Natalie Lee, a UK blogger who goes by the screenname Style Me Sunday, was challenged by Aldi to spend £25 a week to feed her family. The challenge was covered in UK tabloids, where she was called a "savvy mother" for breaking down her budget because most people spend around double at grocery stores each week.
However, though some followers were rooting for her to complete the challenge, others called her out for being tasteless. Some found it offensive, with one user commenting: "I have had to do a weeks food shop with five pounds in change, let me tell you, £25 for the week would have been an absolute LUXURY," she wrote.
The user told BuzzFeed News that she felt the need to respond because she wanted to "help put a voice of reason that often gets lost in influencers' echo chamber comments. I wanted to raise the very valid points of how offensive, and poor taste it is, not to mention totally missing the mark," she said.
Another user argued that Aldi's most common demographic "live 'poor' on a daily basis, and that this challenge isn't a trend for them. The chain is a known low-cost grocery store, and it was deemed "offensive' to use a middle-class influencer with no grasp on what it means to not have even a small amount of change to buy food.
"It suggests poor people aren’t trying hard enough to budget, they can get all the groceries they will ever need from Aldi for £25, so what are they moaning for? It perpetuates the myth that poor people aren’t trying hard enough," she said.
Natalie Lee, the original influencer who did the challenge, has yet to respond to any official news outlets for a comment. However, she has been responsive to Instagram replies:
"It really was thoughtless and a big mistake, lessons have been learned," she wrote.