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Grocery bill reduction guide

How To Eat Cheaper

Cheaper eating comes from repeatable decisions: choose staple-friendly recipes, compare the weekly basket, reuse ingredients, and avoid buying products for one meal only.

Start a cheaper weekly planView example weekly plan
How To Eat Cheaper recipe example

Curated from 103 recipes

The cheapest dinner for each everyday protein

Per-serve prices use curated product matches and split-shop basket estimates for Sydney. Prices checked 2 Nov–11 Nov. Some of these prices have not been verified recently and may be out of date. Some price verification dates are unknown. Always check live retailer prices before purchase.

How Weekly Shop helps lower the basket

Plan around cheap staples, discounts, and reusable ingredients

Use bulk staples twice

Rice, pasta, oats, potatoes, lentils, chickpeas, eggs, tuna, yoghurt, and frozen vegetables can appear across several meals so the shop is less wasteful.

Compare the basket

A recipe can be cheaper at one retailer, but the weekly basket may be cheaper when split or when a staple is already in the trolley.

Start with low-cost recipes

Sort by per-serve estimate first, then add higher-cost meals intentionally instead of letting expensive proteins dominate the week.

Share the plan

Once the week works, share it with the household so everyone sees the recipes, the plan, and the grocery list before shopping.

Common questions

Budget shopping questions, answered

How much does a week of budget meals cost for a family of four?

It depends almost entirely on how often expensive proteins appear: weeks built on eggs, tuna, lentils, and chicken land far below weeks built on beef and salmon. Rather than quote a number that ages, Weekly Shop prices it live — the feed-a-family-of-four collection page totals a full week of dinners for four from this week's Coles and Woolworths prices, and every recipe card shows its own per-serve cost.

What are the cheapest meals to cook in Australia?

Meals built on rice, pasta, oats, potatoes, lentils, chickpeas, eggs, and canned tuna consistently come in under A$3 a serve at Coles and Woolworths. Weekly Shop's under-A$3 collection lists every recipe in the catalogue that currently prices below that line.

Is it cheaper to shop at Coles or Woolworths?

It changes week to week and depends on your basket, and which chain is ahead flips with the specials cycle. Rather than quote a gap that ages, Weekly Shop measures it: the home page totals the same example week bought entirely at Coles and entirely at Woolworths from this week's prices, and the planner does the same for your own week. Individual staples can differ far more than the weekly basket does while one of them is on special.

Do supermarket specials actually reduce the grocery bill?

Only when the special is on something your plan already uses. A discount on a product you would not otherwise buy still increases the total. Planning meals first and then checking which ingredients happen to be on special keeps the discount working for you.

More budget planning pages

Keep planning

This Week's Coles Specials, Turned Into DinnersSee which Coles specials this week are worth cooking: budget dinners built on discounted ingredients, priced per serve and refreshed every catalogue.This Week's Woolworths Specials, Turned Into DinnersSee which Woolworths specials this week are worth cooking: budget dinners built on discounted ingredients, priced per serve and refreshed every catalogue.Coles and Woolworths price trackerWeekly price history for staple groceries: current price at both chains, specials cadence, and next-special estimates.Dinners under A$3 a serveEvery dinner in the Weekly Shop catalogue currently under A$3 a serve at Coles or Woolworths, sorted cheapest first and re-priced with each weekly catalogue scan.Feed a family of four: seven dinners under A$100Seven dinners for a family of four, priced from this week's Coles and Woolworths prices: the cost of the ingredients the recipes use.Budget Meal Plan AustraliaBuild a cheap weekly meal plan from budget recipes, real Coles and Woolworths price comparisons, and a grocery list you can share.