For 25-year-old Gracie Crook, the weekly grocery shop is a little outing for herself and her two-year-old daughter Tayla. Living in Henderson, West Auckland, Gracie juggles co-parenting and part-time business studies with her job as a housekeeper at a childcare centre.
Gracie Crook was interviewed by Lauren Marrion.
Grocery prices are definitely high. They reflect the economy and everything we’ve gone through, but mince especially has gone up so much. Still, by planning meals and doing price comparisons, I feel like I get a full trolley for the money I spend.
I try to keep the spend under $150, but with nappies and cleaning products, it often gets up to $200, which is my budget cap. Groceries take around 10% of my income, with rent taking about 60%.
Meal planning is how I make sure groceries stretch across the week. I’ll write out what we’re having from Monday to Saturday in my notes app. I plan meals that share ingredients, like if I’m buying iceberg lettuce, then tacos and burgers will both be on the menu so the whole lettuce gets used. Otherwise it just goes to waste.
I don’t meal prep in the strict sense, but I portion meat to make it last. For example, I’ll buy 1.5kg of mince, split it into three separate portions and freeze them. Same with chicken breasts – I’ll bag each one individually so every breast becomes its own meal. I’ll also freeze leftover rice, so it can be microwaved for lunch later in the week.
For quick dinners, sausages are my go-to. Sausages and bread, or sausages and mash is always something easy from the freezer. I prefer certain brands, but I’m not afraid to try cheaper alternatives. If the alternative is not good, I simply won’t buy them again. For example, I’ve gone back to Hellers sausages instead of the Pams ones.
For my toddler Tayla, who’s two and a half, we eat a lot of pastas, rice, fruit and cereal. She’s at daycare fulltime, so her weekday meals are covered, but on weekends we make pikelets together. It’s fun as an activity as well as being something easy to eat.
I mainly shop at Pak'nSave in Henderson. It’s actually quite big, with underground parking and car parks for mums right at the front, which makes it really accessible. I also find it quiet if you go at the right time.
The main reason I shop there is pricing. I find everything’s cheaper, and I like the Pams products. New World sells Pams as well, but it’s not as close or convenient. I live really close to this Pak‘nSave, so it just makes sense.
I usually do one big shop each week, then a couple of smaller top-ups. A proper shop takes me at least an hour. I don’t like to be rushed because that’s when I either grab things I don’t need or forget something important, which is usually the only reason I went there in the first place.
I’ve tried online shopping once, but I was given peppercorns instead of ground pepper, which completely put me off online shopping. I also just enjoy being in the supermarket. When I was on maternity leave, it was our big outing for the week.
Staples for my toddler include rice cakes with jam, yoghurt pouches, crackers, and of course nappies and wipes.Those are always in the trolley. At the supermarket, I let her pick fruit, and she always goes for green kiwifruit, probably because that’s what she gets at daycare and sees in picture books.
I feel confident when I get to the checkout, because I calculate as I go. Sometimes I come in $20 under, which means I can grab a couple more staples or extra meat for the freezer. Filling the trolley and still being on budget feels good.
Balancing healthy eating with a budget is tough. Sometimes it just means eating less. There are days where lunch is a chippie sandwich – not the healthiest, but it fills the gap without blowing the budget. Before I had my daughter, I loved steak with mushroom sauce, but now that’s rare. I don’t want to compromise on quality, so I’d rather go without than buy a cheaper cut I don’t enjoy.
If I had an extra $50 a week, I’d buy higher-end products. Prime mince, fresh milk instead of longlife, or better washing powder. I used to buy Persil, then dropped to Surf, and now I buy even cheaper brands. With more room in the budget, I’d go back to quality products and maybe nicer shampoo and conditioner too.
My biggest tip for saving is to plan meals, check what’s already in the cupboards, and use the supermarket website to check prices. That way you can build your list, get a total before you shop, and avoid surprises at the checkout. If there’s anything left in the budget, you can put it toward the freezer or staples for the week ahead.
How much did Gracie Crook spend? Super honest Gracie submitted all her receipts for the week, which included about $50 for two meals out at McDonalds and Pizza Hutt, bringing her total to about $190. But this is a grocery feature, so we subtracted the takeout meals and added only the grocery shops which came to: $140.06
If you would like to partake in our Receipt Reveal series, please email receiptreveal@tvnz.co.nz and tell us where in New Zealand you live and how many live in your household.
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