Of course some interviewees spent as little as $5-$8 for their family meals and others much more than the $17 average, says Bridget Lamont, marketing general manager marketing at the chain.
Countdown's aim wasn't to come up with bargain-basement menus but to provide nutritious meal ideas for a little less than the average. Households that need to save even more should look at Kiwi Jas McPhee's Facebook page How to Feed a Family of 6 for Under $20.
I have to admit looking in other people's supermarket trolleys and wondering about their budgets.
Don't judge, however, says food writer Niki Bezzant, the queen of healthy food in New Zealand. Bezzant admits to buying things such as ready-made puddings occasionally. I remember shopping sheepishly at New World not so long ago with a trolley full of fizz and lollies for a child's birthday party. The owner of the trolley you're snooping on could be shopping for their one dinner party of the year.
Even so, I can't believe that all of the non-essentials that make up the majority of the product lines in my local supermarket are for one-off events. Some people must include in their weekly "basics" luxury food such as Food Snob-brand artichokes hearts at $6.99, I Love Pies angus mince and mozzerella pies at $18.99 and Pitango organic fresh pumpkin and ginger soup pouches for $7.39.
When it comes to dinner parties there is a lot of keeping up with the Jonses going on in our society thanks to TV programmes such as MKR, and a lot of trolleys full of eye-wateringly expensive gourmet ingredients as a result.
Whenever I want to put my diet into perspective I pull out a copy of the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats and leaf through to countries such as Chad and Ecuador. The photos show exactly what families in each country eat in a week. Take a look at tinyurl.com/nzheats.
What do institutions such as hospitals, prisons and even the Hare Krishna movement spend on feeding people? Prisoners are in the care of the Corrections Department 24/7 and if they started to exhibit signs of malnourishment we'd soon hear about it. Corrections says the cost of feeding each of our 9000 inmates is $5.30 a day. Of course it enjoys economies of scale that you wouldn't get at home. I've read the menus for a four-week period and it's certainly not MKR-style. But it's a good, healthy diet with fruit and vegetables developed by the Ministry of Health, Diabetes Life Education and the Heart Foundation, in consultation with a clinical dietician.
Eating meat-free meals can save you money. Dead animal flesh costs a lot to buy in the supermarket. Cutting out meat a couple of nights of week can make both your waistline and wallet healthier, says Bezzant.
Claire Matthews, director of academic programmes at Massey University, says her research suggests many people in the work force are in for a big financial shock when they hit retirement and have to limit their supermarket spending to necessities.
In 2013, Matthews found that the actual food costs in a household of two retired people - excluding eating out - ranged from $89.69 a week to $182.06 for those people with sufficient income to make "choices". The figures, which will be updated next month weren't recommended amounts of money to spend. They reflected what retirees were actually spending and were gleaned from the Statistics New Zealand triennial Household Economic Survey.
It might not be a bad idea for those of us who do throw meat and precooked foods in our trolleys to record our supermarket spend for a month and give the 15 per cent figure a thought.
If you're spending too much then start by buying less and cutting out the food that gets wasted. Then cut down on ready-made meals, non-food items and other non-essentials that are probably cheaper elsewhere.
I've not yet tried Nadia Lim's My Food Bag business, in which customers have all the ingredients they need for a meal delivered to their home. Friends who use it say that it doesn't cost them that much more than they might otherwise spend because they only get the ingredients they need and have less waste.
Planning meals (and lunches) is one way to ensure you spend and waste less. That planning should include the consumption of leftovers.
Unless you're on an incredibly tight budget, then allow for some treats. For me that might be camembert cheese, in-season asparagus or smoked salmon.
However, we've lost sight as a nation of what a treat is, says Bezzant. It seems that we think we need a treat every day, whether it's the muffin at the cafe or the glass of wine in the evening.
I remember when bananas were a treat. These days they're in my trolley every week and they're a quick fill-you-up snack.
There is one thing that I'd suggest Kiwis spend more on at the supermarket. That's the ingredients to make take-to-work-lunches. This would actually save them money. Buying lunch and a beverage out is going to cost $10 a day at least.
On the other hand a leftover serving of last night's Feed Four for $15 costs $3.50 (or less - if you've managed to stretch the meal further than intended). Basic sandwiches and a piece or two of fruit can cost less than $2. Likewise a perfectly nutritious prison-style breakfast eaten at home can cost as little as $1 a person.
There are books around that can help you understand what constitutes a simple, healthy diet. Work & Income's Great Little Cookbook has been printed and reprinted and is now available online: tinyurl.com/nzhwinzbook. It was first published after Work & Income frontline staff in Nelson noticed that some clients had no idea how to cook or budget.
I certainly learned some tips from it. It never occurred to me to think that chickens and turkeys were originally stuffed in order to make the bird feed more people or that milk powder is cheaper to cook and bake with than the fresh stuff.
The book makes the same point as Bezzant that vegetables don't need to be fresh. Frozen and canned vegetables are just as good as fresh ones and often cheaper than out of season vegetables.
A final tip is that nothing in the drinks aisle is an essential. In fact most of it, including fruit juice, is bad for you and bottled in plastic. Reusable glasses placed below a running tap are a much better option.
