Cheapest Supermarkets in Australia: Where I Actually Shop

There is no single cheapest supermarket in Australia. There is a cheapest option for each item, and the trick is knowing which shop wins for what.

The Three Main Players

• Aldi: the cheapest baseline basket on most staples. Fewer brands, faster shops, and the special buys are where budgets go to die.
• Coles and Woolworths: the same prices as each other most weeks, and both run half-price cycles. Half price is where the real savings are, not the everyday price.
• IGA and independents: more expensive on the whole, useful when they are the only shop within walking distance.

For a weekly shop, I use all three depending on what is cheap. Loyalty to one supermarket is expensive.

Where I Actually Save

• Fruit and veg from a greengrocer. Better quality and lower prices than the supermarkets, almost every time. I only use Coles or Woolies for produce when there is no other option.
• The Reject Shop for household stuff. Cleaning products, pantry basics, birthday cards. Half the supermarket price on plenty of items.
• Half-price cycles for meat and pantry goods. Buy the amount you will use before it expires, not a trolley load because it was cheap.
• Markdown stickers. Late evening is when fresh meat, bread and dairy get reduced. It is not glamorous and it is real money.
• Costco, only with a household. It is cheaper per unit and more expensive per trip. If you have a big family, it works. If you are one person in a share house, you will overspend and waste.

What a Week of Groceries Looks Like

For one person cooking most nights, $100 to $150 a week is realistic in a capital city. It can be $70 if you plan, cook in batches, and eat what is in season. It can be $250 if you buy lunch every day, which is the single most expensive habit in Australia.

A sandwich and a coffee out is $15 to $20. Five days of that is your grocery bill for a week.

The Clearance Stores Nobody Tells You About

This is the bit that saves real money and almost no backpacker knows it exists. Around Australia there are grocery clearance warehouses selling short-dated, overstocked and end-of-line stock at a fraction of supermarket prices. Not dodgy food, just food a supermarket does not want to shelve any more.

• Victoria: Cheaper Buy Miles, NQR, Bargain Depot Clearance, Food Factory Sales, Savemore Supermarket Clearance Centres
• New South Wales: Beyond Best Before, Discount Grocery Warehouse
• Queensland: TBones, Silly Solly, Coco Annerley
• South Australia: NQR, Cheap as Chips
• Western Australia: Crazy Don's Discount Groceries
• Tasmania: No Frills Food Market

Check the use-by dates before you fill a trolley, buy what you will eat that week, and freeze what you will not. Shops come and go, so search the name before you travel across town for one.

Loyalty Cards Are Worth the Two Minutes

Sign up for the free ones: Everyday Rewards (Woolworths), Flybuys (Coles, Kmart, Officeworks) and Cotton On Perks if you buy clothes here. You get member prices, fuel discounts and points you can turn into cash or flights. It is not a scam and it is not a lot of money, but it is free.

Avoid the Convenience Trap

Corner shops like 7/11, IGA and Ezymart charge more because they are open and close by. A quick top-up there is fine. Doing a week's shop there will cost you double. Find your nearest Aldi or big supermarket and use the corner shop for emergencies only.

The Habits That Beat the Shop

1. Plan three dinners, buy for those, and accept leftovers.

2. Buy staples in the biggest size that will not go off.

3. Freeze bread and meat on the day you buy them.

4. Take lunch to work. This one change funds a weekend trip.

5. Drink at home before town, if you drink. Australian pub prices are not a joke.

Free Food and Cheap Eats

Beyond the supermarket, the cheap wins are markets at closing time, RSL and leagues clubs for subsidised meals, and the specials boards at local pubs. My how to eat cheap in Australia guide covers the social side of it, and the weekly budget article puts groceries in the context of the whole week.

The Honest Version

If you want one answer: Aldi for the staples, Coles or Woolies for the half-price cycle, a greengrocer for produce, The Reject Shop for cleaning products. That combination is cheaper than being loyal to any one of them.

For how an Australian basket compares with a UK or Irish one, I put the three countries side by side in cost of living in Australia vs the UK and Ireland.

Keep reading:

• What a Week Actually Costs in Australia
• Australia vs UK and Ireland Cost of Living
• The Ultimate Australia Working Holiday Guide
• Managing Your Money in Australia