What do you find most expensive in NZ?

[Sun777]

Public transport, Fuel, Electronic items, few brands of clothing, gym gear, mobile..... oh most importantly customs charges on postage. Recently OH got some of her stuff sent from Dubai to here via speedpost and customs charged handling fee of around $35 - everything in the post was used stuff, headset & one hard disk both of which went from NZ to Dubai.

sigh!

[newarrival]

In the almost nine years here I never had to pay 'customs handling fee' for anything...., and we do get regular parcels with all sorts of things?

[geekpie]

I find almost everything expensive. I lived in NZ 10 years ago, returning to UK in 2003. I moved out here again in March.

The price of many things has doubled. eg a night at a Backpacker was 11 or 12 dollars in 2003. Now 20 - 25 dollars. Petrol has pretty much doubled.

I really wish I'd taken a few notes about what other things cost 10 years ago, eg various food items.

The worrying thing is, I'm not earning double what I was 10 years ago. More like 50% more.

[Sun777]

In the almost nine years here I never had to pay 'customs handling fee' for anything...., and we do get regular parcels with all sorts of things?

I think the reason they charged us few times was due to the parcels being treated as unaccompanied luggage - I remember (couple of years back) using excess baggage services at Heathrow airport and when it arrived in Auckland, I had to get Customs & MAF clearances.

[Hagabel]

Tampax and stick deodrant and Panadol, Nurofen.....

[pippa]

This is a great topic! Finding it very informative! Is there a thread on the forum about budgets?

[ncinco]

everything is expensive!!!

[Kerri & Ian]

A question on this topic..

Are things expensive in comparison to lviing costs in your native current i.e. UK, USA etc or on your NZ salary also..?

[JandM]

A lot of the difference people find in their grocery shopping costs can be due to looking for the same products they would have bought where they came from, in the same kind of shop, whereas learning to shop in the NZ way can reduce the bills a lot.

[IanW99]

everything is expensive!!!

Not very helpful answer, at least could you say compared to where, or do you find everything expensive in every country?

Ian