An Aldi store opened in my town a year or so ago, but I haven't tried it out yet. Old habits die hard I gess. Is there anything that I shouldn't buy from there that you guys know of?
Death Hag
An Aldi store opened in my town a year or so ago, but I haven't tried it out yet. Old habits die hard I gess. Is there anything that I shouldn't buy from there that you guys know of?
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Renowned Death Hag
Yesterday I found 2 Woolite Stomp and go Carpet pads on the clearance rack for $1.49 so I bought a box. Stupid me, I should have bought two!! I brought it home and put it on a cranberry juice stain on my carpent (my mother lives with us and she loves to knock over her glass of juice on a monthly bases). It got the stain out. Went back today to buy the other box and it was gone. Great product.
Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.
It's easier to say what you should buy than what you shouldn't. US Aldis may have different products than German ones, although the few that I have seen back home look very much like ours here.Originally Posted by RosiesRed
In my experience, all of your staples like flour, rice, noodles, etc. Tasty, reasonably priced snack items (yeah I need those like an extra hole in my head). Sometimes products branded "Trader Joe's" show up here and are usually very good. They have some very interesting value-priced wines here and I assume they would in the US as well. Be wary of some of the higher-priced non-food products they advertise to get people into the stores. They are sometimes overpriced and/or poor quality.
Fresh fruits and veg and fresh meat are not really their specialty here. Not bad, just not much selection.
Do check prices. Just because it is Aldi doesn't mean everything is cheap - but you know that.
Do they sell German beer in the US Aldis? That would be worth a try.
Oh and they have questionable labor practices and some of their non-food items come from third-world manufacturers with questionable labor practices. But this is true of a lot of companies.
The only thing I don't like about Aldi is that they don't stay open late. It's been a while since I've shopped there because I like to grocery shop at offbeat times when it isn't so crowded. I've liked everything that I've bought from there. Like Rosebud mentioned, they don't have much of a selection of meat or produce, but what they have is good. Their store brand yogurt is better than Yoplait or Dannon. You have to bag up your own groceries. The cashier rings up your purchases and puts it back in your cart. You take it to a counter top looking thing in the front of the store and bags aren't provided. You can purchase the reusable bags from them or put your stuff in boxes that they have. It's a little more hassle, but they do have good prices on their items. It isn't a place that you can likely do all of your grocery shopping because their selection is limited.
Administrator
LOL. You have to bring or buy bags and bag your own groceries everywhere in Germany. I'd forgotten how much of a culture shock that is.
When they started out, the Aldi stores sold no fresh produce or meat at all, and no name-brand products. Back then there were also still a lot more separate butchers' shops and weekly farmers' markets. They started selling fresh stuff some twenty years ago in order to compete more with the larger supermarkets, and all of the discount chains started adding more and more brand names for the same reason shortly thereafter.
Really? I never knew that. Nearly everywhere around here bags up your groceries.
Death Hag
Thanks for the tips guys. I'll definitely check it out. Hubby and I have been saying we're going to go there but haven't gotten around to it. I'm a big bargain shopper (although not much a couponer, too lazy for that) but the only other bargain store we have in town is FILTHY! Went there once years ago. Never again.
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Renowned Death Hag
Do they still charge a few cents (euros?) for grocery bags in Germany? When I lived there in the late 80's you had to pay like a few cents if you needed a grocery bag. Most Germans brought their own bags to stores that's why they charged for the plastic grocery bags.
Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.
Yes bags are still extra, and if you bring your own, some large supermarkets will try to make you check them at the information counter because they are afraid of shoplifting.
Shopping carts almost everywhere are tethered to one another by chain locks. In order to take a cart, you have to insert a 1 Euro coin in the lock as a deposit, which you only get back when you return the cart and lock it up again. Very annoying - but it does seem to have cut down on stray shopping carts.
Renowned Death Hag
On one of our first road trips in Germany, my ex husband and I stopped at a service area to stretch our legs and visit the "private conveniences". I was shocked to discover that I had to pay for toilet paper!! They had it in a little machine (not unlike the feminen products machine) and it came out in little packets. LOL. Can you imagine what that would be like for a person who really, really, really needed to go? LOL. I can seem them bobbing the change and dropping it before they could get into the machine because they have to go so bad.
Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.
