Shopping at Lidl

I do not have a Lidl or Aldi near me or I would definitely try them as I have heard that one can save a lot.

I have started to do a main shop in Lidl, we have an Aldi about 8 mile away but Lidl is very good and quite reasonable - the quality of the food, both fresh and non-perishable is good. Love their Christmas specials.

My nearest Lidl is a nightmare cross country drive but I make the effort occasionally as it's worth while for the money I save. You won't recognise the names on many of the products but they are great quality. At the moment they have large Xmas puds at £2.99 and I have tried one and the flavour was very good.
My friend does the majority of her shopping at Aldi and she believes it saves her a lot of money,

Hurrah!! Good on them!

All our will come from Aldi this year. Good quality at great prices.

I love Lidl and have not been disappointed by anything.
5 x 250ml cartons of orange or apple juice for 93p
8 muesli type biscuit bars for 99p (I think !)
Chocolate is very cheap. I did a taste test on the cheapest v the most expensive and there was very little difference.
Nappies are brilliant and SO much cheaper than Pampers. Mumsnet voted them the best too.
One of the nicest chickens I have had was a fresh organic one for less than £6.
When they reduce food they do it by 30% and not by the few pence Tesco tries to tempt us with.
Fortunately Lidl and Tesco are about 100yds from each other so I can go to Lidl first and then to Tesco but only if I need to.

Their granola cereals are great, I love the one with red berries and chocolate curls. Scrumptious.

For quite a while I have split my main shop between Morrisons and Lidl, and Mr P and I have noticed how much busier our local Lidl is over the past few months.

The wine review in the Weekend section of Saturdays' DT praised a number of Aldi wines (and their cheapest champagne) very highly.Unfortunately our nearest Aldi is in Exeter, which is too far to make the trip worthwhile.

I have been impressed with what we have had from Lidl, with only 2 exceptions, these being "the swede that would not die" and a frozen cooked crab where the quantity of meat it yielded did not equate to the effort needed to obtain it.

On a Radio 4 programme last week (Possibly You & Yours?) a perfume expert was brought in to compare some expensive brands with cheaper ones. The Lidl one at £3.99 was rated especially favourably, apparently it's a dead ringer for a Chanel one. Mr P has been using their X Bolt EDT (£3.99) for over a year now, and I must say it is remarkably like Hugo Boss.

Just can't fault lidl & Aldi at the moment can you ? their veg is always fresh and crisp and pork chops to die for they even taste how pork used to taste (if you understand that) I buy dauphinoise potatoes from the chiller counter and there is no way I can make better myself I always have some in the fridge for a nice tasty change during the week.

it is a well known fact in Germany that they are rotten employers!
And Aldi not much better, but they are cheap and have fewer items. I can imagine that many animals in the UK are not always kept in a animal friendly manner. they might as well get it the meat from Holland and Denmark. Cheap food has its price even if we are not paying it.

The majority of Lidl's meat shows the Red Tractor sign

We love Lidl's fresh fruit and veg and also their selection of nuts - and our local one has a huge bag filled with pistachio nuts and you scoop out however much you want to buy, lovely and fresh they are too. I bought a roll of butter with sea salt - smart packaging and lovely taste.

We don't have an Aldi near us but I believe not much to choose between the two shops - is that so?

I have been using both these stores for about 20 years. You could walk round, all nice and peaceful, plenty of room. But now, the food snobs have discovered them and your lucky if you can get in the car park.
I have 2 SILs who would look at me as if I were the poor relation when I sang their praises. Guess who I see in there now, looking slightly embarrassed lol.

I don't go to Lidl often as it's further away than our Aldi but I prefer them for fruit and vegetables. They have beautiful big Abate pears from the Sud Tyrol that you never seem to see anywhere else. Their luxury salami, and bresaola are very good, LOVE the butter with sea salt and good pasta sauces that are made in Italy not Holland like most people's.
I have stocked up with chocolates from Aldi for Christmas presents (I believe their chocolates are made by Germany's top manufacturer) and bought one of their fancier Christmas puddings (always good), the luxury Panetonne, Panforte (how do they do it for £2.99?) and this year I found boxes of Torrone hidden away on a shelf.

The other great thing about Lidl, if there are more than about 3 or4 people queuing at a checkout, that are very quick to open another one.

Unlike Morrisons. my last visit there showed open checkouts versus closed ones, well, open 6 (inc the baskets only one) closed/unmanned 10!

EllieMary .......... my DiL is lawyer for Lidl in Spain and she has no quibbles about her work place and she would certainly not label them as 'rotten employers'
Animal welfare and husbandry in the UK is of a far higher calibre than many other countries so buying British is the best thing you can do and Lidl buy British for their UK stores.

You've all convinced me. I must go and have a look.

All the fresh meat in our local Aldi is Scottish - and very good it is too. Do they supply locally reared meat in other parts of the UK too? or is the Scottish beef, pork and lamb in all their stores?

Granny23 They may supply all their shops with Scottish meat as here on The Wirral Aldi shops all have a supply of Scottish meat and so good is it too.

Used both of them for years, Lidl a little longer as it came to our area first.

Quality is good, prices competitive and the staff are very helpful and will always look for goods when you ask and the staff on the tills in both shops are so quick, you can't get your shopping in the trolley quick enough sometimes.

I am however so cross Aldi stopped my favourite wine.

Lidl is, in my opinion, better than Aldi for fruit and veg, but their flowers are often in poor condition. That, of course, applies to my nearest stores. The Aldi we've used in Provence didn't seem to me to be as good as the English ones I've used - always smells a bit iffy, though the wine is good - and cheap!

If it was anywhere near Draguinan, anno chances are it was the one I went to a couple of times when I lived there. Definitely wiffy and put me off going to Aldi. They opened near us recently and DD1 and I were very impressed not only price wise but the quality on offer. Left with a Trolly load a fraction of what we would have paid in one of the big 4s.

I do think though that there is an element of snobbery involved. One lady we spotted putting her shopping into a pile of 'waitrose' bags

By the way.

On another thread talking about Lidl and Aldi I mentioned that I had 'complained' to our local Aldi manager about the state of the flowers and plants which were literally dead. She said she couldn't agree more but it was HO that decree, yes you guessed it, due to Health and Safety they were not allowed to water them.

We are lucky enough to have an Aldi and a Lidl within walking distance. I have used Aldi more but our local Lidl is great too. They have an instore bakery and sell the most beautiful freshly baked bread, rolls, doughnuts, apple turnovers etc at cheap prices

I always take bags for life as Lidl charges for carriers, and sometimes mine are Waitrose ones