'All you can do these days is exist': Living every day on your last cent
Friday, 18 March 2022
He sits at a worn table in the small brick home he rents surrounded by the austere possessions that amount to a life.
At 93, Keith Simmonds has earned the right to enjoy his retirement, but instead he’s counting his pennies, and he’s not alone.
The cost of living has ballooned during the Covid19 pandemic with groceries, petrol, rent and mortgage payments all rising sharply.
Superannuation has not kept up, leaving Simmonds nothing in the kitty from week to week for any out of the ordinary bills.
**READ MORE:
* Cost of living: 'Hideous' rising food costs hit shoppers in the pocket
* Pensioners turn to plant-based diets as food prices soar
* ’Pay it forward’ group helps Christchurch parents with school and household expenses
**
There’s no fat in the budget - meat is a luxury he can’t afford. Often he skips lunch, and sometimes he sits in the cold during winter to keep the power bill down.
It’s a life of scrimping and trying to survive as an elderly man on a pension.
“All you can do these days is exist.”
Data from Stats NZ shows just how much of an impact the increasing cost of living is having on people like Simmonds.
In 2019 the Household Economic Survey found a couple with two dependent children living in Auckland spent an average of $395 a week on food and groceries.
However, when adjusted for inflation, the same trolley load would cost $427 this week. But with Stats NZ reporting a 6.8 per cent increase in annual food costs last month, the sharpest rise in more than a decade, the actual cost could be higher still.
Food, power and rent nearly account for all of Simmonds weekly pension of $403.33. He rents his home from Kainga Ora and recently had the rent increased from $80 to $100.
His pension is reduced because his son, who is studying towards a Masters at University of Canterbury is living with him.
Simmond's son, Peter, is of limited financial means, but contributes towards expenses, housekeeping and care for his father.
In winter, using the heat pump to keep himself warm means Simmonds power bill can be as high as $190 and food can cost him up to $100 a week.
By the time he meets his basic needs, there’s nothing left and Simmonds has become resigned to the fact he may never see his sister in the North Island again, simply because he cannot afford to travel to see her.
A tight budget has also meant he hasn’t seen his Auckland-based daughter and grandchildren in four years.
“It’s bloody awful at times. I’m getting nowhere.”
A Labour supporter since 1949, Simmonds is no longer sure if the party represents the working classes and thinks they are out of touch. He’s considering voting for another party next year, and he wants whoever is in Government to increase the pension by $100 to reflect inflation and the true cost of living.
Feeding the family
Life in the Vincent household is just as tough, with the solo parent, who did not want her first name used,considering a third job to cope with rising costs.
Vincent already works fulltime in Christchurch as well as cleaning a small business seven days a week, but she’s just had some hours reduced due to Covid-19.
Work and Income suggested she take on a third job and even though she feels like a zombie she says she’s “sadly considering it”.
With two teenagers, Vincent has struggled to afford groceries and has used Afterpay, a buy-now pay later app, to buy meat from a butcher, so she could feed her family.
“I think everyone is fed up.”
New Brighton mum Joanna Ferry-Palmer has found her budgeting skills are a necessity with soaring food prices.
With a 17-month-old baby, Ferry-Palmer and her husband Adam have adapted to one income and a mortgage, but it’s taken a lot of planning.
Ferry-Palmer shops around for the best deals and buys cuts of meat that provide two dinners and a lunch for the family.
Often she bulks up a pack of mince with vegetables and lentils to make it go further, and she bakes large amounts at a time so she doesn’t have to spend money on expensive snack foods.
Never a gardener, Ferry-Palmer has begun to grow her own vegetables to save money, and she will share and barter produce with neighbours.
Sometimes she will take excess fruit off a neighbour’s tree, preserve it and give some jars back to the tree owner.
With a strict routine of topping-up three bank accounts for bill payments, Ferry-Palmer ensures no unforeseen expenses catch them off guard.
She believed lifting the minimum wage was not the answer to escalating costs but instead wanted the Government to cut GST on fresh fruits, vegetables and meat, saying it could add another $30 into people’s back pockets every week.
Having grown up with a grandmother who lived through the depression, Ferry-Palmer said she had always been good with money but more needed to be done to teach people how to budget on a low income.
For others the rocketing food prices have offered an opportunity.
New budget supermarket BargainMe opened last Saturday in the Christchurch suburb of Linwood, offering end of line, damaged and nearly expired products that bigger supermarkets would otherwise waste.
Manager Sukhpreet Sharma has watched a “steady stream” of people looking for bargains and if the venture continued to go well he promised more premises would be opened elsewhere in Christchurch.
A recent promotion for a $1 block of butter flew out the door and sold out in two days as people searched for ways to trim their budgets.
Woodend small business owner and mother Krya Dawson was one of those customers. Currently, paying $260 a week to feed a family of three, Dawson shops around and will buy in bulk.
Dawson has become a first time vegetable gardener because of the cost of fresh produce, and hopes to open a community garden that everyone can benefit from.
“It’s the only way to survive.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Keith Simmonds weekly pension was $353. His weekly pension is in fact $403.33. (Amended 1.23pm, March 21, 2022)