Assanah

New Zealand is very expensive. I think there is no doubt about it. Yet somehow one adapts and gets used to the high prices, the often low quality and less choice. It becomes normal until one travels and then the spiel starts again. Human ability to adapt is truly amazing.

Clappy

This is so true, the comparison is far more complicated than just the cost of groceries.

Although, if you are living off investment income from the UK and you know what that is going to be then it is easier. Wait a minute, the exchange rate changes all the time so in fact it is not easy at all.

You also have to include in the equation that food prices here include GST whereas in the UK there is no VAT on food. With that there is the Income Tax rates (don't forget to factor National Insurance into them). Much lower for high-earners in NZ but overall much higher for low-earners.

It is too complicated to attempt a sensible comparison, don't bother.

dithering pom

Luckily we both love to cook and microwave is largely redundant. Eating seasonally suits me. Just complaining to her indoors about her request for some tender stem broccoli from Waitrose...£19.99/kilo! What's the hells wrong with carrots

Nick Miller

As a small isolated market, NZ shops will always have a narrower range of goods than the UK. Personally though, having returned here after 8 years, I think the gap in range and quality has narrowed a little. The difference in food prices is, as has been noted, partly down to GST. However I don't think most people come here for the shopping anyway.

Bo-Jangles

Make the most of it, while you still have that choice.

Bo-Jangles

I tend to agree, it has got a LOT better in the time that we have been here but then I kind of feel that the rest of the world probably move on at a simlilar rate in terms of new products and ideas. When we first came here there certainly weren't all the higher-end yoghurts, chilled soups and pasta, bagged salads and stuff like that that had been available in the UK for years before.

We've only relatively recently been touched by the Masterchef / TV Chef influence and I feel this has caused a mini food revelution with many jumping on that band-wagon. e.g. Al Brown beefburgers and meatballs - both excellent, where previously we had only what might pass as frozen dog meat with multiple fillers and additives in a patty.

babybella

I do get fed up with the cost and quality of cheese in NZ. Made a lovely salad for a lunch today 400g of halloumi cost me $14. Turned out to be a very expensive salad. And I have yet to find a decent mozorrella cheese. Bought some at pak n save, cost $10 for a small peice and I could have bounced it off the wall.
Kaz

ellenarosemary

This very debate is on TV3 next week, I think Campbell live where they have two shoppers one in the UK one in NZ shopping for the same things at the same time - or so the advert is showing. Will be interested in seeing the outcome.

Addictedtosushi

That is one 100% rip off.The kiwis are surely being ripped off but don't seem to notice.

I pay 69 pence at Sainsburys and if I want the Buffalo Mozzarella its a pound.
Making home made pizza's tonight with a salad a cheap and easy meal when I used to make it in NZ I used to have to remortgage the house.

Synky

For those prices I'd consider making my own cheese!

Pom_Chch

I don't really see the point in getting bogged down with small purchases like how much a pack of cheese is. Yeah OK, it's more expensive than the UK. However in NZ my rent is half the price, car insurance is half the price, the equivalent of council tax is much less so if a piece of cheese costs more money I think I can deal with it!

love30stm

Totally agree with you I don't really think how expensive stuff is I just buy it

AndyEvs

Depends on your food bill really. For us, with 2 kids, prefering not to eat junk food and preparing family meals with good quality ingredients our food bill is astronomic. If we lived on $5 pizzas and McDonald's it probably wouldn't be such an issue for us.
The food bill is part of the overall. Most consumer goods cost more and as consumers that has an impact on our monthly outgoings.
The issue here has to be looked at holistically, so rent, insurance etc are also part of the whole.
For us the maths shows that our monthly outgoings are a greater percentage of our wages than they were in the UK, but that won't be the same for everybody.

Pom_Chch

It will be interesting to see this, although I'm not sure how well it will stack up. There will be so many variables it will be like comparing apples and oranges. For starters there is going to be 15% GST added in NZ, that doesn't apply in the UK.

I wonder what area of NZ and UK they will be comparing and which shops they will be using. Waitrose vs Pak n' Save or Countdown vs ASDA. Newcastle vs Auckland or Invacargill vs London. This could either work out in favour of the UK or NZ depending on where is chosen location wise or which shop.

The seasons are also the opposite way around so will they be taking into account buying out of season items in NZ compared with the UK where this doesn't apply so much. We all know how extortionate it is buying certain fruit and veg out of season in NZ, which will also skew the results.

I also find shopping in NZ a whole different ball game. In the UK I used to go to the supermarket for pretty much everything. NZ I don't do this because it works out expensive. You have to be more of a savvy shopper in NZ than you do in the UK. Supermarket fruit and veg is cheap in the UK, but buying it from a farm or market is cheaper in NZ. Buying fruit and veg in supermarkets in NZ works out much more expensive.

It also depends on individual taste. Personally I cook a lot of Thai food, which is pretty cheap over here thanks to the Asian supermarkets. This keeps my food bills down.

Another thing that I doubt will be compared will be quality. I find NZ to be of much higher quality than the UK.

Swings and roundabouts really!

lisamct

I think where abouts in NZ you live must make such a huge difference in comparisons that its all but impossible to actually compare until you live here.

I'm in Auckland, by choice, and here my rent is much higher than it would have been in the UK, my car insurance is pretty much the same but here I drive 10yr old Toyota and back home I drove a 2yr old Jeep and I just simply cant afford to eat the way I used to.
I pretty much always cook from scratch but in the UK tried to stick to organic as much as possible and free range when it came to meats but here that's way out my price range, and often difficult to find even if you can afford it (and markets and dedicated fruit/veg shops in no way mean the products are organic or free range)

I also find meat, fruit and veg to be lower quality and often a bit tasteless but I put that down to the difference between organic and not as I found the same in the UK with regular produce.

Anyway, I don't think anyone can say its all cheaper or its all more expensive as there's such a huge variety in life styles and expectations that you'll pretty much never know how its going to affect you till you try it.