15-Minute Mid-Week Basket: Save $20

This basket is built for real life. Stir-fries, pasta, schnitzels, frozen pizza on a Friday, the kind of meals that are on the table in fifteen minutes and don't require a recipe card. We priced eleven everyday items across Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA to find out where your dollar goes furthest on mid-week dinners.

The short answer: Woolworths wins if you shop at one store, and Aldi wins almost everything else.

What the basket costs at each store

Here's the full picture across all four supermarkets:

• Coles: $74.60
• IGA: $61.82
• Woolworths: $57.69
• Aldi: $37.21 (one item unavailable)
• Cherry-picked cheapest: $39.39

Coles is the most expensive by a long stretch, $16.91 more than Woolworths for the exact same basket. IGA sits in the middle, but rarely wins on individual items. Aldi is dramatically cheaper on almost everything, though you'll need to check availability on the day.

The cherry-pick total of $39.39 is intriguing. That's $18.30 less than shopping everything at Woolworths. Whether that saving is worth two or three stops depends entirely on how you value your Tuesday night.

Where the biggest savings are hiding

Chicken thigh (1 kg) is where Woolworths really earns its basket win. At $1.44 per kilo, it's genuinely cheap, and chicken thigh is arguably the most forgiving weeknight protein going. It's hard to overcook, it absorbs sauces well, and it works in stir-fries or sliced over a salad.

Pasta and pasta sauce are where Aldi dominates. Penne at $0.89 for 500 g is essentially as cheap as dry pasta gets in this country. Paired with Aldi's pasta sauce at $1.59 for 500 g, you've got a pasta dinner for two sorted for well under $5. Woolworths and Coles can't touch those prices on this category.

Stir fry sauce (275 ml) is another Aldi win at $2.19, handy given the stir fry veggie mix and chicken thigh are already in the basket. If you're going to cherry-pick one Aldi run, grabbing the pantry items in bulk makes it worthwhile.

Frozen pizza (500 g) at $1.99 from Aldi is the kind of price that makes you double-check the shelf tag. A Friday-night fail-safe for under two dollars is hard to beat anywhere.

Pre-cooked schnitzel (500 g) at $4.99 from Aldi is another standout. At Coles that same schnitzel category can easily run $8-$10. Five minutes in the oven and it's done, that's the entire appeal.

Where prices are broadly the same

The stir fry vegetable mix (500 g, two packs) and the mixed salad bag are Woolworths wins, but the gap between Woolies and Coles on fresh produce in this basket isn't enormous. The salad dressing is Aldi at $1.79, though most stores carry a similar product in the $2, $3 range.

Garlic bread at $2.09 from Aldi is the cheapest here, but it's the kind of item where the difference between stores is $1 or less, not the place to plan your whole route around.

Microwave rice (250 g, four packs) is cheapest at Coles at $1.65 per pack. That's one of the few genuine Coles wins in this basket, and if you're already shopping there for something else, it's worth noting.

Is the cherry-pick worth an extra trip?

Honest answer: probably not, unless you live near both a Woolworths and an Aldi.

The $18.30 saving over shopping everything at Woolworths sounds solid on paper. But the saving breaks down like this: the bulk of it comes from Aldi's pantry items, pasta, pasta sauce, stir fry sauce, frozen pizza, schnitzel, garlic bread. If you're willing to do one Aldi run for those six pantry and freezer items, then grab fresh produce and chicken at Woolworths, you'll capture most of the cherry-pick saving in just two stops.

A three-store trip, Aldi, Woolworths, and anywhere else, on a Wednesday night with kids in tow isn't a saving. It's a tax on your evening. Two stores, planned properly, can work.

According to Yahoo Finance, Coles confirmed in June 2025 that it was lowering prices on more than 300 grocery items, following Woolworths' own round of cuts. That's good news for shoppers, but this basket shows Coles still has ground to make up. A $74.60 total against Woolworths' $57.69 is a gap that a 300-item price cut alone won't fully close for a basket this heavily skewed toward pantry staples.

Who should shop where

Families with a car and time for two stops: Do a fortnightly Aldi run for pasta, pasta sauce, stir fry sauce, frozen pizza, schnitzel, and garlic bread. Buy your fresh stuff, chicken, veg, salad, at Woolworths weekly. You'll land somewhere close to the $39, $42 range without planning every trip from scratch.

Singles or couples who want one store: Woolworths at $57.69 is the call. You're not leaving money on the table as badly as you would at Coles, and you get the full basket without a missing item.

Retirees on a fixed income or anyone tightly budgeting: Aldi is the answer for almost everything in this basket, full stop. The one unavailable item is a minor inconvenience against saving $20+ on a week's worth of dinners. Most Aldi stores stock everything on this list regularly, it's worth checking your local.

IGA shoppers: If IGA is your only local option, $61.82 is $3.91 more than Woolworths and $12.43 less than Coles, so it's not a disaster. But for a basket this pantry-heavy, online ordering from Woolworths or Coles with a delivery pass could save you more than the delivery fee.

This basket feeds a household through a full week of mid-week dinners. At $39.39 cherry-picked, that's roughly $8 a night for a household of two, or less if you're feeding one. That's hard to beat eating out, or even ordering in.