Wednesday Weekly Shopping: A tale of two trips

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So this week I took two trips to ALDI, as well as three eensy teensy little trips to CVS (two trips) and Winn-Dixie (one).  There were great deals on Crest rinse and laundry detergent at CVS, and I just had to get them, Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge be damned!  (Also, I had Extra Care Bucks that were expiring.)

The two trips to ALDI were quite different from each other.  On the first trip, I couldn't find any green peppers, which is a mainstay of the dishes I cook.  They were charging a lot for the colored ones, so I just didn't buy.  Also, the fruit selection was limited - I was hoping to find grapes there, but there were none.  (Hence, the quick trip to Winn-Dixie.)

This seems to be another problem with shopping solely at ALDI - they don't have as good selection of vegetables.  I knew this going in, since they only have 1/2 aisle dedicated to produce.  But I guess you don't realize how limiting it is until you try to buy everything there.

Also, on the first trip, I found what I thought was a great bargain - 99¢ for a quart of cottage cheese.  I bought two, and was looking forward to buying more in future trips.

Things were different on the second trip - the green peppers were there, but the cottage cheese was back to normal price - $1.99.

So, my two trips led me to the following conclusion: You can't completely depend on ALDI for selection or price, even in the same shopping week.   So be grateful for the low prices on the items you can get, but have a backup plan in case things aren't available.

I'll be glad next week, when the Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge is over - I'll only be buying the sale-priced produce at ALDI, and pick up produce at other grocery stores.

Overall, this week I spent $56.07 for items which retail for $77.21, or a 27% savings.  (But don't compare percentages!)  Of course, if I compared the ALDI prices to supermarket full prices, it would show a lot more savings.  And my savings percentage will definitely be higher next week!

For the year (4 weeks), I've spent $148.73 for items which retail for $186.14, or a 20% savings.  That's an average of $37.18 spent each week. 

See all my shopping here.

How did your shopping go this week? What bargains did you get? Please leave a link to your blog post about your weekly shopping. The aim is not to brag, but to inspire!  Please link up directly to your post, not to the blog itself. I'd appreciate it if you put a link to Wednesday Weekly Shopping in your post as well. If you don't have a blog, please leave a comment!



For more great shopping deals and trips, please check out the bloggers listed on the left sidebar under Shopping Deals Linkups. There are lots of great ideas on each blog and I'm sure you'll find inspiration for you to save even more!