well wait till you see the prices in lidl/aldi just north of the border then! jawdropping. don’t overshop though or i hope you have a big freezer
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Btw, in the topic of food. Have you heard of such companies as Blue Apron or Hello Fresh? The latter actually operates in Switzerland:
Basically, once a week they send you a box with ingredients and recipe for 3 meals for 2 people. It costs 90 CHF, or 15 CHF per meal, just the ingredients! The concept I like: I’d like to cook more, but I’m often without inspiration as to what I should cook. But the price is really high, even more so after having this discussion with you about your food costs.
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I’m skeptical about the quality of meat sent by post. would that even be legal? isn’t it supposed to be kept refrigerated?
I think Lidl do something similar…
genau.
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They send it with some cooling gel:
https://www.hellofresh.ch/green/
Yeah, ecological footprint is a serious problem for this kind of delivery. Every week a lot of trash generated.
Cool, didn’t know. So Lidl costs 12 CHF per meal, instead of 15. Otherwise the model is identical. What I don’t like is that they always put 2 meat meals and 1 vegi meal. I mean, I don’t have anything against a vegi meal, if there is some protein. But some noodles with sauce? Bleh…
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Happy to see it helps other members as well!
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Actually a good impact on my food budget was/is as followed:
- Get a Cumulus credit card (and pay ANYthing with it)
- Do your “big” groceries purchases in Migros as well and use Cumulus credit card and cumulus card
- Do your “big” purchases always on multi-cumulus days
- Get the comparis and other “Aktionen” apps to check when discounts are available
With this procedure, my girlfriend and I are getting monthly coupons (same as cash) between CHF 50-100.
We reduced our food budget dramatically and only buy CH BIO products with some exceptions (definitely only Bio for animal products) and still spend much less than other.
I have Cumulus, but I HATE it. I don’t like to be restricted where to buy stuff, so I go anyway mostly to Coop or Lidl, because they’re on the way. I don’t like getting the coupons, I just throw it away without reading. I keep my payback coupons in the mobile app. By paying in Migros you get 1% payback. And even if you do all these hoops you mentioned, I can’t imagine it’s more than 5%. And we all know that Lidl is like 30% cheaper than Coop or Migros.
I value convenience and focusing my mind on important things. I hate to be manipulated by supermarkets by their silly points and loyalty programs. Buy this on that day and you get 20x points, wow! It’s just like a game! Well, I’d rather just buy what I need when I need it and not make a big deal out of shopping.
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It’s between CHF 500-800 (food for cats and household products inclusive).
You’re right that Lidl probably is cheaper than Migros/Coop, to be honest I’ve never been there (it’s a personal thing 
). On the other side I don’t feel forced to buy at Migros or to buy only if I have coupons for a product. I don’t pay attention to these other coupons either, but if we have to do our big purchases we lookout for these 5x/10x days to get the paycheck coupons. My breakfast I always buy at coop (because it’s on my way).
For those who don’t know, normally you get 1 cumulus point for each 1 CHF spent in Migros. for each 1000 points you get a voucher for 10 CHF to buy at Migros. So 1 point is worth 1 rappen.
So if you have these 10x days (didn’t know such thing existed, is it on ALL products?) then you rush to the shops to get a 10% discount. And in Lidl you have 30% discount at all times.
So how big can the grocery costs be? 1000 per month? So you save 100 CHF per month. It’s probably easier to stay 2 hours longer at work than keep track of all these Migros coupons 
.
I despise of loyalty programs (Cumulus, Miles and More, whatever s%&* they got at gas stations), because it’s a psychological trick to get you hooked to one brand. Turning adults into kids. In Poland, the low budget supermarket brand made you collect stickers for each purchase. After 30 purchases you would get a mascot. Just think of all the hassle of always carrying this sticker board with you, just to get some shitty mascot. But it was a huge success…
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Would you like to share the personal thing or is it too personal?
If you don’t go to shop in Lidl (or Aldi), you miss a lot of swiss products (fruits/vegetables).
Also if you are environmentally friendly and you don’t trust chinese for food AND you like canned mushrooms (very good on pizza), you should not buy them at Coop or Migros. They both sells chinese mushrooms, while Lidl sells Polish ones. Just an example.
