dollar store is fine. Taking a few dollars to go to happy hour with friends is fine. Getting an inexpensive manicure is fine. Even buying a new app or songs from iTunes or a bargain book is acceptable. I believe it’s okay to treat yourself now and again, to prevent both frugal burnout and going on a shopping binge. However, splurge with this money in moderation and promise that you will also do something practical with it.
Twenty-five dollars might not stretch as far as it once it (oh, to be 15 again and have $25 in my wallet) but it can still be a decent sum of money as long as your careful and have a plan.
Readers, what would you do with $25?
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