Flexible Friday #26
Carvel Cake and Our Trip to Aldi

I know I promised to tell you about the ice cream cake we bought for the Superbowl Party.

But to do that I have to to first tell you about my very first trip to Aldi here in Georgia.

Aldi is a small store/large supermarket chain and I was vaguely familiar with the stores from my life in the Midwest.

PhilBillPaul read a sale flyer a few days before Superbowl and pointed out that they had the Carvel football cake we all love so much on sale for $8.99. That is some mad savings and it was totally worth the drive to pick up this cake. That was at least HALF PRICE if not cheaper!!

I decided to ask Wizzy to join me as I like to spend quality one-on-one time with the lovely children whenever possible.

As I drove home to pick up Wizzy, I thought I should call my cousin Sally in Indiana.

I know she has her Aldi bargain shopping down to a fine art and I wanted to know what items she loves and if there were any items she didn’t like.

I was so glad I called her because she gave me a few good tips and reminded me to bring my own shopping bags. I knew that you had to bag your own groceries but I had no idea you had to bring your own bags.

I picked up Wizzy and 4 reusable shopping bags and we headed out for our mother/daughter shopping excursion.

Now some of you may already know this but as an Aldi newbie, we were startled to find that all the shopping carts were locked together.

Since Wizzy works at another more “upscale” grocery store here in town, she found this very amusing.

Thank goodness for the kindness of a stranger who came up to the carts as we were trying to figure out why they were all locked up and she announced with a southern twang:

“Oh, you need a quarter!”

To which we both replied:

“Huh?”

She then graciously told us that we needed to use the quarter in a slot on the cart lock and we’d get our quarter back when we returned the cart.

“Huh?”

Then we fought over who got to put the quarter in the slot to release the cart.

Hey, thanks for the heads-up on this cart system, Sally.

Super fun Friday night, I’m telling you! That’s the kind of mom I am.

Wizzy was a little stressed by all the unrecognizable store brands. I reassured her that while the food was cheap inexpensive, it wasn’t EXPIRED.

I was made painfully aware that my children are a bit of “brand name snobs” and I needed to bring each of them to Aldi in the coming weeks so they can all experience “incredible value every day.”

Roger Leroy loved the cart story and pointed out that it was a smart move so that employees don’t have to go get carts in the parking lot – can you tell what she does in between being a cashier and a bagger at the “upscale” store?

Wizzy also noted that the Aldi cashier got to sit on a stool which she thought would be way better than her grueling shift where she has to actually
stand up and wait on customers.

Meanwhile, we scored THE CAKE for $8.99 along with some other great bargains.

Imagine our distress when we put THE CAKE in the fridge at the beginning of the party and The Grunter’s girlfriend noticed it was made with
PEANUT BUTTER ice cream.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Have you heard anything recently about a little peanut butter recall?

Wait Wizzy…the food they sell isn’t expired…but it might be recalled?!

Mild hysterics began. Guests arrived.

Scary Baby announced to all the guests:

“We have Salmonella Cake for dessert.”

Yum.

Funny kid.

The Grunter googled to make sure no Carvel cakes had been recalled. What did we do before Google? Whew, the cake wasn’t on the list.

The darling twins wouldn’t eat it. Girlfriend said she would. We all watched to see if she got sick. She didn’t.

Guests said they wouldn’t hold it against us. We did have them sign waivers.

Everyone is FINE.

The End.

Have you ever been to Aldi? Any other tips to share for all of us newbies who love a bargain…and need bargains this year more than ever!?