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Sure, actually Im not really sure why I’ve never been to Aldi/Lidl. They are now for some time in Switzerland but I knew them from Germany before. Probably it’s the bad reputation/style of stores/special clientele which prevented me to shop there. But overall, mainly I missed the swiss relation in their intention to expand in Switzerland. I know in the meantime that they are very committed to all environmentally friendly products. I guess I will give them a try sooner or later.
As I mainly buy bio (animal) and swiss products it doesn`t make really a difference to me. Besides the price of course 
You are absolutely right, but you have to differentiate. On one side, there are 90% of people out there where this statement matchs totally. But on the other side there are a lot of frugal guys (like me ) who dont`t go crazy because of the loyalty program, but benefit from these goodies. If I buy there anyway, why should I miss this free lunch. Thus, we don’t shop there because of the loyalty program, but use the loyalty program because we shop there.
Assumed products/quality/sustainability are the same, yes there is no reason to buy at Migros/Coop while Lidl is 30% cheaper. But this is a fundamental question if you want to shop there or not - and would fill another thread 
There is no such thing as a free lunch. It’s an illusion - you pay either more (with discount) or extra more (without discount) than competition.
I’d like to add here (althoug i have no way to prove this, it’s my guts feeling seasoned with a close friend being subject to this) the food quality (however defined, however measured & verified) is only one part of the story. another is how the employees do at their company. especially in the discount branch of the market (food discounters, ryanair, flixbus, that super cheap hair dresser or craftsman in general, …) the employees feel alot more of the cost pressure than with non-discounters. There is a huge grey zone of the trade-off between the competitivity of a company at the expense of employee health. Any of the discount companies are in a darker-grey area than the non-discounters.
where one personally draws the line is everyone’s most private decision. In terms of Aldi/Lidl i know employees get ran into the ground because they are depending on these simple jobs, expendable and replaceable, leaving behind long-term unemployed with physical/ psychological damages.
I dunno how it’s nowadays, but a decade or two ago, Coop was the most expensive supermarket and paying the worst salaries for the simple jobs.
Then you’ll be surprised to read this (sorry for the source…)
https://www.blick.ch/news/wirtschaft/ueberraschende-ergebnisse-riesen-lohnunterschiede-im-detailhandel-id7663583.html
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I think I spend around 60 CHF on a median week on food. (Average week might be higher, because if I have exams I eat in the Uni-Cafeteria quite a bit.)
I mainly buy my foods at Migros and everything they don`t have and staple-foods (legumes, rice, etc.) at an Asian Store. Maybe once a month I pass an Aldi and pick up some of their cheap veggies and fruits.
Some key points to achieve that are:
-
pre-packaged stuff is expensive and spoils quickly
example: A head of lettuce lasts for more than a week in my fridge. The pack of prepared lettuce spoils in a couple of days and costs 3 times more. And washing your salad is not that hard. (Save maybe 40-60% depending on the product.) -
pack lunches
The Uni-Cafeteria would be an option. But I enjoy cooking and can save around 3 CHF/day doing it. For most people a simple packed lunch probably costs 3-4chf of ingredients and their cafeteria/restaurant costs 12-22chf. -
eat what`s cheap
If you are attentive, you can find some very cheap veggies and fruits at Migros. They are either on sale or hidden away at groundlevel. You can get a head of broccoli or cauliflower for 1.00-1.50 CHF often but it alternates. At Aldi they usually have 2-3 veggies and 2-3 fruits on extreme sale. If you alternate between Migros and Aldi you can have a decent range of very cheap produce. (Save around 25-50% on veggies with these.) -
buy in bulk what lasts
Do you like to eat a lot of rice-dishes or curries? Get a big bag of rice/legumes at your local asia-store.
Do you like onions? Get a big bag of onions at Migros. Onions last for a loong time at room temperature. (Save 45-65% on a lot of non-perishables with this compared to single piece prices.) -
no meat
I think most people spend a lot on meat. Theoretically you could only buy very cheap stuff but I know noone who actually does that. So it is better to scratch it. (Probably save 0-60% on protein stuff depending wether you ate cervelat or steak before and wether you will eat legumes/tofu or fancy substitutes after.) -
eat what you have first
I hear the average household wastes almost 15% of the food they buy. (Save 10-15% of your total food budget by being a bit smart about it.)
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I agree, this is excellent advice (I especially second the last point: eat what you have first, try to never throw away any food by eating it while it is still good!)
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