Sheesh the groceries are getting pretty crazy

[Jack91]

Cant just be us. Groceries for the week just cost $511.
Me and the mrs, 2 dogs and a cat. Granted this was one of the weeks that included toiletries and windex etc..
No takeaways, home cooked healthy meals, mainly meat based as we are on keto. We couldve trimmed about 50 bucks off for dog treats and a slab of coke zero. Everything is home brand or the cheapest of its kind on special. No smokes, booze etc in it either.
We have tried going to butchers and grocers seperately in the past but it wasnt any cheaper, and surprisingly the meat wasnt as good.
How high can this go?
Us with a small mortgage, no kids and both on pretty good coin with work cars are now starting to feel it a bit.
I really dont know how young families are doing it with new houses and 2 new cars on finance.
I guess my observation is that prices never come down, but wages cant go up either because most of our industries are already struggling.
Whats the end game here?

[Citroënbender]

Two people, weekly shop averages $160. I monitor it - not obsessively, but to see how things are tracking.

[prktkljokr]

Full retail price is only for people who pay for your discounts

I know some people will roll their eyes, weirdo prepper etc, the more you read the more you will understand the madness, A old couple told us this 30 years ago and it took us a while to adopt the right attitude to make it work, we too thought why bother at the time, this is not about hoarding supplies in case zombies attack or a nuclear attack or whatever, its to save money plain and simple .

You have to look at this as a yearly saving your not going to see the reward until you have what you need.

Based on what you just purchased, your yearly grocery bill would be $26,572, you can halve this and in some cases go even lower depending on your will power and your storage space

Its simple, you just need to adopt different shopping habits, places like Coles and Woolies etc will have lots of specials as they always do, they tell you they are keeping prices down blagh, blagh, blagh, they are full of crap, they recoup the discount they give you on other needed items that are not on special, so you might save $1 on your bag of Pasta, but pay a extra $1 on the sauce to go with it, they are in the business of making profit they are not just going to discount stuff without recouping it somewhere else, so to beat the system you need to buy a whole carton of pasta when its on special instead of 1 packet, but only buy 1 sauce for the week, next week the sauce will be on special and the pasta will be more expensive, so a carton of sauce goes in the trolly, this will give you pasta and sauce for the rest of the year, you adopt this on nearly every item you need, before you know it you will have a stock of weekly used products and a yearly bill that is thousands and thousands cheaper, you wont need to buy that item at full price ever again, you do need a room you can use to store it all or lots and lots of cupboard space and you will save money yearly over time by even not having to go to the shop at all, I am lucky as I have a 5 bedroom house but only use 2 as bedrooms, 1 is now our store room, the other 2 are for guests .

For an example I use LYNX deodorant, it is usually $6.50 per can, wife found it for $2 per can, she purchased 30 cans @$60 with a usual full retail of $195 ( they had to grab her a box from out the back ), nearly 2 years worth for me so she saved us $4.50 per can a total saving of $135, seeing I use a can roughly every 3 weeks just for the year she saved us $78, I know it does not sound like much, but when you add this to every item you purchase every week it does not take much to save a fair few thousand dollars or more, plus it will go on special many times again before we need to think about purchasing it again, so we are never paying full retail for it ever again.

I myself have never really looked at a grocery bill ( not my dept ), but we do buy our meat farm direct, with our fruit and vegetables coming from a growers co op, have done this for about 10 years now, even delivered it is way cheaper and way better quality than any of the mainstream supermarkets have to offer and way fresher.

You have to buy the meat in bulk, so we pay $800 for just over a couple of months worth of meat to feed 3, the one we use does chicken, pork, lamb, beef sausages etc, can you imagine buying a weeks worth of meat for $100 from a supermarket?, not going to happen, be lucky to get 4 half decent steaks, and seeing meat will be the biggest expense on most shopping lists its a good idea to look for a farmer who butchers his own meat, our contact was from word of mouth and he delivers once a week to Perth metro.

