Whenever I go shopping, I always make it my mission to get some sort of discount, deal or special offer. I avoid paying full price wherever possible. I love to shop smart, and really want to maximise discounts whenever I do shop – who doesn’t?!
I absolutely love sharing my top tips, tricks and strategies with you, and the other members of Chloe’s Deal Club, so that we can join forces to help each other save as much money as possible.
Today I’m going to share some of the ways to save money at Aldi. It’s harder to find a discount here, compared to other supermarkets, but that’s partly because their prices are already very competitive and they don’t have a loyalty app or discount card – though it has been rumoured that they may have one in the works. I’m keeping everything crossed this happens for us soon!
The ways to save money at Aldi are a little limited but I’m going to pull together the best tips in this post to hopefully help you save a few pounds on your groceries. With grocery spending being such a large part of household bills, even the small savings can add up significantly across the year.
Being able to save money on groceries will be different from store to store, and Aldi is definitely one of the trickier places to get an extra deal or discount. However, on the flip side, Aldi is typically the cheapest supermarket so you’re already saving money when you shop in store versus the big 4 supermarkets (Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons). However you can read more about how to save money at Asda here.
How to save money at Aldi
Check in-store for reductions
The reduction times for Aldi stores vary from store to store, but if you’re an early shopper then you can typically expect to find reductions of 30% when the store first opens. These reductions are typically on the shelf where the product is usually found. For example, discounted mince would be placed on top of the later dated items and there would be a large sticker over the front to indicate it’s reduced.
Throughout the day items will then be discounted to 50% of the original price or as high as 75% of the original price towards closing time, typically around 1 hour before closing – which is a great time to visit to save money at Aldi.
If you can’t see any reductions in your local store then be bold and speak to the staff – after all, if you don’t ask you don’t get! They typically reduce goods on the shelf where they live but selected stores will have a section specifically for reductions.
Buy ‘Magic Bags’ from TooGoodToGo
The TooGoodToGo app, an app designed to help stores cut food waste, has magic bags for sale from Aldi – so it’s a fun way to save money at Aldi. You’ll pay around £3.30 for Aldi Magic Bags and be expected to receive at least £10 worth of goods. I recently tried this out for myself, to check what types of foods you receive, and I had a mixture of fruit, vegetables, salad, meat and bakery products totalling a value of £14.30, although one of the items was too far past its best to be used.
The contents of these bags are varied, depending on what the store has to get rid of that day, but generally Aldi seems to be quite good at trying to provide a mixture of items from different categories. While most items have a use-by or best-before date of the day you collect the Magic Bag you may also find other items in the bag – which is often a produce tray – that are dented or cosmetically damaged.
The downside to these bags is that they usually need to be collected close to closing time, as the store will want to wait to see if they’ve sold their reductions before making up the magic bags in-store. This can mean that cancellations come through at short notice so try to think of this like a game of Ready Steady Cook rather than a guaranteed way to cut down your grocery bill.
Shop from the Super 6 and Super Weekly Offers
Aldi offers discounted fruit and vegetables every fortnight, known as the Super 6 in store. This popular offer will allow you to choose from a range of 6 different fruit or vegetable items. The offers change every 2 weeks which is great if you’re a fan of diversifying your diet and eating as many different plants as possible.
The items within the range are often a mixture of in-season British produce and more exotic fruits and vegetables, depending on the time of year.
For an example of the Super 6, in August 2024, there were 2 packs of sweetcorn for 69p, 450g of vine tomatoes for £1.19, 100g of spring onions for 39p, 400g of closed cup mushrooms for 89p, 6 Pink Lady apples for £1.69 and 2 packs of pointed sweet peppers for 89p.
You can find the Super 6 details online and this can be great to meal plan with. If there is a particular produce item on a great deal you could always prepare it and freeze it for use in later months.
Aldi also have Super Weekly Offers, which are typically on meat and fish. You’ll often find a mixture of unprepared raw meats and fish plus a variety of prepared marinated raw meats and fish in this range. If you’re looking for a low effort meal plan, or don’t have much time to prep food yourself, then this selection of weekly offers will be perfect for you.
Check out the Aldi dupes
Aldi is well known for its legal battles with other supermarkets, including Marks & Spencer, in particular for selling products that are very similar in look, taste or packet design to those sold from other supermarkets. Some might even say they’re on the cusp of being pure copies sometimes, but I’m saying nothing!
These products are designed as an alternative to branded items, or a “dupe” of well-known branded products. You may find that some of the time the quality is a little lower, or the product has less of a luxurious look or feel, but by choosing these dupes you can achieve a considerable saving versus branded items.
Aldi has a wide range of food and drink dupes, for a whole host of well-known household brands. You’ll typically find items look similar in appearance, or have a similar name. Professor Peppy anyone?
They’re well-known for having a range of excellent beauty Specialbuys (their dupes!) which changes frequently. Some of the more recent additions were Lip Kits and Ionic hair dryers.
In the past users have claimed that their perfumes are similar to brands such as Jo Malone, Thierry Mugler Alien, YSL Black Opium, Paco Rabanne Lady Million, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle, Dior Sauvage and Lancome Le Via Eat Belle plus a whole host more. I regularly buy these Hotel Collection perfumes as the scents are beautiful and actually last all day – the Poppy & Barley one is my favourite in the range.
While you may find that the staying power of these dupe perfumes is not as long, the price difference is significant. With savings of more than 75% you can reapply multiple times throughout the day and you’ll still be making a large saving against the branded items.
You may find that the packaging of these perfumes are a little more basic compared to the bright, bold packaging and recognisable fronts that branded products often have but this helps to keep the purchase price low and the actual scent is the main thing when it comes to perfume isn’t it.
