If you think about what you – or your parents – were spending your money on 30 years ago, it might be quite different to how you spend it now.
You’re not going down to the local Blockbuster at the weekend to pick up a VHS of a film, and you’re not paying to have photos developed at the local mall.
You might be making dinner from a My Food Bag kit in a cast iron wok rather than firing up your electric frying pan to cook saveloys and brussels sprouts (a strange mix, but you’ll see why shortly).
Stats NZ’s consumer price index (CPI) data gives a snapshot of what New Zealanders were spending their money on over the years, because it is adjusted at regular intervals to reflect our behaviour.
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Here’s some of what it shows us.
Food
Our food habits have changed a lot over the years.
Cheap pudding staples sago and tapioca dropped out of the CPI in 1949. Gooseberries followed in 1955. Herrings in tomato sauce left the basket in 1965 and tripe and sheep’s tongue followed in 1975. Canned corn was cut in 2017. Luncheon meat dropped out in 2020.
Meal kits were added in 2024, at the same time as celery was taken off, replaced by spinach.
The idea of having a milkman doing a run might seem like a relic, but delivered milk hung on in the CPI until 1999. Glass milk bottles were replaced by cartons from the 1980s, before home delivery was phased out by the mid-1990s.
Alcoholic drink consumption shifted, too. Wine cooler had dropped out of favour by 1993, and sherry in 2006, while cider was added in 2014.
Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said food habits reflected cultural shifts. Meal kits had become more popular as people felt more pressed for time.
“You look at the likes of the humble saveloy, which was all the rage quite a few decades back and then all of a sudden come the 2000s it wasn’t as popular and that was because people had found other things that they were eating.”
Saveloys left the basket in 2008, more than a decade after brussels sprouts, which were cut in 1993.
“As you got more imports earlier on in New Zealand’s history it went from fairly traditional, effectively British fare that you were buying to then a much more expanded set of options. So everything from what’s available to buy through to changes like convenience have an impact.”
What we eat and how we eat has changed over the years: A couple at a restaurant in New Zealand in the 1970s. Alexander Turnbull Library
John Williams, from Otago University’s marketing department, said there were other influences.
“One of the big things that’s changed over the years is the proportion of women in the workforce. Parents – and non-parents – have less time available to do the tasks that were associated with the traditional family structure back in the 40s, where there’s one person home all day and devoting their time to taking care of their family and spending a lot of time preparing food.”
Massey University marketing expert Bodo Lang said convenience was clearly a driver of some changes.
“Muesli bars (1988), frozen potato products (1993), convenience meals (1999), 2-minute noodles (2002), and breakfast drinks (2014) are all examples of this. Convenience is a major driver of consumer behaviour, and companies increasingly cater to it.”
Household
Brooms left the CPI in 2008, maybe coincidentally at the same time that house cleaning services came in. Coal and clothes irons were taken out in 2006.
Dictionaries were removed in 2011 – perhaps reflecting the fact that the internet is fulfilling that function for many households. Decorating habits changed, too – rolls of wallpaper disappeared in 2017. Waterbeds held on until 1993.
Cordless home phones and international toll calls were removed in 2020, and home phone lines and national toll calls were removed in 2024.
The advent of cheap or free ways of talking to people through instant messages or video calls, using services like Skype, Messenger, and WhatsApp, coincided with people spending less on home phone lines to make international or cell phone calls, Stats NZ said at the time.
Entertainment
Technology has driven a lot of the changes in our spending habits over the years.
45RPM single records were taken out of the CPI in 1974. Pianos dropped out in 1993 at the same time as LP records. CRT TVs left the CPI in 2008 and camcorders were removed in 2014.
Cellphone and internet services were added in 1999.
MP3 players, DVD and Blu-Ray players all were culled in 2017. CDs were removed three years later. DVDs themselves were taken out in 2024, at the same time that cruise ship holidays were added.
Changing mediums : Records, CDs, MP3s and DVDs have all been taken out of the Consumer Price Index, as they became less common purchases. Photo by Steve Harvey on Unsplash
“The CPI basket is really a reflection of New Zealand society and how it has changed over time,” Stats NZ spokesperson Jason Attewell said in 2017.
“We added the electric lightbulb to the basket in the 1920s, televisions and record players in the 1960s, microwaves and car stereos in the 1980s, and MP3 players and digital cameras in the 2000s. As these items go out of fashion they are removed from the basket.”
Olsen said technological evolution had been “quite a big driver” of spending shifts over time.
“Although it’s sort of remarkable how long some of these items do remain around. You look at the likes of home phones, they’ve only recently stopped being tracked by Stats NZ because their usage still had been fairly high for a while.
“Sometimes as well, you see things that emerge on the scene but it takes a while for them to become important enough in your household life that they sort of specifically get recorded.”
He said subscriptions had only recently been split out for TV and music. “Whereas before your subscription service to TV was Sky so even within categories you can see people shifting and adjusting quite a bit.”
Things like Blu-Rays had not lasted long.
“They sort of they came on saying they were the next big thing after DVDs in terms of quality and everything else and then we got rid of them because no one wanted physical media.
“Everyone wanted to just to stream it and download it and we got ultra fast broadband… So you know all of those sort of changes make a big impact.”
Williams said he could remember as a teenager when a computer would cost the equivalent of $20,000 in today’s money.
“As technology has evolved, we’ve tended to buy. So if you look at the frequency of buying a television, for example, when they were powered by cathode ray tubes, they last a very long time. And now a lot of people tend to update their TV and update their mobile phone about every three years or so. And so basically, as we spend more on electronics, we’ve got less available for other expenditure.”
A family watching television at Taipakupaku, in 1966. Ronald Thomas Bateman Clark / Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection
Personal
Hair spray had dropped in use enough to drop out in 1988 but perms held on until 2006. Hair spray had been part of the basket since 1965, coincidentally the same time deodorant was added.
Men had given up pyjamas in sufficient numbers by 2002 to see that item removed from the CPI. Four years later, eyebrow shaping and leg wax entered the basket.
Men’s ties were removed in 2024 and replaced with headwear.
Williams said the advent of global television, internet and social media had create a homogenisation of global taste in things like beauty products.
Olsen said many of the things that people thought were essential now might not be in the future.
“Home theatre systems have fallen out… how soon until TVs go? My flat doesn’t have a TV, we all watch stuff on our screens. I know a lot of families still get around the TV and watch something…. but it’s interesting because I know a lot of people as well who don’t have a TV.
“What’s the next sort of usual part of life that goes and adjusts? And I do think TV is potentially one of the likely ones.
“There are probably a few fundamentals. A bed’s probably still pretty vital… But I think a lot of other stuff is genuinely up for grabs which is fascinating.
“You go back to when TVs were CRT ones, that was vital and then when plasmas and LCDs came along that was vital. And now people are going well actually my laptop in bed’s not too bad either. So it’s fascinating to see.
“At what point do laptops then get replaced? Because effectively a lot of this stuff is showing people look for certain goods and services but the way that’s delivered changes. And you know if we were having this question or conversation in 30 years’ time would we be saying look laptops are on their way out and VR goggles are on their way in.”
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