The price of smoking in New Zealand has reached an all-time high. (Video first published in January 2020)

A packet of cigarettes costs more than it ever has in New Zealand - $35.90 for 20 Marlboro Reds at the supermarket in Wellington.

A series of prices hikes on tobacco that began in 2010 saw the cost of a single cigarette reach a high of nearly $2 this month.

Recently, an Australian grandmother undertook a challenge to see how many "value" supermarket food items she could buy for the cost of a pack of cigarettes.

ROSA WOODS/STUFF This is how much food you can buy for the price of one pack of cigarettes.

Spurred by her results, posted to Facebook with the hashtag #nonsmokingchallenge, we decided to undertake the same experiment here in New Zealand and find out just what, materially, your cigarettes are costing you.

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We steered generally clear of the priciest fresh items, although our shop did include a pack of family-favourite pork sausages as well as some apples, bananas and versatile potatoes.

We bulked up our trolley's protein quotient with some shaved ham - necessary with the return of the school lunch - and sliced cheese, as well as a tin of baked beans.

We added tinned tomatoes and frozen peas, alongside a loaf of bread, margarine and rolled oats.

There were two different types of pasta in our trolley, a litre of milk and, because we all need a treat now and then, a packet of biscuits.

All of that for $35.70 - 20 cents less than our final purchase, a packet of Marlboro Reds.

ROSA WOODS/STUFF Our trolley included a mix of fresh and packaged goods.

$1.80 a cigarette doesn't sound much in isolation, but it equates to a loaf of bread a tin of baked beans. Or two 500g packs of pasta, or a pack of chocolate chip bikkies.

Two cigarettes would buy you half a kilo of potatoes and leave enough for a tin of tomatoes.

Say you have a "pack a day" habit. That's 140 cigarettes a week, or $280 back in your pocket. In some parts of the country, that's a week's rent.

There's a lot else you could do for that sum. At the end of your first smokefree year you could have saved over $14,500 towards a house deposit. You could go on a few really nice holidays.

ROSA WOODS/STUFF Just one of the ill effects of a smoking habit.

Our shopping list:

Rolled oats, 750g - $2.79

Baked beans, 400g - $0.80

Chocolate chip biscuits, 250g - $1.89

Loaf wheatmeal toast bread - $1.20

Penne pasta, 500g - $0.95

Spaghetti, 500g - $0.95

Chopped tomatoes, 400g - $0.79

Apples, 561g - $3.39

Bananas, 521g - $1.56

Potatoes, 496g - $1.48

Frozen peas, 750g - $2.99

Tasty cheese slices, 250g - $2.99

Margarine, 500g - $2.99

Shaved ham, 150g - $2.79

Milk, 1L - $2.38

Precooked sausages, 8 pack - $5.77

= $35.71

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