RNZ reports that soaring bills have put household spending on ice. But here's what the freeze really looks like in numbers: Auckland households are now spending $15,553 a year on groceries. That's $299 every single week, before you've paid rent, power, petrol, or anything else.

Five years ago, in 2020, that same household spent $12,647 on food. The gap between then and now? $2,906. That's an entire month's rent disappearing into the supermarket trolley. (Source: Stats NZ, food-price-index-regional)

This isn't a sudden spike. It's a relentless climb. Every year since 2020, Auckland's annual grocery bill has jumped by hundreds of dollars: $374 in 2021, then $1,062 in 2022, another $1,273 in 2023, and $197 more in 2024. The trajectory doesn't bend downward. It just keeps going up.

Break that weekly $299 down further. That's roughly $43 a day for a household to eat. For a family of four, that's about $10.75 per person, per day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everything in between. No dining out. No takeaways. Just the basics from the supermarket.

Now consider what that means for discretionary spending. If your grocery bill climbed $2,906 in five years, that's money that used to go somewhere else. Maybe it was savings. Maybe it was the kids' sports fees, or a weekend away, or finally replacing the broken washing machine. Now it's milk, bread, and mince.

This is why households are freezing spending. Not because they've suddenly become cautious. Because there's nothing left to spend. The groceries ate it all.

And Auckland isn't unique here; it's just the starkest example. The food price index has climbed across every region. But Auckland's absolute numbers tell the story most clearly: 15,553 reasons why Kiwi families feel like they're treading water financially, even when wages technically go up.

The Reserve Bank can talk about inflation cooling. Economists can point to moderated price increases. But none of that changes the lived reality: a typical Auckland household is spending nearly $16,000 a year just to keep food on the table. That's not luxury spending. That's survival spending. And it's eating everything else alive.