Budget School Lunchbox: Aldi Wins at $40.92

A CHOICE survey published earlier this year found that one in three Australian students goes to school without lunch, a figure that jumped 24 per cent in the past year. That's a brutal number. And it lands right alongside Canstar Blue data showing the average Australian household now spends $178 a week on groceries, up six per cent on 2024.

So when the lunchbox shop feels punishing, it's not your imagination.

This basket is the home-brand version of a standard school lunchbox run: two loaves of white bread, cheese slices, ham, tuna, yoghurt pouches, plain biscuits, sultanas, juice poppers, apples, bananas, and a jar of Vegemite. Eleven items, enough for roughly a week of lunches and snacks for one kid. We priced it across Coles, Woolies, Aldi, and IGA to find where your money actually goes furthest.

What the Budget School Lunchbox Costs at Each Store

The headline: Aldi wins, and it's not particularly close at the top.

Aldi is $3.49 cheaper than Woolies and $8.38 cheaper than IGA. The gap between Aldi and Coles is only 99 cents, but Coles was missing one item entirely, so Coles' real number would likely be higher. IGA is a full $8.38 behind Aldi. That's not loose change on a budget.

CHOICE found the same pattern when it ran its own lunchbox basket comparison earlier in 2025, Aldi came out cheapest for school lunch staples, with the basket landing around $41. Our numbers line up almost exactly, which is reassuring.

Where the Biggest Savings Are

A few items do most of the heavy lifting in the price gap between stores.

Yoghurt pouches are the standout. At Aldi, a six-pack costs just $0.69. That's not a typo. The same style of product at Woolies can run significantly more. If your kid goes through a pouch a day, the maths adds up quickly over a school term.

Juice poppers (six-pack) are $3.15 at Aldi. These are a consistent Aldi win, the home-brand equivalent at the big two tends to sit higher, and name brands push the price up even further.

Tuna (four-pack of 95g tins) is $3.29 at Aldi. Tuna is one of those items that can quietly double in price if you're not watching labels. At IGA in particular, individual tins of branded tuna can easily cost more per 100g than what Aldi charges for the whole four-pack.

Sultanas (six-pack) are $2.49 at Aldi, and the two-pack of white bread (650g loaves) comes to $2.39. Both are lunchbox staples you're buying every single week.

Where Prices Are Basically the Same

Some items barely move between stores, so don't let them drive your decision.

Bananas are cheapest at Coles at $0.66 per kilogram, but banana prices fluctuate with supply, and any store is within a reasonable range depending on the week. A cyclone or a wet season in Queensland can wipe out that comparison overnight.

Plain biscuits (250g) are cheapest at Coles at $1.25. Aldi and Woolies aren't far behind on this one. Not a reason to cross town.

Vegemite (220g) is cheapest at Woolies at $5.70. It's the same brand regardless of where you buy it, Vegemite doesn't do a home-brand, so Woolies wins this one by default. If you're already at Aldi and Vegemite is on the list, you'll need a separate stop or you'll pay more.

Ham (200g) is actually cheapest at IGA at $3.20. That's a genuine IGA win on a staple item, and it slightly closes the overall gap. Still not enough to make IGA the better shop overall, but worth noting if an IGA is your only nearby option.

Is the Cherry-Pick Worth the Extra Trip?

Doing the full multi-store run drops the total to $38.68, a saving of $2.24 over just shopping at Aldi. That means driving to at least three stores (Aldi for most things, Woolies for Vegemite, Coles for bananas and biscuits, IGA for ham) to save $2.24 on an $40-odd shop.

Honest answer? No. Not for most people.

The petrol, the time, and the friction of three separate trolleys doesn't pay off at $2.24. Cherry-picking makes sense over a bigger basket where individual item gaps are larger. On this basket, the juice isn't worth the squeeze, unless you're already passing those stores in your normal week.

The one partial exception: if you shop at Woolies regularly anyway and always grab Vegemite there, you're already getting that $5.70 price without any extra effort. Adding Aldi as your main run and Woolies for the Vegemite is a reasonable two-stop strategy, especially if they're near each other.

Who Should Shop Where

Aldi is the clear first choice for anyone budget-focused on this basket. Almost every item is either cheapest at Aldi or within a few cents of the cheapest. You'll get the full shop done in one trolley, and the total is genuinely competitive, not in a marketing way, but in a receipts way.

Woolies makes sense if you're already a regular and the savings on a $40 basket don't justify changing habits. You'll pay $3.49 more than Aldi overall, but you'll also get Vegemite at the cheapest available price and have access to loyalty discounts via Everyday Rewards if you've got points banked.

Coles is comparable to Aldi within a dollar, and would likely come in at a similar price to Woolies once the missing item is accounted for. The Flybuys programme could close the gap further. But Coles missing at least one item in this basket is worth factoring in, you may end up at a second store anyway.

IGA is hard to recommend for a budget lunchbox run. The $8.38 gap over Aldi is real, and the ham at $3.20 is the only item where IGA leads. IGA's value is convenience and community, if it's your local and that matters to you, that's fair. But if budget is the primary driver, the numbers don't back it up.

For families doing a weekly lunchbox restock, the practical move is simple: shop at Aldi, grab Vegemite at Woolies if you're passing one, and skip the rest of the comparison shopping. The saving you'll actually bank is about $3.50 a week over Woolies, not dramatic, but $175 over a school year is nothing to ignore.