Aldi Feed Your Family for £70 a Week Challenge Review
Reviewed by Debbie Talbot
I was so excited to take part in the Aldi Feed Your Family for £70 a Week Challenge as I had recently costed up a meal planned weekly shop at another supermarket and it came out to around £115, so on that basis surely doing the same shop at Aldi couldn’t be that much cheaper, could it?. Well we were are about to find out. We have a family of 5 to feed consisting of 2 adults, 1 9 year old and 3 year old twins.
We went to Aldi in Urmston on a Sunday afternoon. There were plenty of trolleys available, although as we have 3 year old twins we pushed a trolley each around the store. I would have struggled if I was shopping alone with my boys. We went around the store filling up our trolley with all sorts of goodies using my list that I had costed at another supermarket.
I bought many of the Super 6 vegetable items and took advantage of the fantastic meat deals. I was delighted to find 5% fat beef mince for under £3.50. The staff were really helpful. I didn’t mind paying for carrier bags as this is great for the environment. There was plenty of space to pack your trolley once you had been through the till. I spent £70.17 on my initial shop, although I did 2 additional ALDI shops of around £2.50 and £13. That said, I have so much food left over and feel that the £85-£86 I did spend in total would have covered 1½ to 2 weeks.
We came down south to visit family on Saturday and so there is not quite a full week’s food diary on this occasion. My absolute favourite item from the shop has to be the yummiest frozen yoghurt. Twins Tom & Jack went mad for the ice pops and rocket lollies. I have now fine-tuned my shopping list and am confident that I can do a main shop of £50-£60 and then a top up shop midweek to buy more milk, bread, fruit and veg. This would keep me with the £70 budget.
What struck me overall was the value for money of the Aldi items and the quality and freshness of the food. I would highly recommend the store. The opening hours of my local branches are fantastic too. I have really enjoyed making so many meals from scratch and am delighted with how healthily my whole family has eaten this week.
With the food I bought at Aldi I cooked delicious meals for the entire week for a family of five.
My shopping receipt: £70.17
Sunday
Tea – roast chicken, gravy*, mixed veg, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes.
Monday
Breakfast (Tom & Jack) – toast
Breakfast (Brian) 0- cereal
Snack (myself, Tom & Jack) – fruit
Lunch (myself) – bruschetta
Lunch (Tom & Jack) – ham sandwich, fromage frais & corn puffs
Lunch (Brian) – ham sandwich
Tea (myself) – ate out
Tea (Tom & Jack) – Fish fingers, beans and oven chips
Tea (Brian) – Fish fingers and oven chips
Tuesday
Breakfast (Tom & Jack) – toast
Breakfast (Brian) – cereal
Lunch (myself) – Bruschetta
Lunch (Tom & Jack) – instant noodles, fromage frais and corn puffs
Lunch (Brian) – ham sandwich
Snacks (myself, Tom & Jack) – fruit
Tea (myself, Tom & Jack) – chilli con carne and rice
Tea (Brian) – fish fingers, oven chips and vegetables
Wednesday
Breakfast (Tom & Jack) – toast
Breakfast (Brian) – cereal
Breakfast (myself) – egg on toast
Lunch (myself, Tom & Jack) – homemade carrot, leek, onion and potato soup (see recipe)
Lunch (myself) – vegetable stir fry (see recipe)
Lunch (Brian) – ham sandwich
Snacks (myself. Tom & Jack) – fruit
Tea (ALL) – ate out
Thursday
Breakfast (Brian, Tom & Jack) – cereal
Lunch (Tom & Jack) – instant noodles & fromage frais
Lunch (myself) – egg on toast
Tea (Tom, Jack & myself) – chilli con carne and rice
Tea (Brian) – non ALDI food
Friday
Breakfast (Brian, Tom & Jack) – cereal
Lunch (Tom & Jack) – toast & fromage frais
Lunch (myself) – chicken sandwich *
Snacks (Tom, Jack & myself) – fruit
Dinner (all) – oven chips, chicken thighs & drumsticks & peas
Saturday
Breakfast (all) – toast
My recipes;
Vegetable soup (smooth)
2 medium potatoes
2 leeks
3 carrots
3 small red onions
2 veg stock cubes *
Mixed spices *
2 medium glasses of tap water
Salt & pepper to taste *
Chop ingredients, 22 mins in my soup maker then stir function a good while at end.
Vegetable stir fry (all chopped)
One courgette
2 flat mushrooms
3 small red onions
3 med potatoes
Dark soy sauce*
Worcester sauce *
Pepper *
Red and yellow peppers
Cooking oil or spray
Chop up everything. Par boil potatoes in a saucepan for 5 minutes. Drain potatoes. Use cooking coil or spray on frying pan.
Put all ingredients in frying pan and cook until vegetables are tender and brown.
You could add some of Aldi’s cooked chicken pieces too but I had mine as veg only.
* not an ALDI item (I already had these items in my cupboard)
Although we did eat out some nights and went on holiday on the Saturday there is still food left that would have covered these days.
Overall I feel that I can feed a family of five for a week for £70 including snacks. The quality of the food is excellent and tastes great. I saved I saved £30 over the week including extras during the week like fresh milk, bread and vegetables and with changes I have made to my shopping list could save even more so by shopping at Aldi I think I could probably save up to between £120 and £150 over a month.
I challenge you to try your own Aldi shop for 1 week and see how much you save while still enjoying great home cooked flavoursome meals.
Rating: 5/5
To find your nearest Aldi store visit www.aldi.co.uk.