Luckily the wife has always had a habit of buying stuff in bulk when its on special or from places that sell bulk at discounted prices, so we have a store room full of most household weekly needed supplies, not even a really big thing to do even if you are struggling and not a bad habit to slowly adopt if you can, you just need to start out small like a couple of extra items each week and you get to a point where your weekly shop is only to top up the store and buy bulk items that are on special, we would save thousands each year just on buying when on special, one of the best things I ever did with the money we saved was buy a 700ltr chest freezer its now full of frozen specials , now have bulk frozen products, cartons of soap, cartons of drinks, water, cartons of toilet rolls, cartons of toiletries, deodorant's, shampoos, etc, cartons of tin food, you get the idea, I feel a bit like we are living one of those prepper shows you see on TV when I walk into the store room as its full, but I reckon we could go close to a year without having to go to the shops, our stockpile was created over a fair few years, but has saved us enough money over the years to pay out the mortgage early.

[fatgas]

Family of three here and the grocery bill is around the $240 a week mark of late. The same groceries would have been close to $190 not that long ago.

[Rallye Sport]

Same as prktkljokr
Pantry room in a spare room, freezer and vacuum sealer, shop the specials and stock up. Helps that the Mrs is a Chef too.

Vege's come from local farm gates or markets. Meat bought in bulk portioned at home.
We've been doing alright lately, scotch @13kg, fresh local prawns @$6kg, thats surf and turf a couple of nights a week for the next few months.
Razors half price, got a years supply.
Meat and vege scraps vac packed and saved for soup stock later, waste not want not.
Once again same as prktkljokr has said, its just habit now, its helped us to be mortgage free and I'm starting to get fat in my middle age
Love hearing people complain about the cost of going out too, we try to get out a couple of nights a week and do the local parmi and pint, pasta, pizza, ribs specials. Nothing over $25ea.
Its not all doom and gloom out there if you choose to make some changes.

[aussiblue]

Three of us $250 to $270 a week.

My special dietary requirements add significantly to my bill; no chicken (allergy) no gluten and especially no, potatoes or other nightshade vegies (otherwise my psoriasis flares up and not just on my skin but in my gastrointestinal system - seems it is virtually an extension of the skin so it bleeds). But yes it has increased by about $100.00 on what it used to be a couple of years ago.

Jack being in a regional location like Ballarat rather than a capital city with less competing stores and likely higher transport costs won't help. Perth and WA suffer a bit too with a lot of goods (probably needlessly) shipped here from the EAST but places like spudshed and Aldi help by providing competition to Coles and Woolies.

[Itsme]

You are right, it is tough times atm, cost of living has skyrocketed with no relief in sight for the middle incomes, I've even delayed my retirement for a year or two so I can secure more funds.
Your cost of $511 is certainly high for a couple's weekly groceries bill, you need to try different shops for different discounts & specials, try shopping in stores such as "NQR" https://nqr.com.au/ for better deals, as others stated, bulk shopping is another way to save.

[danzvtil]

Couple of problems when it comes to groceries-
Ingredients now cost more than the finished item (priced a lasagne from scratch vs ready made tray?)
“Bulk” very rarely means cheaper per kg when colesworth is involved. You buy a bigger pack when it’s convenient, it’s not automatically cheaper per kg.
Technically groceries are up 9% (heard on the radio) which is BS, there’s a whole stack of my trolley that has DOUBLED since the pandemic.

[T3rminator]

$8 - 5 piece KFC FTW.

On a serious note, I find if you sacrafice a bit of convenience and time (that is, not shop at colesworth), you can reduce your bills quite substantially by bargain hunting at the independents and smaller chains.

One of my favourites is Mercato. Tomorrow specials - $1 avacados, $1kg zuccini, $3kg eggplant, $4kg green beans. They do these deals every day. Won't ever find that at colesworth.

KFL - 2 dozens eggs 700g $7.50 all day every day.

Tasman and Aussie Butchers have good deals every day. I raw feed my dog, it can get exey, but these two joints have saved me a lot of $$$.

[HIPO]

Yep raped at either end of the chain, by the likes of filthy Woolworths etc, who have been making record profits as usual.

