I’ve been a big Aldi fan for a few years now as I’m always trying to save money on the weekly food shop. However, I’ve noticed some of the prices creeping up slightly over the last year. Leading me to question, is Aldi the cheapest supermarket?
The Limitations of Aldi
There are several disadvantages of using Aldi rather than one of the big 4 supermarkets.
Aldi Has a Smaller Range.
Now there’s a reason for this. Holding a more concentrated range lets Aldi focus purely on best-selling lines to keep prices low. Check out the articles below if you want to know more.
Reasons why Aldi’s Groceries are so Cheap
Aldi Secrets Behind Cheap Prices
But, this does mean you might need to do a top-up shop somewhere else…
No Coupons
Aldi doesn’t issue money off vouchers. These can bag you some big savings with the traditional supermarkets. You’re also limited when it comes to using manufacturer coupons. As Aldi mainly sells its own products, you won’t get many opportunities to grab freebies or use manufacturer discount coupons.
No Loyalty Scheme
Aldi is a no-frills discount store first and foremost. As a result, they’ve never had any kind of loyalty scheme. Now you might think the savings outweigh this, but this might not be the case. The Tesco Clubcard, Morrisons More and Nectar Loyalty Schemes, all allow you to collect points. And boost them in some cases. This means you can get up to 3% of your shop back in voucher spend
Cashback
Aldi doesn’t appear on the cashback sites or in the cashback apps. This means there are potentially more savings to be had at the big 4 supermarkets when you factor this in.
Limited Promotions.
What Aldi is very good at is providing your basic shop at an ongoing low price. What you don’t benefit from when shopping at Aldi is the chance to exploit promos. There’s always a ton of promotions running at the big 4 supermarkets. So if you’re a savvy shopper, you can probably spot some major bargains, which you wouldn’t find in Aldi.
Limited “Yellow Sticker” Reductions
You get the occasional markdowns in Aldi, but their few and far between. It’s to inevitable as they have such a concentrated range and sell their stock through fast. Mainstream supermarkets, however, nearly always have a reduction section so you can grab a bargain. My personal favourites are fresh meat that you can freeze for up to 3 months and defrosted when you need it.
Aldi Doesn’t Deliver Groceries
This is a big factor for me. One of the issues we have is lack of spare time which is why switching to online deliveries is something we’re considering.
So Is Aldi Cheaper Than Tesco?
Aldi vs Tesco: The Results
Baby Products
Nappies
Follow On Baby Formula
Baby Products Total
Cleaning Products
Kitchen Cleaner
All in One Cleaner 1Ltr
Cleaning Products Totals:
Cooking Ingredients
Olive Oil
Burrito Dinner Kit
Tomato Puree
Garlic Granules
Cooking Ingredients Total
Biscuits, Crisps & Snacks
Variety Crisps – 30 Pack
Melts / Skips
Oaties Biscuits
Biscuits, Crisps and Snacks Total
Dairy Products
Greek Light Yoghurt
Fromage Frais
Dairy Products Total
Fresh Fruit & Veg
Large Onions x 3
Royal Gala Apples
Lemons
Bananas
Sweet Leaf Salad
Large Flat Mushrooms
Fresh Fruit & Veg Total
Fresh & Cooked Meat
Unsmoked Back Bacon
Diced Chicken
Diced Beef – 400g
Lean Beef Mince 5% Fat – 500g
Cooked Ham
Fresh and Cooked Meat Total
Frozen Food
Stonebaked Pizza x 2
Garlic Baguette
Fish Fingers
Straight Cut Chips 1.5kg
Frozen Broccoli
Frozen Petit Pois Peas
Frozen Sweetcorn
Frozen Food Total
Store Cupboard – Tins, Jars & Packets
Sliced Beetroot
Cheese & Broccoli Pasta & Sauce
Tinned Ravioli x 2 Tins
Tuna Chunks in Brine x 2 Tins
Tinned Soup – 3 Tins (Tomato, Chicken, Vegetable)
Baked Beans – 4 Pack
Spaghetti Hoops
Tinned Chick Peas
Red Kidney Beans
Store Cupboard Total
Everything Else
Quilted Toilet Tissue x 9 Rolls
Tinned Cat Food x 6 Tins
Apple & Blackcurrant Squash 1.5L
Rich Roast Coffee 200g
Cotton Pads
Crumpets – Pack of 6
Grand Total: How Much Cheaper is Aldi
Total Aldi Spend: £60.35
Savings YouWon’t Get At Aldi
Now let’s factor in the extra savings you could make with Tesco to see of this levels the playing field.
Remove Products I Wouldn’t Usually Buy
I’ve removed the Burritos kit as I wouldn’t have usually bought this – I just bought it as it was a promo. So it’s not really a fair comparison.
New Tesco Spend: £69.04
New Aldi Spend: £59.36
Revised Saving: £9.68
Tesco’s 10p a litre off Petrol voucher
Factoring in Tesco’s 10p a litre off petrol promotion makes a big difference. Let’s say 50 Litre fill up based on a small hatchback such as a Ford Focus.
