Every Lidl bit helps!!

Now we have got the Newark Election out of the way, the discussions will resume.........usual topics on economy, cost of living and austerity.

None of us are immune to the impact of things which seem beyond our control.  However do we have any way of improving our positions?

Well we were very surprised to see just what you can do if you are prepared to change habits of a lifetime!

For years we have been going to Sainsburys to do our weekly shop.  Its convenient, staff are pleasant, the store is well laid out and roomy.  We also occasionally use other big name supermarkets.  Over the past few weeks we have noticed that our weekly shop on regular items has increased.  The total spend has been increasing steadily despite taking advantage of offers.  We reckoned we are now spending about £120 per week on average.
This seems to be too high considering what we have bought on staple items and not being extravagant.

The papers have been full of comments about smaller outfits such as Aldi and Lidl making inroads into the big names business. There has also been extensive marketing of Lidl and Aldi demonstrating what you can save.  So we decided to check out our local Lidl.

Certainly the shop is smaller, the aisles cramped and presentation of products is quite rudimentary. You do not get many alternatives or brand names for same product. There is good choice of meat, chicken, fruit and veg and freshly baked bread.

We have done our weekly shop here over the past 3 weeks and we have been pleasantly surprised.  The quality of the products has been excellent - there are only a few items which we couldn't obtain here..........and ............we have saved £50 per week!!!  Now this is certainly worth having!!

Okay the shopping experience may not be quite as pleasant but we have concluded that this is small cheese compared with the considerable savings.

I am only annoyed we didn't consider this alternative before!!

When we mention our little shopping project we have noticed that some people are quite snobbish about where they shop and say that you can't get the quality.......well you can  - and well more fool them!!

We can do something about our cost of living!!!