In 2020, the average Canterbury household spent $12,548 on groceries. By 2024, that figure hit $15,253 — a jump of $2,705, or 21.6%.

On the surface, that looks like a lot more food on the table. It's not. It's inflation eating your budget.

Here's what actually happened: between 2020 and 2024, New Zealand experienced approximately 20-25% inflation. (Source: Stats NZ, food-price-index-regional) That means the $15,253 Canterbury families spent last year bought them roughly the same amount of food they got for $12,548 four years earlier. All that extra money? It vanished into higher prices.

The trajectory tells the story of the cost-of-living crisis in numbers. In 2020, as COVID hit, Canterbury grocery spending sat at $12,548. By 2021, it had crept up to $12,769 — a modest 1.8% rise as supply chains started to wobble. Then 2022 arrived with $13,699, a 7.3% jump as inflation took hold. The following year saw $15,016, another 9.6% leap. And 2024? $15,253.

That's four consecutive years of rising grocery bills, each year hitting harder than the last. But here's the kicker: in real terms — accounting for what that money can actually buy — Canterbury households are treading water at best. They're spending dramatically more to maintain the same standard of living they had before the pandemic.

For a family earning the same salary they did in 2020, this is the squeeze everyone's talking about. Your income might look the same on paper, but $2,700 more of it is now disappearing into the weekly shop just to keep your fridge as full as it was four years ago.

The data doesn't capture the choices people make in response: the shift from brand names to house brands, meat becoming a once-a-week treat instead of daily protein, the rise of frozen vegetables over fresh. It just shows the bottom line — and that bottom line has climbed 21.6% while buying power stayed flat.

This is what economists mean when they talk about "real versus nominal" figures. The nominal number — the actual dollars — went up. But the real number — what those dollars can do for you — barely budged. You're not getting richer. You're just paying more to stay in the same place.