Relief for your grocery bill in Tampa Bay

Well folks, some great relief for our food spending has come to Tampa Bay, and I for one am thrilled! I want to tell you about it if you don't already know, and encourage those of you who live in other places to google and see if there's a store near you. ALDI'S has just come to Tampa this week!!!

We used to have ALDI's when we lived in Ohio and I loved it. I am definitely an ALDI fan. Yesterday was the grand opening at the store in Tampa we went after work last night and did an incredible amount of shopping for at least half of what we would have paid anywhere else and I am not kidding.

Now before any of you say, "I can't do all my shopping there..." Well, neither can I, but I do get a great majority of things there and just fill in the gaps with a few things at another store.

Some of you who have never heard of it may be saying, "what is ALDI'S?" It's an incredibly low-priced grocery store. I'm getting ready to use actual statistical figures about ALDI, not just my own guestimations, so you can get an idea: 95% of their products are their own store brand. They have 90 percent of the foods people buy most, and at prices up to 40 percent below those of conventional supermarkets, analysts say. Aldi has 1,300 to 1,400 items. Other grocery stores tend to sell about 45,000 items, when myriad brands and product sizes are taken into account. But at ALDI's, for instance, you will not have 10 brands of salsa to choose from -- you will simply be offered ALDI'S brand.

Every family has their "name brands" that they don't want to do without and we are no exception. For instance, my husband doesn't like anything but Heinz ketchup, so we never use anything but that. I like Hellman's mayonnaise, especially to make my chicken and shrimp salads and I never use anything else. I use Dove soap, period. But if you're like us, you only have a very few things like this that you "must have" in name brand. I am okay with 95% of my things being store brand. ALDI is FABULOUS for stocking up on things like flour, sugar, butter, (all your baking products), milk, bread, juice, vegetables, and a great many other things. Even if you do not want to get your veggies and meat and such there I really encourage you to check it out for your baking products, and everyday things such as bread and milk and butter. It will save you an incredible amount of money.

If you want to read more about the opening here in Tampa Bay and a little more of what ALDI'S is about, click here.

In case you are wondering, I am not one of those "secret shoppers" nor do I get kickbacks for reviewing ANYTHING here on my blog. I am simply a person that, when finding something valuable, likes to tell my friends. And especially in this time of a difficult economy, I want to help those I love in any way I can. Let me just say my kids were freaking out with joy when I came home after work last night with a huge amount of groceries, with many of their "favorites" that they haven't had in a long time simply because I was not going to pay the price for them right now in this economy. They were screaming over the soft pretzels when they pulled them out of the grocery bag. It's probably been a year since I bought them! Savanna was freaking over her lunchables! (A few name brand things they do sell are Pringles, two kinds of luncheables, and a few varieties of Campbells soups.)

FYI, you do need to take your own grocery bags or pay 10 cents a bag. You also need to bag your own groceries, and carts are 25 cents a piece, and you get your quarter back when you return the cart to the store in the front instead of leaving it in the parking lot. All these things are what keeps their cost low.

Enjoy the savings, my friends!