Today I’m sharing our weekly Aldi shopping list and a week’s worth of dinner ideas using items exclusively from Aldi! This post is in no way sponsored by Aldi.
If you have been around this blog or my Instagram for more than five minutes you know the Aldi obsession is real in this house. Probably almost annoyingly because I talk about it all the time! Sorry about that but doing the majority of our grocery shopping at Aldi saves us hundreds of dollars a month and I just really want that for you, too!
About a year/year and a half ago Nathan and I took a hard look at our budget and realized that our spending on groceries was completely out of control. Multiple weekly trips to the grocery/Target/where ever picking up a few things “just in case” here or there or throwing in snacks or wine every time we set foot in a store was adding up to a staggering number. We had to make a change so we could, you know, pay our mortgage. Ok, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic but we like to travel and wear cute clothes and do one million other things that can be hard if you are spending the majority of your money on food.
Let me confess something, I am a self-proclaimed food snob. Shopping at Aldi had been suggested to me by friends and family members for several years before I got over whatever notions I had in my head about how I don’t like generic brands. I would have never picked up a generic brand at Target or Schnucks before shopping at Aldi now I can’t stomach the prices on most of those things! I started slowly buying things at Aldi that I thought I was brand loyal too and we were totally surprised when we liked everything. Maybe it was our low expectations (ha) but it’s true.
So how did we do it?
We switched it all. It took me several months of weekly shopping trip to Aldi to get the lay of the land and figure out which products are always there and which products were seasonal. The regular products change a little bit from time to time and my Aldi is more prone to being out of something than my regular grocery store but meal planning around what I know we can get at Aldi is key. Most weeks I do 95% of our grocery shopping there. This past week it was 99% (had to get my coffee creamer from Fresh Thyme ;))! Which not only meant huge savings but that I only had to drag my kid into one store. Amen. I provided a list below of the stuff I always have on hand to help you plan and use the weekly deals part of their website to know what other items will be in the store that week.
We simplified our eating. Have I mentioned I love good food? Elaborate dinners with 87 ingredients used to be my jam! Not only does that kill your grocery budget but it also caused us to over eat and…I had a kid, ha! Two-year-olds do not wait patiently while you leisurely cook dinner. The more simple, the better! You will see examples of this down below in the dinner menu and check the recipe highlights on my Instagram stories for more easy ideas. One pan meals are amazing!
We found what works for us. In this season of our live’s shopping once a week at Aldi and picking up a few things at Target or Schnucks once in a while is what works best for our family and our budget. A lot of my friends swear by Walmart grocery pick-up and I’ve done that in seasons too! (Personally it’s too tempting for me to add random things to my cart and buy the brand name of everything at Walmart). If using HelloFresh or another meal delivery service works for you do that (I’ve done that in seasons, too. Hello post-baby!). Find what works for you and your family and do that unapologetically. I’m just sharing what has worked for us!
Below are a week’s worth of it-came-from-Aldi dinner ideas! I also included the things you would need to add to my “Weekly Shopping List” to make each recipe. I’m going to link the recipes I loosely use to make these. I realized when I was doing this I change a few of these recipes up a lot so I guess blog posts are in order!
Monday: Buffalo Chicken Sweet Potatoes (add 1.5 lbs chicken breast)
Tuesday: Stuffed Peppers (add 1 lb ground turkey and marinara sauce)
Wednesday: Roasted Salmon + Brussels Sprouts (add fresh salmon filet and brussels sprouts)
Thursday: Tacos (add 1lb ground beef and taco seasoning)
Friday: Pizza Friday (add pizza)
We love Aldi’s fresh pizzas. I buy a traditional crust pepperoni then add onion and green pepper at home.
Saturday: Salmon Cakes + Broccoli (add canned salmon + mayo)
Sunday: Jalapeno Turkey Burger + Side Salad (1 lb ground turkey, jalapenos, buns)
If you use Canva you can actually use this link and edit that list however you want! I’m sure you don’t actually want to use my exact list 
I called this a “weekly list” but I don’t actually buy all that stuff weekly! “Stuff I Always Have on Hand” wasn’t as clean of a title. I do buy some of that weekly but a lot is every other week, once a month, or less!
I don’t do a lot of breakfast or lunch planning but here are some of the things we make using only items from the “weekly list.”
Breakfast: Green smoothie, pancakes, egg casserole, scrambled eggs, yogurt, fruit
Lunch: Leftovers, broccoli salad, tuna, quesadillas, peanut butter and jelly, chicken sausage
I buy a lot of random stuff at Aldi too! Dishwashing soap, DIAPERS, and seasonal/rotating items that aren’t on that list! I share my weekly Aldi finds (aka anything not listed above or part of my meal plan) over on Instagram Stories every week. Make sure you are following me over there if you are interested! And, because this is what I would really be interested in if I was reading this post, we spend right around $100 a week on groceries at Aldi. I could cut that down to more like $75 by eating more grains (like rice, pasta, or bread) instead of mainly meat + veggies but have really tried to cut those things out of our dinners since Whole30. Again, personal choice but just wanted to be transparent about that.
Gosh, this was a labor of love! I’ll share this weeks #AldiFinds over on Instagram a little later this morning so if you are interested, make sure you are following along on the blog account over there! Do you all shop at Aldi? If so, share with my your Aldi staples in the comments!
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Linking up with Biana, Lindsay, and Jenna.
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