If you’ve ever stared at your grocery total wondering how you only grabbed five things and still spent half your paycheck - SAME.
With the adult minimum wage in Aotearoa currently starting-out at $18.80 and sitting at $23.50 an hour for adults, it’s mind boggling how quickly you can burn through that with just a few of the basic pantry staples.
We all know butter prices are the sore point of the moment, but when you’re putting it up against the hourly rate, many Kiwis are choosing to stop buying certain products altogether.
One Kiwi found what might just be one of the most expensive butters on the shelf right now, and shared it on Reddit.
“What 75% of the [adult] minimum hourly wage buys in NZ,” they wrote alongside an image of Mainland semi-soft butter.
It’s priced at a whopping $18.29 for just 500g of what we can now consider spreadable gold.
Now, of course, you could argue there are a range of budget-friendly options out there, but that’s not the point here.
It’s the mere fact that a commonly sought-after brand has the product selling at that price point in the first place.
And it’s not limited to butter either. There’s plenty of other common shopping list items on shelves for eye-watering prices.
What one hour of NZ’s minimum wage can buy you at the supermarket:
Pic’s peanut butter
A 1kg jar of Pic's Really Good Crunchy Peanut Butter will set you back around $19.09 from New World. Pair it with even the cheapest of loaves of white bread and you’re pretty much looking at an hour's worth of your hard-earned cash.
Before you ask, ‘Who the heck needs 1kg’ of peanut butter?’ - the bulk buy STILL comes in cheaper at $1.91 per 100g compared to a smaller 380g jar at $1.97 per 100g.
Seedless green grapes
Sitting at around $16.99 per kg from New World, and boom - you’ve already spent about 71% of that adult hourly wage, and a whopping 90% of the starting-out minimum, before even considering your four other options to pack in your five-a-day intake.
Prime beef mince
Say you’re wanting to make a meal for dinner, maybe a bit of spaghetti bol. The Woolworths NZ Beef Mince Prime Grass Fed 13% Fat will already be setting you back $19.50.
Forget the past, sauce and any veg you might want to mix in. At that point, you might actually be better off ordering the dish from a restaurant…
Extra virgin olive oil
One of the better bottles will run you upwards of $20. Even Woolworths’ home brand 1L bottle will set you back $18.70.
Don't even think about grabbing a 1L bottle of Olivani, or you’ll be blowing the budget by about $10, as it sits at $33.15 - it’s almost so laughable, I want to cry.
It’s not like we’re aiming to splurge on the luxury items. But when you’re forking out an entire hour’s pay - or very close to it - just for essentials, it’s no wonder people are having to seriously hunt for specials.
