Aldi hacks to help beat system and save money on weekly shop

With the evidence mounting, it’s about time this lazy grocery shopper joined the savvy lot at Aldi, writes Julie Cross.

Opinion: My friend joined a cult a few months ago - the cult of Aldi that is.

She was previously a dedicated customer of Woolies.

But ever since she made the switch, she’s been waxing lyrical about the price of Aldi cheese or how the yoghurt is actually the same as a well-known branded version, but obviously much, much cheaper.

Yes, she is fanatical.

Like Kmart, Aldi has some serious devotees, some of whom spend a lot of time on social media cheering each other on.

Now I’m wishing I joined the cult earlier or one of their Facebook groups at least - Aldi Fans Australia has 90,000 followers - because this week I realised just how much my laziness has cost me.

Choice supplied graphic showing grocery supermarket specials.

New research out on Thursday by the consumer advocacy group Choice, found a basket of Aldi groceries was $18 cheaper when compared with the same items sold at Coles and Woolies. I was left wondering how much I would save with a big trolley full? I phoned a friend - the Aldi devotee, of course - to find out. She whooped with delight when I told her the information was needed for my column. And, the savings; anything between $50 to $80 a week.

She also insisted on giving me her failsafe hack for beating the system.

She creates an online shopping order with Woolies, then she goes to Aldi. If it’s cheaper she buys it from Aldi, deleting the item from the online order. If it’s not cheaper, she leaves it in the online basket. At the end of her shop, if there are any items left in her online Woolies basket she presses the order button and it is delivered to her door within 24 hours. Voila.

Any loyalty I had for my current choice of supermarket disappeared this week when it was revealed that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) was suing Coles and Woolworths for allegedly duping customers for years over ‘misleading discounts’.

It’s a pretty sly trick, exposed with the help of Reddit users, who religiously recorded the prices of items over a long period of time.

And it put paid to the dopamine hit I used to get when I checked how much I had saved at the bottom of the receipt.

I think it’s time for a shopping revolution. I’ll meet you in the yoghurt aisle in Aldi.

Feel free to add in your shopping hacks in the comments below.