Cheap Groceries for Pensioners: Aldi Saves $9.37

Aldi wins this basket at $61.74. That's $0.64 under Coles, $4.74 under Woolies, and $3.35 under IGA. The gap isn't massive at the single-store level, but on a fixed income those dollars matter, and they add up every fortnight.

This basket covers two weeks of basics for one person, or one week for a couple: cereal, bread, eggs, milk, fruit, veg, a protein or two, and pantry staples like oats, tea, and baked beans. Nothing fancy. Nothing that needs a chest freezer or a big appetite for variety.

What This Pensioner Grocery Basket Costs at Each Store

Woolies is the priciest by a clear margin, $4.74 more than Aldi for the same 15 items. IGA's total looks middling, but one item wasn't available there at all, so the real cost would be higher once you sourced it elsewhere.

CHOICE's June 2026 national supermarket survey found Aldi had the cheapest basket of grocery items across 104 stores in 27 locations around Australia, both with and without specials. This basket lines up with that finding.

Cheap Groceries for Seniors: Where the Biggest Gaps Are

A few items move the needle more than others.

Bananas are the standout oddity. Coles has them at $0.83 per kg this week, which is genuinely cheap. Aldi's price is higher. If you're buying bananas anyway, Coles is the right call on that one item.

Oats (1 kg) are $1.49 at Aldi. The same category costs more at Coles and Woolies. For a breakfast staple you'll buy every fortnight, that gap compounds.

Free range eggs (12 pack) come in at $5.99 at Aldi, the cheapest in the basket. Eggs are one of the best-value proteins available, and this price keeps them that way.

Pink salmon (415 g) is $4.49 at Aldi. It's the highest-protein pantry item in the basket at one of the lowest price points. Good for a quick lunch on toast or mixed into a salad.

Tea bags (100 pack) are $1.75 at Coles. That's the cheapest in the group, and for a lot of retirees, tea is a genuine daily cost worth tracking.

Chicken breast (500 g) and frozen peas (500 g) are both cheapest at IGA, $4.59 and $2.00 respectively. If there's an IGA close by, those two items alone might justify a small detour.

Where the Stores Are Basically Level

Some items in this basket don't vary much across the big two.

Wholemeal bread, carrots, and potatoes all land within a small range at Coles and Woolies. The savings at Aldi on these are real but modest, usually under $1 per item. If you already shop at Coles for other reasons, you're not leaving a lot on the table with the produce here.

Full cream milk (2 L) is $3.39 at Aldi, which is the cheapest, but Coles and Woolies aren't dramatically more expensive. Private-label milk pricing has been squeezed hard by years of price wars, so the gap here is narrower than it used to be.

Wheat biscuits (750 g) are cheapest at IGA at $4.00, a little counterintuitive, since IGA often runs higher on packaged goods. Worth checking if your local IGA stocks them.

Is Cherry-Picking Worth an Extra Trip?

The maths say yes: $52.37 across the cheapest store for each item versus $61.74 all at Aldi is a $9.37 saving. That's real money on a pension.

But here's the honest take. To get that saving, you'd need to split the shop across at least three stores, Aldi for most items, Coles for bananas and tea bags, IGA for chicken and frozen peas. That means extra travel, extra time, and if you're driving or catching public transport, potentially extra cost in fuel or fares.

For most retirees shopping solo, the single-store Aldi run is the better call. The $9.37 saving rarely covers the cost and effort of the extra trip, especially if you don't live near all four stores.

The exception: if Coles and Aldi happen to be in the same shopping centre, pick up the bananas and tea bags at Coles while you're there. That's a genuine no-effort saving.

Who Should Shop Where

Aldi is the pick for most pensioners doing a full fortnightly shop. It wins on total basket price, the staples are consistent week to week, and the private-label quality on basics like oats, eggs, and bread is solid.

Coles makes sense if you're already a Flybuys member and collecting points, or if there's no Aldi nearby. The gap versus Aldi on this basket is only $0.64, close enough that loyalty perks could tip it.

Woolworths is the most expensive option here by a meaningful margin. The Everyday Rewards points might offset some of that over time, but at $66.48 versus Aldi's $61.74, you'd need to redeem those points fairly regularly for the maths to work in your favour.

IGA is a good backup for specific items, chicken breast and frozen peas are cheaper there, but the unavailability of one item and the generally higher prices on packaged goods make it hard to recommend as a primary shop for this basket.

The national average weekly grocery bill is now around $178, according to Canstar Blue's July 2025 research. A fortnightly pensioner basket hitting $61.74 at Aldi is well under half that average, which is partly about pack sizes, but also about smart category choices. Oats over cereal boxes, baked beans as a protein, frozen peas over fresh, salmon from a tin.

Those aren't compromises. They're just practical.