I haven't encountered "pay-to-wipe", but "pay-to-go" is fairly common here, especially along the Autobahn and in large department stores/shopping centers. Some have a coin-operated lock on the door, but most have a turnstile that controls access to the entire bathroom area. A few have a human bathroom attendant who will scowl at you if you don't leave at least 50 cents in the tip plate.
Renowned Death Hag
I've seen that woman in Kauhof in Munich, the one who scowls when you don't leave a tip in the ladies room. She's still around is she?I haven't encountered "pay-to-wipe", but "pay-to-go" is fairly common here, especially along the Autobahn and in large department stores/shopping centers. Some have a coin-operated lock on the door, but most have a turnstile that controls access to the entire bathroom area. A few have a human bathroom attendant who will scowl at you if you don't leave at least 50 cents in the tip plate.
Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.
OMG, you have to tip someone to take a shit? What is the purpose of a bathroom attendant? This old redneck needs to get out more! If I have to tip someone to use the toilet then she better coming running in to wipe my ass when I holler "I'm done!"
Renowned Death Hag
LOL. Well in Germany you do.
Actually, what I experienced was the attendent essentially kept the bathroom clean. One store I was in, the bathroom attendent would go into each stall, after the patrons had left and just clean it up a little (mop the floor, brush the toilets). She also wiped down the counters after each person washed their hands that kind thing. But it's no wonder why they scowl, imagine having to spend your work day in the dumper?
Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.
I've been in Kaufhof in Munich, but I've never shit there, so I wouldn't know. But I can highly recommend the WC at the Deutsches Museum.I've seen that woman in Kauhof in Munich, the one who scowls when you don't leave a tip in the ladies room. She's still around is she?
The bathrooms are very clean, Mammy. Not New York City office building/restaurant clean (with a little bottle of cologne for the apres-shithouse spritz or an attendant who hands you a fresh towel), but clean-enough-for-all-practical-purposes clean.
They installed a pay-to-go turnstile in the bathrooms at the main train station here in Goettingen. It really cut down on the number of dead junkies there. I guess now they go somewhere else to fix and die.
Administrator
At the first Walmart built in the City back in the 80s or 90s, you had to put 10 cents in a slot thingy to enter a stall. Mama and me went in one day and somebody had written on the outside of a stall door something like "I paid a dime to take a shit but all I had to do was fart." We laughed our asses off.
Last edited by cindyt; 10-03-2012 at 07:00 PM.
LOL....it reminds of that saying " Here I sit all broken hearted, tried to Sh**, but only farted.At the first Walmart built in the City back in the 80s or 90s, you had to put 10 cents in a slot thingy to enter a stall. Mama and me went in one day and somebody had written on the outside of a stall door something like "I paid a dime to take a shit but all I had to do was fart." We laughed our asses off.
At the first Walmart built in the City back in the 80s or 90s, you had to put 10 cents in a slot thingy to enter a stall. Mama and me went in one day and somebody had written on the outside of a stall door something like "I paid a dime to take a shit but all I had to do was fart." We laughed our asses off.
IIRC, as recently as the 1970s, the Boy Scout's Handbook included dimes in the list of things that every scout should carry with him at all times. After all, you never know when you might have to answer nature's call or make an emergency phone call.
I wonder what percentage of today's kids would understand the idiom "to drop a dime on someone".
Hell, I'm 44 years old and didn't know where the phrase came from.
Ahahahaha! I saw something similar on a wall once when they had pay stalls in G.C. Murphy: "Pretty damn bad when someone has to pay a quarter to take a shit."At the first Walmart built in the City back in the 80s or 90s, you had to put 10 cents in a slot thingy to enter a stall. Mama and me went in one day and somebody had written on the outside of a stall door something like "I paid a dime to take a shit but all I had to do was fart." We laughed our asses off.
Member
I did. But I'm an old fart.
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I'm not that much older than you, but maybe I was exposed to more cheap crime fiction at an early age.
I like to listen to the old Dragnet radio series, and it amuses me to no end when they ask some citizen if they can use their phone to check in with the office.
Once they even went to interview a suspect (who they found dead, a suicide) at his home, and just then the phone rings and it's their office on the line with an important message. Holy Saint Michael! They've got a radio in their car, don't they? I guess that's only for important stuff. Somebody get these guys some cheap cellphones!
Renowned Death Hag
I remember that from Dragnet. I was very young when it was out but I do remember the police asking if someone had a phone so that they could check in with the office. Today, if a cop asked me that, I'd have to say, "you have your own phone... what are my taxes paying for exactly?" But I'm sarcastic that way...
