It’s funny what you learn about people when you are on a car journey.

I was on an unexpectedly long trip with my friend Noel recently, and once we had exhausted the conversation about the reason for our outing and given up trying to work out a better way through the traffic jam, it was confession time.

Noel seemed keen to get it off his chest, and just blurted it out. “I love Aldi,” he said.

I was shocked. I had him down as a Tesco or a Sainsbury’s man, and possibly even a Waitrose, so I never expected a coming-out about Aldi. He didn’t seem so surprised when I also came clean, and said I love Aldi, too. And Lidl (in for a penny, in for a pound).

While some look down their noses at those of us who prefer what they might call budget supermarkets, I loathe snobbery and don’t much care about what other people think of my tastes. On the contrary, I see buying economically as a badge of honour.

For a few years now it has been a straight choice between the two German-based giants of Aldi and Lidl, and I have to admit that sometimes it’s a case of ‘any excuse’ to drop into both.

So I’m pleased to note that this paper is now helping out people like me by reporting what each has in store each week, specifically in what I have discovered are called the ‘aisle of dreams’ in Aldi and ‘the middle of Lidl’ in the other.

I have my own name for these items. I simply call them “the bargains”.

“I’m just off to check out the bargains,” I tell my wife when we meet up to do the weekly shop, and I leave her to get the boring things like food, drinks and toilet rolls.

There is a popular myth that Aldi and Lidl shoppers often go home with things they don’t really need, having been seduced by the random items on offer, but we have come away with countless genuine bargains over the years.

My wife and I even look forward to visiting Aldi or Lidl (or both) on holiday, especially after we found that although everything in the Spanish Aldi looks the same as it does at home - the branding, the racking, the signage and the aisles of dreams - nearly all the products are different.

So you have a whole new world to discover. As I see it, there are only two downsides to shopping in Aldi and Lidl.

The first is a bit like the terrible fear that many of us have - me, especially - that as soon as I throw something out, I will find I did need it, after all.

Roughly the same dilemma applies to everything for sale in Aldi or Lidl, because if you decide not to buy and then find you regret it: hard luck. Either it will have sold out or you will have to wait months or even years before you get another chance to buy it, if ever.

The second downside is that while the weekly shop is much quicker than at other supermarkets, it requires two people. How else are you going to get it all packed quickly enough after it flies through the barcode reader?

As you get older, you are supposed to be against change and new things, and the 21st century does have its challenges. But Aldi and Lidl are different, and I would even go so far as to say they are two of my favourite things about modern life.

After Ikea.