It is claimed that between 230,000 and 270,000 New Zealanders live in poverty. (1) (2) (3)

These organisations state that poverty is living on less than 60% of the median income. This is patently absurd, as it means that regardless how high incomes are, the bottom 40% of income earners will be living in poverty. I have said this previously, but as I always prefer facts to opinions, I am conducting a full investigation into what poverty in New Zealand really means, how it happens, and what should be done about it - if anything.

To start off, I contacted the National Media Team at the Ministry of Social Development, the umbrella department of WINZ.

Using my own family as a practical example, I asked for the benefit income for a family of two adults and three children and we will attempt to live on this amount in an effort to match the worst-case scenario for a Kiwi family.

I have assumed that we would live in a 3 bedroom house - 2 boys in one room - in Pakuranga, a decile 4 area. Using TradeMe, the average rental for a 3 brm house is $450 per week (including water rates), so I have used that as the basis for benefit calculations. Note that I have chosen an area that anyone should be happy to live in; it isn't a decile one, deprived area, so kids will mingle with a mixture of socio-economic groups and backgrounds.

Total benefit has been advised as follows:

Unemployment benefit 2 adults:  $341-60 (net)
Tax credits for three children:      $230-86
Accommodation allowance:        $165-00

Total benefit income calculation: $737-46 per week.

Once the rent is deducted, it leaves $287-46 each week to feed, clothe and generally keep a family of five alive and healthy.

That $287-46 is a scary figure at first, because we're used to spending so much more than that and I found it difficult to accept that it was a realistic figure. However, when looked at rationally, it becomes a lot clearer - after all, one wouldn't expect to be eating eye fillet steak at $50/kg or smoked salmon at $60/kg while on a benefit.

Fixed expenses from the $287-46 per week are:

Power: $41-54 per week (the average of our 12-month power bill at $180 per month)
Phone: $11-54 per week (home phone + dial-up internet, for children's homework)*
Mobile phone $4-62 per week (1 x $20 top-up monthly)
School fees + uniform costs: $8-46 per week (does not include "donation")
Incidentals are allowed at $10 per week to account for stationery, shoes, clothes, etc. (these will be noted when spent)

*note both land & mobile phones included. Realistically, the landline could go and kids do their homework at school in the library, which is open until 4 pm for exactly that purpose.

That leaves an amount of $211-30 each week for food & other groceries & any other expenses.

Details of meals we're eating, and how to make them are right here.

Week one, 18 February:

We completed our first supermarket shopping on 18 February, spending $162-94. Receipt is here. Note that we shop at New World, which is around 6% dearer than Pak'n Save (4), so it's reasonable to assume that the $162 could have been reduced to $154, but we'll worry about that if we need to. It has long been my contention that not only are benefits set at liveable amounts, they are set at a rate where one does not even have to try especially hard to live within the income offerred by them. Accordingly, I don't intend to try very hard unless we have to.

As to the shopping itself, if you look at the receipt, there are savings available on what was purchased, but which weren’t taken advantage of for either expedience or unavailability when we shopped.

Included in savings are:

Apples:  were going at $1-99/kg at Fruit World, but we didn’t have time to stop there. Saving $3-00
Nappies:  although on special, Pam’s were still $2/pkt cheaper. Saving $4-00

That amount has been deducted from the shopping total to ensure it is accurate as I'm sure beneficiaries don't have the same time constraints we do.

I bought the chocolate and expensive sausages ($17/kg) to balance up for meat I bought on special last week. I bought several 800gm packets of $9/kg schnitzel, so the extra cost today equals out that we didn't buy that meat this week.

A normal week would usually include 2 x 1kg Weetbix @ $6-00 for an extra $12-00, so I have added that amount back in. Again, these were bought in bulk last week when on special

So, the adjusted total is  $167-94 so far.

We will need to buy another 5 litres of blue milk ($6-50) and 3 litres of yellow ($7-15) to last the week. Goes with the 2 kg of Weetbix, mostly! Also another 3 loaves of bread, totalling $7-10.

That all should give us a weekly food bill of $200-69 for an entire week. We will see how that goes, but note that the grocery bill contains peanut butter, jam, Bovril, nappies & paper towels this week that are only occasional purchases. Nappies will last a fortnight, while jam, Bovril, paper towels and peanut butter are monthly purchases, so next week that amount will most likely cover tampons, toilet paper and a few other monthly/fortnightly purchases.

Also note that the shopping includes two treats for the children; bagels and yoghurt, which aren't necessary at all, but it seemed that we could sneak those little extras in without too much concern. Plus, the two packets of frozen sausage rolls, which will not be needed during the week. That little lot adds up to $20-86 that need not have been spent.

I am adding in a $6 bus fare to go and buy the groceries. Milk can be bought on a walk, but the supermarket is too far to be walked carrying bags.

Total expenses therefore $206-23

Deducting the $206-23 from the $222-84 leaves us $16-61 for the week.

I'm sure there will be other things that we need to spend money on, but I'm reasonably confident it will work as I had expected it to.

