jmh

Thought this might be helpful to those on a budget:

5 THINGS TO BUY AT THE SUPERMARKET

1. Canned foods – even buying wholesale it's hard to buy better than a supermarket special unless you are ordering shipping-container loads.

2. Popular brand cosmetics – mascara, blusher and other basic cosmetics benefit from the buying power of the big food chains – look out for special offers.

3. Over-the-counter medicines are cheaper from the supermarket than a pharmacy. Paracetamol and other pain relievers are also available in "house brands" often with exactly the same formulations.

4. Wine – bigger buying power equals smaller prices.

5. Gourmet goodies and imported confectionary – fancy a taste of home or an imported treat? Confit duck, Medjool dates, Lyle's golden syrup, Rooibos tea, Stroop waffles or walnut whips. Once these treats were only available overseas or in a boutique food store. Now you are likely to find them in Pak'nSave.

7 THINGS TO AVOID BUYING AT THE SUPERMARKET

1. Fresh produce is invariably cheaper in a produce specialist shop. The supermarket will always have a bargain or two, but across the board you'll pay more for your produce.

2. Meat, like produce, is frequently better value from a butcher. Keep your eye out for specials from the big boys but keep your options open.

3. Batteries – cheap to buy online or check out the $2 shops.

4. Plasticware, and foil baking tins – $2 shops stock a wide range of these items at significantly cheaper prices than the supermarkets.

5. Cake decorating products. Importers such as Look Sharp Stores have stormed the market and stock a wide range of branded specialist cake decorating equipment and tools that are readily available and affordable.

6. Party supplies – from paper cups to coloured candles you are no longer limited to what the supermarket has to offer. Look Sharp Store and the $2.00 shops have loads of on-trend accessories to ensure your "Frozen" party is styled to Pinterest perfection.

7. Nappies can be bought direct, online, delivered – if only there was a supplier who would deliver the nappy directly onto the baby in the middle of the night.

5 things to buy and 7 things to avoid at the supermarket | Stuff.co.nz

Bo-Jangles

The only Butchers I know that is cheaper than the supermarket is The Mad Butcher and that place is enough to make the most committed of carnivores turn to a life of vegetarianism.

Justcol

Mad butcher meat is borderline pet food quality.

j19fmm

Our local butcher is cheaper and better quality than the supermarket. Nothing is too much trouble, local family, awesome customer service, free bones for the dog and a loyalty card too! Couldn't be better.

Parnell

I wouldn't feed it to my dog


Always smells like rotten meat in their stores. Much like supermarkets fish counters are always selling old fish as fresh fish?

Lisa Maree

Seriously is the Mad Butcher really bad? I'm ok with supermarket quality here in the UK, not overly fussy, mid range is fine... as a starting point would I be better to shop to the meat specials in the supermarket rather than use the mad butcher?

jmh

I don't think the Mad Butcher is worse than supermarkets, but only because the quality in supermarkets is pretty bad. My own butcher costs a little more but the quality is amazing. Won't touch supermarket meat now.

Would say though, that PaknSave often have really cheap specials in meat, fish and veg which the others don't. I noticed that they had apples for $1 kg and cheap mandarins. I'm guessing there's a glut in the market. Neither New World or Countdown had any cheap fruit so I don't think they pass on the savings. You can get good deals at independent greengrocers.

j19fmm

Countdown often have cheap fruit up here, $1 a kg. Usually called an Orchard run,it's the fruit with a blemish on,still tastes the same.

jmh

Good to know - I suspect it depends how up to speed the store manager/buyer is.

garethwm

Lisa Maree, there are other butchers besides them. The Mad Butcher is a chain aimed at the cheap end of the market.

barnsleymat

$5 for a cucumber now at Countdown, it's daylight robbery.

For that you could get fish and chips twice or a big pizza from Pizza Hut, there's a reason NZ is so high up the obesity charts, NZ is certainly punching above it's weight when it comes to weight.

Me and the wife have pretty good jobs, she's a social worker and I'm a production manager and we can't afford to eat salad but we could easily eat takeaways every night of the week. Something ain't right.

Pom_Chch

Or why not buy winter veggies? There's heaps to choose from - yams, carrots, parsnips, green beans, spinach, asparagus, peas, cauli, broccoli, onions, potatoes, kumara all in season and good prices this time of year. Much healthier than processed junk. You can still eat a healthy diet despite salad being expensive

barnsleymat

We do eat healthily, we're both vegetarian so we eat loads of fresh produce but it's so bloody expensive, even the in season things. Makes my blood boil that it's so expensive but eating junk is so cheap. I buy from a Fruit and Veg shop but the savings are very minimal compared to Countdown.

How low income families survive in NZ is beyond me, I just can't think how they manage.

garethwm

Im not surprised those cucumbers are $5 Matt. Theyre over a foot long and almost a meal on their own. I think I could make a decent salad for $5 from Countdown produce.

barnsleymat

Are you living in a fantasy world?

$5 is an absolute rip off, I bet I could get one for 30p on Barnsley Market.