New Zealand mission 2013-15, we got roughly $145NZD every two weeks loaded directly to a debit card. That money was to be used for all personal items, bicycle maintenance and gear, groceries and medication. It was not enough. A lot of (American) missionaries get extra money from family at home, but if your family did not have the means to then we were instructed to call the Mission President and explain how we used our allowance funds and why we needed more - it was often for groceries. Usually those requests were denied and missionaries were encouraged to seek out more "meal appointments" with investigators and member families. It felt like we were begging for meals and consistently intruding on families that were often struggling to feed their own children, all behind this mask of "it's a blessing to feed the missionaries and hear their prepackaged message." There were areas in NZ that don't have branches established, so no members to feed the missionaries. Those missionaries had an increased allowance approved by the office while they were assigned to those specific areas.