Cheap Vegetarian Mid-Week Basket: Aldi Wins at $48.53

Aldi wins this one, and it's not particularly close.

A 14-item vegetarian mid-week basket, five nights of pulse-powered, veg-led dinners, costs $48.53 at Aldi, $53.40 at Woolworths, $59.69 at Coles, and $63.01 at IGA (where two items weren't available at all). If you cherry-pick the cheapest price at each individual store, you get it down to $46.76, a saving of just $1.77 against Aldi's total.

That last number is probably the most honest thing in this post. The gap between the "perfect shop" and just going to Aldi is under two dollars. Keep that in mind.

What This Basket Costs at Each Store

The full breakdown is in the price table below, but here's the shape of it: Aldi is cheapest on 10 of the 14 items. Woolworths picks up two (mushrooms and olive oil). Coles holds the best price on diced tomatoes, brown onions, and garlic. IGA doesn't lead on a single line item in this basket.

The total spread from cheapest to dearest is $14.48 ($48.53 Aldi vs $63.01 IGA). Between the two majors, Woolworths is $6.29 cheaper than Coles for the same trolley, a meaningful gap that the CHOICE quarterly basket reports have flagged as a consistent pattern since early 2025, with Woolworths appearing more competitive than it was a year ago on many pantry staples.

Where the Budget Grocery Savings Are Biggest

Three items drive the bulk of the cross-store spread.

Halloumi is the star. At $4.99 for 200 g, Aldi's halloumi is the kind of price that makes you do a double-take. Coles and Woolworths both charge considerably more for equivalent or similar weight. The dairy and chilled aisle has some of the widest price variation of any category in a grocery shop, and halloumi is a good example of why. If you're cooking a halloumi traybake or a Greek-ish salad mid-week, buying it anywhere other than Aldi is genuinely hard to justify.

Firm tofu at $2.59 (Aldi) is similarly compelling. Tofu varies enormously in quality across stores, so this is worth checking on taste preference, but for a mid-week stir-fry or a scramble, Aldi's block does the job.

Tinned chickpeas and lentils, the backbone of any budget vegetarian week, are $0.89 per tin at Aldi. You've got three tins of chickpeas and two of lentils in this basket (five tins total), so the savings add up quickly. At Coles or Woolworths, the same tins run higher, and the difference across five units starts to feel real.

Pasta and pasta sauce also lean heavily Aldi's way. Two 500 g packs of penne at $0.89 each, and a 500 g pasta sauce at $1.59, that's a midweek pasta dinner sorted for well under $5 in ingredients.

Where the Prices Are Basically the Same

Not every item is a blowout. A few items cluster closely across the majors.

Brown onions (1 kg) are $2.50 at Coles, and similar at the others. Fresh produce pricing is the category that fluctuates most week to week, seasonal supply, weather, and what's been marked down will shift this more than any other item in the basket. Check the bin before assuming.

Baby spinach (120 g) comes in at $1.99 at Aldi, and other stores aren't dramatically more expensive. For a bag of greens you're mostly wilting into a lentil dal or an egg scramble, the difference probably doesn't move the needle.

Jasmine rice (1 kg) is $2.99 at Aldi, a fair price, and while you might find own-brand variations elsewhere, they generally land in a similar range.

Is the Cheap Groceries Cherry-Pick Worth the Extra Trip?

Honest answer: no, not for this basket.

The maximum you save by cherry-picking the absolute cheapest price on every item is $1.77 compared to just doing the whole shop at Aldi. That's two minutes of change from the parking meter at most shopping centres. The extra fuel, the second trolley, the time, none of it pays off here.

The only scenario where splitting your shop makes sense is if you're already heading past a Coles or Woolworths for another reason. In that case, grab garlic ($1.98 at Coles), a bag of brown onions ($2.50 at Coles), and the diced tomatoes ($0.95 per tin at Coles). Those three are legitimately Coles' stronghold items in this basket. But you're not driving somewhere extra for them.

The Woolworths wins, mushrooms at $6.00 and olive oil at $7.00, are also legitimate if you're already there. A 500 ml bottle of olive oil at $7 is a good weekly price and olive oil quality does matter for cooking. But again: not worth a separate trip.

Who Should Shop Where for This Basket

You've got an Aldi nearby: Go there. Do the full shop. Walk out with $48.53 spent and change to spare. Aldi's pantry staples, tinned legumes, dried pasta, pasta sauce, rice, are consistently among the cheapest in the country, and this basket leans heavily on exactly those categories.

You're a Woolworths regular: The $53.40 total isn't bad. You're paying $4.87 more than Aldi, but you've got home delivery, Everyday Rewards points, and the convenience of a wider range if you want it. The fresh produce section at Woolies is often very solid for staples like mushrooms, and this week their $6.00 for 500 g cup mushrooms leads the field.

You're a Coles regular: The $59.69 total is the most expensive of the three main options. Coles has pockets of good value in this basket, garlic, onions, diced tomatoes, but the overall cost is harder to defend when Woolworths is over six dollars cheaper. Worth reviewing your loyalty or clicking through to Woolworths if you're shopping online.

You're near an IGA only: The $63.01 total (and two unavailable items) makes this the hardest option. IGA's convenience format suits top-up shops, not a full weekly vegetarian basket. If it's IGA or nothing, the pantry staples in this basket, pasta, rice, tinned goods, are worth sourcing in a larger shop at a chain when you can.

Retirees and smaller households: A basket like this easily feeds two people for the week at roughly $24 per person. Tinned lentils and chickpeas freeze well as cooked dishes, so cooking in batches and freezing halves the per-serving cost again. Aldi's pantry range is particularly strong for people who want to shop once and not top-up constantly.