RNZ reports that soaring bills are forcing Kiwi households to cut back on spending. The story feels familiar: everything costs more, budgets are squeezed, families are struggling. But the food price data tells a more specific story about what's actually happening in Auckland kitchens right now.

Auckland households spent $15,553 on groceries in 2024. That's $197 more than the year before. Still an increase, yes. But here's what matters: that's the smallest annual jump since 2021. (Source: Stats NZ, food-price-index-regional)

In 2023, Auckland grocery bills climbed $1,273 in a single year. In 2022, they rose $1,062. In 2024? Just $197. The slowdown is real, and it's dramatic.

This isn't about prices falling. They're not. An Auckland household is still spending $299 a week on food, compared to $220 five years ago. But the rate of increase has collapsed. After two years of brutal, wallet-crushing growth, food price inflation has practically stalled.

The numbers show exactly when the pressure peaked. Between 2021 and 2023, Auckland grocery bills surged by $2,335. That's $45 a week, every week, for two years straight. Families restructured their entire budgets around that climb. Cheaper cuts of meat. Store brands instead of name brands. Fewer takeaways, smaller trolleys, constant mental arithmetic at the checkout.

Then 2024 arrived and the spike flattened. The $197 increase works out to less than $4 a week. After years of feeling like groceries were spiralling out of control, they've finally stopped accelerating.

This explains part of what RNZ is seeing: households aren't spending because they're still recovering from 2022 and 2023. Those two years carved deep holes in family finances. Even though the food price pressure has eased, people are cautious. They've learned to live on less, and they're not rushing back to old habits.

The broader cost-of-living story remains brutal. Power bills are still climbing. Rents haven't dropped. Mortgage rates are only just starting to ease. But on the grocery front specifically, the worst appears to be over. The question now is whether households will feel that relief, or whether the previous two years did too much damage for a $4-a-week slowdown to matter.

For an Auckland family trying to rebuild their savings, $197 extra on groceries this year is still $197 they didn't have. But it's not $1,273. And right now, that difference is the closest thing to good news the data offers.