[prktkljokr]

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the $511 grocery bill

4 x Hungry Jacks small burger meals per day @ $7 each, works out to be $196 per week, no need for plates, knives, forks, detergent, fridge etc, and it only works out to $10220 per year, could mix it up with a few Domino's budget pizzas, chicken dinner or two from Red rooster all within budget, and it leaves $315 per week for living it up

[Citroënbender]

I was waiting for your explanation of how you doubled your savings on Lynx by only wearing deodorant every other day.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by Citroënbender

I was waiting for your explanation of how you doubled your savings on Lynx by only wearing deodorant every other day.

I'm not that thrifty, I would say most of it ends up in the air anyway, I wouldn't say I waste stuff but no longer care if I have to throw something out like I used to when we were struggling to make ends meet

[FairmontGS]

Originally Posted by Jack91

Cant just be us. Groceries for the week just cost $511.
Me and the mrs, 2 dogs and a cat. Granted this was one of the weeks that included toiletries and windex etc..
No takeaways, home cooked healthy meals, mainly meat based as we are on keto. We couldve trimmed about 50 bucks off for dog treats and a slab of coke zero. Everything is home brand or the cheapest of its kind on special. No smokes, booze etc in it either.
We have tried going to butchers and grocers seperately in the past but it wasnt any cheaper, and surprisingly the meat wasnt as good.
How high can this go?
Us with a small mortgage, no kids and both on pretty good coin with work cars are now starting to feel it a bit.
I really dont know how young families are doing it with new houses and 2 new cars on finance.
I guess my observation is that prices never come down, but wages cant go up either because most of our industries are already struggling.
Whats the end game here?

$511 per week? You’re doing something horrifically wrong. We are $230 meat included.

[naddis01]

Originally Posted by prktkljokr

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the $511 grocery bill

4 x Hungry Jacks small burger meals per day @ $7 each, works out to be $196 per week, no need for plates, knives, forks, detergent, fridge etc, and it only works out to $10220 per year, could mix it up with a few Domino's budget pizzas, chicken dinner or two from Red rooster all within budget, and it leaves $315 per week for living it up

You'll also save more in the long run on that diet, being dead within a few years.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by naddis01

You'll also save more in the long run on that diet, being dead within a few years.

I don't know you can go a Veggie pizza from Domino's, lettuce and tomato in the Burger and there are peas and potato in the chicken dinner, there's your weekly vegie intake right

I'm pretty sure its expensive to die these days, so there is the savings gone

[Jack91]

Originally Posted by FairmontGS

$511 per week? You’re doing something horrifically wrong. We are $230 meat included.

Sometimes its around 300 if theres no toiletries or cleaning stuff in it.
But its usually over that. This week was the biggest ever by a fair whack.
I wonder if people saying theres is so much lower is forgetting about lunches or the smoko van?
And yeah we were way better off financially living on takeout and junk food. It probably shouldnt be that way.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by prktkljokr

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the $511 grocery bill

4 x Hungry Jacks small burger meals per day @ $7 each, works out to be $196 per week, no need for plates, knives, forks, detergent, fridge etc, and it only works out to $10220 per year, could mix it up with a few Domino's budget pizzas, chicken dinner or two from Red rooster all within budget, and it leaves $315 per week for living it up

Your medical bills and health will suffer considerably with this diet, trust me I know a few bods who use to do it, God bless them, RIP.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Jack91

Sometimes its around 300 if theres no toiletries or cleaning stuff in it.
But its usually over that. This week was the biggest ever by a fair whack.
I wonder if people saying theres is so much lower is forgetting about lunches or the smoko van?
And yeah we were way better off financially living on takeout and junk food. It probably shouldnt be that way.

Just wondering if it's the pets causing your high prices? pet food & associated gear can be expensive at times.

[fordomatic]

We only eat whole foods at home. Meat, veg, fruit, spices. Saves an absolute fortune. Veggie shop for the week at farmers market averages $70. Meat and eggs for the week averages $60. We buy direct from farmer and I butcher, plus I hunt for about 30% of our meat. Consumables, washing liquid etc $20 a week. Family of 4, all my kids lunches are home cooked for school, no packet anything.

Went to woolies the other day for the first time in forever as needed an egg flip. Man the prices there are insane, $10 for a tube of toothpaste, $30 for washing liquid. Obviously people pay it, or they wouldn’t sell it.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by Itsme

Your medical bills and health will suffer considerably with this diet, trust me I know a few bods who use to do it, God bless them, RIP.