Thinking of cheap cell phones, I do like my Tracfone. No, I don't have an iPhone (too expensive for as much as I'd use it) and I'm not the type of person who's on the phone at all hours. I swear, about 50% of the drivers around here are talking on the phone and not paying attention. I guess I'm a little touchy as I almost got hit by one yesterday. But anyway... if you use it judiciously, it's only $20 every three months to keep it activated. It all depends on how much you use it. Prices go up for how many minutes you buy. The later phones come with a "double minute" feature. You pay for 100 minutes, you get 200.
I also like the Aldi around here. I don't like it that they don't take credit cards. I somehow don't have a debit card so I have to get cash on the way from the bank. But I do like their cheap dishwashing detergent, called Reeva. I don't think I'd use the laundry detergent but the dishwashing detergent is just fine.
As Rosebudd said, watch the prices, in some cases Walmart is cheaper.
In Loving Memory of Timothy Houdek, October 22, 1969 - January 8, 2013
My awesome dad: Harry Houdek, September 8, 1933 - November 20, 2013
Words can't convey how much I miss you both. RIP with love.
Don't know if this has been mentioned or not......
For those of you who are Scentsy nuts (those scented wax cubes that you melt), I've found a cheaper alternative that I,personally, think smell sooo much better and last a lot longer. It's the Scentsational wax cubes sold at Wal-Mart. They come in a ton of different scents and are only $2 compared to $6 for a bar. I buy the different scents like they're candy so I can change my household scent at a whim and not feel guilty about it because they're cheap.
Another thing I've started doing to save money on air-fresheners, candles, etc. is starting to kind of make my own. Basically, I add stuff to one of my old crockpots and turn it up with the lid off. You could do the same on the stove. One of my favorites is lemon slices, lavender and vanilla mixed with water in the crockpot and recently I made a concoction with a bunch of pine needles off my pine trees and a little bit of cinnamon. When you're done with it for the day you can bottle it up in a jar and it stores well too.
Renowned Death Hag
The best concealer that's not $4,580 bucks...."Hard Candy- Glamoflage" Best heavy duty coverage for 6 dollars & I've tried them all. Comes in 3 shades, Walmart sells it.
Member
I love Febreze and even found a really good deal on it recently. Got one of everything that time, lol. But this idea of yours sounds good too - especially when having guests over and not wanting to spend time fussing with air fresheners. And the pine needle/cinnamon scent combination sounds divine! I've got a pine tree at the too of the hill in the backyard too.
I also buy little bottles of scented oils in Fred Meyer's health nut section. It's the only place I can get them here and each bottle runs from three to seven bucks. They're high quality and last a long time too. They'll probably work for this too since nothing grows here in winter, lol. Too damned cold.
I also use them to make my own fancy schmany scented liquid soap for hands and body. I just buy one of the 1/2 gallon sized bottles of unscented store brand moisturizing liquid soaps refill the empties and add some drops of the oil to them. Shake 'em up and voila. Smellicious hand, dish and bodywash for about a dollar per refill.
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The pine needle one was nice because it was subtle and not "gas-station bathroom pine". It just smelled really fresh. The best was when my husband peeked into the crockpot thinking I was making dinner and gave me the weirdest "this bitch has finally gone crazy" look!
LLC, I ADORE the Glamoflage! That stuff will conceal anything. Even tatoos and yet, as thick as it is, it doesn't look cakey at all! My tube is nearly gone and I've had it for a year so it really goes a long way.
Member
LOL @ the look from your husband.
I' d be interested im trying the Glamazon stuff. But most of those things that look nice on other people don't work well on me for some reason. The only concealer that isn't really a concealer but works for me on the cheap in Almay's Smart Shade foundation mixed with a little eye cream then dotted around the eye area. It's one of those that starts out white and then matches your skintone with about 30 seconds. The eye cream keeps it looking natural and moisturizes. The Almay Smart Shade line also has sunscreen. Hard to find in eye products. They have a concealer too but I like their foundation better for this.
Does Glamazon come in a liquid form or is it more of a lipstick-like tube thingy?
Last edited by SomeChick; 10-26-2012 at 03:27 PM.
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Renowned Death Hag
Glamoflage comes in a tube, it's a creamy concealer. A little goes a long way. It also comes with a pencil sort of mini stick which is also a concealer. I love them both. And Min approves!
