19:56
Hello everybody. I hope that you are well. My name is Christian and welcome to my channel Backpacking Bananas. I am currently residing in Sydney, Australia. It is wonderful here, but it is no secret that this is a fairly expensive city and Australia in general is not exactly known for being a cheap country. So in this video I wanted to go through with you how expensive are groceries in Australia. I've already talked previously about how I think grocery prices are really cheap in the UK. They definitely are more expensive in Australia. However, as you guys know, as I've always been a backpacker, I feel like frugality just lives within me
always and I am always trying to get a good deal, do things for cheaper, save up my money where I can. So in this video I thought I would take you with me on a typical weekly grocery shop that I do here in Australia. We'll have a look what's in the supermarket and what other kind of things that I am choosing to try and save money. And you may be thinking, Christian, what are you saving up for? A scooter. That is the most current thing I'm saving up for. If you've seen the channel before, you may know that my partner and I are full-time house sitters, so we are going into new houses all the time. And the lovely apartment that we are currently in, we are only in for a week. And so the first thing that
I always do before going out for a big shop is checking what I already have in the fridge and pantry and also assessing how many days we have left in our current house sit to make sure that I can completely utilize everything that we already have, which means we are not overspending on things we don't need in the supermarket. So let's have a look at everything that we currently have in the pantry. Okay, this is all of our items that we have. I would really like to reduce this before we leave at the end of the week. So let's have a look at what we've got.
First we have our carbs. This was a kind gift from the homeowner and we tend to have bread every morning with a bit of butter. I've got a little oats in a bag of oats. I have oats almost every morning for breakfast, so we still have plenty of those. We have about four potatoes left. I think these need to be eaten tonight. We have a whole bag of pasta. And here is where we definitely went wrong in the past because we already had half a bag of rice and we managed to acquire a whole new bag of rice. So that was very bad on our behalf. We definitely don't need more rice. On the whole it looks like for the week I don't think we're going to need any more carbs to be honest. And as for
other pantry items, we keep a couple of flours. I'm currently trying to make a sourdough starter and cornflour. We've got some jalapeños and then coconut milk and some red curry paste. I'm thinking these two need to be used to make a red curry meal this week and then just also some golden syrup. I have this with my oats. Then finally for fridge stuff, we go through quite a lot of Greek yogurt and we only have less than half of this pot left, so we're definitely going to need more of this. We do actually have a fair bit of milk left, but it goes off tomorrow. So I think we're going to need some more milk. I go through a lot of cheese and in my opinion there's not a whole lot left in there. As for butter,
I reckon that could potentially last us a week. This is the last of my homemade hummus. I do like to make hummus from scratch and actually I've completely run out of tahini paste and chickpeas, so I'd definitely like to buy items to make some more hummus. Half a cucumber really is not going to last me very long, so we're definitely in need of some more veg. And then we have almost a whole pack of lemons, which is great. We do go through lemons, but I don't think we need any more right now. And same for garlic. Two bulbs is absolutely fine. And as for sweets and snacks, we just have a couple of muffins left over. We have some crisps and we have half a pack of digestives. And we definitely could
be in the market for some more sweets and stuff. Now before I take you to the supermarket, I'd like to introduce you to the sponsors of today's video, Saily, who are an eSIM provider that have absolutely changed the game when it comes to eSIMs. In order to save as much money as possible with these groceries, I need to do some planning and research, which of course involves being connected to the internet. Now although right now I'm home and I'm with Wi-Fi, I not always am. I'm often out and about and especially when you are abroad, it is imperative that you have data that you can rely on so that you can find where you're going on Google Maps, so that you can read reviews of the shops, the
restaurants, the cafes, the bars, the supermarkets that you want to go and visit. You can call an Uber, you can hire a Lime bike, which is something I'm doing all the time when I'm in Sydney. And you can't do it without data. Now when I'm traveling abroad, I have been using eSIMs for the past 3 years now and it's just been game-changing. I never have to faff about with trying to find a local physical SIM to put in my phone every time I get into a new country. Before I even arrive in a country, I can switch on the data from my phone so that I have that internet available from the get-go. And the special thing about Saily compared to other eSIM providers is that you only ever need to download
