13 Aldi Hidden Gems You Can Buy For Under $5

How can you not like shopping at Aldi? The food is so good and the prices are so right. Aldi might be American's cheapest grocery store, and human beings are always going to want to pay very little for a lot of food. The promise of free food is how college student organizations recruit members, and how offices make morning meetings palatable, but other than that? Food costs money.

Having low prices is Aldi's whole deal, but some items might soon be skyrocketing in price, thanks to the 2025 tariffs. The good news is, for the time being at least, Aldi still has plenty you can get for less than $5. So what are the tastiest treats for under $5? First, a quick note on how we selected these items. I've been doing my primary grocery shopping at Aldi for years, and that practice has given me an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the store — as well as some genuine cravings for these inexpensive treats.

It seems like every grocery store has a good Caesar salad kit. Beyond that, you just have to try every other kind of salad kit to see if you like it. Allow us to recommend the Little Salad Bar Sweet Kale Chopped Salad. It's loaded with healthy greens like kale, shaved broccoli, and cabbage. Those can all be bitter, but the dried cranberries and poppyseed dressing combine for the perfect sweet complement. It's also a very pleasant textural salad. Besides the greens, roasted pepitas add a gentle crunch that contrasts nicely with the chew of the dried cranberries.

The wonderful thing about salad kits is they can be a quick, easy side, or a whole meal unto themselves. These things are designed to have everything you need in the kit, but there are plenty of ways to upgrade bagged salads. Adding these to your shopping list is not only a great way to get more healthy greens in your diet, it's also an opportunity for culinary creativity.

A decadent breakfast treat that Aldi happens to do exceptionally well, the Bake Shop Blueberry Muffins come in boxes of four, but they are some big muffins. The size of these things means they're great to cut in half, thus making the box last longer. The way they taste, though, makes eating only half a tall order. If you live in a household of four, one of these packs can be a great weekend breakfast treat, or maybe something easy to grab on your way out the door on a weekday.

Muffins are basically an excuse to eat cake for breakfast. There's no getting around that. Blueberries, however, have such great health benefits. Blueberries are an excellent source of vitamins C and K, plus manganese. The fruit also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Getting plenty of antioxidants can help reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, as an antioxidant-rich and anti-inflammatory diet diminishes stress on your body. 

If you're looking for a reasonably healthy way to get your chocolate fix, look no further. Simply Nature Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Granola is decadent enough to almost trick you into thinking you're eating a candy bar. Yet there's an argument to be made that this is a breakfast food. Candy for breakfast is an itch we've been looking to scratch since the bygone days of munching Reese's Puffs in front of Saturday morning cartoons. The combination of rich dark chocolate, tongue-tingling sea salt, and the crunch of granola makes this almost addictive. Mixing dark chocolate and sea salt together on any sort of crunchy snack might as well be a cheat code for hacking the human brain. It's incredibly hard to resist this flavor profile.

Of course, chocolate is still high in sugar. Luckily, granola has some benefits. These toasted oats are a calorie-dense snack, meaning it keeps you full for a long time. Granola is also high in protein and fiber, two crucial macronutrients.

Need a pick-me-up snack for the doldrums that always seem to strike in the early afternoon? Look no further than Southern Grove Sweet & Salty Trail Mix. These trail mix pouches are a great portion size for a snack to keep in your bag in case of hunger emergencies. One pouch will tide you over between meals, but won't sit uncomfortably in your stomach. The portable nature of these snacks also makes them a natural fit for long hikes or road trips. Not to mention, they're a good source of Omega-3s. That makes this a relatively heart-healthy snack, since Omega-3s help lower your triglyceride levels. 

Trail mix is a great food for creative flourishes, since the ingredients are completely customizable. That said, it's refreshing to see Southern Grove pack a relatively minimalist mix. These pouches have peanuts, raisins, cocoa gems, and sunflower kernels — a phenomenal blend with no frills. The cocoa gems and sunflower kernels really push the standard mixture of peanuts and raisins over the top.

These aren't quite Girl Scout cookies, but they'll scratch the itch when Tagalongs are out of season. There's that nice layer of milk chocolate on the outside, wrapping around a deliciously decadent combo of peanut butter and chocolate cookie. Benton's Peanut Butter Fudge Cookies are also delicious when crushed up and sprinkled over a bowl of ice cream — trust us on this one. Then again, no need to over-complicate things. Simply chowing down on this cookie in two or three bites is enough to completely change the tenor of your day.

At $2.35 for a box, these are a good bargain for a couple sleeves of cookies. The box is a total of 9.5 ounces, but who's measuring ounces when they're eating cookies? If you're anything like us, then at best you're eating one serving at a time. Having the self-control required to stop at one serving is tough. 

For our money, the best chips for dipping. Clancy's Big Dippers are more voluminous than Tostitos Scoops, both in depth and thickness. By themselves, they've got just the right amount of crunch and salt, but don't stop there. These chips are ideal for thick scoops of salsa, the kind with visible diced tomatoes and peppers. Or, if you're making homemade nachos, the deep wells in the chips end up being little mini cups of cheese and/or nacho toppings. Having a good tortilla chip on hand is essential to game day, movie night, or hey, maybe just dinner. You're an adult, you can make nachos for dinner on a random weeknight, no one's stopping you.

Some people might have trouble switching from name brand chips to the private label brand from a grocery chain. It's understandable, since name brand chips can be nostalgic loves. Trust us, though, when we say that Clancy's tortilla chips won't have you missing Tostitos. At $2.15 per bag, it's simply too good of a deal to pass up.

