A man doing his weekly shop at Aldi with only £5 in his pocket was left dumbfounded when he got to the checkout. Aldi has been named the fourth largest supermarket in Britain, and prides itself on low prices.
The supermarket chain, alongside fellow budget supermarket Lidl, is often first on the list for many shoppers looking to get their weekly shop as cheap as possible. One shopper, who posts under the name Cost of Living Crisis Tips on Tiktok, shared their weekly haul at Aldi coming to just £4.97. The haul included penne pasta, spaghetti, bourbon creams, baked beans, chopped tomatoes, tinned garden peas, cornflakes, a loaf of bread, two tins of rice pudding and long grain rice.
When asked what meals they planned on making, they answered: "Tomato pasta, rice and peas, beans on toast, rice pudding etc." The Tiktok creator made it clear this was about surviving. "This video is about surviving on £5 for the week," they commented, "not 'having a nutritional protein rich diet for £5 a week.'"
READ MORE: Aldi shopper speechless at cashier's response when OAP is left £1 short for shopping
A reporter at our sister site My London visited his local Aldi to see if he could also do a £5 weekly shop with different items. Here's what he said:
The food I ended up adding to my basket was enough for seven dinners for one person. The meal plan started with baked beans (23p - one big tin split between two days) on baked potatoes (19p each) with crispy leaf salad (57p).
On Wednesday and Thursday I planned to eat pasta (a bag of penne was 35p) with stir in sauce (65p - one jar split between two days) and the remainder of the salad as a side. The most expensive food item was a bag of frozen chicken goujons for £1.25.
I planned to eat the chicken goujons with garden peas (21p) and home-made carrot chips (29p for a big bag of carrots) on Saturday and a 66p pepperoni pizza on Sunday. That left just about enough to pay for a 36p loaf of bread.
So I managed to cover dinner - but what about lunch? I could perhaps have toast for breakfast but did not have enough money left for butter so would need to rely on already having some in the fridge. No matter how careful I was, the items in my basket added up quickly and the meals were small.
It was also difficult to ensure I had some protein in my diet: if I added fresh meat to the basket half of my budget was already gone. The cheapest items were mostly carbs: potatoes, pasta, pizza. It was practically impossible to get a well-rounded weekly shop for under a fiver, even in Aldi, but I was impressed with just how much I could get.
READ NEXT:
