The grocery duopoly in this country has been driving me up the wall lately. Coles and Woolworths have such a stranglehold on the market that they can essentially charge whatever they want, and we’re left with little choice but to cop it sweet. So when someone recently shared a tool they’d built to help us fight back against this system, I was genuinely excited.

The tool is called CW Scanner, and it does something brilliantly simple: it compares prices between Coles and Woolworths in real time. You can scan a barcode or search for items, and it shows you which store has the better deal. What really impressed me is that it’s completely free – no ads, no paywalls, no sign-ups required unless you want to save shopping lists.

Living through this cost-of-living crisis has turned many of us into amateur accountants, scrutinizing every dollar spent. Recently, discussions about Woolworths Mobile and their Extra program caught my attention, particularly given my own journey to optimize household expenses.

The mobile service landscape in Australia has always been interesting. While Telstra dominates with its extensive coverage, MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) have been gaining traction by offering competitive prices using the major networks’ infrastructure. Woolworths Mobile, running on parts of Telstra’s network, has positioned itself as a value-focused alternative.

The cost of groceries has become a hot topic around every dinner table lately. Walking through my local Coles in Brunswick this morning, I noticed the price of my favourite Greek yoghurt had jumped again. It’s the same story we’re all living through - watching prices climb while our wages seem to stand still.

But here’s something interesting I’ve discovered: these price fluctuations aren’t as random as they appear. Some clever tech-savvy shoppers have developed browser extensions that track price patterns at both Coles and Woolworths. These tools reveal exactly how our major supermarkets manipulate their pricing, and the patterns are surprisingly predictable.