How low do you think you could go with your grocery budget? What if you only had $10 to feed yourself for the whole week? What would you buy?
I’ve already done this once in my How to Eat for $10 at the Dollar Tree video. Now I’m back to do it again but at Aldi. Aldi is known for it’s low, competitive prices, so I was excited to see how it would compare against the Dollar Tree. This week also happens to be a vegetarian $10 challenge.
About Aldi
For those who may not be super familiar with Aldi I wanted to give a very brief overview. Aldi is a small grocery store chain that employs a variety of methods to cut costs as much as possible, and those savings are passed on to the consumer. These are things like requiring a quarter to use a shopping cart which you get back when you return the cart (not a common practice in the United States) which cuts down on personnel needed to corral carts. Also having customers provide their own grocery bags and bag their own groceries. And finally, most items that Aldi sells are in house brands made by exclusively for Aldi. You won’t have a choice of different brands for most products.
The result of these cost saving tactics is that Aldi frequently has the lowest prices on many food items in the locations they operate.
What about pantry items and groceries already bought?
For the purposes of this demonstration, I didn’t use any pantry items or ingredients that I already owned with the exception of a small handful of spices and cooking oil. I wanted to show that you could transform simple foods into delicious meals with a very basic and affordable array of spices.
Disclaimer
This challenge is ultimately just for fun and for demonstrative purposes. No one should realistically subsist on only $10 of food per week. If you are struggling, please reach out to the resources around you.
If you are in the United States, the United Way runs a confidential helpline that can be accessed simply by dialing 211 from any phone, and they can help connect you with community resources (this includes assistance needs outside of food access too).
Additionally, I make no claims about the nutritional value of this meal plan and recognize that different bodies have different needs, allergies, preferences, etc. I am not a registered dietician or a medical professional, so please defer to them for decisions when it comes to your diet.
So what did I buy from Aldi?