A comprehensive guide on shopping at Coles for university students

Are you a current university student struggling to make financial ends meet? Have you just moved out of home and need to pay rent on a weekly basis? When shopping at your local supermarket, it’s important that you remember how to be a smart and savvy grocery shopper.

You don’t exactly have a lot of money to play with, so it’s really important that you closely monitor your budget and spending both in-store and online.

You simply can’t afford to be blowing hundreds and hundreds of dollars every weekend out partying and drinking. So, here are several things you need to remember when shopping at your local supermarket, Coles.

Coles Opening Hours:

What time is Coles open?

Almost all Cales stores are open from Monday to Friday, from 6am until 11pm and on the weekends from 7am until 11pm on Saturday and until 10pm on Sundays.

Coles Trading Hours are usually:

Day: Open*: Closed*:
Monday 6:00am 11:00pm
Tuesday 6:00am 11:00pm
Wednesday 6:00am 11:00pm
Thursday 6:00am 11:00pm
Friday 6:00am 11:00pm
Saturday 7:00Am 11:00pm
Sunday 7:00Am 10:00pm

*Please note that some Coles stores are open at 7am and closed at 10pm or midnight.

Know Coles’ opening hours for late night promos

If you want to be able to save money on your food shopping, you simply have to know your local Coles’ opening hours and what times they close.

There are several reasons for this. Primarily, there are benefits of shopping at less popular times – you can save time on your weekly shop and you might even pick up some late-night discounts on produce that can’t be kept overnight.

Shopping after 7pm is always a good bet because families are generally at home by this stage and children have made their way home from school.

Between 3pm and 5pm can be a real nightmare, so if you’re someone that doesn’t handle stress well, steer clear during this time.

Early riser benefits

Knowing Coles’ opening hours also has another key benefit, particularly when it comes to early morning deals. Most stores open their doors at 6am, so if you’re someone who is able to get out of bed nice and early before that 8am lecture; get yourself to your local supermarket.

Even if you miss breakfast, there will be plenty of breakfast deals available, so you can still save a few dollars here and there. Clearly, knowing your local Coles’ opening hours can help a lot if you’re trying to save money and time on a university student budget!

Evaluate how much you actually eat

Coles Open Hours
How much will you actually eat? Photo: 27707, Pixabay

If you’ve just moved out, it can be quite difficult to ascertain how much you actually eat. If you previously relied on your parents or other family members to cook for you, then knowing how much food you need for your average week or fortnight can be really difficult. This process can take time, so don’t stress over it. However, it is important that you gauge how much you do eat in a regular week.

Do you eat three large, consistent meals or a lot of smaller meals? It’s important to know, simply because you don’t want to be buying fresh fruit and vegetables in anticipation for meals that you never actually cook. In the long term, this will just waste a lot of your hard-earned money. So, be smart and plan out how much you actually think you will eat before heading down during Coles’ opening hours.

Stock up on things with a long shelf life

coles supermarket near me
Canned food has a long edible life. Photo: PublicDomainArchive, Pixabay

If you have a part-time job and full-time university commitments, it can be really hard to find a time to do your weekly or fortnightly grocery shopping. Organising a time that suits you (and maybe some roommates) so you can shop during Coles’ opening hours might be genuinely impossible during the week.

If this is the case, make sure you stock up on frozen meals or items with an extensive shelf life, as this will minimise how often you have to go to your local supermarket. Also, it will ensure that there is always something for dinner at the end of those stressful exam days, soothing your post-assessment woes.

Don’t feel like you have to fill your fridge

If you’re living by yourself or with 1-2 roommates, then a regular sized fridge should never be properly filled. There are many problems with stacking a fridge to the brink. Remember those strawberries you bought a week ago? Well they got pushed to the back of the fridge because of the yoghurt and cheese you bought.

They’ve probably moulded by now, so you’ll just have to toss them. When you head down to the store during Coles’ opening hours, you should never be thinking that the fridge has to be stacked till it’s overflowing. Perishable items go off frequently, so be conservative when buying products with a limited lifespan.

It sounds cliché but make sure you budget

Coles Opening Hours today
Closely monitor how much you are spending. Photo: Fancycrave, Unsplash

You always need to have a maximum figure in mind regarding how much you are willing to spend on groceries. Make sure that you remember that number when you’re actually shopping.

Don’t be tempted into buying snacks, as you’ll be surprised at how much they can eat away at your budget if you’re consistently buying them.

Paying in cash is a good way of keeping track and preventing a “credit splurge.” There’s nothing wrong with splurging on some luxuries every now and then, just remember that you can’t continually blow your budget. So, be a savvy shopper when buying your groceries during Coles’ opening hours.

Christian Woods
Christian Woods
Christian is a morning reporter and technology columnist for Best in Australia. Christian has worked in the media since 2000, in a range of locations. He joined Best in Australia in 2018, and began working in Melbourne in 2019.
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