Shopping at ALDI Can Save You Money On Groceries Without Coupons

A grocery store called ALDI is popping up everywhere, and it's taking the world by storm. You can cut your grocery bill in half, and come home with twice as much food---simply by shopping at ALDI's supermarket. Honestly, I wouldn't have believed it if my best friend had not dragged me there to witness her shopping excursion.

This amazing grocery store is designed to save you money on groceries. Forget about clipping coupons, forget about unit pricing: everything at ALDI is dirt cheap. And shockingly, it has good quality stuff too. My picky family, who pretty much hates generic food, thinks ALDI supermarket is the superhero of grocery stores. Where else can you get four bags of generic corn chips at the same price as one bag of Fritos?

So if you're looking for a cheap way to stock your pantry without becoming the coupon queen, make a trip to ALDI. You won't forget how much money you save, and I promise you'll be back!

ALDI is a German-owned grocery store. It's a tiny version of Costco, Sam's Club, or BJ's Warehouse, without the annoying membership fee. Best of all, you don't have to buy anything in bulk; if you need one tube of refrigerated Crescent Rolls, then that's all you have to buy. No fuss, no muss.

This food store carries all staple foods, plus so much more. You can walk about with crescent rolls, cinnamon rolls, flour, candies, juice boxes, soda, produce, meat, frozen foods, and so much more. They even have an aisle where you can find special buys. I bought my bathroom scale there, and several sets of shoes.

The best part is that the ALDI food store sells mostly its generic brand of products. Everything from chips to their generic Gatorade have their label; but I assure you that most of them are delicious. (There's always a few exceptions.) But when you pay 99 cents for a knock off bag of chips, who's complaining? Sure the bag's about half the size of a typical bag of $4.29 chips, but that's going to go stale anyway. And you can get four bags!

Even better, forget about spending hours comparing unit prices and searching for printable coupons. Each item comes in one brand and size. Take it or leave it. And with prices this low, you might as well give them a try. Their brand is very good, and you'll save a fortune. And, you're in and out in a jiffy.

Always remember to bring a quarter when making a grocery run! Actually, the idea is genius: All of the ALDI grocery shopping carts are locked together with a special mechanism. To use the cart, you must insert a quarter into the device that is connected to the cart. As you insert your quarter, the cart releases from the chain.

After you finish shopping, you return your cart to the corral and plug it back into the chain. As soon as you plug it back in, your quarter pops back out---and you can put it right back into your pocket. In the end, it costs you nothing when you return the cart, but it saves big money because ALDI doesn't have to pay its workers to collect all of the carts. They also don't have to pay extra insurance fees like the other grocery stores (in case the carts hit cars).

ALDI has found another way to save you money at the cash register: They don't take credit cards or checks. You have to pay with cash or debit cards. They also EBT cards, which are part of the SNAP program.

Again, this is another way that ALDI can save money and pass the savings on to you. Did you know that grocery stores have to pay a transaction fee for every single credit card purchase that a customer makes? In addition, they have to pay a percentage of every single credit card transaction made by customers. I've heard it's up to 3% of the entire purchase. ALDI said the heck with that, they'll just forgo the credit cards and lower their prices. Great idea!

But the bad news is that you have to be prepared with cash or debit cards. And forget about coupons; they don't take those either. But you won't need 'em!

Like most of the bigger warehouse clubs, like Sam's, Costco, or BJ's Warehouse, ALDI does not bag your groceries for you, nor do they provide bags for you. They will scan your items at a lightening fast speed, pack them in the grocery cart, and let you back them yourself at their special bagging center at the end of the store.

If you happen to forget your bags, you can purchase ALDI bags for 5 cents each; it's not a bad deal. But we're all into recycling anyway, so we will all try to use our environmentally friendly bags.

Again, this is another way that ALDI passes the savings on to us. However, be prepared to witness a very long line; but don't panic. The cashiers are lightening quick. The items will literally look blurry as they scan away.

When looking for a great deal on groceries, stop by ALDI and save money. They have a great deal on staple foods, and you'll pay a lot less than you typically spend at the supermarket. Just remember to bring a quarter, cash, and some grocery bags.