It's not just us endorsing it — whole Reddit threads are dedicated to loving this salsa. Casa Mamita Medium Salsa is a good chunky salsa, and while we won't judge you for choosing mild? Come on, you want the slight kick of medium. It's not too spicy, it's just enough to make your nacho topping meaningfully distinct from your average spaghetti topping. Of course, salsa is not just a dip, nor are you limited to enjoying it exactly as it comes out of the jar. There are plenty of opportunities for elevating jarred salsa and giving your meal an exciting twist.

Casa Mamita is Aldi's private label for salsa, so maybe it's easy to see why it's a best seller. It's the primary salsa at a wildly popular grocery store. Not so fast, though. The sheer size of this thing must be considered. A typical jar of Tostitos salsa comes in at a squat 15.5 ounces. Casa Mamita salsa swaggers in at a towering 24 ounces, making the $2.75 price tag especially worth it.

Mac and cheese with a twist isn't too hard to find. Plenty of restaurants have their own blends of cheese, or extra ingredients like spices and breadcrumbs. Specially Selected Premium Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese brings the twist to a boxed mac and cheese, and boy, are our taste buds grateful. It's smoky, salty, and hearty. It's the exact side you want with any grilled chicken recipe that's not boring. On top of all that, it's ready in minutes on the stove.

Is there anything more comforting than a steaming bowl of mac and cheese? The way the cheese hangs in melty strings off your fork, the salty and creamy combination, the too-hot first bite — mac and cheese is great, even in box form. Typically, we're Kraft blue box purists. Sometimes, though, you just have to switch it up. The smoked gouda mac and cheese from Aldi's private label is a delightful break from routine.

Break out the comically oversized bowls and pick out something good on Netflix, it's popcorn time. And if possible, don't you want good, crunchy popcorn that keeps the calorie count low? Simply Nature Sea Salt Organic Popcorn is the store brand popcorn to buy. At 35 calories per cup and featuring 23 grams of whole grains per serving, this stuff packs a decent nutritious punch. The sea salt takes it over the top, giving each bite the kind of tongue-tickling effect that makes you forget you're snacking on something so low in calories.

Good news if you like to pack popcorn in lunches, either your own or your kids': this Simply Nature stuff will hold its crunch for a few days after the bag is opened. Stale popcorn is one of life's most bummer realities, but in our experience, this kind will stay reasonably crunchy. No need to eat the entire bag over the course of one movie. Though there's certainly no shame in indulging that desire, too.

Whipped topping is one of the great treats in life. Maybe the most perfect thing to celebrate the small victories. There's an extra level to Friendly Farms Non Dairy Coconut Whipped Topping — the coconut is a reminder of some daydreamy island paradise, and the non-dairy aspect makes it a little easier on your stomach. That's a pro tip even for people who aren't lactose intolerant.

Few things are more fun to introduce to children — or maybe to recall childhood memories of your own — than whipped topping of some sort. What could be better than eating ice cream, but an extra sweet treat on top of the ice cream? That's what whipped topping is. Don't forget coffee, either, for those mornings when regular creamer just won't cut it. Other versions of this product exist, for the same or similar prices. There's Non Dairy Almond, and unflavored Whipped Dairy Topping. For our tastes, though, the coconut takes the cake. Or should we say tops the cake?

One of the best store brand frozen fries out there. Season's Choice Seasoned Fries are great in the oven or the air fryer. The seasoning is flavorful without being overwhelming. The outside is crispy, while the inside is almost as fluffy as mashed potatoes. These have just about every quality you could want from a fry, and a whole bag of them is a measly three bucks. 

Younger generations may not be able to remember, but the store bought frozen french fry has really made improvements in the late 2010s and early 2020s. The proliferation of air fryers has made preparation easier and end results tastier. Good fries are no longer the sole domain of restaurants. Serve these fries alongside a nicely cooked tilapia filet and some peas and have yourself own homemade fish and chips dinner. Toss them in the air fryer — they take 18 minutes to cook — while you grill a burger for an at-home diner meal. Honestly, it's hard to go wrong with these. 

Any night of the week can be Thai night. Fusia Asian Inspirations Pot Stickers are nearly restaurant-quality tasty. These frozen potstickers can be cooked a number of ways, including pan-fried or steamed. You can't go wrong with either the pork or chicken flavors, either. We just happen to give a slight edge to pork.

Frozen prepared foods maybe aren't the healthiest option to have all the time. These sorts of treats are generally high in sodium. But who doesn't love having a bag of pot stickers in the freezer, especially when the price is right? Keep these around to serve as appetizer at parties, eat with rice and veggies for an easy dinner, or indulge in a late-night snack. Previous generations of humanity could only dream of the kind of indulgent luxury that is yanking a bag of $4 frozen potstickers out of the freezer and having a tasty treat ready in minutes. Stand on the shoulders of all that your forebears toiled for, and enjoy frozen potstickers.

Fremont Fresh Market Coconut Jumbo Butterfly Shrimp works either as a fun appetizer for a party, or for a late night snack. Set these out with some plantain chips, maybe a pitcher of margaritas, and your guests know it's island time. The orange marmalade sauce really takes these over the top, and especially pairs nicely with citrusy drinks. On the other hand, sometimes 10 p.m. rolls around, and you realize dinner wasn't filling enough. We've all been there, so we know that here's nothing better than realizing you have a pre-prepared late night snack waiting for you in the fridge. 

Sure, store-bought fried shrimp is never going to be quite the same as getting it at a restaurant. Nor is store-bought shrimp going to be the same as fresh fish at some coastal bar and grill. It's okay to be upfront about that. If you own an air fryer, though, the coconut flavor on these shrimp make them worth keeping around. Or hey, if you're willing to do the hard work of storing frying oil in your home kitchen, go wild with this shrimp.