TommyLuck

Hello,

I just wanted to get a non-biased, insiders view of the everyday "costs" of living in New Zealand.

By and large I want to avoid the argument of "you can't get PG Tips out here and the equivalent brand costs more and tastes rancid".

I'm not bothered about that. I love a good food shop and in any case, my food needs are fairly simple, I make most stuff from scratch. My family and I are (supposedly) boring and don't eat a great deal of bread, sugary food, cereal, dairy, saving the naughty but nice stuff for meals out. I'm more likely to bake than I am to buy confectionary.

I often hear the observation that food, in particular is more expensive in NZ. When I've visited, we're pretty much always staying with friends and family and always go on shopping trips to chip in and get some additional bits and pieces. I can honestly say that I never thought it was more expensive. So where does this oft quoted view come from?

And if anyone does find it more expensive are these costs outweighed by other day to day/month to month expenses, such as; The NZ version of council tax, water rates, energy bills, petrol, home insurance, medical care, car insurance, the NZ version of an MOT, Sky TV ... anything else you might consider as a regular cost?

Once weighed up, is it possible that in fact the "cost of living" in NZ is in fact negligible to the UK.

I'm looking for your experience of actual cost, i.e. NOT relative to earning potential, etc, as all of the costs I mention don't take in to account earnings.

Cheers,

T

Jan n Neil

I,m of out to work but as a quick rule of thumb I would say our food shop is at least a third more expensive here

Neil

higgy2

We have only been in NZ about eight weeks and have not as yet
stopped comparing prices, changing $'s to £'s in our mind. You
cannot help yourself but we are trying.

Not sure about the cost of running a house and all the associated bills
but we do buy food and drink. (living with friends)

Food generally is dearer than our UK Supermarkets and the choices
limited. British products can be found at a premium.

Items which are very dear are toms, mushrooms, fish, chicken and lamb. It
is strange that we can buy NZ Lamb far cheaper in the UK. Forgot to
mention cheese again expensive to what we were used to paying. Wine is dearer even the NZ brands, beer sometimes on par.

Paint is, well don't go there buy a brick house not weatherboard why
so dear who knows. (someone please tell)

The Farmers Markets offers good fresh food and the beef joint for
the Sunday Roast was a really good price very tasty also.

Shop around as there are the reduced items.

NZ is not the UK never has been and it never wants to be, so we have
to accept the good with the not so good.

We came for all the other reasons and are loving it here, the people
have been great and the outside life is right up our street.

simonsi

Our weekly Pak n Save shop is about 25% more than our equivalent Tesco shop in the UK. That was a year ago and comparing against Tesco prices a year before that.

Since then we have all given up The Great Comparison so no idea (or personal interest), what the current difference is.

Assanah

Avoid Kiwi/Australian owned shops as much as possible and buy food at Asian groceries and prices will be OK.

jmh

I tend to eat simply too - no processed food etc. I used to shop at Waitrose and find the prices here about the same, but in the supermarkets the quality is not so good. However local fruit and veg shops and butchers are much better quality. Bear in mind that fruit and veg is seasonal so yes tomatoes are expensive right now because it's winter. Prices will be coming down soon to less than half what they are now. I grow my own however which is even cheaper!

I found generally costs are similar but I came from London which of course is pretty pricey. The problem is that wages are a lot lower.

simonsi

"Ok" means what? Against what yardstick or comparision? UK? US? Sierra Leone? You need to tell the OP what comparison you are making and against what for your comment to be really useful

bourbon-biscuit

Fruit and vegetables are just very seasonal- I haven't brought more than the odd tomato for months but soon we'll be buying them by the bag load. It took us a couple of years to get the hang of this, but now we just generally shop and eat seasonally.

Mark Smith

We purchase food when we see its on offer and freeze.
Food and raw ingredients vary greatly in price, dependant on who has an offer on. For example fresh chicken fillets, these seem to range from $8.99 a kilo (on sale) all the way upto $23.99 a kilo a few days later in the same store (About 7gbp a kg in sainsburys). Picked up a pair of lambs legs a few weeks ago at $6.99 kg, on offer at new world for $9.99 today. Capsicum peppers as they are out of season are about $4 to $5 each (loose) used to be about 80p each or 3 pack for around 1.50gbp, I've seen fresh tomatoes at $18.99 a kilo recently, but in season were $1.99 a kilo at the local green grocers (used to pay about 2gbp a kilo in sainsburys).
Whereas seasonal veg is pretty cheap now, 10kg of spuds $2.99 down the road, carrots 99 cents a kilo, onions 69cents.

TommyLuck

This is useful, so far, but about food only.

Good to hear that veg is seasonal. OH hasn't mentioned this, perhaps I wasn't listening, either way, sounds cool. I like this. Getting inventive in the kitchen

In essence we eat a lot of lean meat, fish, eggs and veg. Sounds like a might be taking trips too couple of different supermarkets and investing in the chest freezer!!

No one has really commented on the other regular costs of running a household and a car

Mark Smith

Petrol has just nudged up to $2.19 a litre again.

TommyLuck

Heh, that's a touch less then when I was over in March!!

Mark Smith

It had got down to $1.99 a few weeks ago, still there are always lots of petrol offers from the supermarkets.

TommyLuck

Yep, get hounded by the OH's grandmother to make sure we pick up receipt vouchers from the supermarkets; x cents off per litre, for spending y dollars, etc.

Also, are those specialist fruit and veg stores better for getting fresh produce over the supermarkets?

bourbon-biscuit

lol, that's going to start a row

Here in Cambridge, I would say 100% YES. We have a great fruit and veg place and provided you avoid the bargain bins the produce is very fresh and cheaper.
We buy milk, butter, cream and dried pulses from there too, as well as spices. But never canned goods, etc, cos they are much cheaper from Countdown.