If you are a college student, young parent, or just a living breathing person in general and you aren't shopping at ALDI for your groceries - you need to start. I know, I know, it's a weird concept to pay a quarter for a shopping cart or to bring your own bags, but believe me. It's more than worth it. Here's five reasons you need to say "hello" to ALDI and "good-bye" to the other guys.

1. Clean and Easy

I'm not kidding, guys. There are approximately three "aisles" to walk through and everything is so well organized you can't really miss what you're looking for. You just walk along - starting with chips, snack foods, beer and wine and then eventually make your way to produce than freezer and end it with a mini-bakery. Occasionally it can get a bit chaotic when there are a lot of people in there and they're restocking items - but I assure you, 1000x better than swimming through the sea of people at larger grocery stores.

2. Gluten-Free Options & Natural

It's almost like everything in that store is gluten-free. The labels are so blatantly obvious with big letters announcing the lack of gluten, so it's never a guessing game. With so many allergies and dieters nowadays, this store is a game changer. The ALDI brand cereal is also made with natural products (aka your fruit loops aren't artificially colored or flavored), so you can take more comfort in what you are putting in your body (and your kids' too!).

3. MEAT MEAT MEAT

While it's a more limited selection than other places, the meat is pretty decent. Especially if you're ballin' on a budget. Grab a couple pounds of beef and some boxes of hamburger helper and you've got dinner for the next week for maybe twenty bucks. They also have "Meat Day" where all their meat is on sale and even if it's not, it's still cheaper than those other guys.

4. Name-brand or off-brand

ALDI offers limited "name brand" items, but all the off-brand items taste like the real deal. In fact, some of the off-brand items even taste better, but maybe I've just got cheap taste buds. Although there are some items you can't find at ALDI, they do a good job of making sure you can get all of the essentials and just about any produce that you would be able to get at a larger grocery store - for a fraction of the price.

5. CHEAP

In case you haven't sensed the theme throughout this entire article - ALDI is CHEAP. A box of mac n cheese is 33 cents. A gallon of milk? Under two bucks. We go and get an entire cart full of groceries that last us nearly two weeks for less than $100. Can you really beat that? Save your money in the grocery section of life so you can buy more shoes or something. Seriously.