You do know I'm joking, I eat chicken salad nearly every day for lunch, and a proper cooked meal each night, junk food is a sometimes meal, but it just goes to show that you can live off a smaller amount, if they can make your meal for $7, you should be able to as well, but be able to eat well too, my chicken salad would only be $5 tops.

[XR Martin]

$500? Love to see the receipt
No one is forcing you to buy marble score 10+ Wagyu porterhouse.

Eating out at your local club every night would be cheaper.

[PG2]

Originally Posted by Jack91

Cant just be us. Groceries for the week just cost $511.
Me and the mrs, 2 dogs and a cat. Granted this was one of the weeks that included toiletries and windex etc..
No takeaways, home cooked healthy meals, mainly meat based as we are on keto. We couldve trimmed about 50 bucks off for dog treats and a slab of coke zero. Everything is home brand or the cheapest of its kind on special. No smokes, booze etc in it either.
We have tried going to butchers and grocers seperately in the past but it wasnt any cheaper, and surprisingly the meat wasnt as good.
How high can this go?
Us with a small mortgage, no kids and both on pretty good coin with work cars are now starting to feel it a bit.
I really dont know how young families are doing it with new houses and 2 new cars on finance.
I guess my observation is that prices never come down, but wages cant go up either because most of our industries are already struggling.
Whats the end game here?

I do agree, groceries are getting dearer. I have been doing the grocery shopping for our family for over 20 years. I have a good idea when prices go up - and they have been certainly going up lately.

Are you hoping for some advice on how to save some money?

If so; Where do you shop? Do you shop for specials? What sort of meat are you buying, for example, hamburger mince or rib eye steak?

What all of the guys are suggesting can reduce your bill quite considerably.

An example would be dynamo, it is normally $29 but every few weeks it goes on special for $14.50. Today I went shopping and bought 4 bottles.

[HIPO]

Media the other day was showing some supermarkets were doing 800% mark up on spuds.

Dont buy Vegies at the supermarket.....big savings & better quality from independent Veg retailers & most often have local produce as well!

[Polyal]

Yeah thats up there...we eat well and have 4 kids and we are doing it on 300-350 per week at the moment and thats all meals including their lunches!

Used to get away with it for $250ish but that hasnt happened in a while.

[roKWiz]

another good reason to not support Woolworth's.



Most of our shop for 2 is from farm gates and local producers, cheaper, fresher than supermarkets.

[fatgas]

Originally Posted by HIPO

Media the other day was showing some supermarkets were doing 800% mark up on spuds.

Dont buy Vegies at the supermarket.....big savings & better quality from independent Veg retailers & most often have local produce as well!

Their markups on every line item in the produce section are mental, doesn't matter the time of year or weather conditions. A recent example is pumpkin (kent or Jap), Woolies had it for $1 a kilo, they were buying it for $0.15 a kilio.

[prktkljokr]

Originally Posted by Jack91

I wonder if people saying theres is so much lower is forgetting about lunches or the smoko van?

If your on a budget, Lunches are home made the night before and the smoko van is a no go zone.

I watch the apprentices spend $20-30 a day on the smoko van, 2-3 items and a can of overpriced Mother, then they borrow tools and say they cant afford good tools.

Why pay $3 for a can of coke off a smoko truck when you can buy a block of 30 for under $30?

[kevino]

Tbf
Re pumpkins
Two truck trips
One to supermarket distribution centre
One to local store
Handling in/ out at distribution store
Handling in/ out local store back dock then to produce customer area

If you say 5 c for each of the above the supermarket gross profit is 55c of the $1 sale price

As other s have said we buy fruit and veg at farmers market and meat chicken from an independent butcher

[aussiblue]

If it's available switching to online shopping for your groceries can also save you money on your weekly shopping as:

a) it stops the so called "impulse buying" or unplanned purchases of unneeded "specials" or promotional items often placed near the checkouts or at the end of rows:
b) it's easier to compare prices and price per gm or kgm of competing products online;
c) shelf placement has no impact on your purchase; supermarkets usually give the most prominent and easiest to see and access shelf space to products that give them the most profit (so often the most expensive ones); and
d) in WA at least at the moment half the things you order won't actually be in stock so won't be delivered and your bill will be halved (with the added benefit of a forced diet - back to the daily bowl of poorhouse gruel) per : https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/super...act-c-14233888

