A Melbourne man has compared the prices of "identical" groceries at Aldi and Woolworths to see which supermarket is actually cheaper. German discount retailer Aldi is growing in popularity amongst Aussie shoppers and is often thought of as being a cheaper alternative to rivals Coles and Woolworths.

Alexei Joshua said he was curious to see whether he could get his regular grocery shop cheaper at Aldi. The 26-year-old personal trainer told Yahoo Finance that he usually shopped at Woolworths or Coles and had noticed certain items had become “way more expensive” over the years.

“It’s something I literally just wanted to know for myself,” he said.

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Joshua tried to get the exact same staple ingredients from both supermarkets to compare prices.

This included avocados, tomatoes, onions, capsicum, spaghetti, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, beef mince, chicken breast and mixed berries.

His Woolworths bill came to $60.87, while the Aldi bill was surprisingly more expensive at $65.04.

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Joshua said the price difference was due to items being out of stock at Aldi, which meant he had to buy more expensive comparable products. That included Aldi being out of mixed berries, canned tomatoes, and 4-star beef mince.

“I was fully expecting Aldi to be cheaper ... but stock was a big issue. I had to buy something because obviously I had to eat and it ended up being more expensive,” Joshua told Yahoo Finance.

To get a more accurate idea of pricing, Joshua redid the experiment. He went to Aldi first and then Woolworths so he wasn't caught out by stock issues.

He bought "identical" items including capsicum, onion, bananas and beef mince, branded products like Pepsi Maxi, Weet-bix and YoPro pouches, as well as home-brand products like spaghetti, rice crackers and tuna.

He found his Aldi bill was slightly cheaper at $35.65, while Woolworths was $38.80 and $36.60 when sales were taken into account.

CHOICE's government-funded supermarket price report has consistently found Aldi is cheaper for a basket of staples, including milk, bread, sugar, pasta, tea bags and fresh fruits and vegetables.

For the 14 items, Aldi came in at $50.64, Coles was $66.18 and Woolworths cost $69.17. IGA was even higher at $73.80.