DAY 5: Can you get your five a day on $5 a day?

13/06/2017
Max Molyneux

Over five days Newshub reporter Scott Palmer visited five different food stores to see if creative consumerism could stretch $5 into three of meals a day.

DAY 5: The pokies

Many Kiwis enjoy placing the odd punt. All too often this leads to them losing going hungry - but not always.

Given this was the last day of the challenge I figured I might chance it and bet my money. I could double, even triple my cash - potentially acquiring enough to get into a buffet - or I'd go hungry for a day.

We started off with $5 and set off for the pokies.

The game was more difficult to understand than anticipated. I felt like a monkey, pushing random buttons.

Despite my best efforts - and the occasional win - the money continued to dwindle.

We decided to call it a day with $2 left. Enough for a packet of noodles, or a chocolate bar.

But then we got lucky. As we were walking back, I spotted a $5 note sitting in the gutter. Success! I spent it on a pizza to celebrate.

Breakfast: Nothing

Lunch: Nothing

Dinner: Pizza

Review

7/10 Ease: Commute was pretty simple - Pokies are everywhere. It was only a five minute walk, and open nearly constantly. That's a win - I think?

3/10 Variety: Do you like pokies? Because this place has them - and not much else.

5/10 Meal satisfaction: I was hungry all day, and got even hungrier at the prospect of losing my money. But the pizza at the end? Gold.

1/10 Viability: Gambling at the pokies is obviously not the best way to go to earn money - and we were lucky to walk away with $2 left. It was only luck that we found a $5 note floating around.

What factors are making it hard for Kiwis buying food?

Inflation

Inflation has surged this year. Inflation in the first quarter of 2017 is currently running at 2.2 percent, and one of its main causes is unusually high food prices.

Whether at the supermarket, the grocery store, or the takeaways, prices seem to be higher than the previous month.

Low wages

Advocates for the living wage have put the figure needed for 2017 at $20.20 an hour.

The living wage is about an extra $5 an hour compared to the official minimum wage of $15.75 set by the Government, and is defined as income necessary to provide workers and their families with the basic necessities of life.

With so many Kiwi workers earning below this, people can't afford to live on the wages they receive.

Rental prices

The wallet-burning cost of Auckland and Wellington has been highlighted once again as they jointly ranked the 16th most expensive cities to live in the world.

The Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey covered 150 cities, with Wellington climbing 26 places since last year's survey and Auckland 22 places.

Rental prices in Auckland are up 4 percent than where they were a year ago and almost 24 percent higher than in 2001.

Increasing food prices

Vegetable prices were up 10 percent last month - with a lettuce costing up to seven dollars.

Two months of record rainfall destroyed entire fields of crops, and now new crops of spinach and lettuce are being dumped on.

And the extra rain could hamper new crops, pushing prices up even higher.

China - our largest export market for sheep meat and second largest for beef - is expected to increase its demand to at least 2020.

Rabobank's report, China's Animal Protein Outlook to 2020, forecasts an 800,000 tonne growth in beef and 50,000 tonne growth in sheepmeat going to China.

This is expected to prevent meat prices from falling.

Population growth

New Zealand is growing and fast. With population growth at 2.1 percent over 2016, we've reached our fastest rate of growth since the mid-1970s.

Annual net migration rose to 71,305 in the 12 months ended January 31 2017, eclipsing the record 70,600 set in calendar 2016, Statistics New Zealand said.

People arriving as permanent and long-term migrants outnumbered those departing by 128,290 to 56,985 in the latest 12 months - also an all-time high.

Newshub.