The Savings Grocery Price Index

When you hear something like “annual inflation is 5.5%”, that might sound bad, but it can be difficult to wrap your head around exactly what that looks like in terms of monthly expenses. The inflation rate is spread across the whole spectrum of goods and services, so it’s not as simple as just assuming everything will be 5.5% more expensive than the same time last year. Some prices fluctuate wildly, so much so that the ABS often refers to ‘underlying inflation’, which excludes goods with traditionally volatile prices like food and fuel.

This index aims to capture monthly changes to grocery prices. We hope it can be a useful resource to help you visualise how prices fluctuate over time, and perhaps help you identify savings you could be making on your weekly shop.

Notes on the index

• Data is sourced from the Coles and Woolworths websites at the tail end of each month.

• We’ve used home branded products wherever we can. In some cases, it made sense to go with branded products, but it should be pretty clear when we’ve done so. If there isn’t a brand listed, it is the Coles/Woolworths version of the product.

• Where possible, we’ve ignored specials where the price is listed as temporary. In some cases though, prices are substantially lowered indefinitely, which has created a discrepancy in price between the supermarkets. An asterisk indicates these cases.

• In some instances, the supermarkets do not have exact equivalent products. At Woolworths for example, single banana prices are listed, rather than a unit (per kg) price. When this happens, we’ve equivalised as best we can. With bananas for example, we took the average weight provided on the site, and worked out the per kilogram price. This means there might be a slight difference from the price you would pay in store. We’ve marked these cases with a ^.

• When we kicked off the index, Coles had temporarily discontinued their cheaper orange juice range according to the website. To ensure a fair comparison we used the 'not from concentrate' more expensive variety for both stores. Since then, the cheaper product has been bought back, but we kept with what we started with for continuity. For Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Juice, we used the cheaper variety, which is why it is so much lower than OJ in the index.

Grocery Price Index

This is the sum of every item in the basket of goods for each month.

Fruit and vegetables

Onions (brown, 1kg bag)

Apples (Pink Lady, 1kg punnett)

Bananas (1kg)

Potatoes (washed, 2kg bag)

Carrots (1kg, packaged)

Shredded iceberg lettuce (200g)

Avocado (5 pack)

Eggs and Dairy

2L full cream milk

Unsalted butter (250g, Australian)

Large free range eggs (12, 600g)

Cheese (Tasty cheese slices, 500g)

Carbohydrates

White bread loaf (650g)

Weet-Bix (375g, branded)

White rice (1kg)

Pasta (500g, spirals)

Tea and coffee

Instant coffee (200g)

Black tea bags (100 pack)

Drinks

Orange juice (2L, pulp free, not from concentrate)

Apple juice (2L)

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) Classic 

Cooking ingredients

White sugar (1kg)

Flour (plain, 1kg)

Olive Oil (Extra virgin, 1L)

Vinegar (2L)

Table salt (1kg)

Pepper (50g grinder)

Sauce and spreads

Mayonnaise (traditional, 470g)

Vegemite (150g, branded)

Tomato Sauce (squeeze, 500 ml)

Meat

Chicken (Free range, breast, 1kg)

Beef mince (500g, 17-18% fat, 3 Star at Coles)

Lamb (500g Mince)

Salmon (Skin on, 4 pack, price per kg)

Tuna (95g can)

Confectionary

Chocolate (1 180g block of Cadbury)

TimTams (200g)

Extra Gum (64g pack, branded)

Personal hygiene

Toothpaste (Colgate total original 115g)

Deodorant (Nivea Aerosol 250ml)

Sunscreen (Homebrand, 1L)

Shower gel (Palmolive, 500 ml)

Shaving foam (Nivea, sensitive skin, 200ml)

Tissues (Kleenex Everyday 2 Ply, 200 pack)

Toilet Paper (Kleenex Complete Clean 9 pack, 180 sheets)

Tampons (Libra, 32 pack)

Cleaning

Finish ultimate all in one dishwashing tablets (100 pack)

Paper towels (Viva, 6 pack)

Miscellaneous

Nappies (Huggies newborn size 1, 108 pack)

Paracetamol (20 pack)