Healthy Food Shopping on a Budget: Aldi vs the Rest

Eating well costs money. That's the assumption, anyway. But how much more does a genuinely healthy weekly basket actually cost compared to just buying whatever's cheapest, and does it matter which supermarket you walk into?

We priced 12 staples across Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA this week: chicken breast, Greek yoghurt, eggs, avocados, baby spinach, frozen blueberries, quinoa, almonds, sweet potato, rolled oats, tuna, and bananas. Nothing processed. Nothing fancy. The kind of basket a dietitian would approve of.

Here's what it cost.

What This Healthy Basket Costs at Each Store

• Aldi: $64.37 (one item unavailable)
• Woolworths: $71.12
• Coles: $71.43
• IGA: $97.07

Aldi is the clear winner, sitting $6.75 cheaper than Woolies and $7.06 cheaper than Coles. If you can get to an Aldi, this is straightforward.

IGA is a different story. At $97.07, it costs $32.70 more than Aldi for the same basket. That's not a rounding error, it's a meaningful chunk of a grocery budget every single week. IGA often does well on convenience and fresh produce specials, but for a basket heavy on pantry staples and protein, the price gap is hard to justify unless it's genuinely your only option.

Coles and Woolies are almost identical. Thirty-one cents separates them. If you're choosing between those two, pick whichever one is closer or has the better loyalty offer this week.

Where the Biggest Savings Are, 3 Items Worth Paying Attention To

Chicken breast (1 kg) is $6.50 at Aldi. Chicken breast is one of the items where CHOICE has consistently found Aldi beats the majors, and this basket confirms it. Protein is typically the biggest cost driver in a healthy shop, so Aldi's edge here matters.

Greek yoghurt (1 kg) lands at $3.89 at Aldi. Woolies and Coles both sell their home-brand versions, but Aldi's Farmdale yoghurt regularly undercuts them. At roughly half the price of some name-brand tubs, this one is worth making the trip for on its own.

Quinoa (500 g) is $5.49 at Aldi. Quinoa used to be an expensive ingredient, and it still is at full price in the other stores. If you're using it as a weeknight grain instead of rice, those savings add up fast across a month of cooking.

Bananas are the interesting outlier: cheapest at $0.81 per kg at Aldi, but banana pricing swings week to week depending on what's come through the markets. Your mileage will vary.

Where Prices Are Basically the Same

Rolled oats are cheapest at IGA ($1.60), which is a surprise, but the difference between stores on oats is small enough that it won't move the needle on your total.

Baby spinach ($1.99 at Aldi) and sweet potato ($1.80 at Aldi) are similarly priced at the majors, give or take 20 to 40 cents. If you're already at Coles or Woolies, don't stress about these. They're not the items dragging your bill up.

Free range eggs (12 pack) at $5.99 at Aldi is competitive, but Coles and Woolies regularly run their own eggs on special. Check before you assume.

Is the Cherry-Pick Worth the Extra Trip?

The cheapest possible version of this basket, buying each item wherever it's cheapest, costs $60.01. That's $4.36 less than shopping entirely at Aldi, and $11.11 less than shopping entirely at Woolies.

Most of the cherry-pick advantage comes from a handful of items. Avocados are cheapest at IGA ($6.90 for a 4-pack), and rolled oats are marginally cheaper there too. So the "optimal" shop actually involves three or four stores: Aldi for the bulk of the basket, IGA for avocados and oats.

Honest take: for $4.36 in extra savings over Aldi, a second-store detour probably isn't worth it. Petrol, time, and the chaos of an extra trolley run often cost more than you save. But if you're already walking past an IGA for the avocados, grab the oats while you're there.

The $11.11 saving versus Woolies is more interesting. If you're a Woolies-only shopper, switching entirely to Aldi for this type of basket saves you roughly $550 a year. That number is real.

Is Healthy Eating Actually More Expensive?

We run cheaper baskets on the same week, so we can make this comparison properly. The short answer: yes, but not as much as people think.

This basket at Aldi ($64.37) costs more per item than a bare-essentials or a budget family basket, but the ingredients carry across multiple meals. Chicken breast, sweet potato, and rolled oats are not single-use. Quinoa cooks once and lasts three days of lunches. Greek yoghurt covers breakfast for the week. The per-meal cost of eating from this basket is genuinely competitive.

According to Canstar Blue's July 2025 survey, Australian households spend an average of $178 per week on groceries. A healthy basket for one or two people at $60 to $65 is well under that. The expensive version of healthy eating involves a lot of avocado toast at cafes. The supermarket version is more manageable than the narrative suggests.

Who Should Shop Where

Go to Aldi if you're within reasonable distance and comfortable with the smaller range. For this basket, it's the best single-store option. The trade-off is one unavailable item (this week's gap was minor), and you'll need to know your products, Aldi's labels won't match the brands you're used to.

Coles or Woolies if you need the full range, prefer name brands, or you're combining this shop with a larger weekly run. The $7 premium over Aldi is real but not enormous, and both stores have decent own-brand health staples now. Loyalty points and catalogue specials can chip away at the gap too.

IGA only makes sense here if it's your local and you have no real alternative. The $33 premium over Aldi on this basket is genuinely significant. That said, IGA stores vary a lot, some independent IGAs are very competitive on fresh produce, so it's worth checking your specific one rather than writing them off entirely.

A split shop, Aldi for the protein and pantry, Woolies or Coles for anything Aldi doesn't carry, is the approach ShopBack's 2026 supermarket comparison flagged as the most cost-effective for Australian families. This basket backs that up.

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Eating well on a tight budget is possible. Aldi makes it easier than most people realise.