Kelly, AKA the Frugal Fun Mum, banks three months’ worth of free groceries every year on Flybuys. And her strategy hinges on doing the opposite of what Coles wants: ignoring the bonus-offer spend targets most shoppers chase.
“I always tell people: you need to play the game, not get played by it,” she says.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Every dollar spent at Coles earns a Flybuys point
- Keeping your regular weekly spend low makes bonus-offer targets easier to hit
- Checking the catalogue helps you time purchases around genuine markdowns
- Buying doubles of pantry staples when they’re discounted creates a rotating pantry system
- Heading into late 2026, with grocery bills still stretched, Kelly’s “don’t chase the target” rule is more relevant than ever
Her core move: refuse to chase the target
Coles’ biggest Flybuys rewards come from “four-week spend” bonus offers. Hit a set spending target over four weeks, and you can earn 10,000 bonus points, worth $50 in Flybuys Dollars. It sounds like free money. But as Kelly says, the offer itself is designed to push your spending up.
“Some people get point offers if they spend $120–$130 a week, and next time it jumps to $140–$150 because the offer is based on your spending. They know you’ll stretch to hit it, so they push you higher. But you don’t have to take the bait.”
Her fix is simple: keep her everyday weekly spend low and steady, so the targets stay easy to hit on their own. She applies the same rule with her mum’s Flybuys account.
“Sometimes my mum gets offers for $150–$160, even though she normally spends about $80 a week. So I’ll tell her not to bother. It’s not worth stretching for.”
The 3 Flybuys rules Kelly never breaks
1. Never stretch to hit a target. If an offer needs a jump of more than $20–30 above your normal weekly spend, skip it — the next offer will usually come back lower.
2. Keep the baseline spend low. A modest, consistent weekly shop makes future targets easier to hit, rather than harder.
3. Bank points, don’t spend them straight away. Convert and save Flybuys Dollars across the year rather than redeeming small amounts as you go, so they add up to something that actually covers a big grocery run.
How she turns points into three months of groceries
Rather than using her rewards as soon as she earns them, Kelly saves them throughout the year and converts them to Flybuys dollars. When she’s ready to use her Flybuys Dollars, she swipes her Flybuys card, and the dollars are deducted from her balance.
“On average, it covers about three months of groceries, and we save it up all year to use in January, when things are tighter after Christmas,” she says.
“My husband and I are both working — I’m self-employed — but there are a few lean weeks each January. So it’s a relief to already have groceries covered while everything else still needs to be paid.”
How Kelly makes her grocery budget stretch further
Kelly says rewards points are only part of her savings strategy.
Each week, she checks the Coles catalogue before shopping and avoids buying items she knows are about to go on special.
She also plans meals around what she already has at home, rather than starting each shop from scratch.
When she spots heavy discounts on pantry staples she regularly uses, she’ll buy extras so she always has a backup ready.
Her simple rule?
“Keep what you eat and eat what you keep.”
How Flybuys compares to Everyday Rewards
Kelly shops at Coles, but her core strategy — keep your baseline spend steady, don’t chase inflated targets, bank rewards for when you need them most — translates across the other major supermarkets too.
Woolworths Everyday Rewards: Members can use a near-identical approach: choose when to spend your Rewards Dollars instead of redeeming them as you earn them, and save them for a big shop or a pricier time of year, like Christmas. Shoppers can also stack savings by buying discounted Woolworths gift cards and combining them with a monthly 10% off offer.
Aldi: Aldi doesn’t run a points-based loyalty program, so there’s no equivalent “bonus offer” to chase. Instead, the saving comes from Aldi’s everyday lower shelf prices and its rotating Special Buys catalogue. For shoppers who want Kelly’s discipline without the points game, treating Aldi as the low-cost base for pantry staples — and reserving Coles or Woolworths spend for whichever loyalty program is running the better offer that month — is a common hybrid approach.
What do BHG readers think?
We asked on the Better Homes and Gardens Facebook page whether people save their Flybuys or Everyday Rewards points for a big shop or redeem them straight away.
The clear favourite was saving up for Christmas, with one commenter explaining, “I save them until Christmas so I don’t have to worry about spending too much on food for Christmas dinner.”
Others said they treat their points as a safety net for tight weeks. Some said they put them toward big-ticket items like car tyres, and one even saves theirs for trips to Bunnings for the garden.
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