Work out a weekly grocery budget for a New Zealand household.
Use for: 'how much should I spend on groceries', 'grocery budget for a
family of four NZ', 'average food bill New Zealand', 'am I spending too
much on food'.
Build the household person by person. A teenager is not a child-sized cost,
and an average per head hides exactly the thing that makes the answer
useful. Member types are child_5_10, teen_11_17, adult_male, adult_female
and elderly_65; list one entry per person.
ALL THREE SPEND LEVELS COME BACK EVERY TIME, and that is the point. A
single figure invites "that seems high". The gap between basic and liberal
for the SAME household, in dollars a year, is the number that changes
behaviour, and on a family of four it is usually several thousand dollars.
annual_gap_basic_to_liberal puts it in one place. Lead with it.
BE STRAIGHT ABOUT WHAT THESE FIGURES ARE. They are indicative planning
figures, not measured survey data and not a benchmark to hold anyone to.
Do not present them as official. If someone wants measured New Zealand
data, point them at the Household Economic Survey pages on the site
instead.
Args:
members: One entry per person, e.g. ['adult_male', 'adult_female',
'teen_11_17']. Between one and twelve.
spend_level: 'basic', 'moderate' or 'liberal'.
diet: 'standard', 'vegetarian', 'vegan', 'gluten_free', 'organic' or 'halal'.
region: 'nz_average', 'auckland', 'wellington', 'christchurch',
'hamilton', 'tauranga', 'dunedin', 'provincial' or 'rural_remote'.
include_non_food: Add $25 a week for cleaning products and toiletries.
Returns:
Weekly, monthly and annual budgets, all three spend levels, the annual
gap between them, and the per-person weekly figure.
