As a kid, my mom did all the grocery shopping for the house. Now that I am the at home parent, I do all the shopping. When I first started to do all the grocery shopping, we had one kid, and it was pretty easy for me to go to our local store, Schnucks, and get pretty much everything we needed at a decent price. Then, we had our daughter, and I started to realize that buying everything at Schnucks was becoming a little too expensive. It just became too much. I then remembered that when I would go grocery shopping with my mom when I was young, she would go to a place called Aldi.

Going to AIdi meant we were "poor". That is what I always thought. I was a dumb kid, and the fact that I wasn't getting brand name cereals, chips or even Pop Tarts, made me think that we just didn't have the money that other families did. Well, I was dead, dead wrong. Now that I do all the grocery shopping, I have become in love with Aldi.

I started to think about going there after our daughter was born, because as I said, groceries were getting to be way too much. So, I decided that I would try out Aldi for everything that we needed, except for protein and veggies. I figured that I could get the off brand cereal, off brand Pop Tarts, off brand chips, all the stuff that I could throw into the pantry and it would last. It was great. On just buying all the non proteins and veggies, we were saving a ton of money, and honestly, we couldn't really tell the difference in taste.

For example, I bought some off brand cool ranch Doritos at Aldi, I think it was Burmann's brand or something like that, and my wife and I ate them, and we couldn't find any real difference. Now, you people need to know that we both love cool ranch Doritos. So, the fact that we found something so similar for almost 1.50 cheaper, it was a game changer. The same thing goes for the cereal and their off brand Pop Tart. Their Cinnamon Toast Crunch, called Cinnamon Crunch, is delicious. My kids love their Marshmallows and Stars, many of you may know that as Lucky Charms. Their Cocoa Rice, or coca Crispies, turn the milk from the cereal into chocolate milk all the same. Their off brand Pop Tarts taste exactly the same as regular Pop Tarts. I literally cannot tell the difference between Pop Tart brand Brown Sugar Cinnamon and Millville brand Brown Sugar Cinnamon. They both taste exactly the same. Same thing goes for Millville's s'mores, blueberry or strawberry. They all taste the same, and they are much, much more cost effective. 

Then, as an almost dare, I, along with my wife, decided we should try the meat and veggies. The veggies were really no problem because we go through veggies in a week. I will say, if you do plan on buying veggies at an Aldi, make sure you eat them within a week or two, or else they may not last. But, as I said, we plow through our veggies. We have one every night with our dinner, and Aldi brand asparagus, canned green beans, canned corn, brussel sprouts, it is all good. Even their fruit is delicious too. My son loves their apples. They sell bags of limes, which we go through fairly quickly weekly, are very good. We love their bananas. It is all good. After going through the veggies, we decided it was time to try proteins there. We were saving so much, and going to Schnucks just to get meat, became tedious. We also talked to a good group of our friends who shop at Aldi, and they all said the meat was fine. So, we decided to try it, and we have not looked back. I get all the protein there. I can buy a 2 pound skirt steak at Aldi for 9 bucks. Two plus pounds of chicken breast is only 3.50. Getting ground beef at Aldi is wonderful. It cooks up real nice, and it is mad cheap. I got three pounds of it this past Monday for only 9 dollars. That is wild.

So now, I pretty much do all of the grocery shopping at Aldi. The only reason I go to a Schnucks or Whole Foods or any other local store is to get the random things I cannot get at Aldi. I am so proud of myself if I am able to get everything I need at Aldi. If I can get it all done in one shot, that is a good day. I need to say, Aldi does not sponsor SeedSing, and this is not meant to be a commercial for them (ed note: yet). I just wanted to give my love to my new favorite grocery store. Also, sorry mom for saying and thinking that we were "poor" when I was kid because you shopped at Aldi. You rule, and so does Aldi. Thank you for showing me the way.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is also a big fan of Aldi because that means Ty always a quarter nearby. It is either in his pocket, or in the little pay slot on the shopping cart.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.