We talk to a retired diesel technician who, with his wife, has raised six children and now has eight grandchildren. But with just their superannuation to live on these days, this North Canterbury couple are quite glad to be shopping for two.
How old are you and whereabouts do you live? I’m 71 and we live in Kaiapoi.
How much money comes into your household each week? About $854. We’re both on the pension, which is about $1708 per fortnight (combined).
How much do you spend on groceries in a week? We normally shop by the fortnight because we get paid fortnightly. So I would think maybe $300, maybe $350 at the outside; so you're looking at $175 a week.
Do you own your own home? Yes, we do.
Are you still paying a mortgage on that? No.
Do you shop around or do you go to the same supermarket? I do shop around. On the Monday, and maybe the Tuesday, I'll set up my laptop and open up Pak’nSave, Woolworths and New World’s online shopping sites. I'll compare the prices of about half a dozen things, and see who's got specials on. But I guess 70% of our shopping is probably done at Pak’nSave.
Do you do any actual online shopping, or do you always go to the store? We always go to the store, because it's nice to get out. I mean, my wife's normally out most days, because she does a lot of voluntary work. I've got arthritis and tend to stay at home and do the housework and whatnot.
Who does the shopping? We both do, we go together.
What basic essentials do you always have in the house? We always have breakfast cereal, which is Weet-Bix and Just Right. Milk, coffee, tea, bread. We buy cheese for sandwiches, but only if it's on special. We would get chops, sausages, and mince. Often there’s three-packs of meat for $25. We’ve got a big freezer with probably two or more weeks’ of food in it, so it's good to keep it topped up.
What about eggs? We don't normally buy them, because my wife gets them from the church. It’s a bit of handy networking.
Do you grow any food? We do. My wife runs a fair-sized garden out the back. There’s not a lot in it now, but we would have our own corn, a few potatoes, cabbage, pumpkin, broccoli and onions, just sort of basic stuff, really. She comes from a gardening background – she’s from Papua New Guinea and if you wanted to stay alive, you needed to grow your own food. I get told off if I dig in the garden, so I keep out.
What luxuries do you allow yourselves? We'll buy chocolate if it's on special, only Whittaker's, we won't buy the Cadbury’s, and I might get a bag of lollies every now and then, if they're on special. Biscuits not so much, my wife doesn't eat biscuits or cake, so I’m by myself there. In the last six months we’ve bought less [treats], but that's to do with not really wanting to eat them anymore because they've got high sugar, which is not good for me.
Do you buy any alcohol? No. We don’t drink.
Do you ever get takeout coffees or go to cafés? If we're out at one of the malls or something, we might get a cup of chocolate and a muffin. That might be once a week, once a fortnight.
Do you go out for dinner? Only really on special occasions now, like a birthday.
What about takeaways? We actually had takeaways last night, which is a little bit rare – I’m well aware that my money doesn’t stretch as far as it used to. I usually get a hamburger or fish and chips, just the normal fare for a Kiwi. My wife might eat some of the chips and a piece of fish, but otherwise she’ll heat something up that’s left over in the fridge.
Have you felt the cost-of-living crisis over the last couple of years? Yeah, there are things we won't buy now. We won't buy milk from the supermarket anymore. On our last trip we were actually at Woolworths looking for milk, and it was $5.05 for the cheapest. Whereas we buy it from a dairy just down the road, and they have two for $7.90. It’s not a mainstream brand, but all the dairies have it.
Did you grow up in a household where money was watched closely? Yes, I did, because my parents had five children. There was always food in the house, because Mum did cooking and baking. Back in the old days, I'm going to reach out and say pretty much all the women did baking. And Dad had a big garden, and there were always veggies and apples.
Brown bread or white? Brown.
Marmite or vegemite? Vegemite
Chocolate or ice cream? Ice cream. I will normally get plain vanilla, maybe hokey pokey, probably not a lot of the others, because I don't really care for them.
Toilet paper: two, three or four ply? Three, but it has to be on special.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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