In the latest in our Supermarket Confidential series, an immigrant to New Zealand, who lives in a small Southland town with her husband and 12-year-old son, takes an old-school approach to saving on food, while wishing prices were as low as they are in the cities.
How much money, on a typical week, would come into the house each week? I would say about $1700. My hours (I work in a plant nursery) are a bit flexible. My husband is a tradesman.
And how much would you spend on groceries in a week? It can go anywhere from $120 to $180.
What are the essentials that you always have in your pantry/fridge? Probably more dry goods like flour, sugar, coffee, cereal, oil, toilet paper, paper towels. Depending on the season, sometimes fruit. Not many veggies because I grow my own. And not a lot of meat because we normally get home-kill or we get given a sheep or something and we take it to the butcher.
That's a good saving... Yeah but you can’t really choose (the type of meat). I’ve been eating lamb for I don’t know how long now. And it’s like an old sheep...
Right, like mutton. Yeah.
What’s the biggest luxury you allow yourselves? We do have ice cream. I buy two-litre containers. Another luxury will be if I can buy tasty cheese.
Do you sometimes get takeaways for dinner? No, almost never.
Do you go out for dinner? No.
Do you go to cafés for coffees, lunches or breakfasts? No.
What type of vegetables do you grow? More green ones: lettuce, mesclun, spinach, cabbage. Tomatoes didn't work very well this season.
Are you someone who cooks a lot from scratch? Yes quite a bit. Quite plain and basic things. I make my own pasta. I grew up with home-cooking. I don’t buy biscuits and cakes at the supermarket, I bake them and I use sugar. I’m not, like, healthy about that. But we don’t buy lollies often. We don’t buy soft drinks either – those things are not on my list.
So it sounds like you do eat quite healthily? Old fashioned, I'd say. I follow a book of baking. So if it says a cup of sugar, I just put a cup of sugar.
Do you buy butter? The cheaper brand. I bake with margarine and butter, or with oil. I don't use just butter (alone) because it's too expensive.
Do you plan meals in advance? No, we used to, but for probably the last year I got busy at work. So now we kind of come home and we just try to do different things throughout the week.
Does your husband ever do the shopping? No, he’d be terrible. A lot of chips and lollies. He’d be bad.
Do you shop around at different stores? No, we only have one here. That’s the problem, we're sort of stuck. Everything is more expensive here than if you go to a city like Invercargill. We don’t have PAK’Nsave here, just Fresh Choice.
What do you put in your son's school lunches? He normally just brings a sandwich with ham and homemade baking and a piece of fruit, which, at the moment comes from our trees.
What does he eat after school? Usually cereal – Weet-Bix.
Did you grow up in a house with people watching their pennies, as far as grocery shopping went? For a bit, yeah. For a few years, I think so. And then, no. But we still carried on eating the same things (even though) there was more money. I can't remember my mom buying lollies or chocolate. We went to the market to get fresh veggies.
Have you noticed the cost-of-living crisis? Yes, over the past two years. Especially with milk, eggs and butter.
This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.
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