Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices rose 3.3% in the year to June 2026, on top of several years of steeper rises. Families across Australia are tightening their budgets, switching brands, and hunting for specials. But here's the uncomfortable truth: most people have no idea where their grocery money actually goes.
Source: ABS Consumer Price Index, Australia (June 2026).
The problem isn't that we're not trying to save. It's that we're blind to what's really costing us.
The Blind Spots in Your Trolley
These are the patterns that quietly drain grocery budgets, the blind spots most people never notice. The figures below are illustrative ranges to show the shape of the problem, not measured averages, except where a source is given.
Delivery App Markups
That convenient grocery delivery from Uber Eats or DoorDash? You're paying 15-30% more than in-store prices, plus $5-10 delivery fees. A $100 shop becomes $130-140 before you've even tipped.
Click & Collect from Coles or Woolworths is usually free and avoids these markups entirely. Same convenience, fraction of the cost.
Impulse Buys
Those checkout snacks and “bargains” that somehow end up in your trolley add up, and not just at the supermarket. Finder puts the average Australian's impulse spending at $44 a week, about $2,278 a year, across everything from checkout chocolate to online splurges. Supermarkets are laid out to capture their share of it.
Source: Finder Consumer Sentiment Tracker, impulse purchases (April 2024, n=1,071). The figure covers all impulse purchases, not groceries alone.
The supermarket is designed to encourage this. End-cap displays, checkout aisle temptations, strategically placed treats. It all adds up.
Food Waste
Foodbank puts the cost of food waste at $3,800 a year for the average Australian household. That wilted lettuce, expired yogurt, and forgotten leftovers. It all adds up.
Without visibility into what you're buying and when it expires, food waste becomes invisible spending. You paid for it, you just never ate it.
Source: Foodbank Australia, food waste facts.
Ignoring Specials
If you're not checking weekly specials, you're missing 30-50% discounts on items you buy anyway. Even 10 minutes with a catalogue can save $20-40 per week.
Half-price specials on pantry staples mean buying two weeks' worth when it's cheap. The savings compound over time.
The Takeaway Tax
At $25-40 per meal, 3+ takeaway nights per week adds $200-400 monthly to your food costs. That's $2,400-4,800 per year that could have stayed in your pocket.
Even cutting back by one meal per week saves $50-80 monthly.
Delivery apps, impulse buys, food waste, ignored specials and takeaway are each small enough to wave through on their own. Together they are the part of the bill that disappears without you noticing, and the only way to know your own number is to add them up.
Find Your Blind Spots in 2 Minutes
We built a quick quiz to help you discover your specific spending blind spots.
Answer 10 questions about your shopping habits, how often you shop, where you shop, how you get your groceries, whether you meal plan, and more.
In return, you'll get:
- Your estimated weekly spend based on your household and habits
- Your top blind spots with specific savings potential
- Personalised recommendations for where to focus first
No signup required. No credit card. Just honest insights about your grocery spending.
Take the 2-minute Grocery Spending Quiz and discover where your money is really going.
Why Visibility Matters
You can't fix what you can't see. Most families have only a vague sense of their grocery spending, which makes it nearly impossible to identify where cuts can be made.
The quiz is the first step. Once you understand your blind spots, you can start making targeted changes, not random sacrifices that make you miserable, but smart adjustments that keep more money in your pocket.
Saving money on groceries isn't about sacrifice. It's about spending intentionally on what matters to you, and not wasting money on what doesn't.
What Happens After the Quiz
Your results will show you exactly which habits are costing you the most, with estimated monthly savings for each blind spot. You'll also see which Alydo features could help you address each one:
- Receipt Scanning: see exactly where every dollar goes
- Catalogue specials: each week's Coles and Woolworths catalogue specials, starting with Victoria, checked against your own receipts so a special only counts as a saving when it beats what you last paid
- Smart Shopping Lists: plan your shop and stick to the list
The insights are yours to keep, whether or not you choose to use Alydo. But if you want help acting on them, we're here.
Estimates based on ABS data and consumer research.