Aldi Haul Vlog for March 2017

Yep, I'm that person who now vlogs her grocery hauls and posts them to YouTube.

But I was always that person who catalogued her thrifted finds obsessively, so this isn't really all that different (dig back enough and you'll find a few thrifting vlogs that I made too).

SOooooo....today my family went to Aldi for a few things. We didn't buy a lot of necessities, we did buy a lot of snacks/treats, and I have mixed feelings about this but a lot of it will come with me to work so it's OK. Cheaper than going out to lunch for SURE.

We spent $65 (after $5 coupon, yeehaw) and got a ton of stuff. I really do like Aldi a lot, even if the whole "Last time I was here I bought this delicious thing and now it's not here anymore" angle gets a bit tiring.

Afterward, I went with a friend to the new Sprouts. It. Was. Overwhelming. I've been to Sprouts before but I chalked up my freaked-out too-much-stuff feeling to the fact that the main store I used to go to is near a friend's house and it's too far away for me to buy anything of substance (I used it to run in and grab some prepared things for lunch - some veggie sushi or a snack grouping of feta/olives/hummus/pita). Nope, it's an overwhelming store. The price signs are confusing. The aisles are tricky and small. The store layout isn't logical to me. Many items are WAY overpriced. And I wanted to buy some organic strawberries but once I got past the suburban mom who needed to look into EVERY SINGLE PINT (for what?) I looked into ONE pint and it was full of fuzzy white mold so I noped out.

HOWEVER. Sprouts does carry vegetarian items that I cannot find anywhere else - I picked up the Gardein pulled "pork" buns and a single-serve frozen veggie lasagna (that wound up costing more than I thought the sign said, ahem). I also got some organic potatoes, some seitan, some fancy hummus that was on sale (I was going to make some - I mention that in the video - but this was cheap  enough to buy instead of making it), and some blueberries that were a dollar and I was like OMGADOLLAR and then when we were at the car my friend pointed out that they were only a half pint - I think Aldi had a whole pint for less than $2 (and these weren't even organic) so boo to that but I'll still eat and enjoy them. Sprouts will probably be a store we go to for VERY VERY specific items (or for things on sale) but I have way too many other good grocery options to make this a regular part of our rotation. (My brain said to me "I'm already juggling Costco, Aldi, YDFM, and Kroger -  you want me to figure out if this store's prices are comparable to ALL FOUR OF THOSE STORES? Nope." The bulk bins are very enticing too except I watched a little kid dip her fingers in one that held dried oatmeal when her dad wasn't looking....)

Yay haul videos!

Second Aldi Haul for February 2017 with VLOG!

This time I had my wits about me to actually vlog my Aldi haul unlike last week...


A friend and I went back to the new one that's a little further away but...NEW! Plus they still have the $5/$30 coupons (and while I brought one with me, the cashier had one that she was just scanning for everyone, which is super nice).

This time I tried to be a little more discerning and not buy All The Things but...I still did, a little. I definitely got more snacky stuff but also things to bring to work.

I'm planning a Costco run on Tuesday (first of the month) so that also kept me from buying too much.

Disappointment: They didn't have the goat cheese and spinach frozen pizza that we bought A WEEK AGO and LOVED. Also the noodle bowls turned out to be a limited item so I bought five (basically what was left) and will plan to hoard them if they ever show up again in the future.

Frustration: Figuring out the coffee. They do have organic/single source/whole bean, but I still wasn't familiar with the options. It's a little more expensive (barely) than Costco but I was going to buy it because now that I have my new job I don't brew coffee at home as often so don't need two pounds. But in the end, the Costco concept won and I will just buy two pounds of whole bean and freeze some of it.

Total spent (after $5/$30 coupon) - $45.

I really like Aldi now. I still think that other stores can beat Aldi on certain items, but for an everyday shopping trip, it's fantastic.

That said, I also went to Kroger afterward - Kroger's cage free eggs are cheaper than Aldi's cage free eggs (Costco beats all but I haven't yet been able to be comfortable buying so many at once). I also bought Sargento Breaks that were on sale (yep, I could've made my own Sargento Breaks but...sale, plus they had the sweet ones....) and picked up some freebies from either Kroger's Friday Free Coupon deal or a Best Customer deal - free pretzel crisps, Chobani Flip (plus I had a digital coupon, plus Ibotta - I bought four.....), and Cambpell's YES! soup (only one variety was truly vegetarian - even the tomato soup had chicken in it, boo). Also avocados (had a 75 cents/2 coupon). And a frozen meal (Mobisave!). (I used Ibotta, Mobisave, AND Checkout51). I only spent about $30 there. Not bad at all.

