Coles shopper's $46 Bunnings revelation: 'Half price all the time'

The Bureau of Statistics has told us food inflation has dropped back to 3 per cent. That doesn’t mean our grocery bills have come down - it just means they’re going up by less than they were.

The price hikes of the past two years have added hundreds of dollars a week to a typical family’s bill so Aussies are still desperately hunting down new ways to save. And one of them might be right under our noses.

If you make a fortnightly or monthly trip to Bunnings or Chemist Warehouse to get hardware and prescriptions, you might be able to save by getting your cleaning products and toiletries there too.

I did a quick comparison of some products that are sold at both Coles and Bunnings/Chemist Warehouse and I was surprised to find that the supermarket was almost always more expensive.

The rare exceptions were some supermarket 50 per cent discounts, but even then the supermarket often ended up at about the same price as the other two — and went back to full price after a week.

Here’s what I learnt.

Can I save money at Bunnings?

While Bunnings doesn’t run a lot of big weekly discounts like the supermarkets, its everyday prices are usually lower on cleaning products and its range is bigger because it targets the professional cleaner market.

The caveat is that you will need to buy bigger package sizes.

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Sard Wonder Soaker costs $11 for 900g at Coles, for example, while a container twice the size is $10 at Bunnings.

A 52 pack of Fairy Platinum Dishwashing Tablets, which is one of the most over-priced items in the supermarket if you ask me, costs $46 - or $23 when it’s on a half-price special. But at Bunnings it’s $24 all the time.

Plus, as I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone, it often has a sausage sizzle out front.

Can I save money shopping at Chemist Warehouse?

Chemist Warehouse does do some big half-price specials like the supermarkets, so it has the same “yo-yo discounting” model - which can be a savings opportunity but can also be annoying.

The difference is that its catalogue is fortnightly so the 50 per cent off discounts last at least two weeks, and sometimes longer.

I found dental floss at almost half the price of the supermarket, for example, and electric toothbrush heads at about two-thirds of the supermarket price.

Vitamins at the supermarket go up and down in price on an almost weekly basis as this fantastic Google Chrome plug-in demonstrates.

There’s a lot of discounting at Chemist Warehouse too - but the discounts last longer.

150 tablets of Blackmores Bio C 1000mg costs $49 at Coles, for example, and $24.50 on special - but at Chemist Warehouse you can get 180 tablets for just $20.

It also has some larger packet sizes than the supermarkets, such as 100 Panadol for $15, which can help you to save.

Coles v Bunnings v Chemist Warehouse: Direct price check

Aldi, Costco, Reject Shop: Save with supermarket alternatives

This is just the latest example of alternatives to the Big 2 supermarkets.

A lot of keen money-savers are already buying our fruit and veg from markets or ‘vege box’ apps such as Box Divvy and Farmers Pick.

The Reject Shop is another place to get discounted cleaning products and toiletries.

Costco and Aldi are often cheaper than the majors, and Amazon and Catch are doing some groceries too.

In the end, it all comes down to the cost of convenience: if you do all your shopping in one place, or you need it delivered urgently, you pay a premium for the privilege.

Joel Gibson is the author of EASY MONEY and a regular at Yahoo Finance, TODAY, 2GB, 4BC & ABC Radio. He posts about money-saving on TikTok, YouTube & Instagram