I took the same grocery list to Aldi and Walmart. One chain surprisingly won me over.

Since both stores have pushed their Thanksgiving meal deals, I expected to have an easier time finding all the items included in them.

But at Aldi, I had to hunt for various items. It took me three laps around the store and asking an employee before I found the fried onions for green-bean casserole.

Walmart was much bigger, but it had a few endcaps and displays featuring common Thanksgiving groceries — many of which are included in its holiday promotion. This made shopping a little easier.

Walmart also won points because I could use its app to easily look up which aisle items were in. I couldn't do this at Aldi.

At Walmart, the many size and brand varieties felt a little overwhelming. I had to keep double-checking the list from the promotion to make sure I was grabbing the right item at the best price.

Many of the chain's endcaps helpfully highlighted Thanksgiving essentials from the list, but others felt like a bit of a convenience trap.

For example, one eye-catching display was filled with name-brand French's crispy onions, which were $0.78 more expensive than the generic ones featured in the promotion that were tucked away in an aisle.

I also ran into this issue at Aldi, just on a smaller scale. The budget grocer is smaller and primarily carries private-label products, so it was usually easier to check that I was getting the cheapest item available.

For both chains, I think ordering groceries online could've made it easier for me to quickly select the correct item.

My shopping list had basics like flour, butter, and eggs as I find they're staples for making Thanksgiving dinner from scratch.

When comparing the prices of a dozen eggs, gallon of whole milk, and pound of butter, I found Aldi would save me about $1 total on all three items.

I also looked at seasonings and herbs, like garlic for mashed potatoes and cloves for pumpkin pie.

A sleeve of garlic was $0.49 cheaper at Aldi and the spices I could find there were all around $1 cheaper each, too. The discount chain also saved me a few dollars on the 14-pound turkey

Still, Walmart had a few notable wins: Its 5-pound bag of russet potatoes were $1.11 cheaper and light corn syrup was $1.45 cheaper.

At Aldi, I wasn't able to find five of the 43 items on my list. Although that number seems small, this means I would've had to spend more time going to another store to finish my shopping.

My local store didn't seem to sell some of the spices I needed (ground mustard, ground ginger, pumpkin-pie spice, and thyme) or the self-rising flour for my biscuits.

I also found Aldi's produce selection to be much smaller than Walmart's. I'd be a little concerned the store would run out of some staples as more people make their Thanksgiving grocery runs.

The majority of items I found at both Aldi and Walmart were cheaper at the former, often by a few cents — sometimes by a dollar or two.

But, again, Aldi didn't have everything on my list. Shopping there would save me money, but not time. The prospect of potentially needing to go to two stores while trying to prep dinner would not be enough to justify the slim savings.

Still, this is based on my particular list and the prices I came across on a recent visit. The grocery prices and the sales at each store can change often.

Aldi might be a better fit for you if you require simpler ingredients the store is likely to have or even just have one much closer to you than Walmart. But personally, I'm sticking with Walmart for my holiday meals.

I'd rather pay a little more to feel confident I can cross off my entire list — and to be able to use an app to more quickly find everything on it.