Supercharge Your Savings at ALDI: Price Matching

We’ve already seen how ALDI’s weekly specials and double guarantee can score you huge savings and provide you risk free shopping. However, ALDI can work for you in another strategic way. Most of the time you’ll have a hard time finding a lower price than ALDI, so why not transfer their unbeatable prices to your local stores? It may save you time, money, and gas (especially if there’s no ALDI near you). Here’s how.

Price Matching vs. Couponing

Price matching has become popular nowadays, kind of like couponing. But couponing takes a lot of work. You have to create the good deal scanning through online ads and flipping through newspapers, cutting or printing out those little pieces of paper, attempting to keep them all organized in file boxes, and trying to double or triple them up so you can save more than 50¢ off Cheerios. Now, don’t get me wrong, Al and I will gladly use a coupon to get a better deal, and 50¢ or however much you save couponing is that many more crumbs in your pocket. But I think that’s a lot work!

And that’s the beauty of the ALDI price match. ALDI hands you a low price and all you have to do is take it to your local store for them to match it. Sure, you may not walk out with Pizza Pockets for free or pudding cups for 10¢, but for those of us who are already running around like decapitated chickens, we’ll still save a lot of money and definitely save a lot of valuable time. And the biggest bonus? You’ll get exceptionally low prices on items you’ll rarely find coupons for – like fresh produce. And wouldn’t you rather spend more of your money on foods like that, instead of all that processed stuff?

Before the Match

1. Check out the options
Of course, not every store will price match. Just like not every store will accept coupons. But there are enough out there, that you can score some pretty good deals. We mostly price match at Walmart and Home Depot because of their locality and also because they usually have the things we’re looking for. But as you can see below, there are quite a few others.  Of course, I’m sure there are many more, so if you’re wondering about your favorite store, check out their website, and you might be surprised!

2. Read the fine print
Most stores realize that this price matching thing could quickly get out of hand. So they have set up some pretty detailed guidelines that you would be well to check before attempting a mass assault. (You can click on the store images above for each of their specific guidelines.) Perhaps the most important point to keep in mind is that the item usually has to be identical. Same product (including brand and size) and sold in same increments. For example, at Walmart you could not price match ALDI toilet paper with Charmin, or ALDI 3-pack green bell peppers with Walmart’s single priced bell peppers. But if pineapples are 99¢ each at ALDI, hop over to your local Walmart for a perfect price match!

What to Price Match

1. Name brands
This is a bit harder to do since ALDI carries a lot of their own private labels. However, check out their circular each week and you will often find name brands in the Special Buys. For example, with spring coming, Al needed weed killer and planned to buy it on sale at Home Depot. As we were perusing the ALDI ad online, we noticed Spectracide weed killer on sale for a dollar less than Home Depot’s sale price. Maybe it was only $1, but after the 10% off by using a discounted Home Depot gift card, we saved over 25% with minimal effort.

2. Produce
Not only does ALDI usually beat everyone else’s food prices out of the water, but produce is one of their easiest products to price match. Why? You don’t have to worry about brands. Carrots are carrots and avocados are avocados, you just need to make sure they’re being sold in equivalent quantities.

When to Price Match

1. To save gas
In a previous post entitled 5 Steps to Find a Grocery Store That Saves You Money, we mentioned how distance can and should be a determining factor for which store will save you the most money. ALDI’s distance is right on the borderline for us. It’s about 20 minutes from home and the only store in its area that we patronage. So if we need to stock up, we make the drive and the savings are definitely worth the gas. However, if we happen to see just one or two items on sale that we want, we saunter down to our local Walmart (which happens to be down the street from my work) and take advantage of their convenient price match.

2. To increase your savings
What’s better than a price match? A price match where you get more than originally advertised. And what do I mean by that? Let’s take the pineapples as an example. You already know that our ALDI sells pineapples on special for 99¢. However, their pineapples tend to be a little on the stunted side. In fact, some are outright TINY! But no worries. Price match at Walmart and I get a hefty, full-grown pineapple that is about double the size, can feed my family for a week, and is 99¢! Congratulations, you just doubled your savings!

So don’t waste any more time being content to shop anywhere else. And if you don’t have an ALDI near you, start campaigning for one in your area. Not only will you be saving the crumbs in your budget, but soon you will see those crumbs stack up into significant savings going back into your wallet!

Why ALDI Should Be Your Best Friend
Supercharge Your Savings at ALDI: Part 1 – Weekly Specials
Supercharge Your Savings at ALDI: Part 2 – Double Guarantee