We’re undertaking some research around changes to the cost of living and we’d love to hear from you about price rise increases. Anecdotally, we’ve hear about broccoli going for more than $10/kg, increases in basic items like the cost of bread and much more. Have you noticed any changes, either to your overall bill or to particular items? Let us know (and add a picture if you get one).
Red Capsicum over $9/kg…way expensive. They don’t show the per kilo price online but you can guess based on the per item price they display:
Yellow ones are slightly more expensive again at the moment at $3.73 per each.
Coles are a little more open about the per kilo cost and it’s $13.90/kg and their per unit price is lower than Woolworths:
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Yesterday, South Melbourne Market,
Capsicums all colours $14.99 a kilo.
Last week Lebanese eggplants $9.99
had small writhing worm inside one.
Iceberg lettuce 3.99.
Cauliflower 5.99.
And I do have a good look around before buying to see what’s least expensive.
Fish fillets from $44 to $56 a kilo.
Yesterday I got 4 medium flathead fillets: $18.40.
Plus a 0.30 surcharge even though The receipt says: Please use contactless!
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Eltham, Cauliflower $4.50 at Woolies for mediums, $6.50 at Coles for large, both looking good
Loose snap peas have generally been in the $18/kg range but were $24/kg.
Steaks are up 50-100%. In response they are prepacking thinner cuts as ‘value packs’ to offer low priced options.
Most other meats are up about 25%. The only fresh fish we buy is barra or salmon and both have kept their price points on the routine sales.
I decline to patronise a local butcher because of his arrogance re his levying a surcharge. He states he does not have surcharges the bank does and to take it up with the bank, and like yours his receipt showed ‘please use contactless’.
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I hate to use money at a fish shop: all that fish-smelling change in my purse 
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I have dockets going back a few years, so I can look at how prices have changed over that time, but only for a limited range of packaged goods. Fruit & Veg - we grow a lot ourselves and only buy when in season, which usually means lower prices & “on special” due to oversupply.
Going back to non seasonal (in stock all the time). Some items have gone down. Some up. A hot BBQ chicken, already at least $5 cheaper than Coles, went up from $7.99 to $8.99, the first price rise in 5 years. When I get time I’ll do a comparison of prices.
Fruit & Veg are difficult to compare. Our supermarket takes seconds - too big, too small, misshapen or blemishes, but taste great. Cheaper when compared to The Big Two who only take Firsts. The tiny shop in the town closest to us is renowned for inflated prices - they recently offered iceberg lettuce at $8.50, with no takers they dropped to $4.50 and sold the last at $2. So does that prove the cost of living is dropping? Unfortunately everyone is talking about costs rising and they see it everywhere, even when the evidence isn’t there.
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Butter jumped up 60 cents from $5.00 to now $5.60 for 500g at Coles and Woolworths, yet Aldi’s stayed at $5.00
Milk jumped up by 40 cents from $3.50 to now $3.90 for 3 litres.
Bread Jumped up 30 cents (Tiptop the one white sandwich) from $3.40 to $3.70
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Any individual sees their particular situation. In my case the weekly grocery bill has risen from about $180 to $250 per week for the same general basket. From my vantage point I also pay higher (indexed) rates, more for the electricity and gas I use, and so on. I shop around and avoid ‘lazy taxes’ and try to stock up when sales are on. Some prices are the same, many have risen, not many have fallen. COL rising is a generalisation about the cost of living, not about specific products.
Would my experience reinforce the COL is rising, or would yours and mine cancel each other?
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After doing a on-line shop last week i noticed there were a couple of products in the frozen section of the store that had gone up.They were on special but the price was the normal everyday price.Of the top of my head Ben and Jerry Ice-cream was one of the products.It’s a sign of things to come no doubt
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Aldi’s 2x150g Food Envy Creme Caramel pack has increased by 15% from $1.99 (66.3c per 100g) to $2.29 (76.36c per 100g)
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Fab Fresh Blossoms Laundry Powder 2Kg . Coles price $7.00 to $14.00 . Woolworths price $14.00 back to $7.00 . 
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Pepsi Max 2L has recently increased from $2.15 to $2.40 at Coles and Wollworths.
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At a Foodland in SA country we bought a 1/2 cabbage for $4.50 and small pack of cut celery for $6.00.
I know prices are going up due to floods etc but this is ridiculous and also taking advantage.
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The following linked article could fit in a number of topics on this site. It is a bit about price rises a bit about packaging or size changes and even some shonkyish references to price drop labels when the size had decreased as well. Please be warned the site does have a bit of advertising.
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A few things that have stayed the same or gone down.
The Same:-
Bread - we buy at the Bakery 900g, multigrain, un-sliced $3.90 for some 5 years or so.
B&G (Black & Gold) canned sweetcorn 400g $0.79, B&G canned beetroot 425g $0.78
Milk full cream 3 litres still $3.68.
Gone Down:-
Butter 500g salted, whatever is the cheapest (Black & Gold, Farmer’s etc) has been falling from a high of $5 last year to $4.68 last week.
Frozen Salmon offcuts 1kg was $15, now $13 for the last 2 months
Fisho - frozen fish frames (scraps) $5/kg - price did not rise, but noticed a lot more salmon and other fish flesh and less heads, fins & bones. Makes a good feed for 4, plus soup.
Note that I do not include “Specials” in my comparisons and only one independent supermarket.
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Hi, I would like to know if Choice is currently taking a close look at the pricing of staples, at the major supermarkets. I would like to cite one example relating to the price of a 20 pack of Quilton toilet rolls which my wife informs me had been around $10 per pack , had increased to $13.00 when purchased over this past weekend. This price rise of 30% is , as far as I am concerned no more than simple price gouging by suppliers and the supermarket. It certainly does not reflect what we are being told is the current inflation rate. I don’t know about you, but am getting the feeling that the current massive spikes in a ranges of goods and services has nothing to do with inflationary pressures and everything to do with big business taking advantage of the climate of uncertainty and negative press sentiment to increase their profits. Happy to be proven wrong . Kind regards. Kevin
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Wow-$13?? I was annoyed last week when I got a 20 pack from Coles, and saw it had increased from $10 to $11…!!
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Hi Shazz, Very interesting. Our purchase was at a large Coles store in Southport Qld. Your experience merely confirms my suspicions. That we are all getting taken advantage of at this time, but as to by how much appears to be dependant on where you shop. This is also being allowed to happen thanks to the lack of competition in the market place, with Coles and Woolies dominating our market place.
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Hi @BigKev57, we’re taking an interest in this issue, especially the costs of staple items and what people can do to minimise the impact. Thanks for sharing this example, and we ask that others continue to add in examples they find here.
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Overall prices fluctuate on a weekly basis. Aldi was cheaper anyway continue to shop
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