Source: Radio New Zealand
A roast meat meal for Christmas that would fed roughly 10 people now costs about $200, up from $178 last year. File photo. subbotina/123RF
Putting on a Christmas feast with all the trimmings is not getting any cheaper, and you are already paying more as soon as you fire up the barbecue.
Infometrics has been tracking the cost of a classic Christmas meal for several years, by examining the various ingredients needed for a Christmas dinner.
Chief executive and principal economist Brad Olsen told Checkpoint his team had been looking at higher cost increases through the year, and one that really stuck out was the energy costs New Zealanders were facing.
“Electricity price inflation is up 12 percent over the 12 months to November – that’s some of the fastest electricity increases we’ve seen since 1989 – but the big one and the challenge for anybody wanting to do a barbecue is that gas prices are up 17 percent over the last year.
“So just turning the barbecue on gets expensive, before you get into what you’re putting on it.”
Infometrics looked at two different menu options – one barbecue-based with steak, lamb chops, classic salads and sausages on bread; and the other the more classic option of roast lamb, roast pork, ham, potatoes, kumura, pumpkin and beans; along with dessert options for both.
Olsen said a roast meat meal that would feed roughly 10 people would now cost about $200, up from $178 last year, and adding dessert and entrees would come with a price tag of $275.
A barbecue meal would cost about $300 for the core meats, or $380 overall with snacks and dessert.
“So you’re talking $30-$57 more for the entire Christmas meal,” said Olsen. “That might not sound like a huge amount for some people, but honestly for some households, that’s about the entire meal for a lot of people in general, let alone the increase.”
He said meat was “by far the biggest offender” when it came to increased costs, with the classic options like steak or lamb considerably more expensive this year.
However he said there were more affordable options.
“So sirloin steak is going to set you back more than $45 a kilogram, the likes of roast lamb is $25 a kilogram, lamb chops are $23 a kg. But you can get a number of chicken items for anywhere between $7 and $16 a kilo, so considerably lower, and a roast pork, at the moment you can get that for $13 a kg.”
Dessert was also looking more expensive, with egg prices up about 12 percent over the past year.
“They’ve come back a touch, but put it this way, they’re currently costing you about $4.69 on how many eggs I’m putting in my pav, they were less than three bucks for the same amount of eggs just a couple of years ago. So all of that has increased.”
Even the toppings on the Christmas pavlova can add to the increased cost, said Olsen.
“If you’re putting kiwifruit on at the moment, it’s 44 percent more expensive than it was last year. If you’re having to put your sultanas into your figgy pudding, that’s 31 percent more expensive than last year, so there are much bigger costs that are starting to really hit.”
Olsen said the Christmas season was the biggest stress test on family finances.
“Not only do you have all the food costs, it’s also the time that you do the most spending.
“If we look at card activity in the economy, we know the month of December is still the biggest spend-up, because we all go and get our Christmas presents, we go and do the Boxing Day sales afterwards.
“All of that normal stress that comes with Christmas, you add money into the mix and it’s pretty potent.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
