UK / NZ Cost of Living Comparison

How much?!!!!!

Yep, that's the reaction of a lot of us when it came to exploring the local supermarkets. If you're coming to New Zealand there's one thing you'll need to brace yourself for and that's the cost of living here for it's considerably more expensive than that of the UK. In many cases each item is only more expensive by a few pence, but over a shopping trolley that soon adds up!

If you eat a lot of fresh produce you can expect it to set you back far more than at home! A few cadets here even go so far as to say "Fruit and Veg will bankrupt you". Whilst that's true in some respects, it's also inaccurate in others as things like apples are cheaper. It all depends on where you look.

When considering the fast food industry and its low cost - perhaps with the exception of Dominos in the UK as we all know they're exorbitant - you'll find it's even cheaper here in New Zealand. So much so that it'll work out far far cheaper to buy yourself a McDonald's or Domino's pizza (yes! they're more reasonable here) than it will be to buy some chicken breasts. Don't fall for that trap thought because if there's one thing for certain your waistline certainly won't thank you for it, especially as fast food outlets here haven't really modified their menus much from that of the United States. 

Anyway, I digress. This post was created with the aim to provide a comparison on the price of living for some everyday items and some not so everyday items. I do this in a number of different categories to give you a good idea of when New Zealand is cheaper and when it's more expensive. When a multi-pack quantity is not available in the UK I simply do the per item price. If a product doesn't exist in the UK I will use the closest match. The UK prices are based on the Tesco Direct website and the NZ price is converted into pounds using the exchange rate at the time of my arrival here - 1.75 NZD to the GBP. Note, where supermarket goods are concerned the majority of prices listed here are taken from my receipt at the point of purchase and I tend to shop in Pak 'N Save as it tends to be considerably cheaper.

Please note that this list is by no means complete at the time of posting for I will pop things on here as I progress throughout the NZ phase in a similar fashion to that of my expenses tracker. I hope you find it helpful and if there's something you wanted me to check the cost of then please do put a comment at the bottom of this post and I'll try my best to find out for you, although I can't guarantee it.

Disclaimer:
As has been pointed out to me by one of my readers whom double checked my findings, some of these prices are now inaccurate. Due to the ever fluid markets prices will change all the time so this information will fail to be 100% accurate as time goes on but should still provide a guide. Please note that UK prices come from the Tesco Direct website in most cases when related to supermarket goods and NZ prices are based on our findings in the actual shops here, namely Pak 'N Save whom do not have an online facility. We have found Pak 'N Save to be the cheapest on most goods.

Last updated: 22nd March 2017.

Food / Kitchen

Phone users please note this table is scrollable left-to-right.

Toiletries / Bathroom / Cleaning

Phone users please note this table is scrollable left-to-right.

Petrol / Diesel

Correct at 20th March 2017. Using pump prices near Hamilton & UK prices sourced from the AA.

Phone users please note this table is scrollable left-to-right.

Miscellaneous

Phone users please note this table is scrollable left-to-right.