I was just going through the last of the items we bought for Christmas - inevitably, there a biscuit tin still left, but all the chocolate gone! - and we commented about what we'd bought from Aldi. We realised that we bought basically our entire Christmas dinner from there, and it tasted as good, if not better, than previous years. Medium free range turkey - £25 - great flavour, all the veg (the sprouts on a stalk were bought the Monday before Xmas - 23/12 - and we just used the last of them for this Sunday's roast, still perfectly crisp and tasty). We bought a large number of party items - the duck crispy 'stick' things with a dipping sauce from the chiller cabinet were amazing! All the hams and meats, cheeses etc - really lovely. Christmas cake, luxury mince pies, stollen, nuts - the lot.
On a weekly basis, we get the full shop from there now, and their free range meats (especially chicken) are great tasting, and significantly cheaper than the major supermarket equivalent. I think it's important to know what your're comparing to. For example, I love Aldi's Bran Flakes (88p for 750g). Asda do their cheapest 'smartprice' version for the same price, but the quality of the Asda one is terrible - total cardboard! Asda's 'Chosen By You' version cost comparison is ~£1.45 for the same quantity of cereal. Aldi still beats that on taste, and the only other bran flake I like is the Kelloggs version - £2.88 for theirs!
What I've found is that we're saving so significantly on the core shop - high quality fruit and veg, meats and store cupboard staples, that we can afford to splurge a little on the items that Aldi either doesn't do, or don't taste as nice as the versions we like. Stuff like chicken kiev and frozen breaded fish - not particularly good in Aldi - we now get the very best we can (M&S versions!), because that extra cost on those particular items is more than offset by the savings we're making on the bulk of the shopping.
I have to say, I spend a lot more time on mysupermarket now. I research Aldi and other supermarkets' big offers (especially on household items like toilet roll, cleaning products and tinned goods), and make specific trips to an individual supermarket to get those items. 24 quilted toilet rolls for £8 at Asda - got those before Christmas, and know I won't need to buy any for weeks now! More than anything else, I'm now acutely aware what I'm spending on groceries. Just as much as I research the big ticket monthly spending (car insurance, energy providers), I do the same with almost everything I buy now - and it's paying off - literally!
BTW, my biggest tip for shopping in Aldi is not to do it alone! I either take my mum, who does her shop at the same time, or my DH. Either way, that's two people reloading the trolley at the end of the check-out. With my large jute and hessian bags pulled open, and stacking the conveyor belt with the items in exactly the order I want them to come off the scanner (heavy bulky stuff first, lightest and delicate stuff last), I can pretty much pack my entire shop before we've even been asked for the debit card in the payment machine! The only time I didn't do that was the shop just before Christmas - definitely didn't want to risk the wrath of the overworked cashier then! But all other times, the most I have to do is chuck the bread and light items into the trolley to finish the packing briefly at the rear of the store, after I pay. I've also discovered that we spend much less time shopping in Aldi. Once you understand where everything is, you can whip round the extremities of the store for the core items, and do a fairly quick peruse of the weekly 'bin' items in the centre. It's a win-win situation all round - except for the parking which, at our store, is really inadequate for how popular the store has become. But that's a small price to pay for all the positives about shopping there.