The cost of living is starting to bite for more New Zealanders. Photo / 123RF
Have you seen the cost of a cucumber lately? Our supermarket has them for $6.49!
I know it's winter, but really?
The other day I decided to fill the fully-raced red Ford Focus with petrol.
Admittedly we fill it with 98 octane, the appropriate fuel for the high-performance two litres of raw power it provides.
We do not get out much nowadays, the bride is usually off to craft days and me to the odd coffee or two so that expensive hunk of metal in the garage only gets filled a few times per year.
It was eye-watering.
The tank was already quarter-full so I was only topping it up. $119.00. I had to sit down.
I ponied up the equivalent of half our weekly grocery bill and drove quietly home, with no unnecessary speeding or fast acceleration. It could be saveloy soup on the menu for a while.
I am not really one to worry about the prices of everyday commodities.
We eat healthily, rarely have takeaways and money has to be spent on food and other life necessities, so suck it up. But I am now starting to pay attention.
We need a car. The love shack is on top of a hill close to town. If the road is not up it's down.
We have no access to public transport; the nearest shop is two kilometres away at the bottom of the hill and, due to health issues, walking and cycling are now not part of our lives.
We used to be a cycling family. My wife and I still have our road-racing bikes on the garage wall with our mountain bikes parked beneath.
Now I just pat them fondly as I walk past, memories of huge rides all over New Zealand.
Around Taupō, around Mount Taranaki, Remutaka Mountain Trail and the Otago Rail Trail to name a few.
Years of road racing as both participants and parent support for our youngest who raced as a teenager in all cycling codes.
Cycling is the best activity. Despite all the publicity about the wonders of cycling nowadays it has long been a way of life for many New Zealanders.
Sadly there comes a time when cycling is no longer either a practical option for many or even physically possible for some. A car is needed in most towns and cities in provincial New Zealand.
What public transport there is continues to be patchy and unreliable.
As for salads, well they are not going to have cucumber in them for a while.
Inflation is back. Those of us who lived with inflation in the late 20th century know its crippling effect on incomes.
The eternal cycle of price rises and subsequent wage rises never quite coincides to make it easy for families to manage household costs.
Interest rates on first mortgages reached 21 per cent or more in the 1980s. We repaid a fifth of our mortgage annually in interest before any principal was deducted.
Grant Robertson blames the worldwide trend of inflation and the war in Ukraine.
I am sure those are influencing factors but surely there is more this Government can do to wind things down a bit. I have always liked the idea of removing GST on food, a human need.
It has always seemed unfair to me that I need to pay tax for the right to buy food to eat.
In terms of grocery costs of course the duopoly of supermarket chains in New Zealand does not help.
The Commerce Commission has provided a report to the Government with recommendations, including a review in three years' time.
David Clark, Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs is not having a bar of that recommendation, acting now.
The commission found that supermarkets earn $1 million a day in excess profits.
As for fuel prices, we all know they fluctuate but that fluctuation always seems to be slowly climbing.
I can see the day, not too far away - maybe another two or three tankloads - when I will be forking out close to $4.00 per litre for our jet fuel.
When we both worked we had two cars and filled our tanks fortnightly unless travelling.
The present reality for most New Zealand families. Times are hurting, Grant.