German Supermarket Food Prices | Saving Money on Food in Germany

A huge part of any travel budget is the cost of food while traveling. Saving money on food means popping into a grocery store for food instead of going to a restaurant or bar. Luckily for travelers and tourist alike, grocery costs in Germany are some of the lowest we’ve seen in Europe! German supermarkets like Aldi or Lidl make grocery shopping on a budget easy!

After spending an extensive time road tripping in the north, south, and west of Germany, we’ve gathered some prices on local goods from a variety of stores. You’ll see that going to some stores over others can save you loads! The cost of groceries in Germany can differ based on what area of Germany you are, but these food prices offer great insight into the cost of living in Germany.

Where To Cook + What To Eat When You Can’t Cook A Meal

Now, you may be thinking if you’re traveling you can’t just cook up groceries anywhere you go, but we’d argue that’s not true. Staying at places with entire kitchens to cook in, and more and more these days, you’ll find hotels with kitchenettes too!

After a few years of traveling through Europe, we’ve picked up on what the locals do for food and drink.. saving you even more money too. “Eating in”, and grocery shopping doesn’t necessarily mean you have to cook. You’ll find loads of fresh produce, meats and cheeses to pair with bread and super cheap alcohol in Germany too!

And, drinking in public is completely legal, so popping into a grocery store and buying all these things to then having a picnic along a river or in a main square is perfect!

Traveler’s Tip.. Don’t just eat what you normally eat where you’re from. Look for the local food in the market, and check out what other people are buying, then go for the same stuff! This way you try more food, and oftentimes will save money too!

Price of Alcohol in Germany | Beer Was Three Times The Price

To give you an idea of what kind of money we’re talking about saving by grocery shopping in Germany, I’ll let you in on a wee personal story about overspending on buying beer.

We stopped at a lake in the middle of Germany. With the raging temperatures that day, we wanted a beer SO bad! Looking at beer prices, we found a tall glass of beer was only 3 Euro.

This was a great deal considering the price of beer in Switzerland!

So we went for it! BUT the next day, we went to the grocery store, and found that same beer, same size for .89 Euro! That’s more than three times the price, just by buying beer at a restaurant! Absolutely crazy!!

Now, there are a time and a place for buying beer at a restaurant or bar, and there are certainly perks of treating yourself to a dinner out. However, if you’re hoping to travel longer, and save some cash, just think twice about how often you do go out, and instead enjoy a nice picnic where the locals hang, or a nice evening in!

Cheapest German Supermarkets

In our experience, we’ve found that both REWE and LIDL are comparable in prices and typically are the two cheapest places to shop for groceries.

Rewe | Cheap German Supermarket

Rewe is a massive grocery store, that sells everything under the sun, and is a great place to get it all in one stop. They offer a variety of food and even have a built in bakery serving up freshly baked goods daily! The price of alcohol in Rewe is great too! So definitely shop here for a variety of food and alcohol choices!

Lidl | A Discount German Supermarket

Lidl is technically a discount grocer, but is a massive chain all across Europe and the UK. You’ll find most things you need at LIDL, definitely all the staple foods, but you won’t have as much of a selection on things.. especially alcohol. The thing we love about Lidl is the extremely cheap pastries and baked goods baked daily in the store!!

Spar | A Spendy European Grocery Store Chain

Spar is probably the most expensive place to grocery shop. There are SPARS all across Europe and into the UK, and they tend the be the most expensive grocery store no matter what country we’re in. You can sometimes find good deals there, but for the most part, try to shop somewhere else. Spars are very common grocery stores in little German villages.

Penny | A Large German Supermarket With Higher Than Average Pricing

Penny is a mid-average priced grocery store. You can see in the example below that produce was quite a bit more expensive at PENNY than REWE, and overall we felt the prices were a bit higher than normal on most things. Cheaper than SPAR, but more expensive than LIDL and REWE.

Aldi | A German Supermarket With Discounted Goods

ALDI is a German supermarket selling food at very discounted prices. You’ll find the most random mix of groceries at Aldi. Aldi stays cheap by not selling a variety of brands but instead just ALDI branded foods. While we don’t have prices for Aldi’s in Germany, Aldi was our go do shop in the United Kingdom. If we’re honest though, we found the German Aldi Supermarkets to not be very impressive and always chose LIDL over Aldi!

Cost Of Living In Germany Based On Food Prices

Rewe

Penny

Spar

Lidl

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Reusable Grocery Bags

Travel Credit Card with No Foreign Fees

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Traveling to Europe soon? We’re sharing all our travel advice from cost of food, to where to stay, how to get around, and of course how to save money! We even tell you the best things to do across Europe!

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