Supermarket shelves remain empty across WA weeks after Goldfields flooding despite promise of no impact Claire SadlerThe West Australian
Tue, 9 April 2024 2:00AM

Liberal leader Libby Mettam has called out the State Government for its ‘complete and utter failure’ to strengthen WA’s supply chains as supermarket shelves remain empty due to severe flooding. Credit: The West Australian

WA Liberal Leader Libby Mettam has called out the Cook Government for its “complete and utter failure” to strengthen supply chains as supermarket shelves remain empty more than a week after a vital freight route — forced shut due to severe flooding — reopened.

The Trans-Australian Railway line and the Eyre Highway were forced to close after parts of the Goldfields received more than six months’ worth of rain in 24 hours last month.

The rail line, which connects WA to the Eastern States, closed on March 10 after it was covered by floodwater near Rawlinna, causing supply issues for WA’s major supermarkets.

Almost three weeks later, the rail line opened at noon on Easter Saturday.
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There were hopes WA’s empty supermarket shelves would quickly be replenished, however when The West Australian visited Coles and Woolworths stores across Perth on Monday — nine days after the reopening — almost every aisle still had bare shelves.

Each store in major centres including Midland, Joondalup and Innaloo had shelves plastered with notices apologising for the stock issues.
Supermarkets across Perth are experiencing stock shortages due to flooding and other issues. Pictured is Coles Claremont The West Australian

Lauren Price

Some of the items missing from shelves included pantry essentials like varieties of pasta, breakfast spreads such as peanut butter, cooking oils and bottled water.

Shoppers who were looking for popular brands of margarine, yogurt and cheese were also left empty-handed.

Pantry essentials weren’t the only items missing, with just a small amount of laundry detergents, hair, and makeup products to choose from.
Bare shelves at Coles and Woolworths due to significant flooding on the Trans-Australian Railway line.
Bare shelves at Coles and Woolworths due to significant flooding on the Trans-Australian Railway line. Credit: The West Australian
Each store in major centres including Midland, Joondalup and Innaloo had shelves plastered with notices apologising for the stock issues.
Each store in major centres including Midland, Joondalup and Innaloo had shelves plastered with notices apologising for the stock issues.

Credit: The West Australian





Also nowhere to be found were a number of fruit and vegetables including green beans, cabbage and watermelon.

A Coles spokesman conceded that a backlog of deliveries meant stores were still in short supply but said shoppers could expect to see more stock over the coming days.

“With the railway now reopened into WA, we have stock on its way into the State for our teams to replenish our WA stores with,” he said.

“As the backlog of deliveries via rail clears, customers can expect to see increased stock arrivals in stores over the coming days.

“We are work closely with our suppliers to get deliveries into the State by road and rail and customers can expect to see supply levels continue to improve.”

WA Liberal Leader Libby Mettam has called out the Cook Government for its “complete and utter failure” to strengthen supply chains as supermarket shelves remain empty more than a week after a vital freight route — forced shut due to severe flooding — reopened.

The Trans-Australian Railway line and the Eyre Highway were forced to close after parts of the Goldfields received more than six months’ worth of rain in 24 hours last month.

The rail line, which connects WA to the Eastern States, closed on March 10 after it was covered by floodwater near Rawlinna, causing supply issues for WA’s major supermarkets.

Almost three weeks later, the rail line opened at noon on Easter Saturday.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
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There were hopes WA’s empty supermarket shelves would quickly be replenished, however when The West Australian visited Coles and Woolworths stores across Perth on Monday — nine days after the reopening — almost every aisle still had bare shelves.

Each store in major centres including Midland, Joondalup and Innaloo had shelves plastered with notices apologising for the stock issues.
Supermarkets across Perth are experiencing stock shortages due to flooding and other issues. Pictured is Coles Claremont The West Australian
exclusive
WA News
Major rail line reopens as supermarket shelves go bare

Lauren Price

Some of the items missing from shelves included pantry essentials like varieties of pasta, breakfast spreads such as peanut butter, cooking oils and bottled water.

