My 5 favorite products from ALDI and a recap of my time in D.C

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I’ve recently partnered with ALDI to share more about the brand and introduce some of you to this awesome grocery store. I grew up going to ALDI because there was a location right by my home. I remember noticing that it was different than other grocery stores, and very specifically remember the act of putting a quarter in the slot on the shopping cart in order to get a cart.

There is an ALDI in Cary that I would see when I was driving over to the other side of town, and whenever my mom was with me in the car, she would tell me about how great the prices were at ALDI. She also mentioned how good the guacamole is, which I have yet to try!

If you have never been before it looks like a pretty regular grocery store from the outside, but you’ll notice there aren’t any shopping cart corrals in the parking lot. And when you enter, the store is laid out a little differently than a typical grocery store.

ALDI focuses heavily on keeping their costs down by keeping things simple. For example, a lot of the food is stacked in boxes, though still very easy to access and shop. You have to insert a quarter into a shopping cart to use it, and then upon returning the cart, you’ll receive your quarter back. You need to bring your own bags too, which is one of those things that requires one extra step but makes so much more sense in the long run. I now have a stash in my car, including a freezer-type bag for my ALDI runs.

They have really high standards for their food, but you won’t see the typical grocery store details within ALDI prices. For example, a dozen eggs at my ALDI is $0.66. FOR A DOZEN EGGS. I know.

On a separate note, Justin and I recently took a deep, deep dive into our spending and I got to see firsthand how much I spend at the grocery store. I was shocked and am now trying to be much more thoughtful with my spending habits on food!

You may have seen on Instagram that I was recently in Washington, D.C. with ALDI and a few other influencers at a really fun private dinner. The chef prepared a 6 course meal for us, using ALDI food! It was such a fun way to not only experience a fancy dinner with a sommelier pairing wine with every course, but also to try and be inspired by food offerings found at ALDI.

Everything was so delicious! The only thing I didn’t try was the salmon because I don’t eat fish, but that was probably the one that the majority of the people at my table raved about. My favorite dish was the Bolognese, I could have easily had two servings!

After I returned home from the event, I shopped for my own dinner party that I was hosting the following day. I was genuinely inspired, and wanted to create a menu that would highlight a bunch of different offerings from ALDI!

Blog posts about the dinner party will be coming soon, but today I’m just going to leave you with 5 of my favorite things that I’d discovered at ALDI.

  1. SimplyNature Kids Chocolate Animal Cookies. I usually keep a stash of snacks in the diaper bag or my purse, and my kids love animal cookies!
  2. All I have to show for the wine are the corks! We drank two bottles of Broken Clouds wine and while I’m not a huge wine drinker and tend to go for white wine, I loved this red.
  3. As you can see, I’ve nearly killed this entire package of Specially Selected Dark Chocolate Covered Sea Salt Caramels. I prefer milk chocolate but these are dangerously good. You’ve been warned. This has to be my favorite discovery from ALDI so far!
  4. I chose a spicy kale + quinoa salad for one of the salad options at my party for the protein and also the Kale. I’m trying to learn to like kale, and I have to say the salad was delicious.
  5. SimplyNature Apple Squeezies are a hot item in my home for both boys. David pounds one in under a minute, and Luke likes to work on them a little bit slower, but either way I love having them as a healthy snack alternative for the boys!

If you haven’t been to ALDI yet, I would definitely check it out. You can’t beat the prices, and it’s a small enough store that you can be in and out in no time! I’ll be sharing all the recipes I used from my dinner party soon.

This post was sponsored by ALDI, all opinions are my own.

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Becca says · 05.16.17

In the last 9 months my husband and I have switched to Aldi’s as our first grocery stop and anything we can’t get there we than go to a larger grocery store. We have saved a ton of money by this method and really enjoy the quality & brands we are getting. I love their produce & they have great chicken/turkey brats with fun flavors.

