Hello!

39 Comments

With supermarkets no longer providing free, single-use plastic bags from today this mum has shared her clever trick when doing the shopping.

As of today customers will have to either pay 15 cents for a re-usable plastic bag, $0.99 – $2.50 for a material bag or bring their own bag or box to carry their groceries.

Queensland and Western Australia are implementing statewide bag bans from July 1, following earlier bans by South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Victoria has announced a ban but provided no timeline.

plastic bag mf

One mum has shared what she does to save on all that plastic.

Mum of two, Kat Abianac, today shared on her Facebook page that she leaves two plastic laundry tubs in the car ready to offload the groceries into.

Kat wrote, “By now you’ve heard the news that plastic grocery bags are GONE as of tomorrow! What now?

Here’s my old hack I’ll be returning to- add 2-3 laundry baskets to the boot of your car, and you don’t even need bags. Unload them straight from the trolley into the baskets. I did this at ALDI for years!

I for one am pretty stoked for the change.

I only ever used bags

a) out of laziness

b) forgetting my green bags (constantly)

b) because my groceries were just automatically loaded into them at Woolworths or Coles.

This eliminates the need to remember anything- just make sure you return the washing baskets to your car boot.”

Simple, hey?!

Kat Abianac was brought to you by Books, Oils, Social Media & Soul. She Launched a 6 Figure Course in a Week & Will probably do it again if you’re lucky.

Share your comments below.

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.
  • Great idea. I had been taking my own bags well before the so called ban. Its sad that you can still buy plastic bags that are supposed to be reusable.
    We really should go back to the brown paper bags.

    Reply

  • Prior to the introduction of charges for shopping bags, one group in SA had a great system. They issued cards. If you took your own shopping bags they initialled or stamped your card for every bag that was re-used. When your card was full you got $1.00 of your grocery bill. We used them until they got small holes in them, then used them as liners in our kitchen bin. We had some strong fabric left from when we did sewing so I made some bags from it.

    Reply

  • I have done this years but as a home produce grower and children who just don’t know how to bring a ‘string’ bag from home, I used to use the plastic bags so my kids could take the produce back to their homes. I have some bags for a while – hope they work out what to do in future. But the worst thing is the old one-use bags were thin and would break down fairly quickly – the new bags being thicker won’t break down quickly and cannot be used much more than once in the first place. The plastic problem hasn’t disappeared – it has become worse.

    Reply

  • Great idea and perhaps could take basket into shop too?

    Reply

  • I always have bags in my car. I have both chiller bags and grocery bags. The only time I used the plastic bags was to put the meat (which was dripping blood) into. I’ll start putting a newspaper in my bags to stop that happening in future. Actually shouldn’t the shopping drop down in price now that the stores won’t be supplying bags anymore? It’d be nice wouldn’t it

    Reply

  • Great idea! I always keep my reusable bags in the boot. Here in Tassie we haven’t had bags for ages and when I lived in QLD I used to go to Aldi all the time. If I forget to take my bags in to the store I simply load them into my bags at my boot. It’s just as easy as packing them at Aldi stores anyway.

    Reply

  • I love this idea but have the pram in and out so have invested in some collapsible baskets – so far, they’re great. I love being able to just pick up the whole box/basket & take it straight into the house. They’ll also come in really handy for keeping spare changes of clothes etc in as well!

    Reply

  • What a brilliant idea, I love it. My only question is from car at home to inside. I wouldn’t want to carry a loaded laundry basket inside, I think I’d do my back in. And, I’m not sure my weekly shop would fit into those 2 baskets. But love the innovation and creativity.

    Reply

  • Aldi don’t have bags and everyone seems to cope.

    Reply

  • that’s a pretty cool idea. My hubby does most of the shopping and I don’t think he will be doing this though. He just uses the re-usable shopping bags, as he has always done!

    Reply

  • wonder how the check out ladies will like the idea of loading our shopping back into the trolley without bags ..thats what I will be doing. may have one bag with me thats all,
    wollies have those new stands for the bags horrible things I cut my finger on one of them getting the bag off. wonder what idiot designed them.
    what happens when we misjudge how many bags me will need , buy another?
    what happens if we are in shopping centre not for grocery shopping and then decide to buy one or two items , (no bag with us) carry the items under our arms? or in trolley I for one will not buy a bag.

    Reply

  • We’ve been doing this for a long time, started by keeping a basket or two in the back of my husband’s ute and subsequently started doing it in my car. It’s easy, except for when you have a whole lot of heavier stuff, which for us isn’t all that often!

    Reply

  • I have 2 x carry baskets (like the ones at Bunnings) with strong fold down handles, 2 of these fit neatly into the shopping carts so I can easily lift them out of the shopping cart straight into the boot and then once again when I get home to unload into the kitchen. I have one basket lined with silver cold storage plastic (like the lining you find in lunchboxes) for the refrigerated items and everything else goes into the other basket. Makes my shopping trips easy and convenient.

    Reply

  • We do this too and use boxes of varying sizes for different foods as some foods are heavier than others.


    • Important to make sure the boxes are not too heavy – best not to overload the boxes and distribute groceries evenly and across boxes.

    Reply

  • Already have a container in the car – never thought of carrying it into the house though. Thanks for your idea.

    Reply

Post a comment
Add a photo
Your MoM account


Lost your password?

Enter your email and a password below to post your comment and join MoM:

You May Like

Loading…

Looks like this may be blocked by your browser or content filtering.

↥ Back to top

Thanks For Your Star Rating!

Would you like to add a written rating or just a star rating?

Write A Rating Just A Star Rating
Join