British Expats

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)
-   New Zealand (https://britishexpats.com/forum/new-zealand-83/)
-   -   COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ (https://britishexpats.com/forum/new-zealand-83/cost-shopping-auckland-nz-876029/)

NZLorraine Apr 16th 2016 8:18 pm

COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
Hi Guys, we're wanting to know if anyone can advise on weekly food cost for a family of 4, we shop at Morrisons/tescos in the UK with not too many luxury items. We just need the average. Can anyone help?

Rete Apr 16th 2016 9:45 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by NZLorraine (Post 11924815)
Hi Guys, we're wanting to know if anyone can advise on weekly food cost for a family of 4, we shop at Morrisons/tescos in the UK with not too many luxury items. We just need the average. Can anyone help?

Hi again Lorraine

The Welcome Inn is for welcoming you to the community of British Expats. We have forums for just about every country in the world and the regulars on those forums will be able to help you with most, if not all, of your questions.

Rita

MrsFychan Apr 16th 2016 11:14 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
Hi Lorraine,

have a look on Countdown website

Online Supermarket: Online Grocery Shopping & Free Recipes at countdown.co.nz

MOSO Apr 17th 2016 1:41 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
There are 3 important things to bear in mind when doing a cost comparison:

- Fresh fruit/veg is seasonal and the prices vary accordingly.
- We pay GST on all food.
- Convenience food is not widely sold and the prices reflect this.

Most importantly, having just been to the UK, I can assure you NZ wine is cheaper here!

NZLorraine Apr 17th 2016 7:16 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by MrsFychan (Post 11924893)

Thank you for your help. much appreciated
:thumbup:

NZLorraine Apr 17th 2016 7:18 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by Rete (Post 11924852)
Hi again Lorraine

The Welcome Inn is for welcoming you to the community of British Expats. We have forums for just about every country in the world and the regulars on those forums will be able to help you with most, if not all, of your questions.

Rita

sorry for the error new to forums:confused:

NZLorraine Apr 17th 2016 7:19 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
thanks for your advice

Hazelnut Apr 18th 2016 1:24 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
Always fun to do during a boring lunch break at my desk. Here's some of my staple ingredients for a home cooked, easy and quick spag bog:

Quorn mince, frozen 500g
Tesco is £2.79 Countdown is $9

Decent tinned tomatoes
Tesco 40p Countdown $1.10

Fresh Onions
Tesco 60p/kg Countdown $2/kg

Wholewheat Spaghetti 500gm
Tesco £1 (organic too) Countdown $2.20

Fresh veg like carrots, peas, sweetcorn etc vary from the same price to twice as much in NZ, even when only looking at 'in season' vegetables. The only thing I found cheaper in NZ was fresh apples.

All the cheese I looked at was three to four times the price in NZ compared to Tesco in the UK :(

It's scary when you break it down as many things are easily twice the price in NZ compared to our mainstream supermarkets in the UK. This is one of those things where I simply have no understanding how anyone with children manages to feed themselves in NZ when salaries are so much less yet food costs twice as much. Child poverty (UK is 16% according to government but 28% according to child charities) seems rife in both countries (28% in NZ to UNICEF and 29% according to project) which is awful for so called 'developed' nations.

Toilet rolls are cheaper in NZ :blink:

garethwm Apr 18th 2016 7:40 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
Did you multiply the NZ prices by 0.49 to take account of the exchange rate Hazelnut?

barnsleymat Apr 18th 2016 8:22 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
Bring plenty of tissues with you as the prices of a lot of groceries will make your eyes water.

Hazelnut Apr 18th 2016 9:23 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by garethwm (Post 11926193)
Did you multiply the NZ prices by 0.49 to take account of the exchange rate Hazelnut?

Yep, I remember being horrified at the cost of cheese when we were over before :(

Kotare Apr 18th 2016 11:13 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by Hazelnut (Post 11926283)
Yep, I remember being horrified at the cost of cheese when we were over before :(

Smoke and mirrors somewhere. Just checked a kg of 'cheddar' in Tesco and Countdown both $11 at todays rates. Any imported cheese eg French camembert is silly prices though.

dfjordan Apr 18th 2016 11:40 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
It's maybe not relevant to you, but I'm in Chile and for about 9 months now, we've been buying some lovely NZ cheddar for the equivalent of NZ$9 kg!

Kotare Apr 19th 2016 12:37 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by dfjordan (Post 11926361)
It's maybe not relevant to you, but I'm in Chile and for about 9 months now, we've been buying some lovely NZ cheddar for the equivalent of NZ$9 kg!

It used to grate that the best NZ produce was exported and cost the same in NZ as overseas but why 'waste' it here if you can sell it offshore :-) Jealous of that price though.

Venezuelan007 Apr 19th 2016 5:58 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
According to Numbeo...

Indices Differencehttp://www.numbeo.com/images/information.png Consumer Prices in Auckland are 11.57% lower than in London Consumer Prices Including Rent in Auckland are 29.11% lower than in London Rent Prices in Auckland are 50.43% lower than in London Restaurant Prices in Auckland are 27.05% lower than in London Groceries Prices in Auckland are 8.46% higher than in London Local Purchasing Power in Auckland is 25.84% higher than in London

Its safe to assume Numbeo is wrong then?

Kotare Apr 19th 2016 6:25 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by Venezuelan007 (Post 11926507)
According to Numbeo...

Indices Differencehttp://www.numbeo.com/images/information.png Consumer Prices in Auckland are 11.57% lower than in London Consumer Prices Including Rent in Auckland are 29.11% lower than in London Rent Prices in Auckland are 50.43% lower than in London Restaurant Prices in Auckland are 27.05% lower than in London Groceries Prices in Auckland are 8.46% higher than in London Local Purchasing Power in Auckland is 25.84% higher than in London

Its safe to assume Numbeo is wrong then?