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Carmen says · 05.16.17

We also do about 80% of our shopping at Aldi. Some of our favorites are their guacamole, peach mango salsa and cranberry almond chicken salad.

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Yvonne says · 05.16.17

I live in Central Illinois and you can’t be ALDI for their awesome produce selection and prices!!

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Kara says · 05.16.17

I worked for Aldi in college, and they’re an amazing company. They take such good care of their employees. An Aldi by our house just reopened after renovations. Maybe I’ll pop in and check it out soon!

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Melanie says · 05.16.17

I recently succumbed to temptation and bought some of the toffee cookies covered with chocolate right next to those caramels at Aldi. I got very few. My grown daughter ate most of them and she doesn’t usually go for dark chocolate. I bought them thinking they were “safe” for only me. Was I wrong! SO good.

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Michelle says · 05.16.17

My family too went to Aldi growing up since we were a family of 7. Since it’s been years since I’ve shopped there, is it still cash only?

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Jen says · 05.16.17

they now accept credit cards

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Nichole says · 05.16.17

Those caramels ARE dangerous!! I devote them. They are so delicious! My boys love the animal crackers and pouches too.

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Katie says · 05.16.17

ALDI rocks! Organic products are so inexpensive and that is quite the feat!

Kate, side note, your site has crashed for me several times over the past week or so, and yours is the only one where that happens to me. Just wanted to give you a heads up!

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kait says · 05.17.17

Me too!

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Katie says · 05.16.17

I love all the seasonal surprises. They have these shoestring potato chips in the fall around Oktoberfest that are to die for! I just found tortilla strips there the other day that were perfect for a salad I was making for my blog! Happy coincidence! I’d love it if you clicked over and gave it a read! 😊

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Michele says · 05.16.17

My Aldi love is ceaseless. It was a little off-putting at first, the whole cost-cutting setup and all, but the prices and quality are fantastic! I used to go for just my staples like flour and sugar and such, but have grown to fully enjoy pretty much everything they offer (I haven’t delved into their meat yet, though…I’m picky about meat). My husband is obsessed with the Happy Farm brand of string cheese they have, and I always stock up on snacks like protein and cereal bars for him and my toddler. SO glad to see so many other people share my fave store with me (actually, that honor goes to Amazon, but I digress…)

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Sarah says · 05.16.17

My family loves Aldi’s! It sure is a staple with our grocery shopping! During the holidays I love checking out their Speciality section and also their cheese section is quite diverse! Sometimes I find a certain brand of cheese at a local grocery store that is about 13 dollars for a pound and sometimes Aldi’s will carry the same brand for like 4 dollars! Can’t go wrong!

Those chocolates are my favorite! My family loves them!

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caroline says · 05.16.17

Been shopping at ALDI for years! Love that place. I also love NOT having a million options. If I want parmesan cheese, I don’t want to have to pick from a hundred options. It’s a quick in and out with my kids and most of the time I don’t need a list because the stores are so easy to navigate.

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heather says · 05.16.17

absolutely love Aldi! You cannot beat those prices. Sometimes eggs are $0.48 per dozen!!! PA is very strict & you cannot buy wine/beer in the grocery store. I wish I could try that wine. My son loves the Sudz root beer – a special treat if he comes with me! He likes to keep the quarter in the cart too. The fruit and veggies are always cheaper. We also love that Naan bread!! We have 2 in our town — one just got remodeled and the other one is closed right now for remodeling. Cannot wait to see your dinner party from Aldi!

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Paige says · 05.16.17

We love and primarily only shop at Aldi in our house! I never realized that you lived in Cary, NC! Are you still there? We lived there for several years!

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Tracy says · 05.17.17

I love Aldi. They built one in our town, and now I travel half a kilometre instead of half an hour to get to one. I ALWAYS go there before I go to the other supermarket across the road. There are so many products that I actually prefer, and they’re far cheaper to boot. I am still managing to mostly spend under $150 per week for 5 adults, which is pretty darn cheap, here in Australia.

