9 apps that can help you save more than $5,200 a year on groceries

Grocery bills can take a big bite out of your household budget. Here are nine apps that can help you cut costs.

Groceries aren’t something we can eliminate from our budget, but there are plenty of apps that make it easy to slash the cost of supermarket shopping and put cash back in your wallet.

We look at nine apps that together can help you cut the cost of groceries by a whopping $5,266 each year – potentially more. Use one, or use them all, to get more for less at the supermarket.

Frugl

Cost: Free

Availability and rating: iOS (3.5) and Android (3.3)

How it works: Plenty of specials aren’t visible unless you head into a supermarket. Frugl gives you an instant price comparison between the leading supermarkets – Coles and Woolworths – without having to trudge from store to store. Type in the name of the product you’re after, or just scan the barcode from your home pantry, and grab the best bargains of the week.

Potential saving: Woolies and Coles are estimated to have around 3,500 specials every week. If you can save just $10 weekly using Frugl, that’s an extra $520 in your hip pocket each year.

Half Price

Cost: Free

Availability and rating: iOS (4.7) and Android (4.6)

How it works: 50% off is a serious saving, and Half Price lets you see where the latest half-price specials are at Coles and Woolworths. Build up a half-price shopping list to save time and money – and only stock up when you can score a 50% discount. Data is updated every Wednesday morning.

Potential saving: Let’s say you manage to score two half-price specials each week (easy, right?) for a weekly saving of five bucks. You’ll potentially be better off by $260 annually.

ShopFully

Cost: Free

Availability and rating: iOS (4.6) and Android (4.3)

How it works: ShopFully brings the latest supermarket catalogues straight to your phone so you can see what’s discounted – and at which store. Better still, the catalogues aren’t limited to the two big supermarket chains, so you get an all-round view of where the best specials can be found including Aldi.

Potential saving: Use Shop Fully to save on food, alcohol, toiletries and more. A weekly saving of $10 can see you better off by $520 annually.

Out of Milk

Cost: Free

Availability and rating: Android (4.3)

How it works: How many times have you hit the supermarket, spent a small fortune and arrived home only to realise you’ve forgotten a few essentials? When that happens, it’s off to the local convenience store to pay top dollar on the basics. Out of Milk ends this cycle, letting you create customisable shopping lists – and share them with family members, so no more blame game about who forgot the milk, or wasting money on fuel heading back to the store.

Potential saving: Taking the cost of fuel into account to make repeat visits to the supermarket – or paying through the nose at the local general store for the items you’ve forgotten, and you could save at least $10 a week using the Out of Milk app. That’s potentially an extra $520 back in your household budget.

OurGroceries

Cost: Free

Availability and rating: iOS (4.7) and Android (4.7)

How it works: Research from ING shows ‘swipe to shop’, ‘click and collect’ and pay later services on social media have made impulse buying easier. And over one in three of us admit to making unplanned purchases. OurGroceries helps you stay on track with purchases by letting you write and share shopping lists with others in your household. It can speed up shopping time if you hit the supermarket together – or just keep each other accountable to stick to the list.

Potential saving: Save just $3 a week on those impulse-buy chocolates, drinks or snacks, and you’re ahead by $156 a year.

Mealime

Cost: Free

Availability and rating: iOS (4.8) and Android (4.7)

How it works: Mealime offers all the convenience (well, almost) of a meal-kit service without the price tag or excess packaging. The app lets you plan home-cooked meals in advance, with recipes and a customised grocery list that lets you know exactly what to buy.

Potential saving: Three meals for two can set you back around $70 with some meal-kit services. Chances are you could easily halve that cost by purchasing the ingredients and cooking up a storm yourself. That can work out to a whopping saving of $35 per week or about $1,820 each year!

SuperCook

Cost: Free

Availability and rating: iOS (4.8) and Android (4.5)

How it works: What a genius idea! SuperCook shows you recipes that require the ingredients you already have. You’ll need to let the app know what you have in the pantry and fridge, but from there you’ll be handed recipes you can make right now, without extra grocery runs.

Potential saving: The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment says Australian households waste the equivalent of one in five bags of groceries – or $2,000 worth of groceries each year. If SuperCook helps you halve that food waste, you could be better off by $1,000 annually.

Everyday Rewards

Cost: Free

Availability and rating: iOS (3.8) and Android (4.2)

How it works: Everyday Rewards lets shoppers earn one reward point for every dollar spent at Woolworths and partner stores including Big W. When you reach 2,000 points, choose to get $10 off your next shop or convert to 1,000 Qantas points. Just downloading the Everyday Rewards app can see you collect 1,000 points.

Potential saving: If you spend, say, $250 a week on groceries, that’s a $10 discount every two months – or an annual saving of $60. Use the app to check out points boosters, and earn up to 10 points per dollar spent. Woolies says regular boosters can save an extra $210 off their annual grocery spend. This adds up to a possible $270 annually.

FlyBuys

Cost: Free

Availability and rating: iOS (2.4) and Android (3.9)

How it works: Earn one FlyBuys point per $1 spent at Coles, Kmart, Target and Liquorland, or one point per $2 spent at Shell Coles Express. Every 2,000 points gets you $10 to spend at the checkout. Use the app to check for personalised offers, or take surveys to score bonus points.

Potential saving: Let’s say you spend $250 weekly on Coles groceries. That’s 2,000 points every two months or about $60 worth of freebies annually. Just like Woolies, Coles offers a variety of ways to earn extra points, and the savings can potentially top $200 each year.

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