Try to avoid the middle aisle
When shopping in Aldi the middle of the store is typically where you find the dupes, special offers and time-limited products. You’ll find goods such as imported food, camping items, toys, clothes, plants, kitchen goods, beauty electricals and more.
The benefit of these items being in the middle of the store is that it’s quite simple to avoid that area. The bulk of the groceries are located around the outside of the store, with selected categories such as hot drinks or pet food being at the end of the middle aisles.
While you may find some great products, deals and offers, in the middle aisle if you’re not looking to purchase a specific item, or don’t have the leeway in your grocery budget, then I’d recommend you avoid browsing this area completely.
Aldi’s Specialbuys can be viewed on their website, in-store via a leaflet or by using the Specialbuys app. Aldi claim that these items are unique and exciting – which often they are! I’ve seen a range of amazing dupe products in recent years and they don’t tend to last in-store for long so if you do see a must have item then I’d suggest getting to your local Aldi as close to opening time as you can.
Pay for your shopping with a gift card
Companies such as JamDoughnut and everup will reward you with cashback when you purchase a gift card – and this is one of my favourite money saving hacks! You’ll also find them available to purchase via TopCashback or Quidco’s gift card sections too, and best of all you’ll receive instant cashback.
While Aldi is not consistently available to earn cashback from on these cashback apps and websites, you may find that they offer other incentives such as prize draw entries or points to play games with real cash prizes, which will help you save money at Aldi.
Purchasing a gift card through everup will allow you to receive points for the in-app games. A recent offering was 90,000 points for every £1 spent, on Aldi gift cards. If you did a £100 Aldi food shop, and used a gift card purchased through this app you would earn 9,000,000 coins to use on the free everup games.
I tested out redeeming 9,000,000 of my own coins for spins on the Cashback+ Spin To Win game in the everup app. I received 18 spins, 500,000 each, and they earned me a total of £2.54 in winnings. This represents a 2.54% cashback rate for purchasing a gift card and making a purchase I would be making anyway, though this is purely down to chance of course.
If you were to earn a rate of 2.54%, or close to this, back on each shop you make in Aldi then you would have enough cashback for a FREE food shop every year! This is a considerable amount of money when you add up all the small amounts and shows how quickly cashback builds up – so let this be your sign to start using cashback to save money at Aldi.
Purchasing a gift card on JamDoughnut will enter you into a free prize draw to win back the full value of your purchase – this is currently the only way to save money at Aldi via JamDoughnut. If you purchase a gift card you’ll receive a free entry into their Win It Back Promotion. During a live stream, hosted on weekdays at 4pm, selected members of the app will win back up to 100% of their spend.
Use Airtime (previously known as Airtime Rewards)
The Airtime app is a cashback app that allows you to earn money back on purchases that you make, in-store or online, and then you can redeem the earned cashback against your mobile phone bill.
You link your UK bank cards, such as Visa and Mastercard, to the Airtime app, and then it’ll automatically track purchases that you make, in your day-to-day life, and reward you for those spends accordingly.
Aldi occasionally makes an appearance on Airtime; however, it seems to be a limited offer that is only available to selected customers, for unknown reasons, and not available to all users of the Airtime app. It may be that they’re targeting customers that haven’t made a purchase at Aldi for a number of weeks or months.
Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to earn cashback at Aldi through Airtime, although annoyingly it’s just been taken off my Airtime. The base rate was set at 1% of all purchases made in-store and 2% cashback if I spent £40 or more in a single transaction so it was an easy way to save money at Aldi. I was glad to see Aldi is back on Airtime but wish it was available to all customers and not a specific data set of customers, though that is part of the business model of Airtime.
You’ll receive cashback typically ranging from 1% to 20%, depending on the retailer. This is a great way to earn a little cashback without having to put any thought in, or remembering to click through from a website or app, before you make a purchase.
This cashback may take up to 90 days to become payable, so it’s not a get rich quick scheme, or instant cashback like purchasing gift cards can be, but it soon adds up and means that I never have to pay a mobile phone bill these days.
Earn cashback with Chase
Chase offers a cashback debit card, which will reward you with 1% cashback when you use the card for your everyday spends – this is the most consistent way to save money at Aldi and it’s a bank account I use. Simply tap or swipe the debit card, as you would any other debit or credit card, and you’ll then automatically receive 1% cashback, up to a maximum of £15 a month.
This is a great way to make a small bit of money back on your groceries but also on any other purchases that you would be making anyway such as shopping, your summer holiday, or days out with your family. You could even use a kids eat free offer for lunch out somewhere nice and then pick up some of the mini pizzas from Aldi and have your little ones decorate those for dinner.
Use click & collect to stick to your budget
Selected Aldi stores have a click & collect service available. There is a fee of £4.99 for the service but if you’re prone to impulse purchases when shopping in-store this can be a great way to stick to your budget, meal plan for the week ahead and only pick up the items you actually need to buy, so it could help you save money at Aldi.
The number of stores offering click & collect is limited, and the range of goods available may be lower than what’s available in-store, but online shopping can be a fantastic tool if you’re prone to overspending or have a specific budget in mind.
You can still save money at Aldi if you use my tips, despite the absence of a loyalty app or discount scheme. You won’t find much opportunity for free products, and there are no loyalty points to earn, but Aldi is already very competitively priced, and is frequently the cheapest supermarket in the UK.
The Super Weekly Offers, Aldi’s own brand products, and making use of the Super 6 fruit and vegetables offers can all help with meal planning and batch cooking too.
I’ve been a big fan of the Specialbuys in recent years, with many being fantastic products and very similar to high-end brands – for a fraction of the price. The beauty products are often great quality, and their perfume dupes are brilliant for saving money too. I find stock is quite limited on the very best items so visit early on launch day if you can.