{"id":111456,"date":"2025-09-01T19:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/111456\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T19:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:24:14","slug":"why-your-grocery-bill-still-feels-out-of-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/111456\/","title":{"rendered":"Why your grocery bill still feels out of control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prices are officially stabilising, but you probably won’t be noticing that at the supermarket. Frances Cook makes some suggestions of other ways to cut costs.<\/p>\n

Inflation is technically in the \u201cunder control\u201d range, yet many New Zealanders are still feeling a squeeze in core areas. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening? It\u2019s a trick of the numbers that explains why you\u2019re not imagining things. <\/p>\n

Many of the core categories you can\u2019t avoid paying for are still soaring in price. <\/p>\n

Insurance, rates, food staples like butter and mince, are all going up. <\/p>\n

But \u201cdiscretionary spending\u201d categories are far calmer, bringing the average number down. <\/p>\n

In a live webinar edition of the Making Cents podcast, economist Brad Olsen said headline inflation had eased to 2.7% over the past year. <\/p>\n

It was up slightly from the 2.2% earlier in the year, but still within the Reserve Bank\u2019s 1-3% target band.<\/p>\n

Under pressure are the daily essentials. Food prices rose 5% in the year to July, while energy prices recorded double-digit increases. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the cost of building a new house actually fell slightly, but that doesn\u2019t help the average household.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the frequent stuff. It\u2019s the necessities a lot more. And sometimes it\u2019s almost your necessary luxuries. Your chocolate and coffee that are increasing at a much more brutal price increase than otherwise,\u201d Olsen said.<\/p>\n

\"Essential<\/p>\n

Essential or luxury? Either way, they’re getting more expensive. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why you\u2019re feeling the pinch so badly. <\/p>\n

Olsen pointed out that 36% of the items tracked by Stats NZ actually fell in price in the June quarter, compared to a year ago. <\/p>\n

But those were items like furniture or clothing, which you can put off buying. <\/p>\n

The items that are non-negotiable, like dairy, meat, power, insurance are the ones marching upwards.<\/p>\n

Cooking under pressure<\/p>\n

Chef Alice Taylor specialises in affordable cooking, but says even she has found creating recipes a challenge in the current environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to make a recipe literally last week and I was like I can\u2019t do this, this is too expensive, this is crazy,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Mince, once a budget staple, is now often too costly to feature. Butter, eggs, cream, and chocolate are all far pricier than they were just a few years ago.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s advice is to shop with flexibility. Rather than sticking rigidly to recipes, she encourages people to adapt based on what\u2019s affordable in a given week. <\/p>\n

Her go-to substitutions include grated apple or flax seeds for eggs, oil for butter, coconut milk instead of cream, and lentils to bulk out mince.<\/p>\n

She also recommends creating what she calls a \u201cstaple pantry\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"Financial<\/p>\n

Financial journalist Frances Cook (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n

Keep a few carbs like bread, pasta, and rice, one or two proteins, and a small selection of spices. <\/p>\n

That core can then be mixed and matched with whatever is cheapest in store that week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re putting food on the table, be proud of what you\u2019re making. It doesn\u2019t have to be perfect,” she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re having leftovers for breakfast? I have leftovers for breakfast all the time and I love it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe put so much pressure on ourselves. I don\u2019t want people to put even more pressure on themselves when it comes to cooking food, especially in this economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a cash boost for regional airlines, sellers re-enter the housing market, and Donald Trump\u2019s social media fury. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Mortgages and the bigger bills<\/p>\n

While food dominates headlines, housing costs are just as tough. EnableMe financial adviser Kirsty Healey said her clients were struggling with both rent and mortgages.<\/p>\n

For those with a mortgage, now was a prime time to start negotiating, and get the best deal possible to help your budget. <\/p>\n

Healey says that negotiating the interest rate is good, but mortgage negotiations don\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor most people actually having a really good optimised mortgage structure in place, that is personal to their situation, is going to get people ahead super fast.\u201d <\/p>\n

While an interest rate negotiation could save thousands, a restructure could save hundreds of thousands over the life of the loan, she said.<\/p>\n

Healey said making big-ticket bills the priority, and looking for ways to renegotiate or switch to cheaper providers, was one way to cut down core costs. <\/p>\n

\"You<\/p>\n

You could save serious money over the course of a mortgage if you arrange it well. (Khafizh Amrullah)<\/p>\n

Then tracking expenses to look for other budget leaks could be surprisingly effective. <\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s a money diary, or an app like YNAB, Healey said her clients typically found 15% of their budget was being lost to meaningless spending that they didn\u2019t realise was happening, and got little reward from.<\/p>\n

Olsen also recommended simplicity, even when trying to overhaul spending to survive the cost of living crunch. <\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t try too many things at once,” he says. \u201cIf you try and change everything in your life to make everything so much more financially better, you\u2019re probably going to mess up on all of them and retrench. You\u2019re going to go back to what you did before. <\/p>\n

\u201cChoose something, give it a good crack. Once that works, once it\u2019s better, move to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The information in this article is general in nature and should not be read as personal financial advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prices are officially stabilising, but you probably won’t be noticing that at the supermarket. Frances Cook makes some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[38747,64,63,99,2610,164],"class_list":["post-111456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-1news-recommends","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}