Pleasant surprise at the till

I went to Aldi and Lidl on the way home last night to stock up for Pancake Tuesday, and was taken aback (in a good way!) by the total cost of my basket in each shop.

Aldi:

• 2 bunches of asparagus
• 2 punnets of strawberries
• 1 bag of cashew nuts, 175g

Total cost: €4.95

Lidl:

• 2 litres milk
• Bag of organic Fairtrade bananas
• Large tub of  natural yogurt
• 6 free range eggs
• 3 lemons

Total cost: €6

Both times I thought I’d been undercharged and checked my receipts, and also had a brief hallucination that I’d been transported back in time to about 1988. But they were all correct.

By the way, I mention free range, organic and fairtrade not to be all holier-than-thou about it (the strawberries had some serious airmiles on them so it’s not a guilt-free shop), but just to make the point that we usually expect these goods to be considerably more expensive.  It really shows that there is good value out there and that it’s not hard to find.