Stuff
People are having to go without some food items in order to make their money last.
Sixty-year-old Louise McGililvray and 30-year-old Jack Alexander have completely different lives at opposite ends of the country.
But one thing they both have in common is they’re struggling to afford food.
Food price inflation is running at the highest rate since 1987 – with an increase in prices of 12.5% from April 2022 to April 2023, according to Stats NZ.
Grocery food prices were up 14%, fruit and vegetables up 22.5%, restaurant meals and ready-to-eat meals up 9%, meat, poultry, and fish prices increased by 9.5% and non-alcoholic beverage prices were up 8%.
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Business owner and part-time childcare worker McGililvray lives in Christchurch with her husband and four kids in their 20s, who like many others in that generation can’t afford to move out of home.
The family spends up to $500 a week on groceries for six people – but McGililvray noticed she was sometimes spending up to $600, which had forced her to shop more wisely.
“Significant price rises I noticed were dairy products, eggs and vegetables,” she said.
She started shopping at Pak ‘n Save to lower costs, stopped buying any snacks or convenience food for the household, shifted to buying in bulk, purchasing more home brand items, shopping at local vegetable growers where possible and substituting items in recipes, such as using beans as protein.
And she wasn’t alone.
Frank Film
Angela Clifford, chief executive of Eat New Zealand, shows Frank Film some of Aotearoa’s bounty of fresh produce and asks the question: who is getting access to it?
A survey of more than 2000 people by Tracksuit showed many New Zealand shoppers had changed their spending habits over the past three months in order to stay afloat.
The top three areas where people were cutting spending was groceries (71%), eating out (61%), and clothing (52%).
Those aged 18-34 were most likely to cut back across all three categories, with more than seven in 10 respondents in this age category reporting that they were.
Of those cutting back on groceries half were opting for cheaper grocery alternatives and 23% reduced the amount they bought.
For Aucklander Alexander, this was also the case. He and his partner were saving for their first home and spending up to $170 a week on groceries.
To save money he’d opted to have baked beans on toast one night a week, buying the cheapest fruit and vege and buying home brands.
UNSPLASH
Produce prices are continuing to rise – with many shoppers looking for alternatives.
Produce was the biggest wallet-hurter for the couple, who were vegetarian.
“We have cut out avocado completely, if you have avocado in three meals a week you are looking at an extra $40 a week.
“We buy a lot of tinned beans, these are still relatively cheap if you look on the bottom shelf. Tofu from the vege store is also cheap. Comparative to eating meat, vege protein options are a lot cheaper.”
The Tracksuit data also found travel (45%) and healthcare (36%) had taken a spending hit.
Of those reducing travel spend, more than a quarter had stopped spending altogether, while 20% of consumers were opting for cheaper healthcare options.
The top areas where consumers hadn’t changed spending, but did notice a cost increase, were insurance and other financial services (42%) and utilities such as electricity, water and gas (38%).
Baked beans on toast for dinner, no more snacks: How we are changing our grocery habits to stay afloat - Stuff
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