Weekend BBQ for Under $45: Coles vs Woolies vs Aldi vs IGA

The great Aussie weekend BBQ shouldn't cost a fortune. Twelve items, sausages, rolls, bread, onions, sauce, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese slices, coleslaw and chips, and the price gap between the cheapest and most expensive store is over $22. That's not nothing.

Here's what the same basket costs this week, each store priced to its own standard range:

• Coles: $44.90
• Aldi: $47.09 (one item not stocked)
• Woolworths: $57.16
• IGA: $67.28

The cherry-pick total, buying each item at whichever store is cheapest, lands at $41.14. That's $3.76 less than just doing the whole shop at Coles.

What the Weekend BBQ Basket Costs at Each Store

Coles is the clear winner for a single-store shop. At $44.90 it beats Woolies by $12.26 and IGA by a pretty staggering $22.38. Aldi is close at $47.09, but they're missing one item from the basket, so that $2.19 gap is a bit misleading; you'd need to grab the missing product somewhere else.

IGA is almost always the priciest option in baskets like this, and $67.28 confirms it. Convenience stores serve a purpose, but running a BBQ shop through IGA every weekend will cost you roughly $1,170 more per year than doing it at Coles.

Where the Biggest Savings Are

A few items do most of the heavy lifting on price difference.

Thin beef sausages (1 kg) are the centrepiece of any BBQ basket, and Aldi wins here at $3.99. Woolies can charge significantly more for a comparable 1 kg product, when the gap on just the snags is a few dollars, that alone justifies checking Aldi's fridges first. Coles also keeps sausages competitive, so if you're already doing your full shop there, you're not being gouged.

Tomato sauce and BBQ sauce are both cheapest at Aldi at $1.85 each. That's $3.70 for both bottles combined. The same two at IGA could set you back noticeably more, so if condiments are always on your list, Aldi's pantry aisle is worth remembering.

Hot dog rolls and white bread are both cheapest at Aldi ($2.49 each), and both are bakery staples where the price range across stores tends to be widest. Paying more for bread at a major chain when Aldi's version is perfectly fine is probably the easiest money to save in a BBQ shop.

Potato chips (6 pack) is the sharpest deal in the basket: $1.00 at Coles. That's the kind of price that makes a single-store Coles shop even easier to justify, you'd pay more for that same six-pack at every other store.

Where Prices Are Basically the Same

Not everything varies wildly.

Brown onions (1 kg) are cheapest at IGA ($0.88), but you're not driving to IGA just for onions. Coles and Woolies price them similarly, and at under $1 either way, this isn't a line item to stress over.

Iceberg lettuce is $1.99 at Aldi, and the other stores hover close enough that it's not a standout gap. Produce pricing in Australia can swing week to week depending on seasonal supply, according to Canstar Blue's 2025 research, fruits and vegetables saw some of the highest percentage price increases of any grocery category this year, but lettuce is generally a low-cost item across the board.

American mustard is cheapest at Woolies ($2.70). It's one of only a couple of items where Woolies actually wins on price in this basket. If you're cherry-picking, it's worth grabbing there, but only if you were going to Woolies anyway.

Is the Cherry-Pick Worth the Extra Trip?

Honest answer: probably not.

The cherry-pick saves $3.76 compared to doing the whole basket at Coles. If you're already hitting multiple stores for other reasons, sure, grab the sausages and bread at Aldi and tick off mustard at Woolies. But making a dedicated extra stop to save $3.76 on a BBQ basket makes no sense, the petrol alone would wipe out the saving.

The cherry-pick does make more sense if you're a regular multi-store shopper. Plenty of families in the r/AusFinance and r/CostOfLivingAU communities run an Aldi-first strategy for pantry staples and meat, then top up at Coles for anything Aldi doesn't stock. For a basket like this one, that habit would naturally capture most of the savings.

The jump from Coles ($44.90) to Woolies ($57.16) is the real story here. That $12.26 gap for an identical basket is the kind of difference that adds up fast across a full weekly shop. CHOICE's own BBQ basket research found Aldi consistently undercuts the major chains, and this basket backs that up, though Coles closes the gap considerably.

Who Should Shop Where

Families on a budget: Aldi for sausages, bread and sauces, then Coles for tomatoes ($0.95), cheese slices ($4.55), coleslaw ($2.00) and chips ($1.00). You'll land very close to that $41.14 cherry-pick total without much extra effort.

One-stop shoppers: Coles at $44.90 is your best bet. It's the cheapest full basket, no missing items, and several of the pantry lines, tomatoes, cheese, coleslaw, chips, are genuinely the cheapest in the basket here.

Convenience shoppers near an IGA: The $67.28 IGA total stings. If it's your only option before the weekend, fine, but it's worth knowing you're paying a significant premium over a Coles or Aldi run.

Woolies loyalists: Woolies loses this basket by $12.26 to Coles. If you're collecting Everyday Rewards points and factor those in, the gap narrows a little, but it doesn't close. For a regular BBQ basket, it's worth asking whether the points are actually worth the extra spend.

The average Australian household spends around $194 a week on groceries according to Canstar Blue's 2025 survey, and 11% of shoppers have already switched supermarkets in the past year to save money. A $22 swing on a single BBQ basket is exactly the kind of thing that's quietly pushing people to rethink where they shop.