A comparative grocery shop in Auckland and Sydney on Monday shows food prices are far cheaper in Australia.
Items like bread, milk, cheese, meat, eggs, fruit, vegetables and toiletries were on the list.
Checkpoint's reporters found an almost $40 difference in the same trolley of groceries from an Auckland Countdown and a Woolworths in Sydney.
It comes off the back of Countdown freezing prices on more than 600 items that it considers winter essentials in response to customers struggling with cost-of-living increases.
"The number one thing you can do is actually plan what you're going to eat before you go to the supermarket," Sophie Gray told Checkpoint. She is behind the Destitute Gourmet cookbooks and is operations manager at the Good Works Trust Food Bank.
"A menu plan is an enormously helpful tool because if you go to the supermarket, and you just shop the specials, you'll come home with a load of groceries, but you might not actually have anything there that constitutes a meal.
"Most households operate on a fairly limited range of recipes that they make. So it's worth actually thinking about the meals that your family routinely eats and whether or not those things are sensible in the current economic climate.
"If a really super cheesy cauliflower cheese is one of your favorite things and you make that every Sunday night, you might want to rethink that at the moment when cheese is as much as $20 a kg, and a cauliflower might set you back $7.
"You might actually find doing something different gives you an equally satisfying and nourishing meal but it's less expensive. We just have to do things differently and planning really is the key."
Gray said she is a big fan of using frozen vegetables if the prices of fresh items are too much.
"Over the past month or so the price of frozen veges has been much more consistent than fresh.
"If it's a case of frozen versus none, absolutely go for the frozen and choose dishes where frozen works well.
"So you might do less of the stir fries which has an expensive lean cut of meat and lots of fresh veg, and more of the nice savoury wintry comforting stuff with mince and frozen mixed veg and some green beans and a jacket potato on the side."
Looking at the seasonality of produce is also key, Gray said.
"The tacos or burritos with the shredded lettuce might not be a great option this winter, until the price of cabbage comes down in which case then you can swap it out with a slaw which is genuinely a very inexpensive option during the winter.
"So you just have to be a bit strategic and for a lot of Kiwis, just going to another supermarket isn't an option because if you live in a provincial town, you don't necessarily have the choice and my experience of markets is that they are often way more expensive.
"One of the areas where the food bank that I'm involved with works is on the North Shore in Auckland and it's a food desert. So if you don't have transport your nearest supermarket, which is also a really expensive supermarket, is two bus stages away.
"So you don't have a lot of choice. In New Zealand we're a small population and we're spread out quite a lot. So yes, there are areas where there are four Countdowns within 5km of each other. But actually, that's not common for a lot of Kiwis.
"People are having to drive decent distances to get to a supermarket, let alone choose the supermarket. So storage is really important. If you've got a freezer, use it really strategically.
"If you've planned your meals and you know what you're going to eat, you're less likely to do that really expensive emergency dash where you think you're just going in for two things and you come out with 12 and it's cost you $90."
Gray said it is always worth reading labels and working out what the cost per 100 grams is.
"If it means you shop less frequently, because you manage your shopping well, then that can be helpful. The reality is that there isn't one set rule for everybody. So some people find that doing online shopping and having it delivered stops them overspending, whereas other people find that they miss things.
"You've got to find out what really works for you. But my suggestion as a number one is try and only shop once a week, because straightaway you'll learn to use the things that are in the back of your pantry.
"You'll use up all your leftovers instead of having them in a tupperware container in the back of the fridge until nobody fancies them anymore. And you'll actually be much more economical with what you use.
"You'll be aware that you've only got a little bit of milk left and don't let the kids slosh the whole lot on the Ricies and then not finish it, then it goes down the sink."
Gray said it's impossible to name a price or a weekly shop for an average family of four, as families are so varied, but "you've got to decide what you can afford to feed your family, and stick to it".