the eSIM once. After you've done that, you can literally just top it up with however much data for whichever countries that you are going to. So it literally could not be faster and simpler. So when you download Saily and buy some data, make sure you use my code backpacking or you can head to saily.com/backpacking and that's going to get you 15% off all data plans. So in Australia we have three major supermarkets to choose from. Only three, which is surprising. A lot less than England. You've got Woolworths, you've got Coles and you've got Aldi. There are others, smaller, more independent ones. You've got IGA, you have Harris Farm Markets, you have
all of the international grocers, but for my main bulk shop that I do every week, I go to one of these three supermarkets. Being in the center of Sydney, you have a lot of Metro supermarkets, which are basically just smaller versions and they are incredibly convenient when you are in a very convenient place. However, they tend not to be the cheapest. You're less likely to find deals and markdowns in these kind of supermarkets. So for my main shop I like to go to one of the main bigger ones. And since we are in a new neighborhood all the time, I'm often not familiar with what supermarkets are around me. So I'm just going to do some research now. I'm in Erskineville. What supermarkets are closest? There is a
Woolworths Metro very close to where we are, but like I said, I don't want to go to a Metro. In an ideal world for the purpose of saving money, I'd love to find an Aldi or a Coles just because as much as I love Woolworths and Woolworths definitely feels the bougiest and often has like the most premium items. It's not the cheapest. It's just not. You're less likely to find deals in my opinion. It looks like fairly close by to here there is a big shopping center in Marrickville and they've got a Coles and they've got an Aldi. So let's go drive there. Always remember to bring your carry bags because if you don't, you're
going to spend more money on buying the paper bags when you're there. Order more of these and we've definitely made that mistake in the past as well. Now the time of day that you do your shop matters. We have strategically come in early evening, like 5:00, 5:30-ish, because this is when you start getting the yellow ticketed items, items that are going to expire today or tomorrow and so they have been made a lot cheaper. And I'm really hoping that we find some of those today. Okay, here we go, Coles. I'm pretty sure it's like this in many countries, but the prices of fresh produce in Australia are massively affected by if they are in season or not. So you should do your research to see what produce is in
season right now and look in particular for those items. In New South Wales in autumn, we've got apple, avocado, banana, grapes, kiwi fruit, honeydew melon, pear, beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, capsicum, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplant, sweet corn, sweet potato, tomato. Good to know. It does say apples, but to be honest, I find apples to always be fairly expensive in Australia. So for example, Pink Lady apple, a kilogram, $8.90. That's about £4.50 or Royal Gala, slightly cheaper, but still about £4 for a kg. But we do have a kg of mini apples which are here for $4.50, so around £2.25. And because it's still a kg, it means that the unit price is cheaper. So that's 4.50 per kg compared to 7.90 per kg. I always look at the price per kg
because that's going to tell you if it's actually better value for money of what you're getting overall. So yeah, love to see the carrots in season for $1. We really do like to get through our carrots as well. So the avocados are two for $2, so $1 each. But if I'm honest, I don't love these avocados. They're the Shepherd ones, whereas the nice tasting ones are called Hass. I can't even see the Hass. Baby cos lettuce for $2.90. And believe it or not, I'm actually thrilled to see this. Cucumbers for $2. Recently, and by recently I mean just a few weeks ago, these were going for $4 per piece, which I just thought was
outrageous. I absolutely love cucumber. I love to go through it. So let's get another one of those. It might be ironic for me to say as Backpacking Bananas, but I'm actually trying not to buy bananas because every single time I buy them, I have so much intention of eating them and then I never eat them in time and they always go brown, so I'm putting myself on a banana ban. But they are $3.70 per kg. And this is what I was talking about what we really want to look out for is these quick sales. Now saving 60 cents is really not very much, so I don't think that's worth it. I try to look for quick sales where I am saving like almost 50% of the price.