Your Dekalb Farmers Market (YDFM) Haul - The Produce Prices Are Unbeatable - Vlog!

Damn, that post header sounds like a commercial....

Basically, I got really caught up in the wide world of major grocery stores. Costco! Aldi! Kroger! Whole Foods! (Side note: I had a terrible awful no good cashier experience at a local WF, and the team responded by offering me a $25 gift card, but I'm rarely at that store so I haven't picked it up yet. When I do, perhaps THAT will be a video....)

Yesterday my husband said he wanted to run to YDFM (which longtime blog readers know is actually our number one grocery store of choice - for a long time it was our ONLY store, with short trips to Kroger for fill-in items) and I hadn't been in a few weeks so I went along - and I fell in love all over again, which happens EVERY TIME I skip going for a few weeks and then return.

I made a haul video because I thought that since the store's policy of no video inside was so strict, I'd be one of the few who did so. I was wrong - there are various videos on YouTube if you dig around, including videos inside the store. I don't know how they got away with it, but they did. I didn't do that - my video is after we got home, showing what I bought.


In brief, when I shop at YDFM I buy almost NO processed items (not zero but not much). I buy largely organic items. The produce prices are, as I say in my commercial-sounding header, basically unbeatable. Organic apples are, at least right now (prices fluctuate with the market), about $1/pound less than what I have been paying at Costco (which I never should've even done but I swear the first time I bought Costco organic apples the price WAS less than YDFM that week) and also I can pick and choose my own fruit vs. buying a big plastic container. The dried mango (I show this in the video) is half the price of what I paid at Aldi and tastes better and fresher.

Stop here and watch the video - the rest of this post is just my random thoughts and you can totally skip that. (If you do watch the video, hop over to YouTube and give it a Like would ya? Or even SUBSCRIBE OOOOOOH.)

Rambling thoughts about my recent grocery travels vs. YDFM

The tempeh? With a coupon and sale, that's cheaper at Kroger, but it's one of those "we're here already, just grab it" foods.
YDFM doesn't sell certain food my family likes to eat that I have to get elsewhere.
YDFM also only has food and sometimes it's easier to go to Kroger/Costco/Target and get not only food but also household items.
Right now Aldi has an unbeatable price on almond milk, for example (even with coupon, sale combo). Aldi also is likely the winner in snack food (though YDFM has some higher end items). But YDFM seemed to beat Aldi on fancy stuffed olives (in the video I show plain kalamata olives - unbeatable price for those for sure).
Costco's giant-ass blocks of cheese beat everyone else - but they're nothing special and certainly aren't organic. Both YDFM and our local Kroger (which has an entire special fancy cheese section) can probably beat Costco if I want something different....at least in a more reasonable size.

It takes time, energy, and gas to go to 5 different stores to save money. I could drive myself crazy trying to catch all the sales. I've started ignoring the Target sales. I've been also skipping some of the buy-X-things-save-$Y sales at Kroger even though they often include freebies or super-cheap things because I just don't have the brain space for that right now.

Also we don't go to Publix at all anymore and that used to be our main store - but there's a rumor I'm getting a Publix in WALKING DISTANCE of my house (right now I can walk to a tiny Kroger that has recently upped its game in the organic/healthy aisles). A Sprouts is opening in about 2 months that's around the corner, and soon after that we're getting a nearby Whole Foods 365 (supposedly a competitor to Trader Joe's). Oh speaking of TJs, as I'd hoped, most of these other stores have finally taken over my desire to go there. I simply cannot be good in TJs - but we do need a few specific things there soon (like the cereal bars my kid loves - no other store has an option that is both tasty and priced well).

This is all stream of consciousness rambling and if you made it this far, I congratulate you. I hope you liked my vlog and grocery haul!

Costco Haul Video - January 2017 (First trip of the month)

The biggest dork in the universe....

Here are some additional details:

I forgot to mention that we also bought a six-pack of organic hearts of romaine lettuce. (It's hiding behind the kale.)
This trip was to fill in a few gaps in the fridge (and to return the cheese I talk about in the video).
My husband and kid are going to try to go later to YDFM to pick up a few more vegetables, some different cheese, some nice bread....
I think I can get fancier with these videos going forward but I was trying to make this one fast and just get it out there before I chickened out.
The total for everything was about $135, and we'll get 2% back because we are Executive Members.

Tadaaaa.