School Lunchbox Basket: Save Up to $16 Across Coles, Woolies, Aldi & IGA

Feeding kids five days a week adds up fast. Canstar Blue's July 2025 survey found the average Australian household spends $178 per week on groceries, and families with four or more people have seen their bills climb 11% year on year. The lunchbox is a big piece of that. We priced 11 school lunchbox staples across Coles, Woolies, Aldi and IGA to find out where your money goes furthest.

What the School Lunchbox Basket Costs at Each Store

The gap between cheapest and most expensive is $12.36. That's not life-changing on its own, but across a 10-week school term it starts to look like real money.

• Aldi: $44.99
• Woolies: $47.60
• Coles: $52.25
• IGA: $57.35

Aldi wins the full basket by a clear margin. Woolies is only $2.61 behind, which makes it a genuine option if you prefer the range or it's closer to home. Coles is mid-pack. IGA is the priciest by $12.36 against Aldi, not unusual for a store that doesn't carry the same buying power on packaged goods as the major chains. That said, IGA has two surprises buried in this basket that are worth knowing about.

Where the Biggest Price Gaps Are

Yoghurt pouches are the wild card. The 6-pack comes in at $0.75 at Aldi. Comparable products at Coles and Woolies cost noticeably more. Go through a pack a week during the school term and the difference adds up.

Muesli bars (two 6-packs) are $2.29 at Aldi, the cheapest across all four stores. Kids go through these quickly, and Aldi's home-brand does exactly the same job for less. This is a buy-in-bulk-and-stockpile situation.

Tuna in springwater (four 95 g tins) is $3.29 at Aldi. Canned tuna is one of the most consistent buy-at-Aldi items in any grocery basket. There's rarely a reason to buy it anywhere else.

Ham (200 g) is $1.99 at Woolies, the cheapest of the four stores. Not a massive saving in isolation, but deli items can shift price quickly by brand and cut, so it's worth a look at the label when you're there.

Tasty cheese slices (250 g) come in at $4.55 at Coles, the cheapest across all four stores. That's a genuine surprise given Coles finishes third overall. No single store wins every category.

The IGA Fruit Plot Twist

IGA is the most expensive store for this basket overall, but it has the cheapest apples and mandarins.

Apples (1 kg) are $1.00 at IGA. Mandarins (1 kg) are $0.90. Both are the cheapest in the basket by a reasonable margin. Produce pricing at independent IGA stores is often tied to local supplier relationships, which makes it genuinely variable week to week. This week, IGA wins on fresh fruit.

If you already shop at IGA, fill your bag with the fruit and move on. If you're doing your main shop at Aldi, you won't lose sleep over the difference.

Is Cherry-Picking Worth the Extra Trip?

Honest answer: for most families, no.

Buying the cheapest item at each store brings the basket to $40.78. That's a saving of $4.21 against buying everything at Aldi, which is already the cheapest full-basket option. To get there, you'd need at least two stops: Aldi for most of the basket, Woolies for the ham, and IGA or a local greengrocer for the fruit.

Petrol, time, and carrying two bags of groceries will eat that $4.21 for most households. CHOICE's December 2025 quarterly basket survey found the same dynamic across a 17-item lunchbox basket, Aldi dominated on full-basket price, and splitting the shop across stores only delivered meaningful savings on a handful of specific items.

The cherry-pick makes sense if you're already passing both stores as part of your regular routine, or if the stores are next to each other and you can do it in one outing. Otherwise, just do the full shop at Aldi and spend the saved time somewhere else.

Who Should Shop Where

Aldi suits most families doing a weekly shop. You get the lowest price on 7 of the 11 items, the full basket lands at $44.99, and the range covers everything in this basket without hunting. The trade-off is limited brand choice, Aldi uses its own home-brand on several lines, and if your kid has strong opinions about which muesli bar brand is acceptable, that becomes a real negotiation.

Woolies makes sense if brand flexibility matters. It's only $2.61 more than Aldi for the full basket, the ham is cheaper there anyway, and the range gives you more to work with. Woolies regularly runs half-price specials on packaged snacks, so check the app before you shop.

Coles is fine, but it's the second-priciest of the big two for this basket. The cheap cheese slices are a nice win, and Coles runs its own specials cycle, worth keeping an eye on the app for deals on muesli bars and snack multipacks.

IGA is a tough sell for the full basket. If it's your closest store, grab the fruit and check what's on special. Just don't anchor your whole shop there based on packaged goods pricing.

Sultanas (6-pack) at $2.49 and juice poppers at $3.00 from Aldi round out a basket that covers Monday to Friday without much fuss. Stack your pantry with tuna and muesli bars from Aldi on your next run, and you won't need to think about those for a few weeks.