To prove that these are all the groceries required, I am giving a list of day-by-day meal details here.

First additional expense has arrived: ICAS test at school at $8-50.

Leaving $8-11, with six days of the week to go.

No further expenses have come through, with the weekend costing only shoe leather; walking to the park and playing in the garden - pretty simple stuff. There's nowhere in Auckland not close to at least a couple of nice parks, and we are walking distance from Barry Curtis Park, so it's the obvious place to go. The kids also have the school playgrounds and an excellent adventure playground opposite the school.

Week Two, 25 February:

We shopped on Monday this week, which is only six days since the previous shop, but we still have food left in the form of rice meals, sausage rolls, apples and sausages, along with a loaf and a half of bread, and enough milk to last until Tuesday afternoon: at least another couple of days worth of food.

I am adding the $8-11 back in, giving a total for this week of $219-41.

Here is the shopping list. Note that some work items - and only work items - have been deducted from the bill as these obviously wouldn't apply to a beneficiary and I am still working. (very hard as it happens right now!)

Today's total of $184-75 (receipt here) needs to have another $12 for Weetbix and $6 bus fare added, giving a week total of $202-75.

That leaves a balance of only $16-26, but with extra bread & milk purchased at the supermarket today, we are not much different from last week's total overall, as we won't need any more supplies at all until next week.

Note that a number of expensive, branded (and absolutely non-essential) items were included in the shopping, namely, Carefree liners, Huggies pull ups, Baby Lips lipstick, a can of premium salmon and a 100-pack Earl Grey tea to name a few.

Those are all luxury items with perfectly adequate budget or Pam's brands that could be bought as much cheaper alternatives, but I am reiterating the point that one can still buy top brands on a benefit - if that's the way you want to live. If we really were on a benefit, we would be spending less by using plain brands and putting the difference into a Christmas Club or savings account.

It's now Thursday and no unforeseen expenses are arriving, we have plenty of milk & bread left, along with still several dinners.

It is definitely firming in my mind that the poverty we hear about is not being presented truthfully.

The stark truth is that poverty is being created by those claiming to be poor. We are feeding our family healthy, and largely fat-free - food, including fresh fruit and vegetables and do not appear likely to run out of money.

I intend to keep this going for a while yet, just to ram the point home - or eat my words, if it goes that way!

We're at $16-26 and I'm feeling good! There are no foreseeable expenses, and it's pretty unlikely we'll have an unexpected ones.

By the time we do supermarket shopping, we will still have at least two days' meals left, with an unopened pack of sausage rolls and several packets & cans.

Week three, 4th March:

We're going to stick with Mondays to shop as it's a convenient day for us.

Having nothing extra to spend last week, we start this week with the usual $211-30, plus the credit balance of $16-26 to add on. Total: $227-56.

Groceries this week came to $199-88. Receipt here. Note that I have deducted a couple of work expenses and also a packet of socks. The socks come out of the clothing budget, which has $30 in it as of this week, so there is still $20 left.

I am again adding the $18 for Weetbix and bus fare to the $199-88, giving a total spend of $217-88, which sounds like it's starting to get pretty tight, but there are some reasons why it was worth overspending. First, we bought two large packets of rump steak at $10-99/kg, and both of those will do two dinners, so we are well over needs there, plus we bought several things which were on special but not needed right now. Mainland cheese @ $9-99 and Huggies pull-ups at $11-99 are the big two, neither of which were on the shopping list. You can see we also doubled up on some purchases, like white sugar, that will not be used this week.

We are now also well over-stocked with fruit as there was still several days supply in the fridge.

Anyway, we spent what we spent, and now have $9-72 left to buy a couple of bottles of milk later in the week.

I expect to have no cash left by the end of the week, but with the large amount of meat and food bought, we will have plenty left over by next Monday and I expect next week's shopping to be much smaller, with a surplus of cash available.

The two milks cost $9-10, leaving $0-62. A close shave, but no other expenses arrived.

Week 4, 11 March:

Shopping receipt is here.

Doing the usual maths has us deducting the work expenses, leaving a bill of $182-40. Adding on our $18 for Weetbix & bus fare gives a total for the week of $200-40. From the income of $211-30, that leaves $10-90 for the week, but we have plenty of milk and bread - more bread than we'll use, in fact.

Also, note that because we knew the bill wouldn't be too large, we bought $11-00 worth of rare treats. Bluebird chips, Meal Mates and H&P Cream crackers wouldn't normally make our shopping very often as we don't give the kids salty, fatty snacks, but every once in a while is ok, so they got lucky this week. Note that we also bought quite a lot of extra fruit, despite still having apples, just to give everyone a change. There will be plenty of fruit left next week by the look of our fridge.

Along with the $10-90 surplus, we now have $30 in the clothes/unexpected expenses bin, so things are looking very fair indeed.

Without really trying.

I'm stopping there as I see no reason to keep proving that which has already been proven.
 

Please feel free to give your feedback by email to alan@charman.co.nz .

 

 

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