:-) :-)

Bo-Jangles Apr 19th 2016 8:24 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by Venezuelan007 (Post 11926507)
London Local Purchasing Power in Auckland is 25.84% higher than in London

Its safe to assume Numbeo is wrong then?

Because Auckland is NOTHING like London in any way shape or form, we don't have rental properties of the ilk of Kensington, Belgrave Square or Chelsea that will wildly skew the average costs of rents. We don't have eleven million people, higher end supermarkets like Waitrose, or Bond Street shops, or Harrods or any multitudes of fancy pants shops or restaurants either that all go a long way to make average prices in London a whole lot of schmaverage that in no way reflect the living expenses or cost of living for the masses of working class, normal everyday folks of the type that emigrate to NZ.

You know like everyday ordinary folks that go to work and don't have mummy and daddy give them an allowance, we don't have Michelin starred restaurants, multitudes of City bankers, or billionaires or super rich folks that hang out in the West End, Park Lane and Mayfair and of course you won't see too many of the UKs upper crust and rich folks making a beeline to here either.

The best we can manage is to have Kim.Dotcom resting here for a while but even he has limited access to his funds but still manages to rent the most expensive house in the country, there's not really a great deal for them here to buy other than farm land and beachfront properties to buy. LOL

Kotare Apr 19th 2016 8:34 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by Bo-Jangles (Post 11926557)
Because Auckland is NOTHING like London in any way shape or form, we don't have rental properties of the ilk of Kensington, Belgrave Square or Chelsea that will wildly skew the average costs of rents. We don't have eleven million people, higher end supermarkets like Waitrose, or Bond Street shops, or Harrods or any multitudes of fancy pants shops or restaurants either that all go a long way to make average prices in London a whole lot of schmaverage that in no way reflect the living expenses or cost of living for the masses of working class, normal everyday folks of the type that emigrate to NZ.

You know like everyday ordinary folks that go to work and don't have mummy and daddy give them an allowance, we don't have Michelin starred restaurants, multitudes of City bankers, or billionaires or super rich folks that hang out in the West End, Park Lane and Mayfair and of course you won't see too many of the UKs upper crust and rich folks making a beeline to here either.

The best we can manage is to have Kim.Dotcom resting here for a while but even he has limited access to his funds but still manages to rent the most expensive house in the country, there's not really a great deal for them here to buy other than farm land and beachfront properties to buy. LOL

Depends if you are talking City of London (which you appear to be) or Greater London which has some of the most deprived areas in UK.

garethwm Apr 19th 2016 9:43 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
The thing about Auckland is that while houses are expensive to buy, they are not expensive to rent, by international standards and in comparison to their value. And that goes for commercial property as well.

fourseasons Apr 19th 2016 10:41 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
Agree Bo-Jangles Auckland is nothing like London and anyone who has lived in/been to both cities knows this. It's not just about big houses, city bankers etc either. It's about normal people who have jumped through hoops to get to NZ and are not expecting their standard of living to fall.

The facts are that there is little choice in Auckland, the shopping is very limited, boring and overpriced. If you have loads of money you'll be ok - you can fly to Australia.

Food is not only more expensive but generally of much poorer quality. I don't want to drive to another suburb to find onions at 99c a kilo, I want decent quality and reasonable prices in one place. Cheese is a good example of the quality issue - poor quality unless you spend big on the boutique brands and even those aren't much cop compared to what is available in Europe.

I'm going to sound like a broken record here but the majority of people arriving from the UK come from good jobs, nice homes and are used to a decent lifestyle. They don't come from deprived areas. The standard of housing is a shock, renting may be cheaper than London but who cares when you're wiping mould off the walls and walking around with a blanket around you in the middle of the day.

Hazelnut Apr 19th 2016 11:22 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by Kotare (Post 11926347)
Smoke and mirrors somewhere. Just checked a kg of 'cheddar' in Tesco and Countdown both $11 at todays rates. Any imported cheese eg French camembert is silly prices though.


I guess this ties in a little with what FourSeasons says. We're relatively well off at the moment in the UK so tend to buy specialty cheese like good quality Edam, Red Leicester, mature proper cheddar (not plastic cheddar). One of our favourite places we stayed was a B&B where the householder had a jersey cow and made her own, specialty cheeses. We were in heaven with a smörgåsbord of crackers and cheese types but I doubt it's something we could afford in NZ in the same volume as we eat in the UK.

On the whole we did some sample shops when over and I've done some since. We couldn't eat the same in NZ as we do here but that's part of wanting a change. If we slightly alter what we eat and how we prepare it we reckon food bills could be equivalent with only a small drop in standard but we don't have children to feed and, apart from discussions over amount of meat, we aren't that fussy. That makes a big difference.

I've just done a quick comparison on numbeo for the city we live close to now (quite economically deprived in UK terms and with half the population of Auckland but treble that of where we're hopefully moving to) and the city where MrH has been offered a job. It reckons we need roughly 10% more income in NZ than in the UK.

Parnell Apr 22nd 2016 10:58 pm

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 

Originally Posted by garethwm (Post 11926588)
The thing about Auckland is that while houses are expensive to buy, they are not expensive to rent, by international standards and in comparison to their value. And that goes for commercial property as well.



Commercial property I have found more expensive than Melbourne & Sydney

Nurse_Abi Apr 23rd 2016 8:09 am

Re: COST OF SHOPPING IN AUCKLAND, NZ
 
Talking of cheese... when I was last there I managed to spend $140 on 5 small cheeses and a few chutneys! I nearly fainted but being Bristish was too embarrassed to ask them to put it back! This was a deli in Posonby though so I should have known better!


All times are GMT. The time now is 9:14 am.

Powered by vBulletin: ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.