Member
Thanks, my celeb snark partner in crime. I'll check it out.
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Min does definetly approve! LOL! Hard Candy actually has a lot of higher end cosmetics at a Wal-Mart price. I use a lot of it.
What's cheaper than cheap? Ice cheap . . . mmmm . . . I mean FREE.
As in free audio and e-books.
Someone asked months ago about where to find podcasts etc. for her morning commute. I haven't forgotten you, I'm just slow like that.
This site has hundreds, maybe even thousands of free, downloadable audio and e-books of all kinds, fiction and non-fiction, all in the public domain.
http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/Top_100
They have plenty of deathhag content too. Right now I'm listening to "Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology" (1922) by W.G. Aitchison Robertson.
http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/boo...and-Toxicology
Senior Death Hag
Wow Rosbud, thanks! That sight is great! It makes my nerdy self feel so... so... bad...so dirty!
Here's one I use to download Old Radio shows
http://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio
Archer Fact: You canâ??t tourniquet the taint. (Source: Ray Gillette)
I especially like Dr. Aitchison Robertson's first piece of advice to budding expert medical witnesses - if at all possible, collect your fee before testifying.
Renowned Death Hag
What's cheaper than cheap? Ice cheap . . . mmmm . . . I mean FREE.
As in free audio and e-books.
Someone asked months ago about where to find podcasts etc. for her morning commute. I haven't forgotten you, I'm just slow like that.
This site has hundreds, maybe even thousands of free, downloadable audio and e-books of all kinds, fiction and non-fiction, all in the public domain.
http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/Top_100
They have plenty of deathhag content too. Right now I'm listening to "Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology" (1922) by W.G. Aitchison Robertson.
http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/boo...and-Toxicology
Thanks for the info on both of these sites. Great stuff.
John Trim On Face Book
On the internet you can be anything you want.
It is strange that so many people choose to be stupid.
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Death Hag
for anyone who uses makeup primer (i used to use smashbox primer at 40 bucks a small tube) you can totally substitute it with monostat chafing gel (6 bucks for a big tube). lol. everytime i buy the monostat i feel the need to tell the clerk it's for my face not so my thighs don't chafe when i walk. same ingredients!
I've heard this before! Unfortunately I DO need it for chafing but good to know I can put it on my face as well! LOL!
Renowned Death Hag
I use it too! Lol, Min! Just slap that shit everywhere, it's fabulous.
Death Hag Extraordinaire
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/hot-s...153427167.html
Will this be good or bad in the long run?
Since my new carpet is lighter in color (I think they call the color "cashew"), I wanted to find a good carpet cleaner for the occasional house tiger barf/accident between professional cleanings without spending a king's ransom. Resolve was OK, but didn't really do the job well as I'd liked.
I was in Dollar Tree the other day and they have Home Store carpet cleaning foam - for one dollar, of course (plus tax). Figured I'd only lose $1.07 if it didn't do the job either. Put foam over the spots, rub with a sponge, let dry, and vacuum. Lo and behold, when Spanky puked last night after eating like it was his final meal, the Home Store foam cleaned the spot up without much effort! I can't even tell now where he barfed. I'm going back this weekend to pick up a few more cans.
Renowned Death Hag
I'm glad you posted this. Resolve is useless on my berber carpet. My 14 year old has some interesting stains on her bedroom floor. I'm gonna try this out.
You know what irritates me? I'll find something that I really like at the Dollar Tree and will go back to buy more and they no longer have it and I never find it again. It never fails.
Which is why I'm stocking up on more of that carpet cleaning foam while they still have it.
Renowned Death Hag
Yep. I think it is because they get stuff on close out that is not being manufactured anymore.
I''m sure you're right, Big Lots is the same way. If I find something I like, I hoard that shit like crazy.
Cheap makeup counts, right? I use E.L.F.
A bottle of foundation was $3 and a concealer stick was a buck.
Heck yeah! If it's cheap, it counts. For a long time, Dollar Tree sold Bonne Bell cosmetics which was a well known brand when I was in high school. I loved buying it for only $1. They no longer sell that brand there now.
I love my E.L.F. brand make up.
Found something that nicely cleans the tub/shower! Fill spray bottle halfway with white vinegar, heat in microwave, and then fill rest of way with original Dawn dish liquid. Spray in shower/tub, let sit a few minutes, rinse with warm water. Gunk comes off immediately! (Wipe any stubborn residue with cleaning cloth).
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