I shopped at Aldi and Lidl. After comparing prices and experience, I found my winning budget grocery chain.

Life feels especially expensive these days as inflation and rising costs of many essentials stretch household budgets.

Luckily, a lot of grocery chains are betting on price cuts to attract shoppers right now — and the discount grocers Aldi and Lidl are especially on my radar.

Both German-owned retailers primarily stock their own private-label products, which allows them to cut out the middlemen and offer lower prices to customers.

At Aldi, shoppers must insert a quarter into a special slot in order to use a shopping cart. They get their quarter back when they return it.

However, I don't always have a quarter with me and didn't love this extra step. In comparison, my local Lidl had carts available to borrow, no quarter needed, which I like a lot better.

The two chains originated in Germany, but Aldi has been in the United States longer. Its first US location opened in 1976, while Lidl didn't arrive until 2017.

This Aldi felt like a typical discount chain to me when I walked in — the lighting seemed surprisingly dim, the floor tiles didn't look very clean, and some areas felt cluttered, with product haphazardly strewn about on some of the shelves.

My local Lidl felt more welcoming to me with its higher ceilings, shiny flooring, and much brighter lighting. Everything looked clean, and I didn't necessarily feel like I was walking into a bargain store.

I was impressed by both stores' selections of ready-made meals, most of which were private-label. There were a number of meals my family would eat, like the chicken fajitas from Aldi and the pulled chicken from Lidl.

For example, Aldi's 16-ounce pork carnitas were $5.99 compared to Lidl's for $6.59.

The cereals at both stores were mostly comparable in price, ranging from just under $2 for private-label options to about $5 for name-brand boxes.

For example, Aldi had a 16.8-ounce box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch for $3.99, or $0.24 an ounce, while Lidl had an 18.8-ounce box for $4.97, or $0.26 an ounce.