Blade Down Under

14.50 for a weeks food - besweetjesus Davros, what did you eat?

I can only think you took advantage of Morrisons buy one get one free offers (if they still do them). I thought I'd try out a Tesco order and couldn't get anywhere close to the amount for a weeks food. Breakfast, Dinner and Tea. No where near

I wish I didn't look on Tesco now. Just seeing cucumber 49p, Lettuce 49p, Tomatoes 99p makes me want to cry. Fresh fruit and veg here - ouch! Keep having the offers on the pies and the fizzy drinks though. Could be a reason why New Zealand is not doing too well on the obesity stakes

I hope this fruit and veg shop in Woodend is as cheap as their prices are suggesting. I almost drove the car off when I saw the $2.99 for Grapes on route to Amberley

Woodlea

The vege shop in Rangiora is good, has a bit more choice than the one in Woodend.
Gotta buy seasonal though!

Pom_Chch

I can vouch for their prices! It's my local, I take a stroll there every week to stock up. Last week I stocked up on 10kg bag of potatoes, tomatoes (currently out of season!), bell peppers (hideously expensive in supermarkets), mushrooms (also quite expensive this time of year) and loads more. Got to the till and it came to $25. No complaints with quality either. Oh, and on a sunny day the real fruit ice cream is worth a crack too

Pom_Chch

The only logical explanation is that Davros is on the cabbage soup diet....

Stormer999

Without the cabbage!

davros1984

No cabbage. I bought a decent amount of stuff, I don't have the receipt and most of it has been eaten now - sorry! But yes, it lasted me for a week, pretty damn good I say. I tend to buy Morrisons own brand stuff (not the savers stuff, but their regular brand) as I find Morrison's own is high quality (in comparison to Tesco or Asda or most of the stuff I found in NZ).

4 litres (2 pints of milk) for 1 pound! Amazing. 6 free-range large local eggs - 1 pound 29.

I did buy 1 tin of morrisons tomato soup but that was the only soup .

pippalonghorn

I shopped at Pac n Save in NZ when I lived there. I made a menu and bought only the food we needed for that week. My average bill was from $180 to $200. There are 3 of us. This included all cleaning stuff and fruit n veg etc. No treats at all. My average weekly shopping bill in the Uk shopping at Aldi and Asda has not exceeded £60 and there are lots of treats in the basket too. I did do an essentials only shop like I did in NZ and I spent £38. So it is around 3 times more expensive.

The petrol is alot cheaper in NZ though and I could cry when I fill up the tank over here. I think petrol and car insurance are the only things that are cheaper.

Assanah

I had the same experience when returning to Germany. Everything is so unbelievable cheap and affordable (exception would be petrol, jeans, and Aspirin). I know people will say some things are more expensive in NZ others are cheaper which is true. However, for Germany the huge majority of things are a lot cheaper. Very liberating to simply walk into any supermarket and just buy without checking prices because I know the prices are low and fair.

Blade Down Under

You could be right for some scenarios

I think a few others would agree with me on this, but I'd safely say the majority of New Zealand is cheaper than London. At the moment, Canterbury area is cheaper than St Albans Hertfordshire but only just. I'm looking forward to the $2.50 refuse bag charge by Waimak when our house is all done in Ravenswood development. Great idea for a council in England to retrieve some income - Sheffield would make a fortune from it.

If I were still living in Sheffield or somewhere up north, definitely cheaper up there. There are places as cheap as Sheffield in New Zealand but the problem is work. People say Picton is a lovely place, very affordable but hardly any work.

Bus transportation is cheaper than London. Not as good but I'm not expecting Greater London transport here. There's definitely some room for improvement but we'll see what happens.
Dining out is definitely a lot cheaper. I do enjoy having the option of providing a tip instead of seeing service charge written on the bill. At least I don't have to worry about causing a scene in the event that you have to pay at the door before leaving.

pippalonghorn

I dont really think you can always compare Auckland to London. I think that London is more advanced in many ways. There are more jobs and the public transport system (trains and buses) is way ahead of Auckland. The house prices are the same though and thats about it.

garethwm

Lets be accurate here. There is no need to be living in NZ in order to check out the cost of a weekly shop. It can be done online at countdown.co.nz. Grocery prices in NZ are nowhere near 3 times more expensive, once the exchange rate is factored in. If you do a large shop with a good range of items and compare the prices with comparable brands at a UK supermarket of your choice, you should find the NZ shop about 15% dearer, not 300%. Some of the exagerations in this thread are ridiculous. Lol. (just double the UK prices or halve the NZ prices to compare.)

bearskin

So, am I wrong to think that $95,000 a year is not a pretty good wage - even in Auckland?

BEVS

You don't factor in the exchange rate. You factor in net income vis a vis.

It would seem no. From what I heave read over quite a while , it has been that way for a long time.

christmasoompa

I also have a family of four, plus various pets that need food and other supplies, and we don't spend anywhere near £100 a week, so it CAN be done on less.

garethwm

I would estimate that 90% of families with one preschool child would be on less than 95k in Auckland, and I dont think all these young families are necessarily cold in winter or buying all their clothes from opshops. In fact I know theyre not. On the other hand that kind of salary wouldnt be beer and skittles either. Such are the big decisions in life ... but you woukd be better off than most other families in a similar position in Auckland. The question then is what kind of position you are in now and whether youd be in a better position if you moved to Auckland? I dont think anyone can answer that without knowing you or your family.