Why Aussies are ditching the ‘top up shop’ and reviving the weekly grocery run

There was a time, not that long ago, when the weekly grocery run was an absolute cornerstone of domestic life.

These days it has become too easy to pop into the local Woolies or Coles multiple times a week, just to grab “a few bits and pieces” for dinner. But those more frequent visits have been costing us, and new data from Finder show more Australians are getting back to a weekly grocery shopping ritual.

More than half of Australians do their grocery shopping weekly (53 per cent), they have found, an increase from just over one third (38 per cent) in 2021.

The number of Australians shopping more frequently than once a week has dropped slightly to 33 per cent.

Not only is it more convenient to limit trips to the supermarket to once a week, it is also a brilliant way to save. ING has found Australians can save an average of $1,159 per year simply by sticking to a single weekly grocery haul and cutting out mid-week “top-up” trips.

It seems our parents’ generation knew a thing or two about saving at the supermarket.

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The Friday morning grocery run

I vividly remember grocery shopping with my mum every single Friday morning at our local supermarket.

Operating on a strict budget, she was a woman with a plan. She’d curate a careful, handwritten list, buy the bulk of the staples at the supermarket, and then do a quick lap of the local fruit market, butcher, deli, and fish shop before heading home.

And she knew everyone, especially the deli and fish shop owners. Shopping with her meant an extra 10 minutes at least while she and the owners caught up on their personal news.

Then, the kitchen was stocked for the next seven days, and that was it.

She stuck to a rigid weekly menu designed around shelf-life. Fresh fish was always on the menu for Friday night, because it had to be used up first. Sundays and Wednesdays were reserved for pasta with meat sauce. Mondays meant legumes and steak, including lentils and rice and chickpeas and pasta.

Thursdays were chicken nights. If memory serves me, Saturdays were a rotation of leftover steak, chicken, or more legumes.

Mum rarely, if ever, bought more groceries as the week went on. Top-up shops simply weren’t a thing.

Modern-day chaos

By contrast, my own routine looks completely different. I start with a large online grocery shop each fortnight, which feels organised enough. But then reality hits. Over the next two weeks, I’ll make several smaller, spontaneous in-store trips to various supermarkets.

Sometimes I use a list; most of the time I just wing it. As a result, I often completely lose track of how much I’ve actually spent by the end of the month.

My family’s meals are loosely planned at best, and highly prone to last-minute changes depending entirely on what one of us most feels like eating that night

Spontaneity comes at a cost

While it’s brilliant to have total food freedom, our shift from strict weekly planners to impulsive daily shoppers has a hidden downside.

Every time we walk into a supermarket for “just one ingredient,” we inevitably walk out with a basket full of impulse buys. We pay a premium for the luxury of deciding our dinners on a whim, and our bank balances are taking the hit.

Perhaps it’s time to take a leaf out of Mum’s old handwritten notebook.

We might not need to go back to rigid ‘Wednesday night pasta’ logic, but finding a middle ground between ultimate convenience and old-school budgeting could save us a fortune at the checkout.