How much are we all earning? How does your profession add up? How are women your age spending their money? Is everyone in debt? And is the cost of living crisis biting everyone?
It’s time for some honest, candid conversations about money and budgets as we steer down a recession – so welcome to our series ‘Money, Honey’, where we’ll be diving deep into the bank accounts of wahine across the country to truly get a sense of what’s going on in our piggybanks.
Up this week it’s Dunedin Chief Operating Officer Louise
Name: Louise
Age: 40
Location: Dunedin
Living situation: I live with my husband and two children in our own home.
Job: Chief Operating Officer
Salary per year: $199,000
Any other income: No
Total income for your household per year: $275,000
Take-home pay per fortnight: Mine is $2,500
My situation: I’m married with two children (one in daycare and one in school), living in our first own home after years of renting, one public servant and one charity worker, and we both work full time. We split everything equally in a joint account. One of us likes to spend, the other is a saver!
Tell us your fortnightly budget: Rent/mortgage, Food, Bills, Childcare, Investments ,Debt payments, Savings, Spending
We have a joint account and pay most things through our credit card to get the Airpoints, and then clear it monthly. Having only purchased our first home in our 30s, and only recently earning this much, we are now working with a financial advisor to work out savings and investments as we don’t have any. But we don’t have debt either, which is good.
Mortgage: $1000 – we locked in at a very low 2% for five years, before the economy tanked.
Food: $900, plus $100 for takeaways
Childcare: $440
Petrol and parking: $120
Power and internet: $75
Savings: $50
Spending: Whatever is left
What’s inside your bank account:
Savings: Nothing
Kiwisaver: $90,000
How do you approach budgeting? I have used apps like Pocketsmith and Sort Me to understand our outgoings. We are pretty strict on things like making lunches for work, although living rurally helps as Uber Eats don’t deliver either! We carpool on days we can to avoid running two cars into town. All my clothes are second hand. But equally I will spend a lot on things I love, like Christmas. And we have had some overseas holidays to celebrate turning 40.
Are you a spender or a saver? I am a reformed spender!
Do you have any debt, and what is it from? Before I got married I had so much debt I had to spend months paying $1000 a month off it before he found out… I never racked that kind of debt up again. We have taken overdrafts to cover things like garden landscaping or parental leave, but worked hard to save our way out of them.
How has the cost-of-living crisis affected you and your spending? I have felt lucky to feel mostly cushioned from the struggles I see in families around me. We have had to cut back things like subscriptions, I don’t get my nails done or any of those sorts of treats. We eat out much less and when we do we use discounts like First Table. We were going to do house renovations but were too worried in the end about taking on any unnecessary mortgage debt. And we plan our meals carefully in the food shop to avoid waste.
What are your financial goals? We want to move from working class – how we were brought up – where our parents had nothing to give us to help us (they don’t even own homes), to be in a position to give the kids something when they’re older. That’s why we will now start saving instead of enjoying spending the money we now earn. Seems like the next generation will really need it.
What’s the best thing you’ve bought in the last three months? A reformer Pilates bed. It was a real luxury but I was spending $50 a week on a membership for three years and once you’re doing something that regularly it is actually more cost effective to buy the equipment. I can now do it three times a week instead of once or twice.
What’s the thing you regret buying the most in the last three months? A lot of the second-hand clothes I buy I have to give away as they don’t fit well. I know it’s a false economy and I would be better trying things on in stores!
What (if anything) are you saving towards? My son wants to go to university in America. That will cost a bomb!
Aside from the big stuff (rent/mortgage, bills etc) what’s your biggest source of discretionary spending? Getting my hair done in a salon probably, I’m naturally very grey. And though I used to DIY the colour, the cut makes a real difference to your whole look.
Do you worry about money? Always. I think people who grew up poor can’t shed that
How much money (honestly) do you think you’d spend on an average day? I know because of the apps – it’s an average of $15.
Where do you think it’s worth spending money, and where do you think you can save it? I used to love new cars and I now realise there’s a lot more joy in not having car payments and knowing you own the thing! The myth that new cars will need repaired less hasn’t turned out to be true for friends.
Do you have any money-saving tips you’d like to share that work for you? Do lots of research when buying things, whether it’s a toy for the kids or a kitchen appliance. Not only will you then feel you got the best deal, it also lengthens out the dopamine hit of buying – knowing that you will have it soon. And the bonus is if you didn’t really want it or need it, you get bored or the research and you just don’t buy! It saves you money then.
What’s the first and last thing you would cut from your spending if you had to make some savings? If I had to I would cut the streaming platforms as we never get time to watch TV. The last thing would be my wine quite frankly! Mum’s medicine!