5 Grocery Items You Should Avoid Buying From Aldi

Aldi is a budget shopper's paradise, especially since they offer competitive prices on healthy foods and many organic and speciality items that can cause your bill to skyrocket at other stores. However, no grocery store is perfect, and even Aldi has several key items that you should steer clear from. After doing some research, these are the five products you may want to consider buying somewhere else:

Certain Produce

According to the r/Frugal thread on Reddit, many Aldi shoppers agree that their produce isn't always top-notch. Depending on how updated your local Aldi is, the produce is often left unrefrigerated in the store, which means it will go bad that much sooner. It may be worth asking an employee when those potatoes or leafy greens came in.

Meat

Buying ground meat at Aldi is something you should probably steer clear of. While their ground beef is notoriously pricey (The Frugal Girl says she can pretty much always find a better sale at a regular grocery store), one Redditor said they tried to buy ground turkey to save money and ended up having to pick bone shards out of their food every time they cooked with it. Gross.

Additionally, the r/Aldi Reddit thread had some serious horror stories about grass-fed beef, steaks and some deli meats. It might be worth scanning for coupons at other stores around you to get the best quality for the price.

Name-Brand Items

Just because they are being sold at a discount retailer, doesn't mean your favorite name-brand products cost any less at Aldi. According to the budget blogger, Money Saving Mom, these products can actually cost more here than at your standard supermarket. According to the site, you can save up to 60% buying the private-label version of your favorites.

Paper Products

In the majority of the blogs, YouTube videos and other sources we researched for this story, paper products were a pretty unanimous no-no. The Frugal Girl did say their more upscale products were of good quality for a decent price, but don't scrimp with their bargain-priced TP and paper towels. Blogger Frugally Blonde says they can be thin and scratchy. No thanks!

Shredded Cheese

One Redditor summed it up this way, "I don't know what their shredded Parmesan is made of, but I don't think it's food." Ashley Marcin of the budget blog, Wise Bread, says Aldi's shredded cheese contains cornstarch to keep it from going bad, which often makes it a pain to cook with and gives it a weird taste. It's worth buying a block of their delicious high-quality cheese and shredding it yourself!