There's no point in picking something up on a quick sale if the saving's actually not that big. Now the spinach, I'm not too sure if this was in season, but I do think it's just a fantastic veggie to have in the fridge and I use it all the time. So you may be thinking $4, $5, what's the best spinach to get? Again, I look at the price per unit, so that's $17.86 per is $10 per kg, so this is way better. Now this is really good value. However, so 64 cents, but it literally goes off today. It is the 13th of April, the day that I'm filming this. I don't think we're having salad for dinner tonight. So I'm actually going to give this one a
pass. It also just You got to assess the quality. It doesn't look great. This is not a bad deal actually. $4 for all of these onions. Oh, goodness, that is a lot of onions. Only $2 per kg. But do I need all of those onions? I'm going to consult with the boyfriend to see if we reckon we could use that many onions in a week. Okay, it's all good. I actually found the same onions, which is still $2 per kg, but just only half of what I picked up. Now, we do have all of the nuts here. None of them are ever really on offer, and a little birdie told me that you can get these kind of things for so much cheaper at the Asian supermarkets. Okay, we have reached the meat. And personally, I
never like to buy meat when it's at its full price. So, let's see what deals we can find. I see a quick sale. Australian lamb from 680 down to 537, saving 143. It's not a huge saving. It's not good enough. And again, this $26 down to 2469, only saving $1.30. It's not a huge saving. Not big enough for me to go, "Hohoho, yeah. I want to pick that one up." Cost of mints is about 750 for 500 g, for half a kilo. I feel like that is a lot. I get so sad that the fish in Australia is just really quite expensive. Like Coles Tasmanian salmon for a four-pack here, we're looking at $17.50. That's a lot, right? But it is slightly
cheaper to get from here. This is $36 per kg, which is still a lot. But you know what? Little treat. Now, whether it's on offer or not, I will always get some chicken breast fillets just because chicken is one of the cheapest meats. It's so versatile. So, these Coles breast fillets, they are $11 per kg. And like the fillets are really big and juicy, if I'm completely honest with you. The bigger the pack, the better. And then we just freeze the ones that we are not eating immediately. I feel like I'm not getting much luck with the meat today. I haven't found some insane deals. I'm going to put on the screen now some deals that I have found in Coles before. It doesn't happen every day, but sometimes you really do just
get very lucky. And those are happy days. And I keep my fingers crossed every day that I'm going to find something like that. Today is not one of those days. I did say that we needed some more cheese. So, we like to go for the extra tasty cheese or the vintage. And I'm going to look at the deals to see what is the best price per kg. So, this one's $19 per kg. Ooh, $30 per kg. $24 per kg. I think the bigger one has won today. Congrats. Now, I did say we needed some milk. So, we normally go for full cream milk. And to be honest, although we didn't get through all of this, we usually do. So, I am going to
go for the 1 L again. It is $1.65, which I think that's pretty good price. I also like the fact that this is a screw top. I don't like going for these ones, which you can't actually close properly. As we are house-sitting, we are very lucky that the vast majority of the time the owners say to us, "Oh, you know, help yourself to any condiments, anything that's in their pantry." So, there's a lot of sections of the supermarket that we don't even really need to look in just because we know we're always going to have access to the very basic things that the owners give us access to. So,
that's a great money-saving hack that we've got going for ourselves. Oh my gosh, stop. I've just seen that everything from the Natural Confectionery Co. is half price. And if you know me, if you've seen my Australia videos before, you may know that this is the best thing on earth, I think. So, these are only $2. Go on, then. I am partial to a chocolate block as well, but I'm not going to buy it for $5.50. It has to be at least $5. These are sometimes $8, and I just think that that is not worth it. Ooh, but Whittaker's is on sale. I'm trying to be good. It's not good of an enough of a deal, unfortunately. These kind of crisps are almost always half price, which is great. They're $3. We've already got some at home, so we're not
going to get any. But if you see these and they're not half price, do not buy them because that is just not worth it for them to be $6, in my humble opinion. Okay, chickpeas. We're going to be making our hummus again, so these are definitely needed. And they are always just $1. I've made a faux pas, guys. This is something that I should have done, which I haven't. I should have had a snack before coming to the supermarket because right now, I'm quite hungry, and I'm just worried that it's going to mean that I'm going to put more things that I don't need just because I'm craving them right now in the basket. So, that's what we're fighting right now.
