Despite inflation falling to 6.7 percent, one of the main drivers continues to be the cost of food.
That is an expense hitting every one of us, including those running restaurants.
Making pizza runs in the family for Luca Villari.
His late father opened an Italian restaurant in Takapuna over 30 years ago and for the last nine years Luca has been running Al Volo Pizza in Mount Eden.
Getting through Covid was a struggle - now the biggest battle was the rising cost of ingredients, Villari said it was "diabolical" his goods had gone up 12 percent.
The pizzeria used to offer a $22 all you can eat option but rising costs threw that idea out the window.
Going through a weekly invoice alone was testament to that.
"A punnet of cherry tomatoes we're looking at $8 a punnet that's terrible.
"So we used to cut them in half now we cut them into quarters I mix them sometimes with the vine ripened tomatoes.
"Button mushrooms $15.99 a kg, so that's $63.96 of mushrooms."
Checkpoint asked how that translated to the cost of a basic Margherita pizza.
"That pizza now with labour, wood and everything ... that might cost me $9-10, it might have cost $5.50 a few years ago."
Luca Villari who runs Al Volo Pizza in the Auckland suburb of Mount Eden says the rising cost of ingredients was a major issue. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
But the business did not take that all home, across the board it had never been more expensive to run things.
"The cost of goods has gone up, but also my rent, my labour, wages, it comes down to there might be $2-3 profit in one pizza, so you've got to be doing quite a lot of pizzas."
Villari tried to source things for the best price possible, often visiting several different suppliers.
But because Al Volo prides itself on being authentic, it did not skimp on things like Italian prosciutto or chorizo, that cost around $30 a kg.
The special wood logs for the pizza oven had doubled in price since the start of this year now $420 for around 14 boxes.
Luca Villari says it would have cost maybe $5.50 for him to make a basic Margherita pizza a few years ago, but now it would be more like $9-10. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
A 25kg bag of flour had risen 41 percent over the last few years from $48 to $68.
A few years ago the restaurant had an abundance of staff, but with increased wage costs Villari said he now could not afford to pay for the numbers he needed.
"I've got fantastic young men, I'm blessed to have them, but you know in order to balance things, I'm the first one here, I'm the last one to go."
Bearing the brunt of the rising costs was taking its toll and he was desperate for some relief.
"It's physically and mentally taxing it's exhausting."