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Clair says · 05.17.17

It is so cool you were able to enjoy a private chef dinner. I have an Aldi’s maybe 5 minutes from my house. One day I finally stepped out of the Kroger comfort zone. I had to go back to the to get a quarter totally taken back by that procedure but makes sense. The store seemed small but after talking to another patron he told me it was one of the largest he had been in. He shared where the concept came from the Europeans. I had not a clue. Of course being an Aldi virgin did not know to bring my own bags and only debit card or cash is accepted. Other surprise because we use AMEX for everything (double points for groceries). The cashier was a sweetheart and offer the paper bags for I think fifteen cents but gave them to me since it was my first time. Now how to bag groceries it gave me a new appreciation to our grocery sackers. They have some really cool options and totally different brands. Now to your chocolate indulgence once you stretched out to dark it will be hard to go back to milk chocolate it will taste fake to you. Thanks for sharing.

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Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says · 05.17.17

Can I just say I want those chocolate animal cookies right now? I’m a sucker for anything chocolate!

Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com

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Lena says · 05.17.17

Hi from Germany,
thanks for sharing, it´s so fun reading about Aldi in the US in your blog. Originally it´s a german company and meanwhile it is spreading all over the world. Here in Germany in almost all grocery stores you have to put a coin in the cart. They want to keep the parking lot organized. An nobody has to clean up carts-chaos. Another thing is bringing your own bag. That´s also common. I always have a basket in my trunk that I can use a million times without producing waste (bags). This is the main reason. The german government would like to avoid as much garbage as possible. So we even pay an extra coin when buying water-bottles or other drinks. You get that coin back, if you return the bottles to the store. Glas-bottles or other stable bottles are even professionaly cleaned an then used again and again…… I think it´s really useful to protect the environment. That were just some infos about grocery-shoping here in germany :-)…

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Amba mCCrudden says · 05.17.17

I am an ALDI convert here in Australia, took a little while to get into the swing of it as you do become accustomed to certain brands, however you can’t beat the value for money!!! Love love there mid week and weekend specials, they have so many great products.

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missmat85 says · 05.17.17

I regularly shop at ALDI in my hometown, Bingley, England and must say that most of the items are really good apart from fresh fruit and veg that does not last as long as from other supermarkets.

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Candy says · 05.17.17

I love Aldi and shop at our local store regularly! I have many favorite items there, especially their organic items. My 5 favorite item are:
1. Dark chocolate covered almonds!
2. Organic shredded cheeses – taste great and great prices
3. Spinach and Feta chicken sausage
4. Organic chicken stock
5. Organic Tortilla chips

I have many favorites but these are probably my most purchased items.

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Ashley says · 05.17.17

I love Aldi’s especially their specialty items like their cheeses…..YUM!! I am just bad about going there because Meijers is just down the road. But now that they accept credit I have been trying to shop there more. I will definitely have to try out their wine!!!

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J says · 05.17.17

We are getting an Aldi in my city next year. I’ve never had the opportunity to shop there, so I’m super excited because everyone raves about their prices.

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Kirsten says · 05.17.17

My goodness. I think I need to give Aldi another try. I did go in one and was confused and flustered and left. I think it may have been that my regular brand names weren’t there so I didn’t know what to get. Thanks for all the info.

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SHERRY says · 05.17.17

Me. Too. Didn’t bring my own bags, was clueless about the quarter carts, aisles weren’t set up like walmart…haha…and lawn chairs and beach balls thrown in there made me super flustered. I high tailed it out of there but i do need to give it another go.

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Kristin says · 05.18.17

Can I ask which Aldi’s you go to in Raleigh? I’m local here too and have tried the one in Wake Forest and wasn’t impressed. Your post has me wanting to check it out again but thought I would see which location you recommended. Thanks so much!

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Kate says · 05.19.17

I go to the one off of Maynard

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