Budget Grocery List Compared: CHOICE 14 Basket

The CHOICE 14 is the basket the consumer group has used since 2024 to run its government-funded quarterly supermarket price surveys. Fourteen everyday items: two fresh, a handful of pantry staples, some dairy, frozen peas, and beef mince. Nothing fancy. It's designed to represent what almost every Australian household picks up each week, regardless of how big or small the family is.

We priced it across Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA. Here's what it actually costs right now.

What does the CHOICE 14 basket cost at each store?

Woolworths edges Coles by five cents, but Coles was missing one item entirely, so the comparison isn't perfectly clean. Aldi costs $2.51 more than Woolies for its 13 available items, which is a surprise given how often Aldi wins basket surveys. IGA comes in $7.05 behind Woolworths and is the clear most-expensive option here.

The real standout is the cherry-pick total: $42.48. Grab each item from whichever store has it cheapest and you'd save $8.27 compared to a full shop at Woolworths. Whether that saving justifies the extra trip is a different question, we'll get to that.

Where the big price differences are

A few items do most of the heavy lifting in this basket.

Penne pasta (500 g) is the starkest gap. Aldi has it for just $0.89. At a Big Two store it runs closer to $1.50 or more. For a 500 g pack of pasta, that kind of difference adds up quickly if your household goes through a few bags a week.

Beef mince (500 g) is where Aldi really earns its reputation. At $6.49 it's the cheapest of the four stores. IGA mince tends to be notably pricier. Given that mince is one of the two most expensive items in this basket, that gap matters.

Full cream milk (2 L) is $3.39 at Aldi, the cheapest in the basket. Aldi also wins on tasty cheese (500 g) at $5.99 and butter (250 g) at $3.99. So if dairy is a big part of your shop, Aldi's the place to be.

On the other end: diced tomatoes (400 g) is cheapest at Coles ($0.95) and tea bags (100 pack) at Coles too ($1.75). Those are small-ticket items, but it's worth knowing Coles wins a couple of pantry lines.

Plain flour (1 kg) and white sugar (1 kg) are cheapest at Woolworths at $2.40 and $1.80 respectively. Again, not massive dollars, but they're consistent staples that most households buy regularly.

The most interesting outlier is apples (1 kg) at IGA, which comes in at just $0.35, cheapest of all four stores by a significant margin. IGA's produce pricing can be unpredictable, and this week it's genuinely competitive on fruit.

Where the prices are basically the same

Some items barely move across the stores, and it's not worth building a trip around them.

White bread (700 g) ranges from $2.99 at Aldi up to around $3.50 elsewhere. That's $0.51 difference, real money across a year, but not enough to send you to a second shop on its own.

Weet-Bix (1.2 kg) is a Sanitarium brand product, so Aldi doesn't stock it. IGA has the cheapest at $2.50 this week, with Coles and Woolworths sitting higher. Budget cereals at Aldi can match or beat Weet-Bix on price, but if your household is Weet-Bix-specific, you're paying more at the majors.

Frozen peas (1 kg) at $2.49 at Aldi is the cheapest, but the majors are within $0.50. Not a deal-breaker either way.

Is cherry-picking worth the extra trip?

Honestly? For most people, probably not on a weekly basis.

The $8.27 saving from cherry-picking across all four stores sounds reasonable, but it assumes you're driving between Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA in a single shop. Fuel, time, and the inevitable extra items that end up in your trolley at each store will eat into that saving fast.

That said, a two-stop shop is genuinely worth considering. Aldi wins on dairy (milk, cheese, butter), frozen peas, beef mince, and pasta. Coles or Woolworths fills in the gaps, particularly branded items like Weet-Bix that Aldi doesn't stock.

If you live near both an Aldi and a Coles or Woolworths, and plenty of Australians do, a quick Aldi run for the protein and dairy, then a top-up at the majors for branded and fresh items, could realistically save you $4-6 on this basket without much extra effort.

Who should shop where

Aldi suits you best if your household is flexible on brands and you eat a lot of the items Aldi does well: dairy, frozen veg, pasta, and meat. The savings on beef mince and cheese alone are worth noting. Just keep in mind there's a stock gap, one item in this basket wasn't available at Aldi at time of checking.

Woolworths makes sense if you want all 14 items in one place at a price that's competitive with Coles. It's also the easiest choice if you're using Everyday Rewards or doing a Click and Collect order and don't want to faff around with a second store.

Coles is essentially even with Woolworths on this basket, and it wins on tea bags and tinned tomatoes. One item was missing at the time of our check, which is the main reason it slips behind Woolworths on the overall comparison this week.

IGA is the right call only if it's your local and the alternatives are too far away. It's $7.05 more expensive than Woolworths on this basket, and that's a gap that stings over a month. The exception: IGA's apples were the cheapest of all four stores at $0.35 per kg this week, which is a genuine bargain if you're buying in volume.

Families keeping a close eye on the budget should strongly consider the two-stop approach. According to Canstar Blue, Australian households of four or more have seen grocery bills climb the most over the past year, so every dollar saved at the pantry-staples level frees up room elsewhere. A steady Aldi run for the items it clearly wins, combined with a Coles or Woolworths top-up for the rest, is the most practical path to those savings without turning grocery day into a full-time job.