When There’s No Time To Cut Coupons

Although I love the holidays, they can be a little busy…and expensive. It’s all good stuff, but the presents for family, co-workers, mailman, hair stylist, and your daughter’s piano teacher start to drain your wallet. Then there’s the extra groceries for family get-togethers, office parties and school festivals (my public school teacher friend informed me that our schools don’t celebrate holidays…whaaat?!). Anyway, if you’re like me, you’re already starting to think of ways to cut expenses in the next few weeks. With all the fun events and family get togethers, we’ll probably spend less time pouring over the Sunday grocery ads and more time dashing to the store at the last minute. I am a pretty serious coupon-clipper, so I feel guilty if I don’t pair a sale with a coupon on at least 2/3 of the items in my cart (don’t judge me. I save my family hundreds of dollars every year!).

If I have to run to the grocery store without any preparation or coupons in hand, I will choose to shop at Aldi. I can get better deals at a higher end grocery store using coupons, but without them, a discount store like Aldi will be easier on my wallet than pulling full-price name brands off the grocery store shelf. I know some people are wary of Aldi, so I thought I’d share the things I like to purchase there. These are things that are not only good quality, but are comparable in price (sometimes lower) than I can get using coupons at my grocery store. In other words, I don’t feel guilty buying them. 🙂

Fresh Fruit – find out what day your Aldi’s truck arrives, and always get the freshest fruit from your store!
Salad items – you can almost always find romaine lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, cucumbers and colored peppers at a great price
Baking staples – flour, sugar, chocolate chips, honey, oil and vanilla
Spices – they have a large selection of dried spices for $1
Cream soups – for all those casseroles you’re making for family parties, Aldi prices them less than $1
Juice
Mexican food – tortillas, chips, salsa and taco seasoning

If you’ve never given Aldi a try, why not pop in there on your next grocery store dash? Just make sure you have a quarter, some reusable shopping bags and a debit card or cash. 🙂