Saving: £5.00
Revised Tesco Spend: £64.04
Revised saving by using Aldi £4.68
We do have a larger car too which takes around 60 litres to fill up, which would result in a £6 saving.
Tesco Clubcard Points
Tesco Clubcard points give you another saving. You get 1 point per £1 spend. 1 point = 1p voucher value. But, you can Boost Clubcard Points to triple the value of your points. This effectively gives you a further 3% saving.
With boost: £0.69 x 3 = £2.07
Without boost: £0.69
Revised Tesco Spend (with Boost): £61.97
Revised Aldi Saving: £2.61
So with Tesco’s 10p per litre off fuel offer and Clubcard points factored in, the gap has narrowed to just £2.61. Aldi still ends up cheaper but only just.
But wait there’s, more ways you can save….
Cashback
If you’re a new online customer, you can also grab one of the Cashback offers below.
You can get £6.50 cashback through Quidco for a new customer grocery order placed online with a minimum spend of £45.
You can sign up for Quidco here and get £5 just for signing up.
TopCashback currently offers a slightly lower £6.30 cashback for a New Customer Online Purchase over £45.
You can sign up for TopCashback here and get a £5 Amazon e-gift card.
If you’re looking for more ways to save money when shopping online check out this post,
Cashback Apps
Cashback Apps give you cash back for your in-store shopping. They tend to be limited to specific offers but they’re all well worth having to give you some extra savings. The offers are for branded products so you’re unlikely to be able to use these at Aldi.
- Quidco’s instore cashback app, ClickSnap currently has 29 cashback offers at Tesco. You can download the ClickSnap App at iTunes or Google Play for Android
- Shopmium currently has 21 offers at Tesco. This includes a freebie worth £1.29 for a bottle of Robinsons Refresh’d. You can sign up with my referral code: 66s9i to receive an extra freebie too. It’s currently a FREE Tub of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, but this is subject to change. You can download the Shopmium App at iTunes if you have an iPhone or Google Play if you’ve got an Android phone.
- CheckoutSmart currently has 35 offers at Tesco. Again CheckputSmart is available on Google Play or iTunes.
- GreenJinn is a relatively new app (launched in 2016). New offers go live every Monday with an average weekly offer value of £30. Get GreenJinn on Android or iOS.
Want to learn more about cashback apps? Check out my post on how to save money using cashback apps.
Vouchers and Coupons
There’s always plenty of vouchers from major brands and supermarkets. The free Tesco magazine usually has some decent vouchers in it including the odd freebie. So, it’s worth checking out the deals page on MoneySavingExpert to find the most up to date list.
At the time of writing this post, Tesco has a coupon in its magazine for £1.50 off Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream 500ml. The offers valid until 30th November 2018.
So as you can see, my Aldi vs Tesco comparison produced some surprising results. I’m certainly reconsidering if Aldi should remain my choice for the weekly shop. Do you think Aldi is as cheap as we’re led to believe, or do the offers available elsewhere close the gap? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
If you’re looking for ways to save money on your weekly shop check out my post:
11 Insanely Easy Ways to Reduce Your Grocery Bill
All offers and prices quoted in this post correct at time of publish.
Very Interesting !
Thank you Shelley, glad you found it useful!
I started shopping in Lidl when I initially decided to become more frugal, but I found that the quality wasn’t as good as Tesco. Sometimes we would end up throwing away fruit and vegetables as they were rotten. Tesco appears to have started doing cheaper ranges, probably to compete with the discount supermarkets. I also found that I couldn’t get everything that I wanted at Lidl so had to go to Tesco afterwards. I have now given up going to Lidl and just shop at Tesco. It was interesting to see your comparison and even though it looks at Aldi rather than Lidl it confirms much of what I was thinking.
Hi Sam, glad you found it interesting. That’s one of the reasons I tested it out, Aldi is still cheaper but not on everything I’ve found. We’ve started doing some online shops at Tesco too as having a couple of kids means that we’re really short of time. So saving an hour a week on the big shop for a few pounds extra makes life a lot easier. We do still shop at Aldi, as a lot of their stuff’s great, just not as loyally as we once did.
Thanks for reading!
This is really interesting!
I have had a hunch that my Aldi shops weren’t really saving me much money but I haven’t compared exact products like you did. I really think I may do now though! 🙂
Great article, thanks,
Laura
Hi Laura
Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, it had been bugging me for a while when I ran this test. I still saved money, and I still shop at Aldi, don’t get me wrong. It’s the in-store ads that I think inflate the savings as they compare to main brands. As far as I’m concerned, most of Aldi’s customer base are probably pretty savvy shoppers anyway, so have at least already downshifted to supermarket own brands, so I don’t think a branded comparison is a fair test. But then, the numbers wouldn’t look so amazing ha ha!
Aldi is also our nearest supermarket, combined with the reduced choice meaning less temptation to pick up special offers you wouldn’t normally buy – if you bypass the special buys aisle of course! – it still works out cheaper on our basic shop.
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. We still use Aldi for our main shop and tend to use Tesco for top-up shops. The special buys aisle can be lethal though if you’re not careful!