Groceries

I've discovered Aldi fairly recently, and I love shopping there.

• I love that, if I forget a quarter for a shopping cart (hey, it's only happened once), I can go in and they'll loan me one without batting an eye.
• I love that their soda pop can return is on the honor system: you toss your cans in the bin, and tell the cashier how many you had.
• Most of all, I love that I can get a ton of groceries for about $50.

I can't get absolutely everything I need there. Their inventory is limited (no low-sodium beef broth, old fashioned rolled oats, natural peanut butter, or sesame oil), and some of the brands don't appeal to us (we're sticking to Prego spaghetti sauce, Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage, A1 steak sauce, and Kraft cheese singles, to name a few). But the kids don't care a bit if it's off-name cereal, the butter & ground beef are fine, the 12 grain bread is pretty good, and Jeff actually prefers their french bread pizzas to Stouffers.

Their produce section is also limited, but not bad. I prefer to go to a local produce store, which not only has incredibly inexpensive apples, lettuce, green beans, and broccoli, they regularly have more obscure stuff. We've gotten lychees, dinosaur eggs (speckled plums) and Christmas melon there, and you never know what will be there. I try to get one new thing every time we go. They also get wonderful bread from a local bakery. When I go there, I come home with bags of stuff, but never manage to spend more that $12 - $15.