Comparing Aldi and Wegmans / Instacart Prices

Is it worth my time to shop at both Aldi and Wegmans?

With a family of five, (six when my oldest is home from school) I am always interested in getting the best value for our food budget. We eat fairly healthy, and I cook nearly all of our meals at home. 

I am fortunate to have several supermarkets in close driving range from home. I primarily tend to go to Aldi, Wegmans, and BJ's for my weekly food shopping. 

Downloading the Wegmans app and putting my shopping list on the app has helped me to stick with my list and not buy random items as I shop.  Knowing how much my list will come to (approximately, anyways)has helped to tame my grocery bill. 

Locally, Wegmans and Aldi are located conveniently right next to each other. When I have time, I will go to Aldi first, and get what I can from my list, moving on afterwards to Wegmans to finish my shopping.

I knew I was saving some money, but I took a recent small shopping trip to Aldi and did a comparison of what the same items would have cost me at Aldi.

Comparing Aldi and Wegmans prices

Aldi receipt for 24 items= $32.33

I entered the same (as closely as possible) items into my list on the Wegmans app.  The total would have been $49.15. I saved $16.82 by shopping at Aldi instead of Wegmans! I estimate that I spent 20 minutes in the store.

List of 24 similar items at Wegmans.

I did a check to see what these same items would have cost if I had ordered these same items using Instacart.  The total for 24 items would have been $57.38. The additional cost to have the items shopped for me would be $8.23. The difference in price between Aldi and Instacart was $25.05!  It was definitely worth my time to go to Aldi and pick up these items. Unfortunately, there are some items I will have to go to Wegmans to find when doing my weekly shopping, as they are not available at Aldi.

Is Instacart Worth It?

  For someone in a hurry, maybe with small children, this may be a difference worth paying. I have used Instacart in the past, but was discouraged when I had to be available online when my items were being shopped for, and I was working!  On my last order of 57 items, 7 were unavailable, leading me to have to go into the store myself.

What do you do to help tame your shopping list?