Budget BBQ Groceries: Aldi Wins at $35.89

Saturday arvo snag-off. A bag of snags, a couple of bread packs, some sauce, a bit of salad. It's one of the most predictable grocery shops in Australia, which means it's one of the easiest to price-check across stores.

We priced 12 items for a classic weekend BBQ across Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA. Here's what we found.

What Does a Weekend BBQ Basket Cost at Each Store?

The spread is wider than you'd expect for such a straightforward shop.

• Aldi: $35.89 (10 of 12 items available)
• Coles: $52.60 (full basket)
• Woolworths: $53.60 (full basket)
• IGA: $65.25 (full basket)
• Cherry-pick cheapest across all stores: $40.53

Aldi stocks 10 of the 12 items. The two gaps matter, so we'll get to those. But for the items it does carry, Aldi is cheapest on eight of them. That's a decisive win.

The Coles and Woolies numbers are almost identical. Just $1 separates them across the whole basket, so if you're choosing between those two, you're really just picking whichever one is closer to home.

IGA at $65.25 is a different conversation entirely. That's $12.65 more than Woolies and nearly $30 more than Aldi. IGA pricing varies a lot by store, and convenience stores in this network often charge a premium, but the gap here is hard to overlook.

Where the Biggest Savings Are

Sausages and produce: Aldi runs away with it

The biggest wins at Aldi are spread across the basket. Thin beef sausages (1 kg) come in at $3.89, which is the cheapest in the comparison. Tomatoes (1 kg) at $0.84 are genuinely striking. Iceberg lettuce at $1.99. Coleslaw (500 g) for $2.99. And both the tomato sauce and BBQ sauce are $1.75 each at Aldi.

Those condiments are worth pausing on. Sauce is one of those items where the brand you're used to feels non-negotiable, but a generic 500 ml sauce for $1.75 does the same job on a sausage in bread.

Tasty cheese slices (250 g) also land cheapest at Aldi at $3.49. If you're doing cheeseburgers or loaded snags, that's where to get them.

Hot dog rolls and onions: Coles holds its own

Not everything skews Aldi's way. Hot dog rolls (6-pack, you'll want two packs for a crowd) are cheapest at Coles. Brown onions (1 kg) are $2.00 at Coles, and that's also the cheapest in the basket. These are two items worth picking up at Coles even if you do the rest elsewhere.

American mustard (250 g) is cheapest at Woolies at $2.70. That one's easy to grab if you're already in there.

Where Prices Are Basically the Same

Lettuce and produce generally are close across the big three. And honestly, the hot dog rolls aren't wildly different store to store. If you're already at Coles or Woolies and the price difference on a few items is 30 cents, it's not worth tracking that down separately.

White bread (700 g) at $2.99 is cheapest at Aldi, but you'll find something comparable in price at Coles and Woolies too. Bread is one of the most competitively priced categories across Australian supermarkets right now. According to ABS data, bread and cereal prices saw the lowest annual increase of any grocery category into late 2025 at around 1.5%, so you're not getting gouged here regardless of which store you're in.

Is Cherry-Picking Worth the Extra Trip?

The cherry-pick total across all four stores is $40.53. That's $12.07 less than doing it all at Coles and $13.07 less than Woolies.

So the honest answer depends on your situation.

If Aldi is already nearby and you're willing to stop at Coles for the hot dog rolls and onions, you'll cover most of the gap without touching a third or fourth store. Realistically, for this basket, a two-stop run at Aldi and Coles gets you very close to the cherry-pick total. The Woolies-only mustard saves you a dollar or two at most, and the IGA chips will save you even less.

The full four-store cherry-pick is probably not worth it for $12 in savings unless the stores are genuinely on your route. But Aldi plus Coles? That's a sensible two-stop shop for most people, and you'll land well under $45.

One thing to flag: Aldi doesn't stock two items in this basket. That means if you're a one-stop shopper, Coles at $52.60 is your best full-basket option. Woolies at $53.60 is essentially the same.

According to a March 2025 CHOICE survey across 104 supermarkets nationwide, Aldi remains the cheapest place to shop for groceries overall. This BBQ basket confirms that pattern, at least for the items they carry.

Who Should Shop Where

One-stop shoppers: Coles at $52.60 is the call. It's a dollar cheaper than Woolies for the same full basket, and the difference is small enough that proximity wins.

Families on a tight budget: Start at Aldi. Get the sausages, bread, sauces, lettuce, tomatoes, coleslaw and cheese there. Then pop to Coles for the hot dog rolls and onions. You'll land well under $45 for the whole lot.

IGA shoppers: Unless you genuinely have no other option, this basket is expensive at IGA. The $65.25 total is $29.36 more than Aldi, which at a BBQ scale is real money. The potato chips are actually cheapest at IGA ($1.50 for a 6-pack), but that one win doesn't move the needle on the overall shop.

People who already do a big Woolies or Coles shop: Grab the mustard at Woolies, or the rolls and onions at Coles, while you're there. Don't make a special trip.

According to Compare the Market, the average Australian grocery spend in June 2025 is $206.54 per week. That's down slightly from the start of the year as shoppers get more deliberate about where they buy. A Saturday BBQ shop is a perfect place to apply that same logic: know which store wins which items, and stop making assumptions.

The sausages at Aldi for $3.89 do the job. The tomatoes at 84 cents are a bargain. You don't need to spend $65 at IGA to feed a backyard full of hungry people.