I love finding things which are like a good little air fryer find, half price. I tried not to buy too many processed foods. However, sometimes it's needed. And it's about now that I'm wishing we were in Woolworths because I love edamame, and I can just never find it in Coles. The last thing on my list, which I really want to get, no matter what the price, is tahini, so I can make my hummus. They've run out of the Coles one, which would have only been $5, but they do have this one, $6.50. I hate when they've run out of the cheaper one that I want. But that's okay. I'm quite keen to make myself a batch of hummus. So, I'm willing to pay the extra $1.50 on this occasion. And I just wanted to
come to the hummus and dips aisle, which, can I just say, I absolutely love in Australia. But I just wanted to come here for reference because I will be making my own hummus this week. So, normally, for the cheapest hummus in here, you're looking at $2.80. That's for the cheapest hummus. But for like the hummus that like you might usually be buying, which would be like Black Swan, $3.50. So, I'll do some maths a bit later. I'll see how much I'm spending on my ingredients to make my own hummus and like how much of that I can make and see how much money that actually saves me cuz I'm I'm not sure it saves me that much.
However, I just love making my own hummus. I just do. Okay, I've done the maths, and the cost for me to make my own hummus works out to be on average just over $2 per 200 g tub. So, it is cheaper, but not a lot. Just revisiting the meat section before I leave, and these lamb burgers are basically half price. So, yeah, you're worth it. So, the total bill came to $79.03. For that, we got This is all the vegetables. So, I got a kilogram of mini apples, 400 g of spinach. We've got a kilo of green mixed vegetables. These are frozen. 2 kg of carrots, two cucumbers, a kilogram of onions. As for the meat, we've got four lamb burgers.
We've got four very large chicken breasts and two large salmon fillets. I got my chickpeas and tahini to make my hummus. As for dairy, I got a liter of full cream milk and also half a kilogram of vintage cheese. And finally, just the fun snacky stuff. I got tempura prawns and some berry bliss. So, what do you think? Do you think that is good value for money? Do you think it's expensive? Do you think it's cheap? What is this like compared to how you shop in Australia or how you shop in your home country? Now, I paid for this on the joint account. This will be shared between me and my partner, and I reckon this is going to last us at least 4 days, maybe 4 or 5 days before I need to
do another shop. So, that's technically £20 each. So, if every shop is like this, which it kind of is, we tend to spend around $150 per week for the two of us. So, that's $75 each, which is around £37 each per week. And if my memory serves me correct, when I was back in the UK, for just myself, I was spending around £30 per week on groceries, which does make Australia a bit more expensive, but we already knew that. That was to be expected. Another thing that I could have done to save even more money is, before purchasing any of this, I could have cross-checked the price of all of it with the other supermarkets just to make sure that I'm getting the absolute cheapest price. But as you can imagine,
that would take a really long time, and I just don't think, although I want to be frugal, I don't think that is a realistic habit to get into. It would just take up too much time. No one really has time to do all of that. So, for the sake of only going to one supermarket, I'm very, very pleased, for the most part, with everything that I got. I really hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thank you so much for watching. We cook all the time, and by all the time, I mean literally every day. We hardly ever eat out or take away. So, our grocery shop is very important to us. So, I'm happy to talk more about groceries in the future. If you have any
further questions regarding this, if you're not already, please subscribe to my channel for more videos about living in Australia or living abroad. And I'll see you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.
