Coles and News Corp help Australians with cost of living offer

A new cost of living survey found Australians are actively budgeting to reduce their household outgoings. Find out what they’re doing and how you could WIN a Coles gift card.

Matthew and Sinead Makridis, with Isabella (3) and William (2) at Coles Tunstall Square in Melbourne. Picture: Martin Keep/Coles

Thrifty grocery shoppers are cutting back on meat and alcohol, finding ways to make their food go further and buying more specials.

A new cost of living survey, conducted by Coles earlier this month, found Australians are actively budgeting to reduce their household outgoings.

It comes as the supermarket giant launches a special offer for readers of this masthead to win one of 12 Coles gift cards, valued at $10,000 each.

To enter, readers must share their tips on what they’re doing to make their hard-earned money go that bit further.

Enter here for a Coles gift card valued at $10,000

Coles has also hinted at a major announcement next week to further help shoppers with cost pressures.

“At Coles, we’ve always been focused on lowering the cost-of-living for Australians and, right now, we know it’s what they’re concerned about most,” Coles Chief Customer Officer Amanda McVay said.

“Our customers are cooking more from home, are looking for more specials, are buying more own brand products and making more of their Flybuys to help with the weekly budget.

“Next week, we’re excited to share details on how we’ll be helping our customers find more value in more ways every time they shop with us.”

The Coles Cost-of-Living survey was conducted from August 3-9 and had more than 4700 respondents.

It found 67 per cent of Australians are worried about their ability to cover costs, with concern greatest among young families (79 per cent) and older families (71 per cent).

To manage the impact, Australians are cutting back on treats (60 per cent), eating less meat (37 per cent) and reducing alcohol consumption (30 per cent).

More than half the population is cooking more at home, while 78 per cent are implementing food-saving measures, including freezing or reheating leftovers (42 per cent), making meals go further (36 per cent), being more tolerant with Best Before dates (30 per cent) and weekly meal planning (26 per cent).

And a large majority (87 per cent) are actively budgeting by buying more specials, collecting loyalty program points, activating boosters and loyalty offers, and stretching out time for less urgent items.

Originally published as Coles and News Corp help Australians with cost of living offer