Shoppers who were looking for popular brands of margarine, yogurt and cheese were also left empty-handed.

Pantry essentials weren’t the only items missing, with just a small amount of laundry detergents, hair, and makeup products to choose from.
Bare shelves at Coles and Woolworths due to significant flooding on the Trans-Australian Railway line.
Bare shelves at Coles and Woolworths due to significant flooding on the Trans-Australian Railway line. Credit: The West Australian
Each store in major centres including Midland, Joondalup and Innaloo had shelves plastered with notices apologising for the stock issues.
Each store in major centres including Midland, Joondalup and Innaloo had shelves plastered with notices apologising for the stock issues. Credit: The West Australian

Also nowhere to be found were a number of fruit and vegetables including green beans, cabbage and watermelon.

A Coles spokesman conceded that a backlog of deliveries meant stores were still in short supply but said shoppers could expect to see more stock over the coming days.

“With the railway now reopened into WA, we have stock on its way into the State for our teams to replenish our WA stores with,” he said.

“As the backlog of deliveries via rail clears, customers can expect to see increased stock arrivals in stores over the coming days.

“We are work closely with our suppliers to get deliveries into the State by road and rail and customers can expect to see supply levels continue to improve.”
Triple-length road trains will be allowed on roads linking the State to the east after WA, South Australian and Federal regulators gave green lights.


A Woolworths spokeswoman said getting items like cheese and margarine back into stores was a priority.

“Our team is working to replenish stock on shelves across Perth, with a constant flow of deliveries coming through on rail and road again following recent weather events,” she said.

“Off the back of prolonged rail closures, it will take a few weeks to return to normal supply levels. Chilled items like cheese and margarine are a priority and we’re continuing to offer as many alternative options to our customers’ preferred brands in the meantime.

“We’d like to thank customers for their understanding.”

Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said impacts lasted longer than initially expected.

“Advice regarding the time-frames for the outage were being provided by the Australian Rail Track Corporation and unfortunately the impacts lasted longer than initially expected,” she said.

“This was due to the speed at which flood waters receded from the impacted areas east of Kalgoorlie.
Rescue efforts for a family of seven stranded in the outback since Sunday are underway after they were found safe and well on Wednesday.
updated


“During the outage we granted licences for B-triple road trains to travel on the State’s road network to assist in keeping stock levels up.”

A taskforce was set up to review the State’s supply chains after flooding knocked out the Trans-Australian railway line in 2022.

Ms Saffioti said a number of changes were made since the taskforce including supermarkets stocking more inventory in WA to withstand shocks to the supply chains.

However, she said resilience remained a “critical issue the nation needs to address, particularly on the Trans-Australia Railway”.

“The reality is many of the extreme weather events that impact this rail line occur outside of WA but we’re always wearing the most significant impact,” she said.

“We will continue to advocate for better resilience of this rail line at a national level.”
Flooding at Rawlinna Station
STATE POLITICS
Flood-affected regions won’t suffer empty stores: Saffioti

Jake Dietsch

But the issue prompted Ms Mettam to accuse Ms Saffioti of creating a “half-baked taskforce”, which in turn has caused a food supply crisis.

“Western Australia is in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and the Cook Labor Government are further exacerbating these pains by failing to prepare our freight network, leading to empty supermarket shelves,” she said.

“The WA Shipping and Supply Chain Taskforce promised to strengthen the state’s supply chains in preparation for future natural disasters. It’s clear that after two-years, the response from this government has been a complete and utter failure.

“We need to be developing a resilient system that includes road, rail, air and sea to ensure we’re protected when these events occur.”

New West Foods managing director Damon Venoutsos also called for the State Government to increase storage for stock in WA.

“I’m calling on the government to look at ways to increase stock holding in WA by setting up independent storage solutions for frozen, chilled, and ambient storage in WA,” he said.

“Rita Saffioti said the weather was once in a lifetime in 2022 and now it’s happened again three years later. We need more storage in WA.”

The latest disruption to WA’s supermarket shelves comes after major floods in 2022 severed the rail link for nearly three weeks, leaving shelves bare.